Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-13
ELECTRIC LAMPS.

If we examine one of the electric
lamps in the streets we shall find it con-
sists of two rods, one pointing upward
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 a bag of rods.
lie takes out the old rods that were
burning the night before, and places a
new set III each lamp. After he has
gone about. as if he were putting new
wicks into the lamps, and each is ready
Tor 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
ut each lamp. IF all are burning we'll
they are put out till it begins to grow
clark. Ii one fails to burn properly a
man goes to that lamp to see what is the
matter. 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 through a
smoked glass you will see that the rods
do not quite touch. There is a small
space between their points, and this
space is filed with fire. 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 cease. Why is this I?
Let us go to the woods near some brook
and it may be that we can understand
this matter.
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 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 rushing water and clouds
of spray. What is the matter? 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 roar
ing waterfalls, as the waters struggle to-
gether to get past the narrow place.
It is the same with the electricity
flowing through the large copper wires.
It 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 space
to be got over, an obstruction, like rocks
in the BED of the brook. The electrici-
ty, like the water, struggles to get over
the hindrance in its path, and it grows
white-hot with anger, and flames and
Kisses as it leaps across the narrow space
between the rods.
There is another kind of electric lamp.
used in houses; it has a smaller and
softer light, steady, white and very
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 silently through dark
wire, enters the. lamp and finds, only q
narrow thread on which it can travel to
reach the home going wire, and, in its
struggles to get past, it heats the tiny
!. thread of carbon to Wilderness. Like q
live coal, this slender thread gives us q
mild, soft light, as long as the current
flows. It seems calm and still, but it is
enduring the same fury of the electricity
that is show in the larger lamps.
This is the main idea on which these
lamps are made: A stream of electricity
is set flowing from a dynamo-electric
machine through a wire until it meets a
narrow place or a break in the wire.
Then 1t seeks TO get past the obstru
ton, and in this way the electric force,
although invisible, is made known to
our eyes by a beautiful light. Charles
RH7,yng/3 a ~ Njobo1oo