The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-22

metal lining of the reservoir. The other wire is secured, by welding or solder, or otherwise, to pair of tongs, whose handles are covered with insu- lating material. The negative wire is long enough and flexible enough to al low considerable movement by the workman. The latter merely grasps with these insulated tongs the spike. bolt, horse shoe or other object which is to be heated and dips 1t into the li- Quid. That's all. When it is hot enough he turns to his anvil, and ham mers the thing, or drops it where an- other workman can pick it up, and the uses his magic tongs afresh to handle something else
 The why and wherefore of the ope- ration here described are so simple as to be understood by child. When the ends Of two wires leading from bat tery, dynamo or other generator of electricity are immersed ina fluid. the passage of the current through the lat ter, from the one terminal to the other, tends to disintegrate the fluid into its elements. Water, for instance. is sep- arated into oxygen and hydrogen gas- es. If the liquid bea solution of ni- trate of silver, that salt is broken up into nitric acid and pure silver. All known substances under such circum- stances show disposition to gather about one or the other of the two ter minals o rpoles. That fact Is turned to advantage in eleotroplating. The sil-
 yer which is gradually liberated by
 electric dissolution or electrolysis), is
 deposited on some object Ca fork or
 spoon, say) at the end of one wire, and
 the acid accumulates around the other.
 In an electric forge, if the liquid used be water, then the oxygen gas seeks the metal lining of the bath and thehydro- gen goes to the immersed iron. If some other kind be used the same ple- nomenon occurs, one element going in
 one direction and the other one in the other
 Another familiar principle comes into play here, also. When an electric current Is sent through a circuit it pro- ceeds quietly if the conductor is large enough, and of the right character to | favor it's passage. But if the conduc- tor. or short link of it, be reduced in size or be poorly suited to the flow, then the resistance which is offered at that particular point produces heat. This is the reason that a carbor fla | nlent grows white hot in an Edison | lamp as soon as the electricity is | turned on.
 l Now, in an electric forge the copper l wires, the metal lining of the tank, the | water, the tongs and the iron spike which the workman wishes to heat are
 all excellent conductors of electricity. But the film of hydrogen gas which | forms around the negative pole, the l immersed iron. is a poor one. The re- l sistance which it offers produces in- tense heat. and does so instantly. That effect would not be observed if a l feeble current were employed. But a 1 powerful current requires better facili- | ties of travel than a weak one, and if | It's demands are not complied with it gets "'hot in the collar" The heat l thus generated Is imparted to the iron
 rather than the water, at the point of | contract. Hence the effects which have been observed.
 The apparatus which has recently
 been the subject of experiment in Newark, and which eventually ought to prove serviceable in certain lines of industry, was devised by a Boston
 man, George D. Burton. But the fun
 damental idea of it was discovered about five years ago by two Belgians
 Lagrange and Hohe, who took out pa tents in Germany. It was believed al one time that the system could be ap- piled on a very much larger scale than
 MT. Burton proposes, and that it might prove useful in the treatment of armol plate. Negotiations were conducted fol trial of the process at the KrupI
 works in Essen.-New York Tribune.