Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-05-27
ITS FIELD IS EXPANDING
Startling Electrical Discoveries
Announced.
Professor Pupn Demonstrates That He
Can Control tn, Vibrations OF Sound
...Dr. Morto, Says Electricity
viii Suppant Drugs.

viii Supplant Drugs.
New YORK, May %. 2.-Although no
mention has been made In the local pa
pers of the meeting of the American
Institute of Electrical Engineering, yet
some papers of extraordinary interest
were read and some important arrange
ments were made for the meeting of
the electrical congress which is to take
place in Chicago probably early in July
as an incident of the worlds fair exhi-
bition. The institute elected Professor
Houston, of Philadelphia, president
and resolutions were passed looking to
the entertainment Of electricians Of
repute and ability from foreign coun-
tries who will visit the United States
and take part in the ele ectrical congress.
great deal of curiosity was mani
tested in the paper read by Professor
Pupin. which was illustrated by cXper-
lments of extraordinary interest. lie
connected a Leyden jar with q dynamo
and then manifested to the ele ectrioians
that he was able SO 10 control the VIZ
brations and the power of the electric
current that he was able to procure
/ any given musical pitch or tone. At
least 1000, 600 volts were produced by
this machine. But in addition to this
voltage the number Of vibrations for
second il almost infinitely greater than
that secured by the common dynamo
or the ordinary electric battery. In
round numbers il amounts to millions
Of vibration "a second. pupin's discov-
cry, which may be of the gre test com
mercial and practical Importance, il
that he can 80 control the number of
these vibrations as to enable an instru-
ment to give ont any musical tone.
Every electrician who was present
recognized the Importance OF this dis
coverv. 1t had demonstrated the re-
latior between electric vibrations and
those produced by impact which are
recognized by the ear, and although
the human ear in contact with ether
through which these vibrations pass
may not recognize the vibration, vet
by the scientiti, appliance of the tel
ephons by which the vibrations are
captured there is secured response in
the ear. This seemed TO the electri-
clans TO be great step in advance Of
disc very already made, for it showed
that il is disturbances in the ether and
not IA the atmosphere which TO some
extent produce those sensations which
we call sound.
Professor pupin's paper was followed
BY one read by DR.. w. J. Morton, in
which some assertions OF extraordinary
scientific interest and value were
made Morton indicated his belief
/ f,,, f,,. .h iah 1rnrr-
have proven inadequate electricity,
when handled by men of scientific
knowledge is to be a specific Espe-
eases and those which affect the mus
cular system OF the body. One OF the
most interesting suggestions was one
that BENJAMIN Franklin was the pro-
tagonist in the use of electricity as a
remedial agent. Morton in his travels
through Europe came across a quaint
old book in which he found "a letter
written by young woman in 1880, in
which she described her treatment by
Mr. Franklin for paralysis. She said
Franklin had administered to her
number OF shocks and she believed
they bad entirely overcome the effect
of tho palsy from which she suffered.
morton llluSlTaItu Ills tilStoNSTkcS
with some remarkable experiments
which are certain to be regarded by
| the medical profession rs of the ut
most Importance He developed by
means OF his electrical machine an
| electrical current Of such marvellous
| celebrity that the ether itself furnished
/ n medium for its communication instead
OF wire. A person was placed upon
an insulated stool and connected with
one end Of the machine. Morton then
took an insulated wand in his hand,
the wand icing connected with what
to lavinen may he best understood as
the dynamo. and then approached the
subject. Waving the wand perhaps
two feet away from the subject a
shower OF electric sparks passed be-
tween the subject and the wand, al
though there was no other contact be-
tween them than that furnished by the
ether.
Then another experiment was tried.
The subject. still remaining upon the
insulated stool. was approached by
Morton, who held in mis- hand an in
sulated brush and ne passed this
brush over the person OF the subject.
A shower of electric sparks followed
UlIB COURSE III lHC luou. sb til'iL ~
seemed To those in the room the sub
feet must be on fire. Next Morton
took the brush and standing a foot or
fifteen inches away from the subject
waved il i'm the direction of the man
on the insulated stool, and it seemed
TO the spectators as though steady
stream OF fire. brilliant as the
glow OF the electric light, passed
.,h
although there was no medium of COM
munication except the ether. Then he
held the brush in a line with tho sub
ject's forehead and there appeared to
be brilliant electric stream passing
from the brush directly into the mans
head, a stream quite as brilliant as is
that seen in an incandescent lamp, al
though there was no other medium Of
communication than the ether
The effect upon subject is as
though the sudden sting of a whiplash
was felt and Immediately withdrawn.
The patient has not time to cry with
pain before he realizes that the pain
has gone 1t is not local an9sthesia,
but IL is muscular stimulation that Is
produced. and after n patient has SUBJ
mitted TO an operation of this kind he
feels every muscle instinct with life
and energy and Is filled with such
physical enthusiasm that 1t seems to
him he could walk twenty miles with
ont weariness. Another curious mani
festation discovered by Morton is that
powerful drugs can be conveyed di-
rectly into the system by saturating
the electrodes with them SO that the
vibratory power of electricity takes the
essence of those drugs Immediately into
the circulation.