Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-05
EUROPE WAITS FOR Us.
America Sows the Seed In Electricity
and It Reaps the Harvest
MOTORS FOB THE STEAM R0ADs
New Appliance of the Current In strsss
Cars to Obviate Brakea
THE UTILIZATION OF WATER PoWII
WRITTEN FOR TIE prspArcH.1

lWE1TTFN FOR TIE DIBPATCAsl
An eminent English electrical engineer,
now on q visit to this country, spoke re-
Gently In high praise of American origi-
nality in electrical work. He also stated
that Europeans wait for US to develop anew
industry, but when they do introduce ID
they do it SO thoroughly that We are left far
in the rear. An instance of this is found in
electric lighting A few years ago London
had very few electric lights compared with
American cities. Now it far exceeds any Of
our large cities, not only in the number Of
lights, but more especially in the thorough,
careful. well designed and permanent con.
struction of the plants. The same solidity
and excellence of construction obtains in
Berlin and Paris. While in America .s
were trying to make ourselves think that
underground lines were not practicable, in
Europe they were introducing nothing else
but such wires.
Much of this is due to the fact that we
have been doing pioneer work, and many Of
the older installations partook necessarily
of the temporary character of experimental
plants. But the standard of construction il
rapidly rising, as good work is cheaper in
the end. 1t is pointed out, however, by .
leading electrical journal that while we may
we'll take lesson from abroad in the build
ing of our plants, there exists still one great
draw back in the want of proper municipal
participation in our large cities, without
which we can never expect to have such
general and complete systems as abro ad.
A municipal control in which "boodle" and
franchises" play an important part must
ha tiSTa MI n
The way in which the progress of the
storage battery in this country has been re-
tarded by litigation is also alluded to and
thus commented on: s'More money has
been expended in the legal controversy
than in developing and exploiting tho
several storage systems Despite this fact,
the companies now engaged in the contro-
versy are in practically the same relative
positions that they occupied several years
ago. It certainly does not look well to sec
the electrical companies of Europe INSTALL
ing storage battery plants wherever electric
lighting plants are found, while in America
the plants OF any consequence do not s1-
ceed dozen in number"
The Transition of Electrical Theories.
To the question, "What is electricity"
which is often asked no absolute an satis-
factory answer has yet been found. This
was suggestiyely shown by remark made
recently by the Vice President of the Amer
lean Institute of Electrical Engineers at
the annual convention of that representa-
tive body. The speaker claimed that the
present theories of electricity should be re- !
garded merely as stepping stones to more
comprehensive and satisfactory ones. He
contended that modern theories of electrical
phenomena, if adopted as an absolute frame
work of all our knowledge of these sub
iects, may in a few years become prison
bars that will prevent the mind from max
ing a free and unprejudiced investigation
of new theories and new phenomena and
giving due weight and significance in the
general science of electricity to the results
obtained by the most recent experimenterA