The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-24
JUDGED LIGHTNING.
What May BE Expected from Electric

| energy carried around as money Is car
| ried in mems vest pockets" said an emf
nent electrician recently, at 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 man
can at any time walk up to a box in n
public place, drop q nickel in the slot and
get enough electric energy stored in his
pocket secondary battery to last him
for twentv-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. 1t 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 dyIamo-eIectric generators.
The result was q ponderous and weighty
chest filled with rolls or sheets of lead.
When this discovery was given to the
world, although both DISCOVERIES had
protected it with patents, ali electricians
and dabblers in electricity began to ex-
pertinent in the same direction as the
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 the lead. 1t was quickly dis
covered that oxides and certain salts of |
lead could be used to replace much of f.
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 filed /
with red oxide and other products of .
lead, and one manufacturing concern I
lead plates in the form of a
and filled 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
asst year is said to be nearly rs per cent,
md at the same time the efficiency has
0een increased largely and the cost of
greatly reduced 1t is
claimed by some manufacturers that
heir batteries will give out 80 per cent.
If the energy stored in them, but this
statement is doubted by some electri-
,ians, who say that they will average
rom 60 to 70 per cent. at sheir best.
For two years storage batteries have
,een used in Newark with varying sue
ess in electrO-plating and house lighting.
The platter finds them a great boon, be-
ause they enable him to conduct his
work day and night. Heplates with his
iynamo while the steam power is run
ing during the day, and at The same
inc the dynamo is loading up the cells.
When power stops in the evening the
7lres leading from the dynamo to the
lating baths are attached to the storage
and they go on silently, deposit
lg the metal through the still watches
the night. In the same manner a
who has q dynamo in his
hop can easily fill storage batteries to
ght his house at night.
A Newarher interested in street rail-
Dads remarked a few days ago that he
elieved that the motor of the future
-ould be run by stored electricity. and
lat cables and overhead wires would be
ntirely superseded The steam engine
S a producer of electricity will be done
way with as soon as the storage battery
perfected" he said. Here we are ]
urning coal and getting 10 per cent. of
S heat energy in the form of power,
)nvertlng this power into electricity and
he electricity back into power at a great
'ss. and we consider that doing pretty '
ell. In the near future we Will make +
ectricity by water power, which is now S
ding to waste, and it viii be supplied at i
1T doors as milk and ice are now SUD- =
lied. That, l think, IS the future of !
ectricity. Thousands OF horse power /
IN be utilized for storing electricity at
Boonton, Little Falls, Niagara, =
ochester and a hundred other places
here plants can be cheaply established, d
Id ali we are waiting for is the cheap. I
5ht and efficient storage cell When it Y
)mes gas will go out, steam viii stop I
ssing and horses Will no longer be '
orked to death on the street cars. The
lly Improvement l can conceive beyond i.
lie perfection of the storage battery is i
lie discovery of getting and Harvesting h
lie electric energy in nature without the 4
Sc Of heat or power. Newark Sunday t
al :
\ Minute Watch. il
At the Paris exposition Florentine K