The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1908-10-15
ELECTRIC FLASHES.
Things That are Done by Electricity In
Many Parts Of the World.
TRULY THE WONDER OF The AGE.
Electric News.)

Electric News)
No cities Of any size in the Japan-
ese Empire are withou electric street
cars. There are 545 miles of trolley
tracks.
An electric blower for hot air fur
naces has been devised which greatly
facilitates the heating of buildings.
Whenever the reigning sovereigns
of Great Britain travel by rail
through their English domain, a
special train de luxe is at the exclu-
sive disposal. 1t is ventilated, heat
ed and lighted by electricity, and in
the Kings own private car an cleo
trio reading lamp is fixed over the
head of the bed. In the Queens
boudoir car the furnishings are mar
vels of beauty, while the equipment
of the dinning car and those for the
accommodation of the royal suite is
all that convenience and comfort
could suggest. All expenses con-
nected with this train are borne by
the owners, the London & North
western Railroad Company.
The trees of Central Europe are
protected from the ravages of the
RUSSIAN moth by new moth traps.
Two large and powerful refectors
are placed over deep receptacle and
a powerful exhaust fan. The beams
of light are thrown on the distant
mountain sides and it is said that
three tons Of moths were caught the
first night.
Germany possesses large number
of small water power developments.
In Prussia alone in the year of 1898
no less than 10000 plants were re-
ported.
The number of telegraph messages
sent III the United States in the year
1906 was 94,O00,000. The number
Of messages sent in this country for
the same year by the Western Union
alone exceeded II 100000 not count
ing those sent over leased wires or
under railroad contracts.
The Long Island Railroad has set
aside 100000 for the electrifca-
ton of it's tracks from Long Island
City to Port Washington, and from
Flushing to Malba.
The General Electric Company,
Schenectady, N. Y, has produced a
mercury arc rectifier enabling the op-
orator to obtain direct current from
an alternating current circuit. This
outfit forms a simple and compact
piece of apparatus, requiring practi-
cally no more attention or adjust
ment than the ordinary rheostat. and
will operate satisfactorily on any al
ternation-current voltage from 200
to $40, and any frequency from 40 to
14O cycles.
Preliminary surveys for the pro-
posed dam at Copper Falls are being
made, and it is possible that power
from these falls will be furnished to
Ashland, Wis, by next December.
The Unaka (Tenn.) Tanning Com
pany will erect a large electric plant
for industrial power A dam will be
put in and the fall of Pigeon river
utilized to run the dynamos.
Power from the new plant of the
Spokane and Inland at Nine Mile
Dam is now being used by the rail-
road for it's Inland division, running
from Spokane, Wash, to Palouse and
Colfax.
There are 1894 miles Of street rail-
ways in England, an increase of 1880
miles in ten years.
1t is understood that company,
to be capitalized at $3,500,000, is be-
ing formed to generate electricity at
gas fields in West Virginia, to be
transmitted to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Centrifugal air blowers driven by
electric motors are said to be far
better for pipe organs in churches
than the old form of blowers.
The construction of the power
plant Of the Great Northern railroad,
which will supply power to the three
nhase Cascade tunnel section OF the
line is now under way. The dam is GOO
feet long. The pipe line consists OF
10 954 feet of wooden conduit and
700 feet of steel conduit with head
of over 200 feet.
A dispatch from Berlin states that
wireless communications between
war balloons and land stations have
been highly successful.
Fifty years ago, August 5, the At-
Iantic cable was completed.
The beautiful mountain peak OF