The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-11-19
PROFESSORS Bl.AKE.s LEcrUxE.

Last night the audience at the lecture
on electricity had an introduction TO an
entirely new field of Investigation. Ok
text books were comparatively worthless
and the knowledge based on experiments
of few years ago showed the rust of ags
for Prof. Blake dealt mostly with taoss
discoveries which have been made in th,
past eighteen to twenty mouths Il VIA.
like peep through the great Lick Tele
| scope" giving the finite mind OF man Z
little better conception of the infinite. Til,
first few sentences of the lecture wers
marred by the music of Shaw's orchestrs
| in The room below but n change Of program
was soon made agreeable To both parties
The lecture begun with brief recapitu-
lation Of the subject of lines of force show.
1 ing that line Of force was simply the
axis of an ether whirl, corresponding to
| the center Of cycloue. Then Induced
currents were illustrated by the well
known phenomenon of the buzzing in the
telephone caused by the lines of force from
the powerful electric light or street car
currents cutting the telephone wires.
The eddy current was shown to be a
small current set up in plate placed near
| q magnet and called eddy because it rotat-
ed like the water, which formed q small
eddy or whirlpool.
These currents simply heat the body un.
less carried out by brushes attached to a
wire. when they show their effect on q
galvanometer.
1t is impossible to show the application
of a knowledge OF these currents without y
full report of the lecture.
Farsday, in 1885. made the first dynamo
and prophesied that it would become. of
great commercial value. but with the true
spirit OF scientist he refused TO turn
mysteries of nature and seek to reap finan-
cial success.
In preparing for an experiment with the
enormous electro magnet Professor Blake
removed large onion which some one had
left on the magnet, with the humorous re-
mark, that the magnet was strong enough
without the help of onions.
A heavy copper plate swinging freely be-
tween the pole pieces OF the magnet, was
almost instantly arrested by the force of
the induced current, when she current
was on.
Brush and Edison first used cold cur
rents of air or water passing through the
armatures of their dynamos to prevent the
heat of the little eddy currents from burn-
ing out the wires. Since then the arma-
lures have been Illuminated, or made of
thin sheets insulted by mica or paper so
that these eddy currents are broken up,
and the dynamos made far more effective.
AT the next lecture transformer will
be shown and explained.
The telegraph system of England is I'M
der government control, aud the chief
electrician, Professor Priest. has made
marked improvements in the speed of
sending messages by using short coil and
dividing the current.
The Phelps system Of telegraphing TO
moving train is by the use OF induced cur
rents but as there must be several miles of
wire around the car and a wire between
the rails, the system is not popular on ac-
count of expense.
Until three years ago we knew OF but
one electrical current, and since then the
discovery of several currents opens a new
world to us.
Space forbids going deeper at pr esent into
the remaining part of the lecture for it
dealt entirely with new discoveries and
admits of no abridgement.
The remaining lectures cannot but inter-
est every student or person who wishes TO
keep up with the discoveries in what prom
ises TO be the great agent of civilization,
and means of leading rs to fuller
of the infinite marvels Of crea
ton.