The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-03-22

I'm the matter of power =. the
gradual education of consumers in the
use of higher voltages will gradually
decrease the running cost. There is
one use Of electric power, however, for
which the present outlook does not
seem very hopeful, viz, for tramcar
driving.
Notwithstanding all that has been
done In America, and the special cases
in this country where electricity has
been successfully employed, apparently
1t must be some years, many years, be-
fore 1t can be generally applied to the
ordinary street service, unless some
unforeseen discovery should be made
very shortly America is not England,
and the Black country is not England;
and ne matter What may be tolerated
there, no English town of Importance
would be likely to allow the hideous ar
rangements necessary for the overhead
system in any of it's principal thorough
fares. The conduit system and the ac-
cumulator system await the march Of
invention. Both are barred by the ex-
cessiye cost of running"
The outlook in other directions seems
to Mr.. Walker more favorable. He
says:
Heating by electricity though only
recently introduced has already made
rapid strides, and although where the
current to be used for heating is taken
from the town supply the cost is still
so excessive that it can only be regard
ed as luxury yet there are now many
cases where the extra convenience Is
well worth the extra cost and there will
be many more as time goes on and as
the natural development of the light
ming industry produces the usual effect,
viz, gradual reduction Of cost.
Whether Messrs TIiwaite and Swim
burne's idea of burning the coal and the
gas generated in coa1-mines at the pits
mouth and distributing to centers Of
industry is ever realized will depend on
how soon the developments of wind and
water power are made. Possibly some
such scheme may come in to assist coal
in its battle in the same way that the
Wels'bach burner has come in to assist
gas now
focal conditions too will largely rule
whether coal, wind or water shall be
used since the initial outlay will be APP
lnG SAINT anu liiC NolNeASN9
used may be the same. But, since for
both the economical consumption of
coal at large centers and the utiliza-
ton of wind and water power high
voltages will be necessary, and the
higher the voltage that can be en-
ployed the more economical will be the
working OF the system, may not engi-
neers indulge in a yet holder dream?
1.-THE dream of ages, the utilization Of
the gigantic energy of Niagara, is now
in part at least an accomplished fact, Is
it too bold to dream Of using the ener~
gy of the agent that creates Niagara;
the sun itself, by the aid of electricity
TO neutralize some of the effects crea-
ted by the absence OF the SUMS rays?
Daily, hourly, the whole year round,
enormous quantities of energy are de-
llvered directly to the earth within the
tropical zone, yet during the whole
year large tracts of land are rendered
absolutely valueless to man owing to
the want of the heat so abundant in
the tropics, while even yet larger tracts
are deprived of q considerable part of
their fertility from the same cause. Is
it too bold a dream to imagine a por-
ton of this superhuous heat Of the trop- |
les delivered within the icebound re-
g4ons by the aid of electricity? What |
would our ancestors have thought If |
any one had foretold in their days the
present use of Niagara2
ut is, now some years since Lord Ray
leigh discovered that the large rain |
drops we are so familiar with in thun- |
are due to Identification |
and consequent aggregation of the fine
particles of moisture present in the at
mosphere. 1t is also some years since
Oliver Lodge added to Lord
Rayleigh's work the discovery that
floating dust particles might be aggre-
gated in the same manner as the rain
drops are by discharges of static cleo
tricity. Yet beyond an apparently |
crude experiment on lead-dust no use |
has been made OF either of these brill
liant discoveries.