The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-26
IS ELECTRICITY GOING?
HOW WILL WE MANAGE TO GET
ALONG WITHOUT


Diminishing and Draws a Picture o.
the Conditions That VIII Obtain
When It Is All Gone.
From the ST. Louis Republic.
Standing by the side OF the night chic
| operator in the main oper ating room OF tn,
Western Union one rainy and blustery nigh
in the early spring noticed that he seemed
annoyed as be prosecuted his tests for
grounds with the galvsaometer. Almost
! momsntarily he would stop lingering the
/ delicate screws, buttons and plugs and scan
the instrument much as mother scans
the countenance Of her peryerse
child to discover some occult reason
| for an otherwise unaccountable way.
wardness. "Won't it work to-night"
asked. ''Y -e-s, it works, but not as it did
! when first mastered it. 1t locates grounds
/ In one sense as we'll as it ever did, and again
| 1t seems less sensitive to resistance. When
! atmospheric distractions are at a minimum,
! it shows how the wire is, but when a soggy
spell is on it acts as lethArgic as a turtle.
| Inc result is That can retain no standard OF
calculation, but must always say: III the
loss by Induction is so and 80, then the meter
! will show so much resistance to the mile
| or course, therefore, l must be constantly
then cannot be thoroughly sure that my
basis of calculation Is right. To illustrate:
| On night like this three years ago, when
the meter showed the sa number Of ohms
resistance that it does this moment on this
particular wire, 1 would say that the
| ground was twenty-five miles this side of
| Chicago. and bet my position that 1t was
not eighty rods out Of the way. But to-
night have clear to within fifteen miles
OF the Chicago CITY office.
ELECTRIC FORCE WASTING.
"What does that showi Why, simply
| that this galvanometer is not as sensitive as
| il once was, and it is not the galvanometer's
! fault, either. I'll tell yOu," and the night
| chief came close as If to make a confidential
statement, 81 believe the earth Is losing its
electricity by exhaustion. If I'd soy thai
in the presence OF the superintendent he
would fire me, but them's my sentiment.
I've found out that too many scientific
theories amt healthy around big telegraph
office, bus all the same believe that the
amount Qf electricity stored up in the earth
Is definite, il unknown, quantity: that
sooner or later it'll play out, and that the
world will then be left on the siding, as it
were-for almost all scientific men are
agreed that electricity is the highest and
final motive force of the universe. After
that will come chaos. Why, look here :"
reading my layman's incredibly in my
face, when the alternating current first
came into practical use il was quickly
discovered that 900 volts was a fatal dose /;
now it is recognized that about 200 are re-
quired to kill an average man. Why is
thatf Because, owing to a depletion of the
supply from the great reservoir the earth
the amount of current that was once repre-
sented by the arbitrary term, volt cannot
be created by the same artificial power now
and while the volt meter is Just as good and
reliable IL ever wa Tnuat
more power 60 create the same impression
upon it.
NOTHING is EXHAUsTLEss.
THE stuff is oozng out Of this old sphere,
l tell you, and being spent in the service OF
man and may be some day these hight wing
scientists will get it through their heads
that there is nothing e4haustless in this uni
verse. Electricity is 9 definite quantity,
Just as well as the coal or the salt or the
iron Of the earth, and just as susceptible of
exhaustion. Every creation of the
| Almighty that man ever appropriated to
his own benefit or injury was supposed,
when first seized upon, to exist
in inexhaustible quantity, but how many
such creations are there which are now
practically used up. There was a time,
doubtless, when the soil of Southern Eu-
rope was considered exhaustlessly fertile.
bat see it now-barely able to sustain the
teeming millions that live off it under the
stimulus OF expensive phosphates. They
said the forests of the Western Hemisphere
we're exhaustless once, and now good hard
| timber, such as your grandfather and
| mine burned on their hearths in New
| York in the form of logs is as good as
cash anywhere. They say the buffalo
| was too numerous to be exterminated, and
| YET you and have seen him almost wiped
Off the face Of the earth in one generation.
saw an old railroad hanger the other day
that boasted about the exhaustless iron ore
| OF Pilot Knob, and yet only last fall a
| great iron concern In Sc. Louis was Obliged
to so out of business because it had ex-
hausted in perhaps twenty years all the
ore that its plant at Pilot Knob was
capable OF utilizing. Look at the natural
gas wells Of Pittsourg, Ohio and Indiana.
| The great manufacturing concerns that
changed their methods of utilizing heat at
great expense, had no sooner tasted the de-
lights of their new discovery than the sup
ply gave out, and they were obliged. in
great sorrow, to return to the crude and
unscienttic' consumption of bituminous
coal.
| ELECTRICITY WILL GIVE OUT
I'm the case Of electricity, the difference
is one Of degree only. This old earth is sat.
urated with 1t, 1t is true, bua the fluid is
being rapidly evaporated, and one dav@
possibly not in your day or mine-it will
give out and the people of the earth, if there
are any on watch, will have TO find a new
man-of-all-work. Where did l ACQUIRE
this notion? Why, right here, stand
ing before this galvanometer night
after night, and watching It'll
sensitlveness disappear gradually but
very appreciably. These alleged
scientists and experts, who look upon dyna-
mic electricity as their own personal orea-
ton, and who think a few coils Of wire anC
silk wound on piece Of iron aud revolving
at given velocity, constitute electric
power, are as far wrong if they said that
their furnace fires possessed the inherent
power of combustion Independently Of the
vitalzing force Of cir.
Electricity is the vitalizing principle OF
all organic life, and gives duotility and NAL
Liability to metal, flexibility to wood, and
life itself TO conscious organisms. There is
lot OF 1t In existence, but not as much as
at the beginning Of this geological period
Some day it will all be gone, and then the
earth will be very dismal place indeed.
All the best properties Of gold and iron and
wood will have disappeared. If there ere
any human beings left, or, for that matter
any other living creatures, they will be
stu and stoical. There will be mother elas>
ITCHY in flesh, reflex action In muscle OF
pliablltty in oCne All bodies of matter in
the universe will be, as now, unlike in their
component parts, but perfectly equal il