Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-19

ings; we are introducing something which
encourages cleanliness; we add materially
| to our comfort, and by adding to our COM
| fort, we add materially to our cheerfuness.
know nothing which adds so much to he
| cheerfulness or our lives as the eiecfric
light, and this means adding to our length
of days.
New System of Rapid Telegraphy.
Various devices for increasing the speed
and economy of telegraphing have been
brought out recently, and it seems not un-
likely that new era of cheap telegraphy is
at hand, when companies can send 100 words
for % cents and make handsome profit
One of the most effective devices in this
field is the invention of Canadian electri-
clan, and contains some remarkable devel-
opments of automatic and multiplex teleg-
raphy. In lecture before the Royal So
oiety of Canada, Mr.. Osborne, the inventor,
said that 5000 words a minute had been
transmitted by copper wire line 355 miles
in length between New York and Washing
ton, and 800 words over a similar wire ], 900
miles long between New York and Chicago,
and that 600 words per minute had been
transmitted by repeaters beyond that dis
tance. He also showed that by his i'm
provements in automatic and multiplex
transmitted for % cents with large margin
Of profit for 1000 miles distance.
He also proved by statistical information
received from the telegraph companies and
the postal services that the volume of busi-
ness was ready for the accomplishment OF
his estimates. Mr.. Osborne further e1-
pressed the opinion that the most successful
telegraph companies of the future would
abandon the present system of transmission
in favor of one or two wires, which would
be sufficient for the transaction of an i'm
mense amount of business between import
ant centers.
The New Electrical Omnibus.
The initial trips of the electrical omnibus
in London, England, have been SO success
full that Londoners are willing to believe, or
to speak more accurately, are expecting
that electricity will soon be applied to cabs,
broughams, market wagons and even dust
CARTS Compared with the ordinary system
of driving omnibuses, electricity has proved
itself to be very economical, the total saw
ing being just under 80 per cent. The bus
will make more journeys than would be
possible by using horses, and will run for
three hours without being recharged. Ac-
cumulators are used, and when exhausted
they can be instantly replaced by others, SO
that no time is lost in recharging. 1t is ex-
pected that three buses constructed to
hold 26 passengers will be running in about
six weeks time between Kings Cross and
Victoria
When the practical value of the invention
has been still further demonstrated the pro-
prietary or parent syndicate will decide
what course to adopt, and it is probable
that the privilege of running electrical om-
nibuses will be leased to the companies
which rule the road at the present time.
The Speed Of Electricity.
The experiments now in progress at Nc
Gill College, Montreal, under the auspices
of the British and Canadian Governments,
to ascertain the longitude of Montreal by
direct observation from Greenwich, have
led to the accomplishment Of remarkable
telegraphic feat. The first thing to deter
mine was the length of time it took tele-
graphic signal to cross the Atlantic. An
automatic contrivance, whereby the land
line could work into the cable, was pro-
vided, and duplex circuit was arranged so
that the signal sent from Montreal would
60 over the land lines to Canso (Nova
Scotia), thence over the cable to Water
vile, Ireland, and return to Montreal
again. Attached to the sending and receiv-
ing apparatus was a chronograph which
measured the time. Out of q couple Of
hundred signals sent it was found that the
average time taken to cross the Atlantic
and back again, distance of 5000 miles,
occupied a trife over one second; the exact
time being 5-100 seconds.
Where Telephones Are Cheap.
The New Yorker, who pays $240 a year
for his telephone, reads wistfully the &C
counts of how they do things over in
Sweden, and longs for the expiration Of the
telephone patents The charges of the
Telephone Company of Stockholm for ser
vice have hitherto been S25 to S45 year.
This is now reduced to an all round charge
of So only, for which instruments and wires
are installed. Needless to say, for this sum
everybody who has the slightest use for the
telephone can have it. Besides this charge
the subscribers pay ~ cents per conver-
sation, the apparatus being supplied with q
counter. Only those who use the telephone
very often would have to pay rates at all
high, and for these, special inclusive fees
can be arranged.
Electric Light in Astronomy.
An indication of the extent to which the
use of electric lighting is being adopted in
observations in connection
with Photographic, equatorial and other in
struments, is the radical change proposed
in the method of generating current for
the Greenwich (England) Observatory.
The Astronomer-Royal is strongly in favor
of installing an electric light plant in the
observatory to meet the necessities involved
in the growing use of electricity in every
department. The system now in use is that
of charging storage cells from primary bat
teries
Portable Telephone for Mining Work.
The method of communication in most
mines is more or less defective, and es-
pecially in signaling to and from the pit
head. After many experiments, it has been
decided to use the telephone for this pur-
pose in some English mines where its adap-
liability to the maintenance of instant COM
in underground workings has
been demonstrated. The telephone used is
a French patent. 1t is entirely Of metal,
and does not exceed three pound weight.
Automatic Telephone Fire Alarm.
An ingenious device for communicating
with fire station in case of
FIRE has been lately tested with satisfactory
results 1t is called the Automatic tele- |
phone fire alarm" and is intended to be con-
nected with the ordinary telephone. One of
its great advantages is the ability it gives
he property owner to have thermostat |
alarm without going to the expense and
trouble of separate wiring.
Handling the Storage Battery.
A prominent street railway journal is Of
opinion that one reason for the apparent |
allure of the storage battery to come up to
he exactinp requirements of street railway |