Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-03-25
By
Fredric
j. Haskin


principle to the sale of electrical current
| is comparatively a new thing. When
the consumer wants a quarters worth Of
! electricity he has merely to drop his
money in the meter slot, the coin re-
| leasing the mechanism which permits
him to turn on the switch. When the
paid-for supply is exhausted, warning
flicker announces the approach of dark
ness and the machine thus virtually de-
mands your money or your life" Slot
machines for the sale of illuminants
are not great successes from the stand
; point 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
anyway, 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 cur
rent 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.
In figuring out what a cents worth
of electricity will do, the statistician
has found that it will drive a 12-inch
fan for 90 minutes, heat a siX-pound
smoothing iron for Is minutes, make
four cups of coffee in an electrical per-
colater cook a good sized steak, heat
luminous radiator eight minutes, bring
to boil two quarts of water, drive
dentists drill four hours and run
pianola one hour.
One of the big manufacturers of cleo
trical machinery is making some tur-
bine-driven electrical units of $4,000
kilowatt capacity. To appreciate what
power these great engines will generate
one must have it expressed in compre-
hensible terms. What is technically
known as the fifth stage element is a
big wheel IL feet, inches in diameter
which, when going at full speed, rotates
at the rate of ESQ revolutions a minute.
If 1t were running on a railroad track
it would travel 5.66 miles a minute, or
from New York to San Francisco in
nine and a half hours. The rotating
mechanism weighs 80 tons, yet so per-
fectly is it mounted that it can be turn
ed with one finger. One of these units
would light $4,000 16-candle power cleo
trio lights, enough to illuminate 500
miles of hallway ten feet wide, or sup
ply an arc light for every $50 feet be-
tween New York and Chicago.
A new thing = il electricity is
an electrically heated garment, sort
of bath robe, having 1000 feet of
wire woven between the lining and
the outer cloth. 1t is so con-
structed that it is perfectly pliable and
the wire adds an additional weight of
only 20 ounces to it. A 11O-volt current,
either alternating or direct, produces
gradual warming. Contact may be estab-
lished with the electric light system of
any ordinary house.
Not long ago an enterprising theatre
cal man staged what he called an cleo
toraI ballet. There were dozens of chorus
girls wearing costumes which could be
lighted with myriads of tiny electric
bulbs. The dresses were wired and the
little bulbs hidden away. Contact was
made by their escorts holding the wires
in their hands and pressing them against
metal plate at the back of the girls
waists. The result is said to have af-
forded beautiful and unique spectacle,
and by a we'll organized system of hand
ling the wires it completely mystifed the
audience as to the source of the cleo
tricity. -s
While discussing the electric elevator
problem a speaker before the electrical
engineering SOCISly VI SOAuAAbid uAANCA 81
ty stated that the 5000 passenger ele-
vators on Manhattan island carry more
than 6,OOO,OOO passengers a day. Roughly
speaking, this is twice many people
as are carried by all the elevated, I'M
derground and surface cars of the city.
If each person rides only so feet the ag-
gregate distance travelled in this way
would be nearly $4,000 miles day. The
engineering society of New York recent
" kept an account of the expense of ele
vator service in it's building. 1t found
that under conditions existing there,
which are said to approximate the aver
age it costs about one cent a round trip
to carry passengers. At this rate the
burrough of Manhattan alone spends
$S5, 600 a day in free elevator rides.
In an address delivered in Winnipeg a
few days ago Prof ]. ]. Thompson esti-
mated that under high sun and clear
sky the power generated by the sun
amounts to about 7,O00-horse-power per
acre. He figures that when the natural
resources of America give out it's peo-
pie will have mastered the problem 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 electrical transmission
lines to less favorable spots for use in
industrial activity