The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-10-15

phone company, for instance, brew into the
scrap heap a comparatively new swift chboard
equipment which had cost S35. 900, only tina;
better equipment might take the place OF
the switchboard that hardly was shelf worn.
AS indicating just how inslstent Is the
demands upon the manufacturing plant In the
turning out OF new goods, It may. be re-
marked that already moro than twenty-five
separate designs OF arc lights are manufac-
tured and put upon a market that still Will
demand more OF them.
Save Waste by knowledge.
Not long ago the Metropolitan Elevated
road system In Chicago discovered that tho
green or careless motorrlan was costing the
company heavily In the starting and stopping
of trains At his post the motorman has his
swinging arm, which at starting should be
turned to tho first notch on the Indicator dial,
then to a second notch for an increase In
speed, then to third notch, and finally for
full speed to be swung around to the stop
notch at the end OF the arc. In reverse man
ncr in stopping train the same movements
were required.
y But tho new man, or tho careless one. likely
would make q chance move In guessing tho
length for an instant. then swing the arm to
the stop, thereby wasting a considerable cur
rent and incidentally topping the straphang-
Ing passenger into somebody's lap.
1t was worth while to save this loss In
power, and to do 1t an automatic electrical
device was Installed through which tho cleo
trio current was sent down In the required
easy stages merely by the full swing OF the
lever to the stop notch, Now as these trains
are operated, starting and stopping, the mo-
ltorman swings the lever out as the train Is a t
rest land the start is the perfection OF smooth
ness; then n a certain track Ign as he runs
into the station he needs only to swing his
lever back and the train stops automatically,
with tho same evenness and precision. All
that tho waste OF current might be stopped,
Training and Education Needed.
From the point Of view Of the worker. how
ever, men who arc accomplishing these In
5novations In the electrical field are the tech
meal workers, One Of the heart breaking
experiences. Of the manufacturer is for the
old fashioned man Of the = cut and try :"
method to bring in something which so far
as the man himself is concerned is q !" new.
invention" yet which had been discovered
more than ten or fifteen years before,
The history OF any work Of the kind Is the
essential Otherwise man might appear
suddenly from a ba ckwoods section Of the
country with new and most effective sub
stitute for the punk that once was so neces-
sury In lighting q fire with the old flint and
steel,
Today for a man 10 exercise his inventive
geniusi In the electrical field without having
a thorough knowledge Of that field is more
than hopeless. It is an economic crime. An
invention to be practical and practicable
must be intimately related with every other
condition In electrical progress. Without Its
correlation, with things that have gone be-
fore 1t may be less than nothing. In some
of the big electrical institutions are swarms
of good men In the ranks of ordinary cleo
trical work doing the best that Is In them and
to the satisfaction ofSmanagers, superin-
tendents, and foremen, even while the COM
pany Is sending out and seeking less con-
scentious and less willing men of technical
trimming who can step intelllgently into the
positions above these tried and true workers
in The lower positions
---z