Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-24
THE FIELD OF ELECTRICITY
New Triumphs for Electricity Predicted by
Thomas A. Edison.
CRACK OF DOOM FOR THE HORSE
Rich Pasture of the Plumber invaded
by the Irresistible Current-
Frozen Pipes Thnwcd by
Electricity.

bOAlstT lIAt li uldlhluut retirement Vi ~
horse as a beast OF burden and photographs
transmitted by wire are among the early tri-
umphs Of electricity predicted by the wiz
ard Of MEMO Park Thomas A. Edison. In
talking to a reporter at Youngstown, o., he
said:
present / am working on a device for
sending photographs by wire. l am per-
fecting the machine now and 1t will be a
success. BY this Invention an artist can place
his sketch in 1t and, by attaching the same
TO a wire, send in the picture to his paper.
! am doing the work for Homer Davenport,
the artist. This thing has been done before,
but the machines have been too cumbrous.
! intend to have this one made similar to
a kodak.
IL believe in ten years a horse will be a
rare sight. The automobile carriage Is here
TO stay. 1t is now practicable, and will soon
be cheap enough for general use. Gasoline
Will be the motive power, for it is more eco
nomical and a large supply of it can be
carried. Electric storage batteries are too
heavy and, besides, they are not practicable.
The horseless carriage will also hasten the
good roads movement"
ID you think the end of electrical inven-
tion has nearly been reached"
There is no end to anything replied Mr..
Edison. Man is so finite that he cannot
POSSIBLY learn OOo-mllllOnIn part oil Wnat Is
to be known. He might put in fifty years on
the study Of water alone, and beyond learn
ing the component parts of 1t he would
know nothing. Only the ignorant say we are
near the limit in electrical invention. There
is no limit.
Il believe the life of man can be pro-
longed. Man ought to live to be 100 years
OF age. This can be done by supplying lost
tissue from the lower animals. This will be
done by TRANSMISSION and ENGRAVING. We
would live longer, but we abuse ourselves by
excuses and indulgence in whisky, etc.
plumber Threatened.
Prof. r. w. Wood, instructor in physics
in the University of Nebraska, threatens to
pluck a few diamonds from the snowy
bosom of the plumbing fraternity and trans
fer a few of their rich ~diggings to owners of
power houses. The professors scheme is
to thaw out frozen water pipes with cleo
tricity. The job Is said to be as easy as
rolling off a log. What it means to dis
tressed housekeepers during a blizzard can
not be estimated, nor can one contemplate
its success without feeling that it brings
longed- for relief to the overworked manipu-
lator of pipes at a season of the year when
the rest cure is preferable to a cold job in
cellar or garrett. Prof. Wood conducted two
successful experiments at Madison. He
took the electric current used for street
lighting purposes, attached one wire to the
frozen pipe inside the cellar of one house
and the other wire to a similar pipe in an
other house, thus completing the circuit. A
current of about fifty volts was then turned
on, heating the pipes and melting the ice
within.
Prof. Woods plan has been successfully
worked at the residence OF ex-senator w.
F.. Villas. At the Villas home $50 feet of
frozen lead pipe was thawed out in eighteen
minutes. Prof. Wood uses a TRANSFORMER"
to reduce the voltage so that the current
VIII not melt the pipes.
There were over 400 frozen pipes in Madi-
son and the work of thawing them out with
electricity began in earnest last Monday.
The discovery will obviate the necessity for
excavating, which has always heretofore
been the expensive feature.
A New French Telephone.
According to La Vie Scientiique the
French minister of has been con-
Quoting experiments with a new telephone
invented by Pierre German, an inspector of
telegraphs in Paris. In order to secure pat
ent rights the inventor has withheld all
information regarding the mechanical con-
struction of his telephone. From the little
that can be CLEANED from the first expert
ment made, 1t would seem that the tele-
phone was capable of producing sounds with
greatly increased phonic power, but with a
loss in clearness. In the experiments, the
receiver having been brought closer to the
ear, not a single ineligible word could be
heard; but the greater the distance between
the receiver and the ear, the clearer was the
sound reproduced. The first defect, it is
said, has been remedied. When the ex-
periments were made with this instrument
men and women walking in the streets, al
though more than 100 yards distant from the
receiver, would stop and stare, wondering
whence came the voice OF superhuman pow
er which they heard above the din of the
streets. So powerful is this instrument that
when used in connection with a monograph
Il is capable OF emitting audible sound
waves to a distance OF nearly 1000 feet.
Electric Post Systems in Germany.
A company Is being formed in Brussels,
under the name of the international Elec-
trio Post System, to erect electrical central
stations for charging accumulators at diff
ferent points on good driving roads, where
utomobi vehicles. particularly Of tour
lists. would be likely to travel. The plar
provides for establishments where not only
accumulators may be charged. but accom-
modations, supplies and repairs provided fol-
bicycles and all forms of auto-carriages
There will be a restaurant and doctors Of
nee on the premises, ana PROBABLY In direct
or near connection a hotel or inn where
travellers may put up for the night. 1t is in
tended that the first system shall be operated
on the road between Brussels and Paris
along the Mouse valley. Eventually the sys,
TEN will cover all the well-traveled roads
OF France and Belgium. and 1t is believed
that sufficient patronage will be given tn,
wayside stations by the large number OF
wheelmen now frequenting these roads L
afford them support until the practice o.
travelling by electric or other self propellins
carriages becomes firmly established.
X-Rnys and Insanity.
As the result of a number of experiment.
with X-rays in Chicago 1t is asserted tina
the rays are to become a medium through
which reason may be restored TO insane
persons. II has been found that by tn
rays brain tumors, responsible for man!
cases OF alienation Of mind, can be located
Preparations are being made by several emf
nent physicians for a test operation in wha
has been considered an incurable case, Tn
patient will be a wealthy young man VIII,
for several years has been confined in tn
Kankakee asylum. The patient has alread.
been by the X-ray process. Thos,