San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-07-17
LIGHTNING In HARNESS.
aeceNT INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
OF ELECTRICAL SCIENCE.

A False Propbes-Novsities Of Electric
Iighting-New Things in Telesraphy.
Electricity as . Motive Power-Many
Other surprisins Inventions
It cannot but be interesting to all to know
something of the more important steps that
have recently been taken in applying the
science of electricity as an Industrial art
The force Il one that Is easily convertible into
either light heat, power or chemical action.
But few years since scientific men gen.
orally affirmed that it could not be profitably
employed in either form Now they are in
hot composition demonstrating its economic
value in each And every new achievement
reveals further and greater possibilities at
tainable beyond in each of the several lines
of application. until it almost seems that this
science is in itself the knowledge Of the in
finite. 81.
30 little awhile ago that it seems but yes
terday the writer Of this article heard a pro
lessor In a college near New York aver in a
public lecture that incandescent electric
lighting was an illusion. a humbug, an i'm
possibility. At the time Edison's expert
mental lamps were glowing brightly at
Menlo Park, but the professor saw fit to ig-
more the fact, and, exhibiting a dull, glowing
bit of platinum WIRE, said triumphantly:
There, gentlemen, is all you will ever see of
the incandescent electric light" The arc
light could not be denied, for everybody
knew that the Jablochkoff candles were
Nightly glowing in the Avenue de rOpera in
Paris
SEVEN YEARS LATER.
Today. hardly seven years since that pro-
lessor did his bad prophet act, there are, it is
estimated, at least 2O0o,O 900 incandescent
electric lights in the United S.tes alone
They are used not only for indoor Ilumina.
ton, but for decorative purposes-have been
ngeniously applied to use as jewelry, for the
adornment of ladies' hair, for pretty sur
prises in bouquets and-most surprising of
au-for lighting up peoples interiors so that
doctor could look right down into the
stomachs and see what repairs were neces
sary to so much of their 'worzs" as were
thus made visible The apparatus for this
latter achievement consists of slender tube,
with a glass bead on one end containing q
minute carbon flament. which is connected,
oy fine wires running through the tube, with
little battery. There is also a small NOV.
able mirror at the inner or stomach end Of
the tube, and when the battery is put in
operation the operator can see plainly in
that mirror Just how dilapidated are the
oats of the stomach into which the tube has
been thrust
Arc lighting Is quite different matter
rom tnoandescent illumination, in that its
limitations, requirements and uses are more
loosely defined. For the Lighting up Of vast
spaces It has field Of its own, but, accord
Ing to information given at the recent annual
Session of the Electric institute in this city
chat field is already being narrowed The
are light Is no longer the feature of street
illumination in Paris that it was q few years
ago, having been replaced by groupings of
powerful gaslights on the Avenue de POpera,
the principal place Of it's display there. New
York is now the most extensively arc lighted
aty in the world, but if the appalling perils
that seem to be involved in the employment
If the tremendous current necessitated by
these lights are not prevented by such safe
guards as the burial of the wires and their
more perfect insulation, it Is doubtful if they
rill long be tolerated here There is hardly
4 conceivable limit to the power to which
he arc light may be developed, but the
largest one yet known is that in the light
uouse at Sydney, Australia, which equals
Mr. s. s. Wheeler, as standards of compare
son to enable comprehension of what that
light amounts to, suggests that an ordinary
gas burner is Of l6 candle power; the bright
electric lights in the streets are 200 to 800
candle power, and the Statue of Liberty light
is 5000 candle power.
TIE TELEGRAPH SERVICE
OF equal importance. at least with its use
for illumination, is the application of elec,
tricity for Geographic and telephone service,
and it is really wonderful that with all the
study and toll Of brainy men during so many
years as it has been since the telegraph was
put in operation, for the perfecting of the
science Of telegTaphy, there should still be so
many new and important things found out i'll
1t every year One Of the novel and probably
valuable recent discoveries is how to send by
telegraph an exact fac-simile of message,
and TO do so rapidly A method has been
KNOWN a long time by which q fac-simile
was made up Of an infinite number of minute
dots SUCCESSFULLY, placed on piece Of paper
spread upon a cylinder in synchronous move
nlent with another cylinder bearing tho 49,
age point. pressed upon the message
rylinder as it revolved. caused the break
ing Of the current each time that it
touched a written hne-the ink employed
being metallic-and made q mark by
the receiving instrument corresponding to
Just so much of the line as had been touched
But that was a very slow Process. In the new
way an upright lever, 50 pinioned that it
moves freely in all directions, carries in its
top little cup. Into that cup the sender of
a message pokes his pencil, and forms, one
after another, the letters composing his dis
patch. 1t will probably rattle him little at
first to go on making shapes of letters right