The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-06-05

ed by water power. But II took lots OF
money to put in hydro-electric plants;
they were all built by rich men or
corporations, and so there was moth
ing in them for the people. Then the
system of drawing electricity out of
the air was discovered"
"Who discovered it-Edison?"
"No; Caldwell"
what Caldwell ?"
"Joseph Caldwell of Ocala."
/ had chewed the rag with that
same Individual the morning before |
l went to sleep, but l always called
him "Joe," and it took me a second
or two to recognize him under a dig
-nified name.
"Joe Caldwell, superintendent of
the OcaIa electric plant?"
'The same. When the city put in
its combined water and electric plant
some twenty-four years ago, Mr..
Caldwell was in charge. On account
of his devotion to the cause of public
ownership, he was blacklisted by the
electric trusts, and knew that if he
should lose his position he would
/ have to go to work at something
/ else. He knew about all about electric
machinery that there was to know,
and had given some thought to the
theory, untried then, of drawing cleo
tricity from the air. Of course, ev-
erybody knew there was electricity in
| the air, but how to take it out in a
| practical way was the difficulty.
| Caldwell studied the matter and final
ly put up toy plant on his own
premises. He coupled quarter horse
power motor to an ordinary steel rod
with magnetized branches of a COM
posite metal he thought would do, and
started the apparatus to working. He
didn't expect much from it, so hadn't
insulated it carefully, and as soon as
it began to move he received a shock
that sent him spinning. He kept on
experimenting, and soon found that
with his quarter horsepower motor he
could charge a storage battery from
the air as quickly as a twenty-five
horsepower engine could generate the
same amount of current in the old
way.
"He went before the city govern
ment with an account of his discov-
cry, and asked permission to improve
on it at the city plant. The council
gave him permission of course. He
started out with a secondhand vapor
engine in one corner of the plant,
and the first-day's work proved his
theory was perfectly feasible. By this
time, the big electric companies had
heard of what he was doing, and Of
fered him a million dollars for his in
vention. He said it wasn't for sale;
that he was going to give it to all
the world free. That night as he went
home, two men opened fire on him
with pistols. They missed him and
made their escape, but the town was
boiling mad, and for the next two
months a stranger couldn't enter
Ocala without he brought credentials
and was searched to the skin beside.
But it was no use to either try to
bride or kill Caldwell, for he gave the
details of the invention to the Asso-
ciated Press next day, with permits
sion for the whole world to use it.
The city government put in an auxil-
larry aero plant, and it took half the
load. By that time they were putting
them in all over the country. From
every village that could raise thou
sand dollars to the big cities with
half a million, they began drawing
current from the atmosphere. The big
electric companies put them in them
selves, or went to pieces. 1t broke
up all the combinations, for there was
rent from company if it could make
it on its own ground. About that time
Edison perfected the compact storage
battery to the work on which he gave
the last years of his life, and that and
aero-electric plants went together
like right hand and left"
Glow is it, / asked, "that every
man doesn't make his own current
instead of buying it from a central
plant?"
'He can if he wants to. A ten
dollar apparatus will light his house
and one for fifty will give him current
for heat and cooking as well as light
and charge his auto beside. But if he
takes his current from the city plant
it puts him in a meter and storage
battery for ten dollars, then charges
him an average of ten cents a day il
he has a good-sized house, and one
two or three cents if he has small
one. He can charge his auto from his
house meter if he wants to, or he car
stop at any supply station, couple on
put a jitney in the slot and receive
current to run the car for a hundred
hours. Every cent he pays the city
goes to paying the city expenses, and
he receives all of it back again except
what is paid city officers. Ocala peo-
pie pay no city taxes-the people OF
very few cities in America do.
"Another reason why most people
in a city take power from the city is
, that even a little electric plant has
1 Il 4 - 4.