Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-04-03
LIVING BY ELECTRICITY
What Modern Man Owes to Franklin
Steady Increase Use Of the Mysterious Agency That
Works Apparent Miracles

casual observer has no difficulty IN
still discovering horses on New York's
streets-indeed, in finding them in
such numbers as often to make the
crossing of a thoroughfare something
of a problem. The average person, Of
course, might naturally wonder why
horses should not be seen there until
his memory is logged into recalling a
statement of Thomas A. Edison, made
last year, to the effect that by Christ
mas OF 1908 the horse for commercial
uses would have disappeared from
metropolitan streets, to make room
for electric horseless carts, wagons,
drays and all the other vehicles which
handle the city's trade.
Yet il the metropolis has not arrived
at an exclusively horseless age-or
rather at that of electric transportation
each New Years Day finds it a
long way further on its progress tow
ard the electrical era. The things
that cannot be done by electricity now
are hardly worth doing.
Indeed, in all parts Of the country
the use of electricity and electrical
apparatus is undoubtedly increasing by
leaps and bounds. Whether it be
milking a cow or creating a tempera-
ture of such intense heat as has new
er before been obtained-a mere trifie,
perhaps, of 1900 degrees-the volatile
agent lured from the clouds by Frank.
lin is almost invariably called on.
In its commercial aspect, too, cleo.
tricity permeates all business life. 1t
is not surprising that the United
States not only leads all countries of
the world in manufacturing electrical
apparatus but also sends men abroad
to do the construction work. In many
Of the most highly productive manu-
featuring districts of the United States
electric power is being installed about
ten times more generally than any 9TH
er kind. The total of sales for 1907
is not yet available, but those of 1906
Of the three greatest producers of this
field in the United States, and, there
fore, OF course, in the world-the
Western Electric company, the Gener-
al Electric and the Westinghouse Elec-
tric-reached the enormous sum of
more than $160,OOO,0OO.
The product represented by this big
total enters into the daily lives of all
classes of Americans. Take, for ex-
ample, the output of the Western Elec-
trio company, the largest of the big
three, the sales of which alone last
year Appropriated s70,000,00O. The
great bulk of these consisted not in
power plants or huge engines, but in
that universal agent of everyday life
the ubiquitous telephone. More than
$S5, 100000 worth of telephones and
telephone supplies was produced in
the United States last year, and of this
sum the Western Electric, manufacture
er under the Bell patents, TUNED out
by far the greater part With the
country sending over the wires some
thing like 15,000,0oO,000 telephone
talks every year, these figures give
some indication of the extent to which
through the telephone the whole coun-
try is being electrified.
At about the middle SOS, when the
+, Western Electric first began to turn
out telephones, the total output for
the year was 10000 instruments. Now
at its gigantic factories in New York
that total represents only two weeks
output, for the instruments are man.
ufactured at the astounding rate OF
5000 daily, or say 100000 a year
More than $4,000 employees of this
company were kept busy last year in
turning out the little talk machines
and their accessories, the switch.
boards and other apparatus being
manufactured at the Chicago headquar
tiers. The results of this labor, il
combined into a single instrument
would create monster telephone near
ly 300 miles high and weighing almost
1000 tons-a colossal monument to
the use of electricity in everyday life
Other uses OF electricity are almost
too familiar to mention. The whole
matter is still scientific marvel. The
business man in his Office looks at an
electric clock and takes an electric
car for his home. An electric bell
is at his door; electricity lights his
house, and perhaps warns 1t too; IL
may even cook his dinner. All the
while the telephone keeps the man in
touch with the world wherever he
goes. Even the milk left at the door
in the morning is handled by electric
machinery in the dairy whence II
comes; the -four in the bread is pro
duced by electrical machinery; the
cloth which covers ones body owes Its
debt to the subtle vibrating medium.
Indeed, the time has apparently
come when an old saying must be re
vised, for to-day, at any rate, it is
electricity which makes the world &c
round, although some scientists find
that love Is an affair of subtle electri
cal currents. Herein Uncle Sam has
outstripped Cupid and is again to the
front.
During the latest year covered by
federal reports electric transportation
lines in the United States carried SIX
times as many passengers as the steam
lines, although the mileage Of the lat
ter was approximately eight times
greater. Yankee push, which has built 9
trolley line to Egypts pyramids, the
eartffs oldest monuments, is to-day So
pervising electric transportation al
over the world. Every year through
this agency alone the electric age Is
| beipe brought 70 new millions.