Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-02-14
Electric Lamps.

If we examine one of the electric lamps
in the street we shall find it consists of two
rods, one pointing upward 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 a day a 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 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. If all are burning well, they
are put out till it begins to grow dark. If
one fails to burn properly, man goes to
that lamp to see what is the matter. The
rods are made of a 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 filled with fire. Look at the other
parts of the two 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 Gu
rious kissing sound would stop. Why is
this 2 Let us go to the woods near some
brook, and it may be that we can under
stand this matter. Here is the brook, flow
ing quietly along, smooth, deep, and with
IL IL &kan tr
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 of 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 turmoils
The rocks are the cause. The way is mar.
row and steep. The waters are hemmed in,
and there is a grand display of flashing
white foam and roaring waterfalls, as the
waters struggle together to get past the mar
row place. II is the same with the electric
ity 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 il
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 electricity, like the water
struggles to get over the hindrance in it,
path, and it grows white-hot with anger
and flames and Kisses as it leaps across thu
narrow space between the rods. There i,
another kind of electric lamp used il
houses 1t has a smaller and softer light
steady, white, and very beautiful. In thes'
lamps also, we have something like tn,
narrow place in the brook. They are mad
with slender loops of carbon, inclosed il
glass globes. The electricity, flowing 81
lently through dark wire, enters the lamp
and finds only narrow thread on which i
can travel to reach the home-going wire
and, in its struggles to get past, it heats tn
tiny thread of carbon to whiteness. Like
live coal, this tender thread gives us mild
soft light, as long as the current flows.
seems calm and still, but it is enduring tn
same fury Of the electricity that is show
in the larger lamps. This is the main ide
on which these lamps are made. A streaI
of electricity is set flowing from dynamo
electric machine through wire until
meets a narrow place or break in the wir'
Then it seeks to get past the obstruction
and there is grand putting forth of ell
ergy, and in this way the electric force, a
though itself invisible, is made known
our eyes by beautiful light.-St. Nichola