The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-02-10
AN ELECTRIC WONDER.
Edison's Carhonized Fllament and its
Work.
Ncw York Sun.

Ncw York Sun.
How many persons realize, as they
sit under the brilliant glow of the in
candescent electric light, what won
derful thing is the bit of carbon fila
ment that gives life to this modern
substitute for the tailow dip of the
forefathers =? Only two generations
ago mankind was content and even
thankful when night came on to put
fire to the wick of tallow candle, and
then, armed with a pair of scissors
like snuffers, to trim the crusting
wick from time to time, and, leaning
far over toward the public light, carry
on study or reading for pleasure with
full belief that nothing better could
be devised to dispel the shadow.
Later came the solar lamp, which,
fed with sperm oil, proved vastly
better, and a generation ago, with the
discovery Of cheap gas making and Of
kerosene oil, it seemed as if both city
and country people were provided with
| illuminants which had made night as
nearly like day as was possible for the
finite powers of man.
Then in the late seventies came that
most wonderful practical demonstra-
tion by the wizard of Menlo Park that
there was new use for electricity,
ushering in light which put all 9th
ers into the shade and proved to the
whole world that the possibilities of
enthralled lightning were beyond all
the previous dreams Of mankind.
To-day, in homes or Offices, in hotels,
theatres, railroad stations, street cars,
and ferryboats one finds this subtle
genius doing its work, and whether
one be in America or Europe it is only
necessary to turn button to food the
rooms with light. For this, which is
perhaps the greatest blessing given
by inventions of modern days, one
man is to be thanked, and he is
Thomas A. Edison. He is the inven-
tor of the carbon flament which has
made the incandescent electric lamp a
commercial success, and the industries
to which his genius gave life have
perfected and cheapened it until there
are few towns so small that they can
not have the benefit of this best of
lights. By the later developments of
storage batteries even isolated country
houses are provided with plants which
enable them to vie with houses of the
city in brilliant illumination. Tesla
and few others of the great men of
electrical science hold out promises
that some day people may be able to
do away with the present form of cleo
trio lighting and substitute for it
tubes which will glow brilliantly, but
this is all in the future. There is moth
ing at present to compete with the
invention of Edison.
What this electric lamp is all can
see. There is first bulb of clear
glass set in socket which. contains
also button which turns the vivify-
ing current. Within this bulb quiv-
ers the soul of the lamp. With the
lamp lighted this appears to be merely
curved streak of fire. 1t may be
possible for the eye to distinguish
that it has in some cases the form of
an elongated horseshoe, and in others
that this is complicated by the addi
tion of longer or shorter oval section
between the outer lines Of the U, but
no eye is sharp enough to pierce the
brilliancy Of it's light, and see the
actual thing from which the radiance
proceeds.
Look at the lamp again by daylight
with the electric current turned off,
and there, within the bulb Of glass,
you will see tiny thread of something
black, SO delicate that it rivals the
aspen leaf in its restleBsness. This is
the Edison carbon flament, which is
not only the great light giver of the
new era, but is at the same time one
of the Most expensive of the products
of human ingenuity. A few of the
products of Nature S laboratory, costly
because of their rarity, such as gems
of diamond, ruby, sapphire, and pearl,
surpass this common charcoal in value,
but gold is as dross compared with it,
and the man who would purchase car
bon flaments with silver would have
to repeat the later experiences of the
folks of the Southern Confederacy,
who took their money to market in
basket and brought home their pur-
chase in a purse. Somebody writing
in trade newspaper recently directed
~ ha In rpb hi ia h
these flaments have when estimated
by the pound ayoirdupois, and Sun
reporter went to the lamp works Of the
General Electric Company at Harri-
son. N. j., to look into this interest
ing subject. Superintendent Eyre
became interested in this view of the
subject at once, although it was not
new one to him, and, summoning some
of his department assistants, he made,
with their help, some very interesting
calculations.
The standard lamp for general use is
of sixteen candle power Out of the
20, 100000 electric lamps used every
year in the world this size is believed
to number 80 per cent. A. carbon fila
ment for that sized lamp measures
Al. 900 of an inch in diameter and 10
inches in length, and 200 of these put
upon scale weighed ten grains. Mr..
Eyre's calculations soon demonstrated
that, with 1000 grains to the pound
avoirdupois, it would take 100000
of these flaments to make apound,
and that at the current market rate
for these, SO a thousand, their value
would be s1,4OO. A man can carry
$50 pounds in sack on his back, and
if the sack were filled with such bits
Of carbon his load would be worth
$4,000.
Take but single pound Of these
flaments and stretch them out in
continuous straight line, and they
would cover a space of 1l3 333 feet,
or about 21.3 miles. The worlds
product for year would reach 3, 157
miles, and in little more than seven
years, at the present rate, would reach
completely around the globe.
But the value of the ilament Of
1 Il