The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-21
vAaARIEs OF ELECTRICITY.
Interesting Views of William Hamp
den Johnstone, the Electrician.
(CopyrfOhsed) J


telegraph pole the other day before the
eyes of thousands was an awful exhibition
Of the power of electricity. OF the tragedies
and vagaries of this terrible force volumes
might be- written. 1t is well .iigh imposs.
BILE to say what it will dc and what it
won't do.
The pos ition of the most expert electrical
engineer of to-day is very much like that of
man who has caught, harnesSed aud is
driving horse in a dark night, which ne
has never seen before. We drive the horse
nevertheless.
The only thing that an inventor OF exper-
lmenter can rely upon is ogo ahead and try.
Twice in five times he will succeed in his
endeavor. Three times he will fail, but in
those very failures he Will learn new and
valuable truths that can be put to use in
other fields In the long run he succeeds,
however, and carries his idea into execu-
ton.
A good illustration of this was afforded
in the famous experiments Edison made in
the development of his system of electric
lighting. At the outset he thought that
fine platinum wire would be the best ma
terial so far as incandescence is concerned.
The amount Of this metal in the market is
comparatively very small aud its value is
very great, being in fact a close second to
gold. LII order to secure a regular
supply the Wizard of Menlo park
sent letters of inquiry to almost every
point on the civilized globe, and IN
the course of a year found that he could
| obtain practically unlimited amount of
| platinum. While, as u matter OF fact, he
did not use platinum in MS incandescent
lamps when he manufactured them on
vast commercial scale, his experiments and
inquiries were of incalcuable benefit TO the
| scientific world, when from both a chemical
and physical standpoint platinum is indis-
pensable in the finer and more delicate
Investigations demanded by the modern age
1t is now quite easy to form a Compre-
hensive view of the curious action Of the
electric current Nearly all our leading in
| vestigators keep scrap books Of every fact
| recorded III the newspapers and periodicals
| of both the United States and Europe con-
corning this field of science and as a matter
of fact have the published account of every
accident, invention aud discovery. In my
own scrap books have thousands Of such
clippings covering period of twelve years
Though not complete, 1t is already library
in itself. A few cases taken at random will
give good idea of what may be termed
electrical vagarieS.
At Batetta point pretty little cape that
projects into Long Island sound or the East
river just beyond He'll Gate. two men took
refuge beneath huge elm tree during a
| violent thunder storm in the month of
| August. They were standing shoulder to
shoulder when the tree was struck by light
ming. Both were killed, but one was SEEM
| ingly untouched by the fluid while the other
| was fearfully torn aud mangled. A singu-
lar feature Of the injuries inflicted was that
the thunderbolt engraved upon the mans
back a rough picture Of the tree against
| which he stood when he died.
A series Of odd accidents is where men
and beasts have been struck with little or
no injury to themselves, but with the great
est damage to immediate objects. A horse
in Ohio had his shoes torn up in this way.
Over twenty human beings have had their
clothing ripped and torn, their boots split,
their canes or umbrellas shattered which
they held in their hands, and boats, wagons
and chairs in which they were sitting. A
man who was out fishing in Newark bay
was struck by a heavy bolt and in
stantly killed. His body, clothes and
the boat were unlnjured, but one Of his
shoes was badly split, and the fishing
pole was broken Off as clear as if struck by
an ak. Friends who were near when the
| accident occurred declared that there was
no noise, and chat the water was not even
rippled. Yet the force involved must have
been far up in 200-foot tons Of energy. or
| the same class Of cases was that of woman
| in New York state who was carrying a
! metal teapot, china cup and saucer, and
| a tumbler In a wooden salver when she was
struck by thunderbols The teapot was
melted, the cup and saucer broken, the
salver spit to pieces, but neither the
woman nor the tumbler were damaged
| in the least This melting Of
substances by lightning is very common.
| When a sand bank or a clay bed Is struck,
there is almost always produced curious
| figure of sand or clay which resembles the
| bough of a tree with branches growing
| from it at irregular intervals. and which is
| composed Of sand and clay that has been
partially or wholly fused by lightning. The
unspeakable heat that is generated on such
| occasions may be estimated from the fact
that only the most powerful furnace in the
! world can melt sand, and that no artificial
heat yet produced has even begun to soften
| clay much less to fuse it. Tyndall, the
| great English savant, says that the tenn
| perature in these cases will go as high as
| 1900 Fahrenheit
A scientific writer lately said that an
ostrich, d seal, and yak could stand in
rainstorm Of thunderbolts with impuntty
on account of their nonconducting ex-
! teriors While this is not strictly true, 1t
well expresses the wonderful protection
| afforded by nature against certain ills and
| dangers There can be no doubt but what
| the principle involved in these matters
underlies the heavy growth Of hair upon
the human head. 1t protects the brain
against electrical disturbance and accident
from without, and at the same time exerts
| O beneficial influence or effect upon the
delicate electrical action which Is forever
! going on within the skull. This may posi-
| bly, explain the universal pity end sympathy
| that arebextended to bald-heads.
For the introduction of electricity into
| daily life as a new servant of humanity we
| have paid literally. 1t has served to in
crease our knowledge Of its vagarles, and
| in most instances to increase it in h very
painful manner. At the present moment
we are paying for our progress at the rate
| of one death, five accidents and 5000 in
losses per diem. Despite the growth of our
skill and science, this terrible penalty aug
ments and does not show any signs of
decreasing. Much of it is Of course pre-
ventable; some, so far as our abilities go, is
absolutely without remedy, while large
part lies In that border land over which we
hope to soon have absolute control.
These deadly effects of the current can
not be described in words. They involve
an amount Of agony, Disagreement, help
lessness aud horror which passes beyond the
power OF all human language. The poor
Italian last month in New York city, who
fell across lighting wire, suffered q tort
ure such as the inquisition never dreamed
of. he stumbled and his neck struck live
wire. The current dashed through him,
paralyzlng every nerve aud muscle without,