Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-05-24
The Electric Light.

We are as yet only on the threshold in the
realization of this peculiar development. By
far the most wonderful thing about it is this ::
its generosity, the abundance of the power
which it pours forth, and the extent Of the
hitherto unlit region which it is on the way
to reveal and lay open to human occupation.
Men engaged in every conceivable form Of
activity are daily expressing their amaze
ment and delight over its enlarging and PEN
etrating influence in the sphere of their
work. They find the once accepted limita-
tions of their business disappearing before
them on every hand as they introduce it in
their streets, their mills, their shops, and all
manifold industries in which they are en-
gagged. 1t has become as practicable to
work by night as by day. The army of op-
eratives in factory, once stifled by heat and
noxious vapors, whose lungs disputed with
the gas-burners the consumption OF the oxy.
gen, now find the atmospheric as fresh and
cool as the day. The relays Of the evening
go through their work with the zest and
the spirit Of those of the morning. The
multitude Of clerks in the general post-offce
Of this city, whose eyes were strained hereto
fore in urging the quick transit and distri-
button of nations mails at midnight, now
dispatch the winged messengers as quickly
and easily as under the noontide. The
dealer in dry goods finds every tint and
shade and fiber of his yariegated merchan.
disc as vividly displayed on his counters af.
ter sundown as in his windows before it.
The manufacturer of woc!e1, cotton and
silk, can weave his finest tissues at one hour
as well as at another. Even the fogs Of the
dye-house can be made to lift themselves
above the light which shines under them
The miner, also, need no longer emerge with
his spoils to the surface before he knows the
extent of his find, but may assort the ore
from the rock in the darkest depths of his
gallery or pit, and better than all, in perfect
safety from fre-damp. Nor does the pene-
trative force of the light stop at these more
practical industries The actors and sing.
ers on the stage find their voices released in
the removal OF the barrier of heated and
shimmering air generated by the footlights
of gas. The fair ones of the salon and the
assembly are made more beautiful by the
cressets of opal and the globes of lemon
color which chasten the electric fires above
them. The artist can work at his picture
or the scholar or poet at his theme, when
| ever the inspiration seizes him. The finest
decorations of interiors which have hitherto
shrunk from the gasligbt as from an agent
of injury, may give up their wax lights and
adopt the soft diffusion Of light as innox
ious as that of day. But its generosity and
benefcence stop not even here. Its radiance
on the streets insures a greater safety thar
the most vigilant of police. Under tht
shower of its effulgence the parks are cleared
of their scandalous flirtations. Indeed, w
may expect all the evils which love the dark
ness to flee before this light. 1t will prov
guardian of morals, as well as Safeguard
to the communicable Electrician.