Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-18
POWER OF ELECTRICITY
Edison Tells How It Will Rev. olutionize Human Affairs.
ANOTHER GREAT EPOCH DAwNING

Famous Inventor Predicts Produc-
 tion of Electric Power Direct From
 Coal without Aid of steam-Power
 Mines and Their Product Transmit
 ted by Copper Wires.
 In the opinion of Thomas A. Edison, the famous inventor. wonders are yet to be unfolded in the world of cleo tricity. h recent interview with James Creelman, the New York Worlds correspondent, he said in part:
 We are groping on the verge of an- other great epoch in the worlds his- tory. It would not surprise me any morning to wake up and learn that some one, some group of the 100000 scientific men who are Investigating all over the earth, has seized upon the secret of electricity by direct process and begun another practical revolution ln human aHalrS.
 Tt can be done. It will be done 1 expect to see it before die.
 ''1he first great change in the produc- ton of electricity will abolish carry ing coal for that purpose. Instead of digging gross material out of the earth, loading it on cars and carrying it. say, 800 miles, there to put it under boiler and burn and so get power, we shall set up plants at the mouths of mines, generate power there and transmit it wherever it is needed by copper wire.
 Tt is preposterous to keep on put ting coal mines on wheels. It is too clumsy. It is too costly. There is no necessity for it. It is easier to carry molecular vibration by millions of waves second than freight cars full of crude matter We can ship 100000 horsepower over the wire quicker and more economically than we can send the equivalent in coal over a railroad track.
 We must eliminate the railroad alto gether from this problem. What's the use of it: We don't want coal any how. It does us no good to look at it. What we want is the resultant of the utmost energy that can be produced And there is no sense In carrying around millions of tons of raw mate rial like coal when we can get prod not dotiyorod fo nc Inv xvira
 Everything points to the fact that in the near future electricity will be pro- duced for general consumption by great power. houses at the mouths of coal pits. That is the logical and common sense outcome of present events.
 Now. the truth is that it will cost a third less to transport electrical power by wire than to carry it in the form of coa! in railroad cars. Assume the price of coal to be S1 at the mouth of mine and assume the freight to be $190. Now. we can turn coal into electricity at the mine and convey 1t hyy wire for less than half of the cost or the freight age of coal
 50. in years to come, the great cleo tric power plants will be set up in the coal fields. Electric power will largely do away with steam power. Electric light will become cheaper than gas light. believe firmly that all great trunk railroad lines will go to electric ity inside of fifteen years. don't mean simply passenger traffic, but heavy freight traffic also. .s
 Electricity will take the place of horses. Ii will solve the vehicle and traffic problem of cities. My new cleo trIc storage battery itself will make electricity cheaper than horses. In the spring we will be ready to furnish new batteries. Not only will they take half the space of horse traffic. but they will go twice as fast. They can be stored on upper floors by means of elevators. The saving of stable space in New York will cover at least $200, 1000 GOO worth of property.
 Not only will electric power be de- veloped and distributed from coal mines fin the future. but all the water power in the world will be used for the production of electricity. That move ment has begun and Is advancing rap idly. Tn California. where men have nerve enough to overcome habit, they are transmitting electric power 275 miles by wire and running street cars and lighting cities by it. That is the sort of spirit that will wake the world up one of these days. wish that spirit in California would spread everywhere.
 Prom a practical standpoint the most tremendous thing in the problem of electricity Is the fact that we only get about 15 per cent of the energy of the coal we burn. Eighty-fiv per cent goes up the chimney Now. if we could find a way to get the energy out of the coal by some direct process without wasting s5 per cent of it. the result would be that 1t would so multiply and SO cheapen electric power as to inau- gurate a new epoch in the history of the world.
 When that discovery Fs made the steam engine viii be driven out of Hse. It will then be possible to have air ships. expect to see airships flying before my death. I do not think that they will fly very high. but they will be able to @ little higher than the trees and buildings. Such 6 discovery will make # possible to drive ships across rhe sea by electricity at the rate of for iy or fifty miles an h0ur-three days across the Atlantic from shore to shore Why. power will be % cheap and 70