The record-union., 1899-07-12
ELECTRIC NOTES.

Electricity has been the promoter Of
many new words and phrases An elec-
trical dictionary of the humblest pro-
portions must contain thousands, and
the number grows yearly. Some of
these words grow, others are selected
arbitrarily, but one can never tell which
the. public will seal with it's approval.
Marconi and other workers in telegra-
ply without wires are trying for the
adoption of ''etheric telegraphy,'' be-
cause the impulses are conveyed by the
ether, but the prevalent expression in
conversation and the newspapers is
wireless telegraphy," and it is likely
to stick. An electrical journal opened
its columns lately to a competition for
a good word to describe electric car
riages, and "electromobile'' has been
selected, but it is doubtful if it will
stick" Another electrical journal con-
tains some suggestions for new cleo
trical units, Of which ''septerg" and
''deciflu" may be quoted as graceful ex-
amples. The public, which has not yet
mastered it's volts, amperes, watts and
henrys, may be excused if it looks ask
ance at these latest efforts Of the word
maker.
One of the incidental effects of the
reductions of the price of gas in this
city is that the managers of electric
lighting plants have become anxious
The price Of electric current has been
enormously reduced of late years, but
the improvements in the gas field have
still kept the older illuminant on a ba-
sis of vast consumption. There is
tendency, it is said to bring the smaller
gas and electric light plants under one
management, so that the selling condi-
tions can be harmonized. The prac-
tice of one well-known manager has
been to bunch his customers, making
current very cheap where he has plenty
of electric mains, and very dear in dis
tricts having only a few small wires.
The expansion of the electrical area is
slower, but the work that is actually
done Is more profitable especially as
the gas service is under the same con-
troll
The modern central station manager
has one great dream, and that is to
make his day 1oad' as large as that
which the apparatus now carries as a
might load. There are already two
or three ways of doing this. and some
of them have startling possibilities. In
this city there are reported to be 5000
ply-for-hire vehicles. The price paid
by the New York electric cabs daily for
current is not known, but in Paris it is
so cents day. If the 5000 cabs in
New York paid for current so cents. it
would add not far short of 81 100000
a year to central station income, with
out putting in another piece of current
generating machinery. Then, in cleo
trio heating and cooking devices. there
are already some thirty different Glasses
of appliances that are used on central
station circuits, and electric heating
gains ground rapidly. One theater in
London has been electrically "radi-
ated' in the winter for more than five
years.
Professor F. B. Crocker Of Columbia
University is not impressed with the
success Of the japanese as electrical
manufacturers. AS an inventor and
designer himself, his opinion is of
weight when ne writes from japan
that she may be rated as a far less
formidable competitor than is generally
supposed. While labor is eight times
as cheap, the product Is proportionate-
ly poor, and the raw materials are
neither so good nor so cheap At the
same time electrical engineering
studies are up to date, and Professor
Crocker says of the faculty, There
is no dust on their information" The
lectures on electrical subjects are de-
livered in English, or with a liberal
use of English words.
A large amount of the copper pro-
duced in this country is now refined
electrically, and is known as electro
lytic copper. Some of the Western
works turning out this product, espe-
cially where water power is obtainable.
are very large. One of them at Great
Falls Montana, has nine dynamos of
total of about 2, 500 horse power. all
driven by the Missouri River, which
there rushe9 through a deep gorge. The
copper ore is ground up and cast into
pigs, and the pigs are then hung in
large tanks. filled with a solution con-
s.sting chiefly Of copper sulphate. A