St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-22
The Population Listening to
Foreign Opera at Very
Popular Prices.
An Electric Railway and
Lighting System Surpass-
ing Imagination.
Space Annihilated for the
Transmission Of People
and Sound.

Since Anthero of Tiberius was cured
of the govt by an electric shock, and
Wolimer, king of the Cloths. awed his
loyal subjects into more complete sub
mission to the royal will by ejecting
sparks from his body-which phenom-
ena, if history speaks truly, alarmed
him as much as it did them-electrlcal
science has claimed for lis yotarieS the
most learned men of the succeeding
centuries. DIR. Gilbert, of Colchester. is
credited with having been the true
founder of the science,in that he pieced
together the observations and deduc-
tons of philosophers preceding him,
and established the whole princi-
pies upon which the entire fabric of
electrical science is constructed. An
army of seaIc cheers after electrical knowl-
edge have since his time come forward
with the establishment of new
facts and principles in such rapid
succession that to-day-electricity
still in its swaddling clothes, is rec
ognlzed as power that viii revOlu-
tl0niZe commerce. and thus the world.
Where, few years ago, Sckly Jets of
gas glimmercd and sputtered in every
gust of wind in feeble effort to per-
form the duty that was beyond them.
the electric are light sheds its far
reaching rays, bidding night prowierS
begone and inSuring security to
the belated traveller. Where, with
inI the memory of every st. Paul
business man, messages were pertorce
sent by carrier all over the city, there is
now that usually reliable messenger, the
Bell telephone. A review of the dis
coverIes made in electrical science from
TheoplraStus to Edison would involve
a return to first principles and reference
to an almost endless array OF discover
ers and inventors: but it would
be a comparatively easy matter
to return TO a period in the history of
his city, when electric lighting was I'M
known. electric motors of any kind
were regarded as visions from which
the future might develop reality, and
electric trains as very far in the dis
lance. 1t is but a short time since
man eminent in the world OF
electrical invention, that America
owed as much to the army of men en-
gagged in applying the principles evolved
by theorists as it did to the theorists
themselves. The average working
electrician Is not given full credit for
the amount of study he has been COM
PEELED to undergo. He is looked upon,
as he goes confidently about a duty that
would puzzle hundreds of theorists, as
a mechanic, and only q mechanic. Ii
was this fact which few evenings since
formed the basis of conversation on
electrical possibilities with Elias b.
Birge.
Most st. Paul people know Birge. He
is IS sparely built man, with iron gray
hair and piercing eyes of indefinite
color. nervous motion, and a profusion
of ideas, many of which latter have
been applied to practical use in giving
to st. Paul her present police telegraph
system, concededIy the finest in the
United States: and therefore in the
world. Supt. Birge is, Without stretch
ing point, one Of the best practical
electricians in the Northwest He has
read every work on electricity, from
l.ockwood's Primer on Telegraphy to
the most Weighty volume eXtant on the
general science.
"Can you. picture to yourself st. Paul
twenty-five years from now under the
sway of your pet power?" was asked
him the other night.
Birge looked at his questioner in an
almost startled manner. The period
mentioned was to his mind fraught with
possibilities so stupendous that the
temerity of the idea even seemed to
alarm him.
No." he replied, ''nor can any living
man. Picture it he may, but could he,
at the expiration of the time you men.
ton, compare his picture with the real
ity, | am convinced that the former
would fall far short of the latter. St
Paul." he continued, "has to-day the
most perfect electric railway system ex-
tant. Twenty-Five years from to-day il
will be as much more perfect as storage
| batteries and rail to rail circuits can
make it. 1t will be the same in
everything else. Improved meth
DDS of application and cheap
ness of production will revolutionize
present methods. Look at the future
of the telephone. for instance. At this
stage of its history it is only success
on lines of 100 miles or less. Twenty
| five years will alter all that. If | get q
| chance to walk down Wabasila streel
twenty-five years from tonight, l ex
| pect to see among the bills of attrac
| tons something like this: