The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-22

about $3.50, 0,0O0,0 900 year That Is prac-
tically the annual cost Of running the
national government, including all the
improvements and expenditures on
public work which the government un-
dertakes. Were DR.. Jacques's process
to be introduced. even with its present
efficiency, this bill for power would be
reduced to less than hundred mil ions.
Ii would save the people Of this coun-
try annually more than two and half
times the amount that is collected
from our everlasting tariff fees. It
would save five or six times as much
as all the silver that would be offered
for coinage if Mr. Bryan and his Popu-
list brethren get the reins Of govern
ment and enact a free-coinage meas
ure.
New consider all the steam engines
and all the coal used In all the rest or
the world beside, and it will begin to
dawn upon you what a wonderful
thing this modest and reticent Boston
electrician has succeeded in doing. 1
say succeeded for two of the foremost
physicists of this country. Professor
physics in the Massachusetts, Institute
of Technology, and Professor Henry
A. Rowland occupying the chair of
physics in Johns Hopkins University.
Baltimore, have made reports on Dr.
Jacques's process and have not hesita-
ted to declare their belief in its practl
cal value or to give Dr. Jacques sole
credit for his great invention.
You will better understand the full
measure of this Boston electricians
experiment when you recall that he
has won the prize which the foremost
inventive and scientific minds of the
last quarter of the century have sought
in vain. Edison tried for it, tried for
years, and cu;iously enough along
something Of the same line taken by
Dr. Jacques. But he failed fatty, just
as all the others have done. Indeed,
so general IS the belief that the direc;
conversion of coal into electricity is
imossiblc that when the news of DR..
Jacques's discovery was reported in
England, the Electrician of London
printed long ana laborous demon
stration of why it could not be done.
Infeientially it labeled the news as Il
humbug. Dr.. Jacques smiles as ne
tells you that he literally read the
article in the Electrician by the light
of a lamp whose current was generated
by the new process directly from the
coke.
THE INVENTOR HIMSELF.
The Boston inventor is a little past
10, brisk, wide-a,wake, handsome
man, who has very little of the air
of ~le typical inventive genius. You
would take him for an active, So-ahead
business man sooner than for any
thing else For all that he is man
of science, as well as a practical cleo
trcal worker, q chemist as well as an
electrician. Originally Johns Hop
kins man, he pursued his studies in
Germany, and then entered the en-
ploy of the Rell Telephone company
as its electrician. He mas. indeed, been
with them from the beginning.
His dnscovery represents the labor
and researches of years. 1t Is two
years or more, even. since DR.. Jacques
became certain that he had solved the
problem, although his patents were
not taken out until this spring. just
how he worked it out would be long
story. The conditions We're that he
should find way by which carbon
could be oxidized and consumed. not by
combustion as in fire, but at "A low tenn
perature, converting the energy of the
carbon into electricity instead of heat.
1t was necessary that this oxidation
should be easily regulated and that the
fluid in which the carbon was i'm
mersed, the electrolyte, should not suf-
fer deterioration in the process.
DR.. Jacques conceived the idea, and
this is the very kernel of his great
| discovery that the oxygen of the all
might be made to combine with car
bon, not directly. but through the aid
of an intervening electrolyte, which
would carry the air and present it tc
the carbon. In order to do this he tried
forcing air through the electrolyte, be-
| lieving the latter would take up part
of the air and present it to the carbon
and that he latter would Immediately
accept it. and by combining with the
| oxygen which forms part of the air
insure true and perfect oxidation.
He succeeded. and, further, he found
| that when this stick of carbon and the
rim of the iron pot containing the elect
| rolyte were connected by wire, cur
| rent of phenomenal volume flows
| through it. All that remained there.
after was patiently to work out and
| N 3, n ha
lay between the laboratory experiment
and successful commercial application
You need not think that it was easy
1t took months of patient investigation
and experiment. Things which could
be done on a small scale would yield
nothing like the same results when done
on a large scale. But one after an.
other the difficulties gave way, results
multiplied results. and the problem was
solved so plainly and definitely thai
even capitalist could see that it was
done.
1t may be two years before the new
| invention will be put into practica
use on large scale and begin to make
its influence felt. But when this time
arrives it is not easy to calculate what
shifting of the line and seats OF man.
ufacturing it is likely to produce. il
only a part of the expectations of DR.
Jacques are realized the invention j.
still likely to equal in value that Of
any other discoverer of the century.
--
BALLAD OF BOSTON TOWN.
Miss Jane Penelope Brewster, of lineage
| running back
To ancient Plymouth's founders, with