Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-10-31
Let no Democrat stay away
from the polls next Tuesday.
JUeeEp LIGHTNING.

StoraSes IN the Near Future.
II may reasonably hope TO see electric
energy carried around as money is car
ried in mems vest pockets" said an emf.
nent electrician recently, at a scientists
meeting in New York. This is getting
electric storage down finer than there is
really any necessity for at present, but
there may be developments in the near
future which will enable man to light
his path or his cigar from a storage bat
terry which he can carry as he carries his
wallet. 1t may come to pass that a man
can at any time walk up to a box in a
public place, drop nickel in the slot and
get enough electric energy stored in his
pocket secondary battery to last him
for twenty-four hours. This is what
electric storage may come to in time. 1t
is now an infant Of four or five years, and
since its birth it has made advances in
an opposite direction from the general
law of nature. Things usually increase
in weight with added years, but the stor-
age battery has been steadily diminish
ing in this respect. It was born heavy,
and it is claimed for it that in the last
eighteen months it has lost fully two
thirds in weight, meanwhile growing
constantly healthier and more powerful.
The secondary battery emanated from
the almost simultaneous discovery by
two Frenchmen, Plante and Faure, that
sheets Of corroded lead possessed the
power or function of retaining electricity
communicated to them by means of bat.
teries or dynamo-electric generators.
The result was ponderous and weighty
chest filled with rolls or sheets of lead.
When this discovery was given to the
world, although both discoverers had
protected it with patents, all electricians
and dabblers in electricity began to ex-
pertinent in the same direction as the
originators of the battery had been work
ing. Two or three companies had been
formed in this country, and licenses
were obtained from the French patentees
to protect the business from infringers.
The ensuing experiments were exhaus-
tive, and millions of dollars were spent
in the endeavor to substitute something
lighter FOR tAe lead. 1t was quickly dis
covered that oxides and certain salts of
lead could be used to replace much of
the weight of solid metal, and that time
could be thus gained in getting the
batteries up to their maximum efficiency.
Perforated sheets of lead were filled
with red oxide and other products of
lead, and one manufacturing concern
constructed lead plates in the form of a
honeycomb and filed up the cells with
lead compounds All this tended to di-
minish the weight of the storage boxes,
and experiments were still continued
with the view of making them still
lighter. The decrease in weight in the
last year is said to be nearly 70 per cent,
and at the same time the efficiency has
been increased largely and the cost of
manufacture greatly reduced. 1t is
claimed by some manufacturers that
their batteries will give out 80 per cent.
of the energy stored in them, but this
statement is doubted by some electri-
clans, who say that they will average
from go to rs per cent. at their best.
For two years storage batteries have
been used in Newark with varying sue
cess in electro-plating and house lighting.
The platter finds them great boon, be-
cause they enable him to conduct his
work day and night. He plates with his
dynamo while the steam power is run
ming during the day. and at the same
time the dynamo is loading up the cells.
When power stops in the evening the
wires leading from the dynamo to the
plating baths are attached to the storage
batteries and they go on silently, deposit
ing the metal through the still watches
of the night. In the same manner
manufacturer who has dynamo in his
shop can easily fill storage batteries to
light his house at night.
A Newarker interested in street rail-
roads remarked few days ago that he
believed that the motor of the future
would be run by stored electricity, and
that cables and overhead wires would be
entirely superseded. "The steam engine
as producer of electricity will be done
away with as soon as the storage battery
is perfected" he said. "Here we are
burning coal and getting 13 per cent. of
its heat energy in the form of power,
converting this power into electricity and
the electricity back into power at a great
loss, and we consider that doing pretty
well In the near future we will make
electricity by water power, which is now
going to waste, and it will be supplied at
our doors as milk and ice are now sup
piled. That, think, is the future of
electricity. Thousands of horse power
can be utilized for storing electri city at
Paterson, Boonton, Little Falls, Niagara,
Rochester and hundred other places
where plants can be cheaply established,
and all we are waiting for is the cheap,
light and efficient storage cell When it
comes gas will 60 out, steam will stop
kissing and horses will no longer be
worked to death on the street cars. The
only improvement l can conceive beyond
the perfection of the storage battery is
the discovery of getting and harnessing
the electric energy in nature without the
use of heat or power. Newark Sunday
Call
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