The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-03-03
ELECTRICITY IN 1900.
Printing. Lighting, Heating. Cooking
and other New Devices.

sun says :-Aa electric machine. called
the "Essick Electric Page Printer, will
be put in operation this week in various
Wall street offices which, it is claimed,
will soon be indispensable to all news
papers or other institutions or persons de-
string a quick transit of news. 1t is a
modification of the old tape printing
''ticker, which the general public has so
long seen in use in hotels, banks and
brokers offices to record stock transactions
and such other news as is generally bulle-
tined in that way. The page printer
uses pretty much the same little wheel to
do the printing. In place Of the tape of
narrow paper continuous roll little
wider than two columns of the Sun is
automatically fed in front of this wheel
aud prints in a broad line of clear type
Whatever the matter is that is to be pub
lished This roll of news can be two
inches, two feet or two yards long, or any
other length desired. An expert tele-
grapher is not needed to send out the
messages which are printed simultaneously
on all the instruments on the circuit
There is keyboard like that of type
writer on which the sender spells out his
message The instrument can therefore
be briefly described as an electric type
writer with an automatic printing attach
ment. A speed of forty words a minute
can be had and the circuit can be worked
with one wire. The practical value of the
machine is to be tried by one of the big
dailies, which will put two or three of them
at different stations in the city and have
its reporters send their items to the publi-
cation office in this manner. The projec-
tors OF the machine are very sanguine of
its success. 1t is certainly long advance
over the old-fashiOned ticker, and much
simpler and reader than Professor Gray's
electric writing machine, recently described
in the Sun.
The editors of four of the leading au-
thorities, in response to an invitation to
give their ideas on the probable develop
ment of electricity and its application,
promise some wonderful changes before
the dawn of the next century. The editor
of the Electrical World says ave can
expect no great improvements in dynamos
and motors, as they now return in electricity
as high as 81 per cent. of the energy sup
piled to them. The arc lamp is practically
perfect electrically, and while notable i'm
provements may be made in the present
form of the incandescent lamp nothing
startling can be expected. Electric rail
way traction will undoubtedly supersede
all other methods for urban use, and, by
the extension of networks in the country
promises to largely revolutionize rural life;
its application, however, to long trunk
lines seems improbable. The electrical
transmission of power will receive enorm-
Gus extensions and probably entirely take
the place of steam power within radius
of several hundred miles of water powers
and in the vicinity of coal fields, whence
the energy of coal will be distributed by
means of the electric current instead of the
coal itself being transported. The electric
light will probably entirely supersede all
other kinds of illumination in cities,
towns and thickly settled rural districts,
and electric motors will gradually enter
into all operations requiring power and
more and more narrow the field of the
steam engine, if, with the gas engine as an
ally, it does not drive it out entirely.
Telephoning across the Atlantic is
probability and seeing by electricity
possibility.
The editor of the Electrical Review also
believes in the sure advent of the trans
atlantic telephone, the further develop
ment of the transmission of electric power,
and especially an elaboration of the do
nestle use of electricity On this last
point he says: "Electric heating is now
an important element in the rapidly ex-
tending railway business, replacing the
disagreeable and dangerous car stove, and
is advancing into the domain of the coal
furnace and gas range, bringing cleanh-
ness, convenience aud economy with it.
When fully perfected and understood, the
electric heater will be one of the greatest
boons that the electrical engineer has
given us. Every housewife will rise up
and call him blessed, and every husband
will bless him aud not rise up He can
lie abed and increase or originate heat in
room and kitchen by simply turning a
switch or pressing button. Even this
effort may be dispensed with and clock
work attachment press the button auto
matically."
The editor of the Electrical Age coin
cides with this prophetic view of the
household run by electricity. This is his
view of what we will have by the year
1900 Il expect to see our homes,
offices, stores, etc., heated by electricity
This system of heating is entirely practic-
able, the only question involved being the
one, cost. 1t probably will
be made popular by supplying electricity
from large central stations through street
mains, connecting the premises Herewith.
Electricity may then be used for cooking
aud doing what mechanical work may be |
necessary about the house, store or factory.
Ii can ha n,a1a 70 ,arfor,,n al of tbaco |