The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-06-18

States of Columbia. In fact. I always
had men searching for vegetable ma
terial which had the quality l desired.
Also through correspondents 1 re-
ceived an enormous. number of sam
piles. | should say that / received and
carboniZed. made into lamps and tested
their enduring qualities. not less than
5000 different species of vegetable
growths. Only about three species OF
bamboo and one species of cane which
grows in region of the Amazon. but
of which I have never been able to
procure supply. owing to the ma
laria and fevers there. and one or two
species of fibreS from the agava fam
lily. have been found at all suitable for
the purposes. You see. only the eN-
IRENE outer edge of the cylinder of the
bamboo. after the removal of the sile-
ciOuS epidermis. can be used. The
, thickness of the walls of the cylinder
is about three-eighths of an inch. and
made further Investigations TO aScer-
tain the best persons TO furnish and
continue to supply us. bambOo-raisinG
being an industry in Japan.
Hunt For Bamboo.
Prom that time 1 got my supply of
= we use one twenty thoNSandth of this,
i the best portion being the first ten
| thousandths from the edge. 1t is at
this portion where the fibres are more
of the fibres are apparently the small
| est. that the pithy matter between the
] fibres is at its minimum. This bamboo
, has to be cut parallel with the fibres.
Declared 1t Impossible.
Yet. although we now had the in
| candeScent lamp practically perfect,
there were some side issues which,
unless controlled, might prevent its
| commercial use. In the first place. the
! lamps could not be used unless some
method was devised for supplying
them with current. The force of the
dynamo could not be used to furnish
these fine resisting ailments with cur
| rent in series. Ii was necessary. in
other words, to divide the electric cur
rent. There was a general scientific
opinion that it could not be done. Even
after il had been announced in the
public press that it had been accom-
plished by me, the statement was dis
credited and was pronounced by many
prominent scientific men. both in this
country and abroad, to be an lmpos-
sibility. A committee was appointed
by the English parliament To examine
into the general subject. and they
called before them as witnesses nearly
all of the prominent scientific men In
England. all of whom, with the excep-
ton of Mr.. Tyndall, testified that IN
their opinion the subdivision of the
Tyndall said he would hardly go as far
as that-he would not say 1t was inn
possible but he would not like TO
undertake the solution of the problem
1t was not only necessary that the
lamp should give light. but the lamps
must be adapted to the current of the
dynamo and the dynamo must be con-
structed to give the character of
current required by the lamps, and
likewise. all parts of the system must
be constructed with reference to all
other parts, since. in one sense, all the
parts form one machine and the con-
nection between the parts are electrical
instead of mechanical. The first thing
necessary to be done was to adopt
fundamentally correct system of dis
tributing the electric current. The
essentials of a comprehensive system
of electrical illumination similar to the
general plan of illumination by gas,
with d network Of conductors all con-
nected together, is that in a certain
area the lights can be fed with cleo
tricity from several directions, thus
eliminating the distribution in any.
particular direction. In fact. I,had set
out to found an entirely new industry
and art.
After many experiments this was
accomplished. but then 1 found that
only the men of my laboratory had the
first inkling of what il was all about
AS / have said. the art was an entirely
new one. and there were no factories
established at that time in which could
be undertaken the manufacture of
apparatus. There was no body of skilled
artisans who could undertake the work
of installing an electric light system,
and the necessary establishing of fac
tories. together with the inventing and
devising of numerous tools and meth
DDS of manufacture. Hence the educa-
ton of men in the manufacturing OF
the new character of apparatus was
the cause of great delay in the intro
duction of my system. The expert
mental work had been carried on IN
my laboratory and machine shop at
Menlo Park until 1880 but L was then
Obliged to establish separate works for
making the lamps. as there was no
factory where they could be made, nor
was there any skilled class of labor
which could have made such lamps
without my personal instruction or the
instruction of my assistants.
Opened Night Schools.
Il was compelled to form a con-
struction department. and / personally
undertook the construction and in
staIlatfon of central station plants. L
gave this construction department my
personal attention. l gathered around
me a body of men whom l instructed
in the details of my system. In my
shops l established training depart
ments. so that the men l employed
could become familiar with the appar
atus that was to be used and generally
familiar with all arrangements of the
business. to the end that they might be
able to SIperintend the Installation of
plants | also opened night schools.
where. with the blackboard and by
actually doing and explaining the thing.
the workmen were trained L prepared
catechisms on-dynamoS and meters and
other forms of my apparatus for the
use of my workmen. / expended $4,000
Of my own money in educating men in
the construction department of my
shops. so as to develop and start this
new business. There has been no sub
stantial departure from the methods
which | suggested at that time. All
lamps which have been
made for commercial use down to the
present time have been in all substan-
tiaI features copies of the lamp which
was invented by means of vacuum
pump and a piece of sewing thread
Do You Suffer From Pi1esp