St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1894-10-13
IN, PARISH, La, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1884,
IM THE ELECTRICAL WORLD.

Glass, copper, zinc. lead, platinum.
carbon, plaster. petroleum, silk. cot
ton and paper are used in the manu-
iacture Of incandescent lamps.
I'm France the telephone is used on
many railroad main lines. On q por-
tion of the Vincennes railway a rather
novel system is in vogue, by which 1t
. given signal ON the telegraph instru-
ment, the operator connects the tele-
graph wires with telephone for ver-
bal communication.-El Re-
view.
Paul Jablochoff, the inventor Of
the electric candle" who died re-
Gently in Saratoff. Russia. was director
general of the Moscow-koursk telc-
graph lines when he first took an in
terest in electric lighting, and the nj
hilist propaganda Of 1872. when the
railroad tracks the czar travelled over
were lighted as . measure Of safety,
gave him his first experience in practi-
cal work in that line. Nj. Jablochoff
made a number of important inven-
tions besides the candle.
1t is stated that Prof. Langley. Of
the Smithsonian Institution has per-
fected an instrument called bolome-
ter. in which a current of electricity is
passed through . very fine wire. The
resistance of the wire and consequent
ly the strength Of the current passing
through it varies with the tcmpera-
ture, and by noting changes of current
variations of temperature of the wire
amounting to .OOOOOl degrees Cent?
grade GO0OOOO47F.) are detected With
this instrument some hitherto nm
known facts regarding the spectre
scope have been discovered.
Platinum has hitherto been consid-
cred an absolute necessity in the fabri-
cation Of incandescent electric lamps,
for the leading-in wires must pass
through the substance of the glass,
and any metal that expands faster or
slower than the glass would crack it or
admit air. Platinum expands nearly
at the same rate as glass, hence its use
for this purpose. Now. however, .
lamp is being made in Boston. using
iron wires. Before these are sealed in-
to the glass, film of silver is deposit
ed on the glass. which, it is claimed,
makes . tight joint between it and the
iron.
That electricity exerts powerful
influence on vegetation can not be
doubted. The extension of telegraph
lines and the building of railroads
through comparatively sterile sections
has, uniformly, tendency to foster
the growth Of vegetation. 1t has been
suggested that the only practical
means of reclaiming the great Desert
Of Sahara is to form a network of wires
over large areas for this purpose. This
could be done cheaply, rs no poles
would be required-simply by laying
the bare wires over the dry sand and
supplying them constantly with cur
rent from suitable stations.
The struggle for supremacy be-
tween gas and electric light has been
. determined one. Electric light has
made wonderful progress in point of
cheapness, since 1877, but the gas men
are also advancing. Formerly gas was
made wholly from coal. Later on coal
and petroleum combined known n
water gas) came to the front and re
duced the cost materially. and now an
other big step has been taken-the
production of gas wholly from petro-
leum- A plant of that description for
making both fuel and illuminating gas,
is building ut Haverstraw, N. Y. Gas
ut fifty cents \ thousand is bound to
come.