The L'Anse sentinel., 1923-11-09
Smithsonian Institution Issues
Pamphlet Reviewing the
Earliest Experiments.

Washington.-"History OF Electric
Light" is the title Of pamphlet issued
by the Smithsonian Institution dealing
with subject of almost universal in
terest. Many of the inventions de-
scribed in 1t are now exhibited in the
United States National museum in the
divisions of mineral and mechanical
technology.
AT the present time there are about
,350,0O0,OO0 incandescent and about
100000 magnetic arc lamps In use in
the United States alone, and about an
equal number of incandescent lamps
In use in foreign countries. This
worldwide use Of electricity as an IL
luminant was made possible only by
patient research and experimentation
through period of 123 years by many
uen Of many nationalities.
Origin Of Electricity.
Following a brief resume Of the
early records Of electricity and mag
netism, beginning with the derivation
of the word electricity from the
describing Otto Van Guericke's electric
machine of 1850, a ball of sulphur
rotated against the hand; the first con-
denser made by Won Kleist, bishop of
Pomerania, In 1745, and later known as
the Leyden jar, from the repetition of
his experiments at the University Of
Leyden; and the accidental discovery
Of animal electricity in 1855 by Luigi
Galvani-the important work of Al
essandro Volta, a professor Of physics
In the University Of Pavia, is taken
up. Volta discovered that electricity
could be generated by chemical means
and in 1799 made pile Of silver and
xinc disks with cloths wet with salt
water between them.
The first use Of electricity as an
tlluminanr was made two years later
by Sir Humphry Davy, who demon
strated that electric current can heat
carbon and strips of metal to incan-
descence and give light
Experiments Of oersted.
The next step in electrical knowl-
edge takes us out of England and into
Denmark and France, where the ex-
periments Of Hans Christian Oersted,
professor of physics In the Univer-
sity of Copenhagen, and Of Andre
Marie Ampere in Paris, led in 1920 to
the discovery by the latter that cleo
trio current flowing through a coiled
wire gives II the property Of a magnet.
The ampere, the unit of flow Of cleo
trio current, Is named in his honor.
Next Bavaria claims our attention,
where Georg Simon Ohm, the son of
a poor blacksmith and teacher in
the high school at Cologne. In 1926
discovered the relation between volt.
| age, amperage and resistance in an
electric circuit, which Is called "Ohms
Law" The ohm, the unit Of electric
resistance, Is named for him. From
1925 to 1879 experimentation was
widespread and various. Merely touch
ing on the outstanding features of this
peroid, described In detail in the
pamphlet, there may be mentioned the
discovery Of the principle Of the dy-
namo. by Sir Michael Farady; the
demonstration of an experimental In
candescent lamp, In which a platinum
wire was made incandescent. by Sir
William Robert Grove; the first patent
on an incandescent lamp, In which
powdered charcoal operated In an ax-
hRusted glass globe, obtained by Fred
erick de Molyns; the first commercial
installation Of an electric light made
In an English lighthouse in 1862; the
invention of the "self-excited" dynamo,
by Sir Charles wheatstone, and the
invention Of the electric candle an
arc light commercially used for light
ing the boulevards of Paris, by Paul
Jablochkoff.
Edison Takes Up Study.
When Edison first began the study
Of the incandescent light in 1879 there
were several commercially established