The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1882-06-10
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
fame is exactly where they seem to
meet. Once day man comes around
with bag of the RODS. He takes out
the old rods that were burned the
night before and places new set in
each lamp. After he has gone about, as
If he were putting new wicks into the
lamps, and each is ready for it's 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 walk ed about
in the streets and looked at each lamp.
II a are burning well, they are put
out till 1T begins to grow dark. If
one fails to burn properly, man goes
to thai lamp to see what is the mat
ter. The rods are made of curious
black substance like charcoal, 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
Though smoked glass, you viii see
that the rods do not quite touch.
There is small space between their
points, and this space is filed with
fibre. Look at 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 hiss
ing sound would stop. Why is this ?
Let us go into the woods near some
brook, and it may be that we can I'M
derssand this matter.
Here is the brook, flowing quietly
along, smooth, deep and without
ripple. We walk beside the stream,
and come 10 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 and 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 rush
ing water and clouds Ct spray. What
is the matter? Why is the smooth,
dark water SO white with rage, SO i'm
petuous, so full of sounds and tur-
MOL? The rocks are the cause. The
way is narrow and steep. The
waters are hemmed in, and there is
grand display of flashing white foam
and roaring waterfalls, as the waters
struggle together to get past the mar
row place. I'd
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 darkness, so long as the rods
touch and the path is clear. When
the rods in the lamp are pulled apart,
there is space to be got over, an OBJ
struction, like rocks in the bed of the
brook. The electricity, like the water,
struggles to get over the hindrance il
its path, and 1t grows white-hot with
anger, and flames and Kisses as it
leaps across the narrow space between
the rods. t"uo a4'
There is another kind of electric
lamp, used in houses it has smaller
and softer light, steady, white and
| beautiful.
In these lamps, also, we have some
thing like the narrow place in the
brook. They are made with slender
loops of carbon, inclosed in glass
globes. The electricity, flowing 81
lently through dark wire, enters the
lamp, and finds only narrow thread
on which it can travel to reach the
home-going wire, and, in its struggle
to get past, it heats the tiny thread of
carbon to Wilderness. Like live coal,
this slender thread gives us mild,
soft light, as long as the current flows.
1t seems calm and still, but it is en-
during the same fury Of the electri ,ity
that is shown in the larger lamps.
This is the main idea on which these
lamps are made A stream of electric
ity is set flowing from dynamo. cleo
trio machine through a wire until it
meets a narrow place or break in the
wire. Then it seeks to get past the
obstruction, and there is grand put
ting forth of energy, and in this way
the electric force, although itself invis-
ible, is made known to our eyes by q
beautiful light.