Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-19
THE FIELD OF ELECTRICITY
Opportunities it Offers to Hard Workers with
Brains and Staying Qualities,
NOVEL TRIAL OF WIRELESS TELtPHoNlNe
Right to Run Freight Cars ON Trolley
Ronds-Porto Ricnn Memories Of
Observation-Disclosures in
other Branches.

success has a man who adopts IT, The
Chicago Record asserts that there has never
been so much room in the electrical field
for hard workers, with brains and staying
power, as there is today. In support Of its
assertion the Record says:
THE aggregate capacity Of the thousands
OF motors employed in the distribution of
power-not counting those for traction pur-
poses-in machine shops, cotton mills and
sugar houses, in printing, pumping, hosting
and ventilating, on modern warships for
steering and handling ordnance, to say moth
ing OF the apparatus used in the transmits
sion of power, as distinct from power distri-
button, is Improvements in gem
eral methods of illumination have given a
wonderful impetus to electric lighting, and
in 1896 more than 1000, 900 horse power was
employed in America in street railway trans
portation alone, conveying more than 3,OO0,-
600 passengers and earning something like
Sl25 900, 900.
"a marked feature of electric development
in the last year has been the astonishing
growth in the electric vehicle business.
Within a few months orders for automobiles
amounting to SIS, 000. 900 have been received
by American manufacturing companies from
Europe, and the entire cab system of Paris 1t
is expected will be run by electricity before
the end of this year. The expansion in the
application Of electricity in eloctro-chemical
processes and in the refining of metals is
almost as striking. In 1897 the output OF
German electrolytic alkali works alone was
90, 900 tons, and in the last twelve months 1t
is estimated that more than O0,OOO,oOo
pounds of copper were electrolytically re-
fined. Some 5000, 900 pounds OF aluminium
are also annually produced in the same
manner, to say nothing of the various prod
ucts of the electric furnace.
With the progress that Is being seen In
innumerable other new electrical fields, the
demand for capable hands must increase.
The technical schools are certainly crowded
with students preparing for electrical en-
cheering, and these have a decided advan-
tage in the struggle for place, but yet thou
sands who cannot afford the regular school
or college course are straining to enter by
other doors. A popular method OF prepare
ton is that of electrical correspondence
schools. AS to wages in the early stages OF
the business, it is but natural that the rates
should be kept down by the large supply of
men anxious to gain a footing. A good
draughtsman may make from S2.25 to so a
day, but bit is a common saying, III you
draw we'll, be sure you do other things we'll,
or you may become a draughtsman for life"
Mechanics may get from S. to Sc a day,
while these employed in merely assembling
parts may make 81 to 50 a week. Isolated
plant engineers get $12 to SIS weekly. In
special cases, as on telephone work, cleo
tricians are paid as much as So a day. Arma-
ture winders average $3.50 a day, the fore
man being paid SO to 81 a day. The pay for
wiremen, during the eight months of the
year they are likely to be in full work, is
about s3.75 a day. Erecting electricians may
make $75 to 800 a month, but fewer cree
t-- IA 400 fha Aua
tom for the purchaser to divide the work of
erection among hands Of his own selection.
The average pay of dynamo designers is put
at $75 to 800 a month. In regard to the lines
OF work offering the best future for intend
ing electricians, an authority gives the
preference to water-power development,
alternating current transmission, storage
battery work, interurban railway construc-
ton, electro -metallurgy, automobiles and
steam railway conversion"
wireless TelephOning.
A novel exhibition was given at the cleo
trical show in Madison Square garden the
other day for the benefit of representatives
Of the press. A method of telephoning
which uses the beam of radiance from a
searchlight in place of a wire, was shown.
At one end of the garden, in the upper
gallery, was placed an arc light, with the
familiar c~onicals, or parabolic mirror OF the
searchllght behind it. When the current
was turned on the beam was projected to the
opposite end of the hall, where a simple de-
vice was used for receiving. At the Trans
hitting end one noticed that from each of
the two main wires supplying current to the
arc short wires ran off to an adjacent tele-
phone booth. Inside the latter was a trans
mitter that looked for all the world like
any other. but differed therefrom In minor
details. From the way in which the wires
were connected 1t was easy to see that most
of the current flowed through the carbon
pencils of the, lamp, but a small part went
around through the telephone transmitter.
AT the receiving end the apparatus was
even more simple in appearance. There
was aimed toward the distant arc light
another parabolic mirror-a bell-shaped yes
sci whose lining was highly polished and
whose interior curves were carefully cal
culated. A tiny bulb, no bigger than that
of a thermometer, was fastened in the bell,
at the focus OF the parabola, and from this
there extended back through the metal a
short, slender glass tube that connected
with the earpiece of a monograph. There
was no electrical equipment whatever at the
receiving end. The person who put the twin
rubber-tipped tubes into his ears heard not
only the notes of a %cornet, but also human
speech emanating from the closed booth at
the other end OF the hall.
The receiving device was invented years
ago by A. Graham Bell, but the transmitter
shown yesterday, a great Improvement on
Bells. was devised by Hammond V. Hayes
of the American Bell Telephone company,
Bell thought that the vibrations traversed
the beam OF light. hut 1t has been decided
now that the medium of communication is
the heat ray. Perhaps 1t would be more
accurate to say that the heat emitted
from the arc is subject to fluctuations In
Intensity by means OF the telephone trans
mitter and that these fluctuations so actuate
the stun In that tiny receiving bulb as to
be converted into sound waves.
Up to date a distance of only two miles
has been covered, but the invention is yet in
pnly an experimental stage Of development
Trolley Freight Cars.
Justice Marean OF the supreme court OF
New York has handed down a decision in
which he holds that street railroad compa-