The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-07-14
ELECTRICITY'S NEW USES.
Minor Needs of the Household Now Serv.
ed by 1t.
From the NcW York Sun


From the Ncw York Snn
It is estimated that the various
companies which manufacture e%lcctri-
cal apparatus for purposes outside CT
electric lights, the trolley cars, the
telegraph and the telephone, make
and sell 500, 600, 900 worth of goods
every year in this country alone.
Electricity is SO readily put to service
whenever it is available that it is be-
coming a servant in the affairs Of daily
life in many different ways, and so in
%vidiously that people scarcely notice
its approaches. Its rivals in the field
of distributing power are steam, water
under pressure, compressed air, gas
and belts and shafting. Belts and
shafting and water under pressure can
do but one kind Of work, and neither
can supply light or heat. Steam may
be used for heating purposes, but it
cannot be turned into light, and even
its heating qualities are confined prac-
tically to temperature not much above
the boiling point Of water. Com
pressed air will do refrigerating, but
not heating or lighting, and gas, which
gives both light and heat, cannot be
used for the production Of power ex-
cept by combustion. Incidentally, it
may be mentioned that it has been
demonstrated recently that for illumi-
mating purposes gas can be used more
economically by employing it to drive
a gas engine coupled to a dynamo and
getting the light from in%candescent
electric lamps than by burning the gas
directly for lighting purposes.
Even if steam, air, water and gas
each combined the qualities of pro-
ducing at will light, heat and power
electricity would still have vast ad-
vantagcs over them all, because the
transformations can be made in its
current more readily and its convey
ancei is accomplished by simpler means.
A familiar exemplar Of this is the
electrical door bell. You can buy a
complete bell outfit for SO cents and
set it up yourself. Think Of trying
to utilize gas or water or steam to
drive the cooling fan in a lady bou-
doir or her husbands office. No doubt
it could have been done, but the noise
and oil and smell would soon have
doomed any attempt to utilize one of
these forces. Now it requires but a
flexible wire cord for connections ;
the fan can be changed from room to
room by merely unscrewing a lamp and
slipping in its place the end Of the
cord, and the noiseless motor goes or
stops in answer to the turn of a but
ton.
Does a woman wish to curl her
hair ? There are curling-iron heaters
made which arc as easy to connect and
manage as the electric fan and far
handler and neatcr than one on a gas
jet. She sits at CASE in front of her
dressing glass and the heater stands
on her dressing case wherever it is
best at hand. There is no fame.
The wires run to a convenient electric
lamp socket and the current comes
down through them and turns to q red
heat a coil Of German silver wire con-
cealcd within the heaters case. The
lady slips her curling iron within this
coil and heats it quickly and evenly
without a possibility of smoking it.
The electrician has moro clever de-
vices for a woman's use. Does she
want a cup of tea :? For three or four
dollars she can buy an electric stove
which she can use as handily as she
did the curling-iron heater, taking the
current for it from a lamp socket. 1t
will be about six inches acros and
capable of boiling the tea kettle or
coffee pot, making a stew, a fry, or a
Welsh rabbit, or in fact performing
any work that might be done over the
fame Of a chatting dish. In the sew
ing room she can have the sewing ma
chine run by an electric motor and an
electrically heated sadiron to smooth
out seams, hatten bindings and do the
many like services required in dress
making, and she may sit with her feet
on an electric foot warmer, or even
take it in bed with her. For the sick
room she can buy an electric heating
pad to be used as a substitute for a
hot water bag or bottle and ever so
much better. These are very ~cleverly
made of asbestos or other suitable ma
tcrial and they take their current from
the eve ready electric light socket.
By means of a switch the nurse can
fix the temperature of the pad at any
one Of three points and so long as tn
current remains on the pad will never
get either hotter OF colder. For the
kitchen entire electric cooking outfits
may be had, but the day for these has
not arrived yet, although it it is claim
cd that, considering the great economy
with which heat is utilized in them,
all sorts of cooking, except boiling,
can be done with them at as low a cost
as with coal or gas.
While a woman is thus served by
electricity at home, her husband is
benefting by it elsewhere. The car
that takes him to his Office is driven
by it and he lights his cigar at an
electric torch before he goes to his
desk. Push buttons about his desk
call his clerks and messengers, the
telephone stands ready at hand for
him to transact business with people
afar off, and electric fans keep him
cool. There are big ceiling fans at
the restaurant where he lunches,
which not only cool the customers,
but also drive away the flies. If he
started out with his last summer straw
hat on he may surprise his wife on his
return by showing it to her revived in
all it's pristine glory at a25-ccnt-clean-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS place, where
such good and rapid work is made
possible only because Of electricity.
After the operator washed the hat
with a cleansing and bleaching COM
pound he put it on a form, where an
electric motor turned it about thOus-