The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-07-02
lN rHE ELEorRloAL WORLD.

rse, whereby the same solution be-
rodes over and over again powerful
bleaching agent through the passage bf
an electric current through IL.
The mayor of Milwaukee, Wis, has
recommended that the bridges of that
city be operated by electric motors.
1t appears that the electric system has
been on trial in Milwaukee during
the last year with highly satisfactory
results.
New Orleans has been the last large
American city to adopt the overhead
trolley system of electric railways, but
it is now about to have n large road.
The New Orleans and Carrollton rail-
road, the first to adopt the trolley, will
start with so electric cars and a steam
plant of 900 horse power
The long distance telephone wires
now reach from New York to Chicago,
south to Washington, d. c., and east
ward to Boston, and beyond the latter
city, eastward and northward, the New
England Telephone & Telegraph Co.
has metallic circuits as far as Portland,
Me-, and Franklin Falls, N. II.
Arc lamps run by continuous cur
rents require no rehectors, while those
run by the alternating current do. The
reason is that, with continuous currents,
the upper carbon forms a crater which
reflects the light, while in alternating
currents both carbons become pointed,
and throw the light in all directions,
thus necessitating reflectors.
One of the recent ruedical applica-
tions of electricity is in the treatment
of deafness. The apparatus for this
purpose comprises battery, a belt, an
electrode supporter on the belt and
shaped to rest on the ear, and connec-
tions between the electrode and the
battery. This provides a convenient
and efficient mode of receiving the cur
rent, which can be applied in finely
graduated strength.
The Agricultural and Mechanical
College of Alabama, located at Auburn,
Ala, claims to be first to utilize cleo
tricity in the ginning of cotton. A
generator in the college dynamo room
was connected by three-hundred-foo
wire with the motor at the station
farm, and when things were in readi-
ness the latter was started up and did
the work of ten horsepower engine,
which was formerly used for the pur-
pose.
The introduction of electric power
in farm work, to replace animal power,
it is predicted, will inevitably inaugu-
rate new era in western agriculture.
A bill has been introduced in the Kan
sas legislature to provide for the estab-
lishment of an agricultural power eX-
pertinent station by the government, in
which an effort will be made to deter
mine the relative value Of the different
motors on the great grain-growing
farms of the plains.
The Electrical Review learns that
Mr.. Faure has recently invented a pro-
cess of producing aluminium, by means
of which he hopes to reduce its price to
about sixteen or eighteen cents pound
Briefly, his proposed method consists in
obtaining in cheap manner aluminium
chloride and decomposing it electrically.
This decomposition can be effected with
n smaller potential differance than can
the fuoride now most frequently used
for preparing aluminium by electrolysis,
and at the same time valuable bye
product is formed in the chlorine liber-
ated. 1t is said, however, that there are
considerable difficulties in the way OF
making the proposed process CONNER
cial success, which, it is feared, may
prove insurmountable.
Three speaking telegraph" pat
ents, based on the invention of Thomas
A. Edison were issued in May 8 to the
Western Union Telegraph Co. as as
signee of the inventor. The original
application for these patents was filed
July 20, 1877, and the claims allowed in
the patents seem to cover every known
form of carbon transmitter. The issue
of these patents at this time is suppos
ed in some quarters to be in the interest
of the Bell Telephone Co., whose fun
damental patents expire in another
year, but it appears that under existing
: United States statutes every patent
granted for invention which has beer
previously patented in a foreign coun
) try is limited to expire at the same time
with the foreign patent, or if there bC
more than one, at the same time witt
the one having the shorter term. 1t ap
pears that the patents just issued to the
assignees of Mr.. Edison have not only
: been patented abroad, but the Englisl
patent, which bears date of July 80
1877, expired on July 80, 1891. Thi
| fact, it is believed, will render tn,
lately-issued patents in question invalit
in this country.