Year: 1878




What may be considered some pertinent
objections to the employment of electricity
for public and private illumination to take
the place ofgas, and which deserve the atten-
tion of inventors and others engaged in the
development of new projects for giving
us more light, are suggested by the possi-
bility of interrupting the lighting Of dis
trict for criminal purposes. 1t is pleaded
that for districts illuminated by currents
from their respective centres of gen.
Grafton continuous conducting wire
must be used for public and private
lighting, and implied that unless a means
is devised of generating electricity SO rap
idly and abundantly rs to enable branch
wires to be charged sufficiently 10 give a
good light everything must depend on the
efficiency and insulation Of the main wire.
While we may admit the presence Of
difficulty we are confident that means of
overcoming it are not beyond the ingenuity
of electricians. In the first place it is not at
all necessary that the public street lamps
and private dwellings should be illumi-
mated by the same continuous wire, and in
this connection we would say that the areas
dependent on one wire can be reduced to
any desired limit consistent with an Geo.
nomical generation of electricity by ma
chinery, and controlled by proper system
of resistance coils or other devices to regu-
late the electric currents.


Second-The lights would not ''go out"
in all the district lighted by one wire, but
only from beyond the break that is to say
between it and where the wire made a
ground" Therefore for the Illuminating
circuits proposed it will be seen that unless
the wire is cut in two places that is to say,
a given length is cut out of its original con-
tinuity-the light, cannot be extinguished.


Third-It is not difficult to establish
between the public and the private service
wires certain switch connections that will
insure a circuit, no matter where the wire
may be cut. The cutting of q wire can
be made to alarm large neighbor-
hood the police and fremen. Unless
the cutting instrument be made of n nom
conducting substance, and is perfectly dry
at that, the attempt to cut wire would be





himself with his knife or chisel would
make 50 ground" the moment he touched
the wire, and if he had to climb a lamppost
to get at it he might make one of another
kind with policeman's bullet in his head.


Considering, therefore, the improbability
as we'll as the uselessness Of attempts on the
public street lights by burglars, footpads
or other criminals, we reduce the trouble
down 10 the possible interruption of the
illumination Of private houses. 1t is next
to impossible, if the wires are properly
arranged, switched and connected, to
darken more than one house at time
after burglarious entry is effected, and
then the inlet and outlet Of the wire must
be broken in that house. Of course, if as
many thieves visit fifty houses in one dis
trct at the same time in one night, there
will be section OF the district depending
on that private service wire in darkness
during the interruption of the circuit 80
far. But we do not anticipate any such
"wholesale" defiance Of law, even with
.'the finest police in the world" to guard us.