The Portland daily press., 1893-03-16
Electricity and Ether.
providence Journal.)

Electricity and Ether.
providence Journal.)
No more valuable symposium on cleo
tricity and its manifold uses has recently
been published than that presented in
the current issue of the New York indie
pendent. Mr.. Park Benjamin contrib
utes an opening paper on 1.-THE Future
of Electricity President Chandler of
the Postal Telegraph Company, writes
of "The Telegraph 'tThe Ocean Cable
is describedsby the general manager of
the Commercial Cable Company; gs'Tele-
phone is treated by the electrical engin-
eer of the Bell corporation; the editor,of
the Electrical World talks about cleo
tricity as luminant; DR.. Share writes
no electric railways; General Greedy and
Mr.. George n. Hopkins contribute
papers on the application OF the current
to household affairs and other expert
writer's describe at length its use in min:
ing operations, in warfare and in engineer
ing. Mr.. Benjamin's Introductory paper
is perhaps the most suggestive and gen
orally interesting of these, for it enters
the whole realm of speculation and tells
us in comprehensive way what has
been accomplished with this mysterious
tAASA
are already hoped from it.
There are two paths, as Mr.. Benjamin
points out, along which electrical inves-
tigation is now proceeding. The first
leads toward the production of electrici-
ty, by some cheaper process than is
known at present; the other seeks new
ways and devices for applying it to the
everyday wants of mankind. The first
path is naturally the least attractive; but
the more progress we make in this dl-
rection the more quickly will the practi-
cal uses of electricity develop. When;we
have found a way to convert more than
ten per cent. of the energy stored in coal
into sparkling electric current we shall
have broadened the latter's field iof use
(. fulness immeasurably. The problem of
how to exceed this ten per cent. will be
indeed 'sthe great discovery of the future
so great that the man who finds the
way to convert not eighty OF ninety but
even twenty per cent. of the stored energy
in fuel into electricity will do more for
human civilization than7all the inventors
of all the marvellous applications of that
force put together have done since cleo
tricity was discovered. ''a AT present
says Mr.. Benjamin, the voltaic cell APP
pears the probable means of attaining
this end cell which will consume car
bon directly, not by hot combustion, but
Nv cool chemical combination with the
limitiess oxygen of the air. The mere
statement of the problem suggests its
immensely and the vast importance of its
solution. When some alert discoverer
has finally come to the @. E. D. at the
end of it, a new electrical era will have
been reached.
! We are familiar with the manifold
I
10 onr.ordinarv life. bnf,we m,1st, watch
carefully from dav to day or the multi
nIication of its uses will leave us far be-
hind the times "a men Guided in Chi.
caoo ;, saws Mr.. BENJAMIN. twill now
1urite in Nav York the AUTOGRAPH of the
onerator. SO that bank might safely
nav fhe check to which IL is amended.
W. are multinlvino the number of de.
snatches' which can be sent simultane.
onslv. and we are RAPIDLY approaching
+he time when unlimited messages
can he transmitted AT nercentihlv fhe
same instant in opposite directions over
n singIe wire. We have contriyed sys
Toms IF communicating time which will
nossihlv enable a Thousand clocks al
once. distributed all along the continent
and nerhans from one end of the world
to The other to work in svnchronism
and with a current less than is REQUIRED
for ordinary teleoranhino Whethe,
this will resHlt in the final denosition al
-,fhe sun as a timepiece remains to be
seen,, And we have found Substances
; SO sensitive to LIGHT that thes viii mod
ifv an electric cnrrent according to ,thf
inten,;ty of The LIGHT gray which comes
in contacr with Them. Herein Is The
Fundamental discovery from which WI
shall develon-fn the picture teleoranh
and we are scarcely expectinp too mucI
when we anticipate the p6ssibilitv o.
greeting friends by sight and speecl
scross the Atlantic.
Closely allied to these fascinatino nrob
lens Of electricity is the less definite
Vet still more fascinating. one which ha,
70 do with the very air we breathe. M
other known force equals that will
which these infinitely minute PARTICLE
Of ether pound AGAINST each other. Thei