The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-15
Electricity in Austin.

Mr.. G. w. Collister, a representa-
tive of the Brush Electric Associa-
ton, is in the city for the purpose of
getting up an organization having
for its object the putting of the cleo
trio light in Austin. Every person
who has desire to see the beautiful
capital of Texas keep pace with the
rest of the world will wish him sue
cess. The time is not far off when
every city will be lighted by cleo
tricity, and if it were once introduced
in Austin there is no doubt but it would
rapidly grow in favor. Such has
been the expression wherever it has
been established.
The coming century is to be known
as the age of electricity. Its wonder
full power and utility have only re-
Gently been discovered, and yet it may
be said to have revolutioniZed the
world. The telephone has already be-
come a commercial necessity. The
recent French instrument, by which
vision is transmitted the same as
sound, will soon be put into practical
use. No doubt the mechanical pow
er will in few years take a
front rank in the industrieS-in short
there is to be 10 limit to it whatever.
Prof. Tice is an authority on electric
ity which he claims to be the motive
power of the universe. EVERY
thing" he says, sis moving; nothing
stands still, nothing is stationary, the
moving impulse being electricity. 1t
moves your hand, it moves all the
planets in their orbits. According to
some, the Creator hurled those vast
orbs into space and they were set
moving, but the primitive impulse
was electricity, the prime cause of all
motion. 1t is unquestionably the mo-
tive power. We have the earth NOV
ing eighteen miles and six-tenths in a
second, around its orbit; electricity
is the cause. Electricity is con-
vertible into light and heat, and
the time will come when electricity
will be our fuel. But there is no way
of storing it for use. 1t Ihas been
given out in the public press that
some one is storing it. That is an
| impossibilitY. If he has done any
thing he has some chemical element
that will not act on something else.
Electricity will have to be evolved by
either decomposition or decomposition
| which must be done before electricity
| is evolved. Water will become the
source of fuel; the lakes and rivers
will be reservoirs of fuellwherever you
have cheap method of producing
electricity. Electricity is the soul OF
the universe You can't tell what it
is any more than you can the soul OF
man. Your professors know nothing
about it, except what they get from
books. The so-called scientific men
retard instead of advancing the truth
The whole theory of the old lightning
rod was wrong. They try to accomp-
lish an impossibility."
Probably the learned professor is
right in the foregoing statement. II
seems startling, bit we should keep
in mind that common as the tele-
phone now is, if but six short years
ago it had been suggested to you that
we should within two years of that
time be able to reproduce at dis.
lance not merely sounds, and not
merely articulate speech, but every
trick and accent of the voice of the
sender, so that any one listening
could say, That's my friend" Of
THAT is stranger" or "That is s
Scotchman," or"That is an Irishman'
who is speaking, would you not have
secuted it as the language of an en-
thusiast? Yes, it is but six years ago
In this age the world very soon be
comes accustomed to-marvels; it doe
not wonder long-even the proverbia
nine days. If tomorrow YOU foun(
man comfortably flying from the
top of building and alightinr with
out injury, it might attract spectator,
for about a week to see daily repreti
tion of the flight, and at the end O
that time they would pay no more at
tention to it than if they had been il
the habit of seeing men fly ever sine
they were born.