Omaha daily bee., 1897-04-24
The FIELD OF ELECTRICITY
A Monster Electric Generator to Solve
Many Scientific Problems.
ELECTRICITY AS A PROMOTER OF ART
Novel Applications of Electricity In n
Russian Factory-Retiremcnt of
, the Cab HOrse-EIec-
tricnI Notes.

An electrical machine is now being con-
structed in New York which, when 1t Is
completed, will be the largest and most
powerful ever made. Some idea of its com
ing power can be gathered when 1t is pointed
out that 1t will be capable of developing a
yeritable flashlight of lightning two and a
nalf feet long. Not only will this spark
be great as to length, but it will be of large
volume, cleavlng the air in It's path to the
width Of a good-sized lead pencil. The noise
made by this flash will be a small-sized roar
or crash of miniature thunder. and the volt
age of the current produced will be numbered
In millions. To be sure,( as is the case with
natural lightning flashes, the quantity of
current produced 10 small, even II it's veloc-
ity is great, but II it's energy was properly
directed the machine could do some terrible
electrocution on it's own account. A man
subjected to the force of the flash would be
struck by lightning just as truly as any UNI
fortunate killed during one of natures thun-
der storms.
The glaes case containing this biggest
Of electrical machines will stand seven feet
high. 1t will be twelve feet long, and the
circular glass plates which will revolve in it's
anterior will be five feet in diameter. There
will be twelve of these plates revolving at
ttAi NV sDtNh anu b'iN wa Wv
which will be carried along and temporarily
stored In immense Leyden jars. So great, 1t
Is expected, will the force of current be that
no Leyden Jar as now made is considered big
enough or strong enough TO hold 1t. I'm
mCnse Leyden jars over three feet high are
now being made to contain the charge of the
machine. 1t is expected that this machine
will, in connection with an especially large
Crookes tube, develop X-Eays of such vivid
ness as to allow an observer, by means of a
A,.Hr In ca. g1anr h nttuh h Am n "
body. But this Is only one of the possibili-
tics OF the machine.
This great current producer will be on
exhibition in the college of the city of New
York, and there scientists from all over the
country will be invited to make any expert
mont with it they may choose. 1t certainly
offers a scope for developing new physical
and electrostatic facts such as has not here
tofore been available. The immense volume
of the current, in addition to its great veloc-
ity, offers a good field for research. Some of
the habitual effects of lightning could be
studied in a small way on the machine.
Therapeutically, many good results have
been accomplished with machines of a sim
liar. but very much smaller, kind and this
monarch of all it's kind may come to de-
velop some startling new electro-medical
achievements. 1t is a fact that many of the
Tesla effects may be produced by means
of a static machine, and perhaps We have
here the germ of a new lighting system.
Several scientific men are going to use the
machine as a basis for experimentation with
phosphorescent lamps. following the lead of
Puluj, only with better facilities at COM
mand.
The oscillatory discharge from an Or
binary Leyden jar will disturb the sur
rounding atmosphere in a manner so as to
cause a modified form Of ether wave. Per-
haps the forthcoming monster Leyden Jars
to be used with this machine may do it in so
fnrnih1n n fnunnnr No IN nrnlnpn the gpnl-
blance of etheric light. The great problem
Of producing natural light might then reach
the glimmering OF q solution. The machine
also will produce ozone in great quantity and
II this can be liquefied 1t might even find
an industrial application; for ozone is now
used in q number of ways in the industrial
arts.
AT least, the constructors Of the ma
chine are able to state positively that the
length of the machines spark will be two
and one-half feet, for it is a rule with static
machines that the spark will be as long as
half the diameter of the revolving plate. The
plates will be operated by an electric motor
and when the whole affair is in running
order it will constitute a piece Of electrical
mechanism which In scope and magnitude
has never before been approached. 1t Is
being made for q western scientist who will
not allow his name to be divluged at pres
ent.
IS ELECTRICITY ICONOCLASTIC?
The transmission of electric power into
Buffalo from Niagara falls was recently cell
ebrated in the banquet hall of a Buffalo club,
at which about 300 distinguished electricians
and fnanciers from all parts OF the country
were present. The success of the expert
mental transmission of power is no longer a
matter of theory, and the speeches at the
banquet took the form Of mutual congratula-
lions as another normous stride in the devel-
opment of electrical usage.
One feature of the Harvesting of Niagara
falls, says the Chicago Chronicle, was not
allowed to pass unnoticed, however, and 1t
may be described as the skeleton Of the
feast. The objections Of certain rock-ribbed
conservatives to any interference whatever
with the natural state of the falls has cul-