The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-02-03
IIsIIS 'lis'lITsIINeS =
s y q - q Esu {.
+ e.: :.ii'5IsNLE(IRIGlyI

motors labor under similar disadvantages,
Int are able to grapple with much sleeper
Grades than are possible with steam.
Where. however, the electric motor on the
car ceases to be available, the strange flexl-
bilitv of electric methods comes into play
and the motor need only be attached to
cable-winding mechanism vt the end of the
plane in order to do its work of trans
portation equally well. We have one such
road in America, that on Mount Lowe,
near Los Angeles, where electric power
runs cable incline as well as a couple OF
long sections of regular trolley road. In
Switzerland there are three admirable eX-
amples of cable traction by electric motor,
the power station which furnishes the cur
rent in each case utilizing waterfalls One
of these interesting roads is the Burgen-
stock, whose summit level is 1884 feet above
the sea. Another is that on the famous
Mount Salvatore, 1900 feet high, the rise
being 1000 feet in a length OF IL miles.
The third road on the StanserhOrn climbs
an altitude of not less than 5000 feet above
sea level 1t is worked in three sections,
with a motor and motor station at each.
The same power that operates the Burgen-
stock road runs this also, but supplies cur
rent of higher voltage for the purpose.
j
about 90 per cent. As compared with
haulage by other systems they show saw
ing in car weight of about 50 per cent. The
full carload with SO passengers in ordinary
cable traction in Switzerland weighs II to
Is tons, while on the lines worked cleo
trically it is only 6 to I tons. The average
cost OF construction of the Swiss cable rail-
ways on the old plan was $205, 900 per mile;
on the new electrical plan it comes out at
only $4,000 per mile. The working ex-
penses on the old lines range between so
and so per cent. whereas the eleCtrics are
worked at but As per cent of the receipts.
Moreover, the grades are now worked up
to 81 per cent, and the length of the incline
has been gradually increased up to 1900
yards.
ELECTRo-CHEMIeAL PROGRESS IN 1884,
Outside of electro-plating and electrical
deposition of metals, the utilization of
electricity in chemistry has not been very
important until recent years, and many
are inclined to look upon 1894 as new
starting point in that branch of industry.
James Swinburne says that chlorate of
potash is now being made extraordinarily
from muriate of potash. This is a simple
process. The anodes are platinum, which
is not attacked appreciably in an alkaline
solution. There are various patents for
details of watts, and so on, but no master
patents, so thatthere isa fair field for COM
mercial work. There are chlorate of pot
ash works at Vallorbes, in Switzerland at
Ottawa, and a large works is either being
put up or in operation in Sweden. Caustic
soda and bleaching powder have always
tempted the electrO-che mist, because the
total output is so enormous; but on the
other hand, there is less chance of a large
profit on products that are sold by the ton.
The anode difficulty stands where it did,
the only promising solution being the use
of a cheap form Of carbon, such as rough
retort carbon, which can be cheaply re-
placed as it wears away. The number of
improved forms of vat, and of curious de-
velopments OF porous cell, increases daily,
and each inventor generally thinks that
the industry was waiting for his particular
little plan, and that he has solved the prob
lem, whereas the difference in expense of
working one kind of vat and another is
generally a very small matter. The Elec-
tro-Chemical Company in England has
new plant for 100 horsepower for
this work. The Allgemeine Elektrictats
Gesellschaft is putting down 1000 horse
power for soda manufacture. 1t will, how
ever, take many thousands of horsepower
to make any appreciable portion of the
chemicals now used. Ozone has attracted
many inventors. Messrs. Siemens &
Halske Of Berlin have been working at
this development for some time and have
obtained interesting and important re-
suits. Mr.. Andreoi has been doing good
work, and bleaching, as we'll as sterilizing
and disinfecting, by ozone may become an
important industry in the future, but is
hardly so yet In America A. Wolff
has done a great deal with his electrozone
in disinfecting garbage and in treating
germ diseases.
GRAPHING SUBMARINE CABLEs.-It is said
that one submarine cable is laid at depth
of $4,000 feet, though the statement is
doubtful. But there are at least three
cables working in depth of nearly 1900
feet, and four in about $1,000 The vast
majority lie in water about u, 900 feet deep
or less. Some sections of the Pacific cable,
when it finally gets laid, will be submerged
in perhaps, $1,000 feet-three thousand
five hundred fathoms-from which it is
easy to infer that the work will be difficult,
and that repairs will be costly. Running
out a new cable into the still depths of
ocean is a delicate and ticklish Job, but
when 1t comes to bringing up section for
repairs after it has lain for years subject to
all manner of deleterious action by earth
quake, sitting, accumulation of debris, cor.
rosion and strain, across valleys and
chasms, the skill demanded is of the high
est order. The apparatus also has to
be at once sensitive and strong.
As is generally known, the cable
repairing steamer proceeds to the point
where calculation shows the break or dam
age to have happened, and then lowers a
grapnel, which it slowly drags across the
route OF the cable at right angles AS soon
as tension on the grapnel rope is noted,
due to catching the cable, means are taken
to bring up the cable it has hooked and great
pains have to be taken lest the precious
treasure trove slip off at any stage of its
journey up to daylight. Special grapnels
have been devised for this important work.
In one of the latest the prongs project from
hood like the claws of a crab or turtle.
Should any of them come in contact with
rock on the bottom of the sea they recede
within the shield sufficiently to let the
grapnel glide over the obstruction.
HIGH VOLTAGE RAILWAY WoRK.-The
limit of pressure hitherto set in street rail-
way trolley service has been about 500
volts, because above that figure it is not
quite certain that anybody who should re-
ceive the current accidentally would re-
main alive to tell all about it, But where
electricity is applied to main roads taking
the place of steam work that has alraadv