The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-10-23

Marks IncandeScent Arc Lamp DIS
rs cussed.-varribIe Power Gear for Elec-
trio Railways.-Interesting Miscellans-
Gus Notes.
It can hardly be doubted that there
will be a good number of American
competitors for some of the following
named prizes which are offered by
the French society. A prize of $22S0
will be made in 1898 for the discovery
that is most useful to French industry
A prize of the same amount is given
every three years by the society (the
next award will be made in 1880 to the
person making the most useful indus
trial discovery. The Henri Giffard prize
of $1140 is awarded every..six years (the
next award will be in 1880 for services
of signal value to French industry. The
Metzens' prize of S95 is awarded every
three years 1.-THE next award will be in
1896 to the discoverer of valuable
chemical or physical application in
electricity, ballistics or hygiene. The
special prizes for 1894 are: $3.50 for a
motor, whose weight is not less than
fifty kilogrammes per horse power; a
prize of $50 fo- an apparatus that shall
decrease materially the smoke of fur
naces. especially those under boilers; a
prize of $50 for heavy oil engine; a
ng at the maximum speed, under aver
age load, seven kilogrammes of steam
horse power per hour; prize of $50 for
the discovery of substance that can
be substituted completely for gutta
percha in at least one of its applications,
or for work that will continue to devlop
the production or improve the cultiva-
ton of the gum. The following prizes
are to be awarded in 1895: A prize of
$3.50 for small motor designed for use in
shop located in a house; prize of
$50 for the preparation 1ndustrially of
ozone and means for it's application; a
prize of $3.50 for an apparatus or process
which shall make it posi- BILE to measure
or determine the insulation of the differ
emit parts OF an electric installation while
the current is on; a prze of $3.50 for in
vestigatons which shall contribute to the
discovery and application of the best
MEANS in domestic and general product
for the publication Of drinking water.
Competitors must submit their proofs by
the 31st of the December preceding the
year on which the prize will be award
ed.
Herr F.von Hefner-Alteneck, in the
Electrotechnische Anzeger makes pro-
visional statement about a system of
electric control of clocks which appears
likely to solve this much-attempted prob
lem in a satisfactory manner. The main
difficulty up to the present has been the
necessity for special wire system, CEN
trial station, and attendance, the cost of
which could not be betrayed by the linn
tied public likely to require luxury OF
this sort. Whenever, on the other hand,
an enterprise was started with faulty
mains and insufficient staff, the system
was doomed to fall and to create preju
dice against the principle itself.
All these difficulties are avoided by in
cooperating the central system with the
electric light or power installation al
ready existing. This is done by means
of clock invented by Herr Won .Hefner-
Alteneck, which is placed in circuit like
kept wound up by the current at an
annual cost not exceeding that of one
16-candle lamp burning for ten hours;
i. e. about 4d. In case of interruption OF
circuit the clock will go about twelve
hours independently of the current. The
control is effected once day by a mo-
mentary drop of the circuit potential by
about six or ten volts at a. M, which
has the effect of pointing all the clocks
in the circuit at five. The effect upon
the lamps is inappreciable. The control
can be performed by hand in the dynamo
room, or automatically, through the
assistancesof an observatory. The Gen
eral Electric Company of Berlin proposes
shortly to embody the system in its en-
terprises.
The London Electrical Review prints
communication from Sir David Salo-
mons, in which he stated in substance
that the new incandescent arc lamp de-
scribed by Mr.. Louis Marks before the
Worlds Congress of Electricians, was not
novel and that the lamp described was
practically Jablochkotf candle. In the
same journal for Sept. 22, 1898, theafollow
ing letter from Mr.. Rankin Kennedy was
published: "Sir David Salomons's let
ter interested me very much, as l had re-
Gently made some experiments with a
Jablochkoff candle enclosed in a narrow
glass bulb. / cannot however, agree
with him in claiming that Jablochkoff
candle in closed tube or globe is quite
the same thing as described by Mr..
Marks. 1t makes asvast difference II you
substitute an arc between the ends OF two
ordinary sized carbon rods for the arc
between the parallel rods of small diane
ter in a Jablochkoff candle. In my ex-
perments with the candle have obtained
some very curious results, not yet inter
preted; these shall be published some
time in the near future. In Mr.. Markss
lamp the carbons are said to be very pure
the glass envelope as small as it possibly
can be used, so that it abtains a high
temperature this high temperature
prevents deposition of carbon on the
inside. The arc is regulated by an ordi-
nary arc regulator, aud is, therefore,
quite different from a candle. There
can be no increase of pressure in the
gases in the bulb, seeing that the car
bon must work easily through the cap
on the bulb, and the working of the car
bon through the cap is not difficulty,
as is supposed by Sir David Salomons."
Mr. w. Worby Beaumont, M. Inst. G. f.,
read a paper before the British Associa-
ton at its meeting in London, on new
form of variable power-gear for electric
railways and tramways He said it was
a matter of great Importance on electri-
tpoY. {I,.,% al