The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-14
ZI.NzazEA
THE PILL
THAT WILL 80
3
CURE
HEADACHE
indigo STiON
BlLlOUSNESS
III CONSTIPATION

have to import most of their material
for their homes. great deal of wood
has been sent from the United States
and this branch of the trade is growing
DRAWING THE ELECTRIC CURRENT
FROM THE AIR
Over a hundred years ago Benjamin
Franklin drew the lightning from the
clouds during a thunderstorm. but il
was left TO the present day and to Mr..
william A. Eddy, the kite-hying expert.
10 prove that an electric current can be-
drawn from the atmosphere at any time
ana under any conditions whatever. MIR.
Eddy has succeeded in converting this
electric energy into mechanical motion
and he has also been able to measure
the relation between humidity and electri-
city. in the atmosphere.
Mr., Eddy attracts the electricity, which
IS, OF course, greatly diffused in the air.
collector. This is simply a piece of mos
quito netting. some three feet by five.
mounted on a light wooded frame. and
covered with tinfOil. The collector is at
the kites IS suspended at any desired
height From it very light copper wire
is looped along the kite string to The
ground. where II terminates in an electric
box Mr.. Eddy uses the principle of at
traction and repulsion in taking OF the
electric spark The box contains a.
magnet and a pair of rubber balls COW
cred with tinfoil and pivoted so that they
can move backward and forward. The
electric current. collected in midair,
travels down the copper wire TO the cleo
trio box, where the magnet draws it off
in the form of spark and another, run
ming into the earth. grounds H..
1t did not take Mr.. Eddy long after
beginning his experiments to lind that
re could obtain an electric spark in this
manner in clear weather as well as when
clouds were lowering about The only
difference was that in dry atmosphere
the collector had to be sent to a greater
height before the first spark was Obtained.
In cloudy weather and when there was
considerable humidity the sparks fashect'
of the wire when the collector was only
125 or 80 feet in the air, while in clear,
dry air IL was sometimes necessary to 60
to height of 700 or 800 feet to obtain a
similar manipulation. This satisfied Mr..
Eddy of two things: first. that electricity
&c present at all times, in considerable
quantities. though in a diffused form, N
the upper air; second. that humidity acts
as an absorbent or holder of this cleo
trio force. BY making numerous observa-
tons and plotting the results he found
that he could measure the humidity by
the length of the electric spark. The re-
suit OF this particular line of experiments
has been embodied in report prepared
by Mr.. Eddy for the weather bureau
Mr.. Eddy has discovered many Interest,".
ing facts and some that are valuable as 7
we'll as interesting, by means . his cleo
trical cOntrivance. One is that lie can de-
tect the approach of a cloud by the in
creasing length of the spark, so that a
blind man or a man sitting in a closed
observatory could know of the approach
OF a local cloud, although he could not
see il. Another fact that may make the
electric collector an important assistant
in the work of the weather bureau is
that the gathering of a storm. especially
of course, an electrical storm, can be
made known to an observer by the in
creased electrical disturbances OF the
upper atmosphere before it manifeStS
itself in any other way. a point of Curl
Gus rather than of practical interest is
tie fact that the metal roofs of our very
high buildings act as electric collectors.
This electricity is absorbed by the bricks
the roof so that it seldom manifestS
itself. Given a wooden building or suf-
ficient height, however. with a tiI--Or
metal roof, and no gutter pipes or other
conductors except a copper wire leading
to the ground, and Mr. Eddy is perfectly
certain that he can draw of electric
sparks from that wire at the earth's
surface.
Perhaps the most interesting of all Mr..
Eddy's experiments in this particular
field is that of converting the electric
current drawn from the upper cir into
mechanical motion. This has been done
in primitive manner by using a light
pasteboard wheel set on pivot so as to
IeVOlvo very easily a number of small
wheel and the spark IS attracted directly
to these pins by the magnet. The re-
sulting motion has been slight, as might
be expected from. such an ARRANGEMENT
and from the small size of the collector,
bit it opens an attractive field for ex-
pertinent and points to the time when
houses and small business establishments
may have their electric plants in the sky
instead Of in the cellar as is usually the
cas- a present