The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-09-05
MYSTERY OF ELECTRICITY
SILL UNSOLvED.

An electric car can be stopped at
any point on the road, raised clear OF
The track. and its wheels turned rapid
~ by any available method. It's mo-
tors then become generators and viii
throw a powerful electric current back
into the conducting wires, instead OF.
absorbing it,
Although the technicalities surround
ing electrical industries are appalling
TO the average man, the principle of
producing the current and adapting its
energy 20 the various requirements Of
driving machinery and cars and Of Gre
ating light is simple. Take a small rod
or soft iron, wind around il a. number
or turns of fine insulated copper wire
and connect the end of the wire to the
TWO plates of any electric battery, and
you have primitive electric plant. The
little rod Of iron becomes an electro
magnet, and attracts steel or iron as a
common horseshoe magnet does. If a
second is prepared IN the same way and
placed opposite the first the mutual at
4 traction VIII be strong: but if the wires
connecting to the battery be changed
about. the direction of the current Is
changed. and the magnets repeI instead
of attracting each other.
suspend them so that they can move
freely and arrange 10 change the cur
rent regularly and at the proper times
and these rods viii alternately attract
and repel each other. and there is mo-
ton and power in an infinitesimai de-
gree. Technically IL is a power plant.
consisting Of a chemical generator con-
nected to an alternating current mo-
tor.
Up TO this point the greatest scientist
knoWS no more about the causes Of this
motion than any man who is aMe 10
read these lines. Why the chemical
path produces the electric current,
what the current is and how it instant
I II Transferring the iron into a magnet
I are mysteries which not even a Fara-
| DAY, an Edison or a Thomson attempt
/ TO explain.
For many years efforts were made
I 70 obtain motion and power in the
above manner which would be of prae-
tlcai use. Electro-magnets of large
size We're arranged in groups. similar
| ~ TO the spOkeS Of a wheel, to revolve
rapidly past each other; but the large
consumption OF expensive chemicals in
the batteries, with a correspondingly
insignificant result in power, gave no
announcement from a commercial
point OF view, and it was not until the
| discovery that the battery could be en-
ureiy eliminated that the possibilities
Oh electricity as a factor in the great
industrial world appeared.
/ some time in the Sos Professor Hen
I ~ gaze his little son. for a plaything,
! one or these experimental eiectro-mag-
hetlc machines, which had been dis
carded as useless. No battery or chem
! lcais accompanied the gift, so the little
| chap amused himself by twirling the
| contr1vaDce by hand. firing of this he
4 reached OIL,
| reputiously securing a gaIvanometer,
one OF the little instruments used by
the professor for measuring current.
ne hooked the wires in the way he had
seen his father attack them, and con-
tlnued the twirling. While he was en-
gagged the professor arrived and, glanc-
| ing at the galvanometer, was aston
| lsned to see indications of an electric
current. Taing a hand in the twirling
| ne found unmistakable evidence that
/ by rapidly revolving these magnets in
| front of each other an electric current
| OF considerable energy was produced
without the agency of any electric bat
tery The true generator had been
/ found, and the dawn of the electrical
age, with all its marvellous wealth Of
scientific and commercial exploitation
| and success. opened.
AS an instance Of the scientific
phraseology which confronts a student
it may be noted that this simple discov-
cry by playful boy is diagnosed BY
Fdraday as the law of ELECTROMAGNETIC
lnduchon-that 'the electrical pressure
generated in coil OF wire, by relative
motion between IL and q magnetic field
is directly proportional to the rate Of
change Of interhnkages Of turns and
lines OF force"
So, as Mr.. Dooley says, there yez
ARE"
Crude and clumsy apparatus was
quickly designed and built, and, on be-
ing oelted TO steam engine, gave an
amount of current which no instrument
then in use could measure.
These early generators We're called
dynamos and were used exclusively to
produce arc lights. A few years later
the discovery was made that if a du-
phcate generator was carried TO anv
desired distance and connected by
wires TO the first a corresponding rota-
tation was obtained. The current GEN
Grated in the first machine went over
the wire 10 the second machine and op-
Grated 1t. This was another surprise
That its value was instantly aDpre-
clated is shown by the fact that in
cleveland in 1884. without waiting to
pulId new machines, two Brush arc
light dynamos which had done service
Tor several years were obtained. One
was connected to an engine in a con
venient building, the other was at
tached TO the axle of an old horse car.
a Wire was strung along the track and
the first electric car was commercially
introduced, and electric traction and
electric power were before a wondering
world.
Upon this simple principle OF one
electro-magnet passing rapidly before
another are built all electric light dy-
namo5. great power generators and
motors of every description, from the
tiny fan motor to the great /. 2OO-h horse
power railroad motors.
The details of the larger machines
are most complex, and the highest type
of scientific and mathematical knowl-
edge has been engaged in determining
the most efficient methods of winding
the magnets and designing the ma
chlnes 10 produce Ike quality and
quantity of current required. For
lighting purposes a current of moder-
ate flow but very high intensity. or
voltage is needed; for power purposes
I current of ample flow but of moder-
| ate intensity is desirable.
Electrical engineers are meeting all
those shades Of requirements with
| marvellous skill and ingenuity. but un-
| DERIVING it all is the mystery Of the
nature of ;be current. They can evoke
the giant, can direct its energy into a
hundred channels can control il with
masterpiece Of scientific and mecnan-
zeal achievement. can destroy it. But
what it is remains unsOlved. IT is still
tie great unknown.-Ne York Press.
Reflections of Bachelor.
(New York Press)
Even when it's harder to be bad than
good there IS more fun IN IT,