Omaha daily bee., 1888-04-01
EVOLUTION OF ELECTRICITY.
Edison's. Musical Photograph to be
Particularly Satisfactory.
LONG DISTANCE TeLePHoNlNe.
An Electric Tramway In Successful
observation-disclosures Lights in
Swedcn-The New Weapon
of Civilized Warfare.
ELECTRICITY on a Tear.

New York Star: There was quite an
excitement in Madison square, directly
opposite the Fifth avenue hotel, at
about 6 o'clock last evening. The cleo
trlc light wires, which had been blown
into a tangle in the trees, had chafed
till the insulating covering was
through, and all at once electric fires
were seen in several trees.
The unusual sight Of these fairy fires
dancing from limb to limb and darting
out on the wires between the trees at
tracted a large crowd in u very few
minutes. The people soon discovered
the nature of the phenomenon and
we're very careful not to touch the wires,
but the boys had lots of fun snowballing
the dancing flashes.
The electricians soon arrived and
stopped the fires by cutting the wires.
One of the electricians said to a re-
porter of the Star: People should be
very careful how they handle electric
wires these days, as it is impossible to
tell which are dangerous"
The Electric Bullet.
NlhtA uliu IN u zoe II Soullis
weapon of civilized warfare will not be
an explosive bullet, but a chemical one
remarked "a scientific gentleman a day
or " ago. MANY suggestions Of this
sort have been made, and some plan
Will be adopted before long unless | am
greatly mistaken"
"What is the best plan?"
Il am inclined TO favor the sugges-
tion of Weston. the electrician. He
suggests the use of nitrite of amyl. 1t
is well known that this drug possesses
the power of causing inscnsibility very
quickly in "A human being breathing its
fumes. The effect is equivalent, tenn
porarily, to a paralytic stroke. Now,
nitrite of amyl is very cheap and plen-
tiful. He roposes to fire shells filled
with this chemical instead of gun
powder. 1t will not be necessary to
penetrate a ship. A few gallons of this
nitrite dashed on the deck of a a ship
would soon render her crew helpless.
The most powerful iron-clads would be
even more vulnerable than the light
cruisers, for they would be sucking
down great draughts of air through
their artificial ventilators, and the
odor would thus rapidly permeate the
whole ship. The whole crew being
rendered helpless for an hour or two,
the ship could, of course, be towed into
a safe spot, while the captors ventilated
her and removed the insensible men,
Electric Light in London.
Electric World: 1t will no doubt in
terest our readers to learn that the
electric light is not only spread among
countries densely populated, but that il
has found it's way to the n~orthern-mos
limits of civilization. What is proba'
bly, the most northerly electric light
station of the world is situated at Her.
nosand, Sweden. The station building
we learn, is 25x50 feet, and contains a
present n thirty-eight-light Thomson
Houston dynamo, with sufficient room
for the placing of a second one wher
that shall become necessary, which will
500 be the case. The dynamo is driv'
en- by Il turbine, the water inlet being
at one end of the building and the ex
haust at the side. Not only is the cleo
trical installation of American origin
but the water wheels are such, a Victor
As h. p. twin turbine being employed
Our correspondent in describing the in
stallation of this station writes that well
known machinery builders in the neigh
borhood doubted the power of the small
turbine wheels, only two feet in diane
ter, to IL the machinery, which wa
formerly operated by a turbine six fee
in diameter: but shortly afterwards thu
installation was started and the opinion
Of these was completely changed and i
is not unlikely that American turbine
will find application in that neighbor
hood not only for electric lighting, bu
for other manufacturing purposes. TIL,
lighting from this station starts at 2:3'
in the afternoon and stops at 1915 a. m.
| and the station has been in operation
nearly two and a half years.
A Lantern for Human Throat.
The ynunp English e1artririun r.