Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1882-05-12
Electric Lamps.

If we examine one of the electric
lamps in the streets, we shall find it
consists of two rods, one pointing up
ward from the bottom of the lamp, the
other hanging downward. The rods
seem TO touch, and the brilliant flame
is exactly where they seem to meet.
Once n day man comes around with u
bag of the rods. He takes out the old
rods that were burned tho night before,
and places new set in each lamp.
After he has gone about, as il he were
putting new wicks into the lamps, and
each is ready for its nights work, all
the lamps are lighted in broad day, to
see that every one is in proper trim.
They are allowed to burn until the men
have walked about in the streets and
looked at each lamp. IL all are burning
well, they are put out till it begins to
grow dark. Ii one fails TO burn proper
ly, n man goes to that lamp to see
what is the matter. The rods are made
of q curious black substance like char
coal, that is called carbon. When the
lamp is out the two rods touch each
other. In order to light the lamp, they
are pulled apart; and if you look at the
flame through smoked glass, you will
see that the rods do not quite touch.
There is small space between their
points, and this space is filed with fire.
Look ut the other parts of the rods, or
the copper wires that extend along the
streets. They have no light, no heat,
no sound. The wires are cold, dark
and silent. If we were to push the two
rods in the lamp close together, the
light and heat would disappear, and the
curious Kissing sound would stop. Why
is thisp Let us go into the woods near
some brook, and it may be that we can
understand this matter. s,...f
Here is the brook, flowing quietly
along, smooth, deep and without rip
pie. We walk beside the stream, and
come TO place where there are high
rocks, and steep, stony banks. Here
the channel is very narrow, and the
water is no longer smooth and silent.
1t boils ana foams between the rocks.
There are eddies and whirlpools, and at
last we come to the narrowest part of
ALL Here, the once dark and silent
water roars and foams in white, stormy
rapids. There are sounds and furious
leaping and rushing water and clouds
of spray. What is the matterp Why
is the smooth, dark water so white with
rage, so impetuous, so full of sounds
and turmoil The rocks are the cause.
The way is narrow and steep. The
waters are hemmed in, and there is a
grand display of flashing white foam
and roaring waterfalls, rs the waters
struggle together to get past the narrow
| place. 7" 0.ftH aE
1t is the same with the electricity
| flowing through the large copper wires
1t passes down one wire into the other,
through the lamp in silence and dark.
ness, so long as the rods touch and the
path is clear. When the rods in the
lamp are pulled apart, there is n space
to be rot over, an obstruction, like rock
in the bed of the brook. The electric
ity, like the water, struggles to get ovel
the hindrance in its path, and it grows
white-hot with anger, and flames ant
between the rods.
There is another kind of electric
lamp, used in houses; it has smaller
and softer light, steady, white and very
beautiful
In these lamps, also, we have some
thing like the narrow place in th,
brook. They are made with slender
loops of carbon, inclosed in glas
globes. The electricity, flowing silent
ly through dark wire, enters th,
lamp. and finds only a narrow thread OF
which it can travel to reach the home
going wire, and, in its struggle to ge
past, it heats the tiny thread of carbon
to whiteness. Like live coal, thi
slender thread gives us II mild, sof
light, as long rs the current flows. /
seems calm and still, but it is enduring
the same fury of the electricity that il
show in the larger lamps.
This is the main idea on which these
lamps are made: A stream of electricity
is set flowing from n dynamo-electrit
machine through wire until it meets ;
narrow place or break in the wire
Then it seeks to get past the obstruc
ton, and there is q grand putting fortl
of energy, and in this way the electric
force, although itself invisible, is mad,
known to our eyes by beautiful light
Charles Barnard, IN 81. Nicholas.