The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-16
ALL DONE BY ELECTRICITY.
WONDERFUL THINGS SEEN AT THE
ELECTRICAL SHOW.

rIuus-A-suathE Dung Wen - I'm
pressiOnS of the Etheric Light.
Endless Electrical Franks.
From the New York sun.
When one is moved 10 murmur with the
Philosopher of ''The Lark"
The window has four little panes-
But one have J.
The window panes are in its sash
I wonder Why
there is no longer need to rise from bed.
r-4t some water pour it into a rubber
BAG. burning your hngers-and place the
no. water bag where it VIII do the most
GOOD: dreading the certainty that the hot
water will cool of before the pain does
The old-fashioned operation is RELOCATED
t1 the shades of the unscientfc past-of
y,srerday-by one of the new applications
of electricity. To-day when an unfortu-
nate IS afflicted with one or more little
Dllns in his sash ne, or even she. puts
forth a tentative hand from under the
badclothes, finds a nice felt mat under
the bed or on a convenient table, adj
iusts it to the afflicted territory. touches
button. and electricity does the rest.
The nice. soft, comforting pad is heated
DO any degree, for any length of time, and
there you are!
That is one of the vastly reassuring, if
slightly drou, lessons one learns at that
taousand-ways astounding electrical show
in the Lexington Avenue Palace of In
dustry. You see a ponderous machine
winch punches holes in slabs Of steel, and
while you are saying: My, my" and
Just to Think" upon hearing that the
motive power of the machine is cleo
tricity. your attention is distracted by the
sight Of a little curly-headed chap IN
knickerbockers who is playing about one
of the booths, carrying in one hand some
thing which looks like toy dress suit
case. a neat little box big enough TO hold
only fifty cigars, say. In his other hand
be- holds what seems to be lead pencil,
and It is connected with the box by
string The little fellow touches a spring
i'm the side of the pencil, and it's end, the
pencil end. flashes into brilliant light.
That strikes one at trst as only Toy,
until il is explained that surgeons and
dentists use that pencil to light up the
interior of the mouth, nose, ear, or even
OF any wound. SO that all therein may be
examined with ease and certainty. When
one has seen this much the impression
easily follows that what might be called
the personal uses of electricity have been
exploited by the inventors TO the neglect
of mechanical uses.
or course that is not so, as rurtner
stroll through the wonder halls disclose,
and yet scarcely more than a hint has
been given of the personal uses of cleo
tricity. For instance, in one booth Is eX-
hibitcd a pretty little table, one when
could be easily placed by any bedside,
whereon are a little clock and two or
three ornamental contrivances in silver.
That table would induce laziness in a
Connecticut farmer. If one wakes at any
time of the night and is moved by the
slightest degree of curiosity as TO the
hour, he touches a little button attached
to q flexible line, leading under the pill
low, if you please, and, presto! one of the
little silver contriVances on that table IS
converted into an electric lamp, not so
big as a scarfpin, and softly Eliminates
the face of the clock. If the clock does
not suggest that it is time to take medi-
cine or bath, and the sleepless one
continues sleepless, there is another little
box of tricks waiting to be worked on
that table. A pipe is there, cigarette
matches? Not at all. A pencil is lifted
from one of the little silver ornaments
touched against tiny desk, and becomes
a flame for the consOling tobacco.
Speaking of that lazy mans clock re-
minds: In one booth there is shown a
cunning device having the name of ''cal-
culagraph." That, according to the easy
Language of the circular explanatory,
sis designed to compute and record
elapsed time, and also the value of
elapsed time in dollars and cents at some
fixed rate per hour" What a world of
disputes that will do away With Gov.
Morton should at once reconvene the
compelling all public hacks, hansOms,
etc, to be equipped with this precious
machine. What would be the result?
The fare entering a cab turns a lever
of the adorable calculagraph and COM
poses his mind, for the little machine
does the rest.
Leaving the cab, another lever is turned,
and out pops a little card, wherein are
legibly printed the time, in hours and
minutes, and the cost, all computed and
set fort in plain figures. 1t can't lie or
bluff. And on the race track or athletic
field it is equally valuable. The bicyclst
pedalling half a mile, the sDrinter doing
100 yards, or horse running a mile, each
can be accurately timed to any fraction of
a second, and there are no time-keepers'
disputes to make life miserable Electricity
does it all
Hermann. in a whole evenings per-
Torrance, does no do so many mystify-
ing things as the young men who appear
on the stage of the lecture hall. which is
run as one of the features of the electric
show. It is a very large hall, always dark
for the better exposition of the stage per-
torrance, and Is nearly always crowded
with men and women who are in a state
of trance-like wonder at the things shown
on the stage. One night last week when
the reporter entered the hall, smooth
faced young man in correct evening dress
"a man with much Whiskers and an 1865
frock coat would have better satisfied the
ldeal-Was saying in modest quiet man
ner that he would demonstrate the etheric
light. Possibly those were not the words
he used, but the words he used sounded
like those words. A faint light coming
from somewhere showed the young mans
shadowy figure only, all else on the stage
being in unrelieved black. The young
man said further as he continued his
ghost-like movements, watched in abso-
lutte silence by the great crowd of spec
tators, words to this effect:
4 shall endeayor to exhibit what we
call etheric lightning, that light caused by
a current of electricity passing through a
vacuum. When we manufacture a vacu-
UNI, or nearly vacuum, what remains in
the vacuum we term ether, not by max
ing any substance, such as carbon, mean
descent"
Having said this in effect, he did some
thing to something, and gradually the
stage became suffused with a strange.
soft light that came from no point; that
IS, was no more brilliant in one place than
IN another, and was soft and steady as
a beam of moonlight by which a mariner
may study his chart in the southern sea
For several seconds the spectators sat
with bated breath. as if afraid that a
light SO strange to this world would with
draw from before any noisy evidence of
mans presence; but then, slowly at first,
and finally with enthusiasm, applauded.
For some reason, as inexplicablc as the
light itself one felt a sense of resentment
against that smooth-faced young man
as he continued to play with that light.
He had no right to be familiar with a
thing al once so beautiful and yet awe