Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-04-22
ELECTRIC SCIENCE.
The Great and Rapid Development OF
Electrical Inventions.

Electrical luventions.
Speaking Of the work of the electrl-
city division, and the recent marvellous
development OF electrical invention,
Mr.. E. NJ. Bently, one Of the examiu-
ers of the electrical division Of the
patent office, gives some very sugges-
tive facts. He says that about two
thousand applications for patents IN
electricity were filed in 1882, Of which
about two-thirds were grsnted. To
shsw how the subject has grown in i'm
portaRce within u few years he said
that in 1877 electricity was sub-"lLSs
in y division. Now 1t is the largest d.
vision in the Office, and regarded ~ the
most important. The astonishing
grow tn is due chiefly to two causes:
First, tbs invention Of the telephone;
and, second, the development of the
magnetic electrical machine. The tee
phone had opeued, directly or indireat-
~, u WIDE field of inventions. Tue
minds of many persons throughout
this country were turned to this Class OF
invention, and not only were improve
ments upon the telephone itself attempt
Ell, bat attention Was given TO great
many incidental appliances useful IN
lis successful application. The second
great stimulus to invention WAS the de.
velopment OF the magneto- electrical
machine. For thirty years the world
had been awaiting cheapand conven-
lent source OF electricity. immediately
following the discoveries OF Faralay
and others, from 1880 &c 1910, there was
widespread effort to make practical
use of them. and special activity was
mani fe. ted In the line Of electric light
ing. The are light was put into practi-
cal form, and the foundation of mean
descent fighting were laid. But no
economic source of electricity Was at
hand; for the galvauic battery con sum-
"a to much zinc for profit. The priuci'
pie of the magnet0-electrlc machine
had, indeed, been long known; but 1t
WAS lei for the Italian Pacln0tti, IN
1860, to perfect machine wherein con-
tinuous and constant currents were
generated. The idea literally lay on
the shelf, however, until 1870, when
Gramme reinvented practically the
same machine, and pushed II into no.
tice. He was speedily followed by the
Siemens brothers of Berlin, and by Mr..
Brush and others in the United States.
The magneto-electric machine, afford
ing cheap and abundant supply OF
electricity, Immediately rendered prac-
tical all tie half completed inventions
of thirty years, and opened the way to
many new ones. Brush got his patent
in 1877, Weston soon after, and the
growth of the electricity division of the
patent office has been steady aud mar
velsus ever since. The inventions had
been, however, rather in the application
of known principles than in the disc0v-
cry of new ones; for during the fifty
years that have elapsed since the inves-
legations of Faraday, little new has
been added t. the science of electricity.
The present activity springs from the
application of well-known exhibitions
of the still unknown force; and, more
over, only few of these features of the
science have been as yet made of prac-
tiCal value. One of the broadcast and
most successful patents appears to be
the telephone. The man whose name
is perhaps more widely known than
any other in connection with inven-
tons, in his line of inventions, is Edi-
son, and his most famous achievements
have been in the improvement in tele-
grapby and in the incandescent light.