Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1893-05-18
ELECTRICITY ON TAP.
The Potent Fluid Now Handled
Like Any Merchandise.
Something About the Laws Which r1n-
troll the Movements of the Won
derful Power - Currents at
Commercial Rates.

Electricity, once plaything, then a
scientific study, is now commercial
product. Twenty years ago electrical
energy was generated in the labora-
tory for experimental purposes by
few physicians as a medicine of some
what questionable repute and in weak
currents by those who applied it to use
in the arts. From the cylinder o: glass
or mastic, excited by friction to set
cork maniixins or pitch balls a-dancing
to the dynamo that runs from one to
dozen powerful engines is long step.
but one that has been taken within
the memory of men who still call them
selves young.
Electricity as commercial product,
according to the New York Sun, is to
those that deal in it as commonplace
an affair as eggs or butter. The con-
ditions and cost of its production are
positively known, and the product may
be measured almost as the clerk with
his yardstick measures dry goods You
may buy your electricity by specific
quantities, and if you have the con-
veniences may carry it home with you
as you would carry any other purchase.
1t can be sent to you by express or de-
livered by messenger, or it may be
served out over wire in measured
quantity, as gas and water are served
through pipes. All this seems mysteri-
| GUS to those not technically educated,
because the electricity shops do not
count their product by dozens or meas
rire it by yards and gallons, but use
outlandish denominations and puz-
zling scientific nomenclature. Never
theless the shopkeepers are at home
/ with the mysterious timber thing in
which they deal, and they never stop
to think about its mystery, although
| just beyond the small field which their
knowledge covers there lies an I'M
known area of conjecture.
Electricity as commercial product
and a handy tool, applicable to anyth
| ing that mechanical power can accom-
plish, is thing approximately of only
the last ten years. Before that time
its cost made it mostly matter of
splendid practical possibilities, Now.
| with conditions given, a skilled cleo
trician can estimate to hair the cost
of producing the amount of electricity
necessary to yield a specified power.
1t Is chiefly question of the cost OF
| coal
The existence of two simple laws
makes electricity practical power for
doing the worlds work. One is that
l when an armature is caused to rotate
| within the magnetic field current Oh
| electricity is excited in the armature
and may be taken up, carried out over
a wire, and returned to the place OF
beginning. This is what electricians
call the law of the dynamo. The other
law is that when current of electrici-
ty is passed through an armature in
closed within the magnetic field the
| armature is caused to rotate. That is
| what electricians call the law of the
motor. By the first law a current Of
electricity is set up, and by the second
that current is enabled to establish
mechanical motion. When these two
laws became known the problem o.
applying electricity to the world.
work mainly needed for solution
only a cheapening of processes, such as
should make it possible to produce ;
current at commercial rates. Every
1 dynamo, whatever it's form, as regard
the communication of electric energy
is essentially an electromagnetic with
| core of soft iron, the armature incloset
within the magnetic field, which is TIN
space between the two poles of tn
electromagnetic. Every motor, what
ever its form, is essentially the sam
thing, with the core revolving unde
the influence of a current from the dy
namo in accordance with the law o
the motor. The core of the dynamo
revolving under the influence of tn
; magnetic field, is shaft, the curren
generated is the belt communicating
; power to another shaft, the core of tn
: motor. 1t is this transference of powe
, by the invisible belt from the dynam
l to the motor that makes the trolle
= cars run, the electrical engine revolve
or any other mechanism perform it
r 4 work under the influence of electricit
l thus generated. The storage batter
: is simply an isolated reservoir of elet
e trical energy, for the time being indie
pendent of the generating source, as
a user of water should prefer to fill
j tank in the top of his house once
r week rather than to draw from faucet
r directly connected with the mai
: source of supply.
1