El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-03-23

a warning flicker announces the ap-
proach of darkness and the machine
thus virtually demands your money or
your life
Slot machines for the sale of illu-
minants are not great successes from
the standpoint of the seller. because
they incline TO teach economy to the
consumer The majority of people never
take time to look at the ordinary meter
and many of them have never learned
to read one any way, but when the
money is called for constantly the
householder is found TO be more careful
in seeing that 'holes are not burned
in the daylight or current otherwise
wasted.
AS the sellers of gas and electricity
are interested in having good sized
bills, they do not rush to adopt the
economical slOt-meters.
Value of a Cent.
In figuring out what a cents worth
of electricity will do. the Statistician
has found that it will drive a IL inch
fan for 80 minutes, heat a six pound
smoothing iron for Is minutes, make
four cups of coffee in an electrical per-
colator cook a good sized steak, heat
a luminous radiator eight minutes,
bring TO a boil two quarts Of water,
run a pianola one hour.
One of the big manufacturers or
electrical machinery is making some
turbine driven electrical units Of $4,000
kilowatt capacity. To appreciate what
power these great engines will gen
crate. one must have it expressed in
comprehensive terms. What is tech
nicaIly known as the fifth stage ele-
ment is a big wheel II feet inches
in diameter which, when going at full
speed rotates at the rate Of $50 revo-
buttons a minute If it were running
on a railroad track it would travel
$50 miles a minute, or from New York
to San Francisco in nine and half
hours.
The rotating mechanism weighs 90
tons, yet so perfectly is it mounted
that it can be turned with one finger.
One of these units would light 100000
16 candle power electric lights, enough
10 illuminate 500 miles of hallway 10
feed wide, or supply an arc light for
every $50 feet between New York and
Chicago.
Electrical Oddities.
A new thing in electricity is an cleo
ericaIIy heated garment, a SCOT of bath
robe having 1000 feet-of wire woven
between the lining and the outer cloth
1t is so constructed that it is per-
fectly pIiable and the wire adds an
additional weight of only 20 ounces To
it A 10 volt current, either alternat-
ing or direct produces gradual warm
ing. Contact may be established with
the electric light system Of any ordi-
nary house.
Not long ago an enterprising theatre
cal man staged what he called an cleo
trica1 ballet There were dozens OF
chorus girls wearing costumes which
could be lighted with nlyriads of tiny
electric bulbs. The dresses were wired
and the little bulbs hidden away. Con-
tact was made by their escorts holding
the wires in their hands and pressing
them against a metal plate at the.
back of the girls's waists. ..
The result is said to have afforded a
beautiful and unique spectacle. and by
a well organized system OF handling
the wires It completely mystified the
audience as TO the source of the cleo
tricity-
Electric Elevators
While discussing the electric elevator
problem a speaker before the electrical
engineering society of Columbia uni
! versity stated that the 5000 passenger
elevators on Manhattan Island carry
more than 100000 passengers a day.
Roughly speaking, this is twice as
many people as are carried by all the
elevated, underground and surface cars
of the city If each person rides only
! so feet the aggregate distance trav-
eled in this way would be nearly Co.
600 miles a day.
The engineering society of New York
recently kept an account of the ex-
pense of elevator service in its build
ing 1t found that under conditions
existing there, which are said to ap-
proximate the average, it costs about
one cent round trip TO carry passen-
gers At this rate the burough OF
Manhattan alone spends SIS, 900 a day
in free elevator rides.
In an address delivered in Winnipeg
! a few days ago Prof. ]. J. Thompson
estimated that under high sun and
clear sky the power generated by the
sun amounts TO about 1000 horsepower
per acre. He figures that when the
natural resources of America give out
its people will have mastered the prob
lem of using solar energy, and that the
worlds business centers may then be
moved to regions like the Desert of
Sahara, where sunshine can be stored
day in and day out throughout the year
1t will then be distributed by big cleo
vorable spots for use in industrial ac-
tivity.
Tomorrow-F1ower Festivals.
said Rio Grande project in no manner.
whatsoever, invades. seeks to invade,
tends TO invade. or can invade the rights
M no In a Re Of