The Portland daily press., 1892-03-25
THE ENERGY In COAL.
Its Relation to the Future Of Applied
81. Electricity.
Interesting Talk with an Expert Who
Thinks There Is Great Problem of
Enormous Value Yet to BE Solved-The
Wire Wave Current.


Enormous Value Yet to BE solved-The
Wire Wave Current.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, March pa slender,
bright eyed and dark haired lad stood
Eome years ago upon the threshold of
Harvard college prepared to begin the
career Of an undergraduate. 1t so hap
pened that chance brought him into as
ISOLATION with Professor Bell, the in
ventor of the telephone, and out OF that
circumstance the domain of electrical
development and discovery has been
greatly enlarged. This young man, J.
j. Carly by name, determined to devote
himself to the Developments of electricity
as commercial affair, and so success
fully has he carried out his purpose that
he is now regarded by many of the ablest
electrical scientists as almost ranking
with Edison and Bell, while some assert
that before he has reached the prime of
life he is quite likely to have distanced
some of their exploits.
Carly is better known to scientific
men than he is to the public. His writ
ings have been confined almost entirely
to the scientific journals, and his dis
coveries and inventions have been alb
sorbed by the great commercial enter
prises with which he is associated. So
it happens that he is not talked of as
Edison has been, and as Bell will always
be, because his achievements have not
been such as to attract popular atten-
! ton. Mr.. Carly is the executive head
of that company which is putting up
those wires which enable New York to
talk with Chicago, Buffalo OF Washing
ton as easily as two persons can converse
in the same room. He is not the execu-
tive, financial or administrative head,
but he has absolute control of the me-
chanical and contructive department. of
this great enterprise, which involves
millions.
Mr.. Carty's researches enable him to
talk with singular fascination about
electrical development, and few days
ago when the writer asked him whether
the popular idea that electricity is a
force is correct one, he replied, speak
ing with utmost charm and interest, and
those things which he said cannot fail
to attract attention.
He tilted back in an easy chair, light
ed cigar, and began and continued in
a manner which showed thorough famil-
iarity with the subject and great study.
"That question:" he said, sis very
often asked. know that almost every
body who sees an electric motor running
and driving an engine, for instance, is of
opinion that electricity is force impel-
ling that engine, but in order to under
stand accurately how this machine
works we have first got to know what
electricity is. What is it? Who knows?
We know no more about electricity than
we know about gravity; even less than
we know of that force which is called
gravity. People are talking more about
electricity, because of late years some of
its manifestations have been brought in
most striking and dramatic way into
their daily view, but we do not know
what it is, and think that the more
scientific men study the matter the more
they find themselves in fog and doubt.
"Now let me illustrate my meaning.
You take a magnet, hold it in your
hand and pass it up and down for lit
tie while near a copper or iron wire.
That will result in carrying a current of
electricity through this wire. We know
that by experiment. We can detect the
electric current by delicate instruments.
There Is force, a current, a something
call it by what name you will-which,
by reason of the motion of the magnet
near the wire, is conveyed through the
wire. Now that something is electricity.
But what that is no man has yet deter
mined, and until the great problems of
the universe are solved it is doubtful if
any man will discover it.
sYet the energy which passed through
that wire was the energy Of a moving
arm which held the magnet. If the man
who held the magnet did not move it up
and down before the wire, then no cleo
tricity would pass through the wire, SO
that the energy which was comnluni-
Gated is human force. Now what is hui
man force. 1t is simply the roast beef
and bread and butter which the man
has eaten for his dinner. The force of
the arm is furnished by the food which
a man consumes. But we can go farther
back than that and ask where does the
food get It's force, and even child at
school will tell you that it comes from
the light and heat of the sun, which en-
ables vegetable life to thrive on the sur
face of the earth. Therefore the energy
conveyed through the wire is traceable
easily back to the sun.
practically in commercial affairs in
stead of using the human arm we use
steam power. We build our boilers and
make our engines and these turn the
huge magnets before the wires which
compose dynamo, thereby producing a
current of electricity intense or feeble
according as we desire. So it is easy to
see that electricity as we use it CONNER
cially is developed by steam power. In
stead of using, steam directly we use it
to create a current Of electricity, but
where does the steam power come from?
OF course from coal, and coal is simply
carbonized vegetation containing energy
which was planted in it by the sun. So