Year: 1878

New York World,


In the lower corridor of the Equita-
bic Insurance building, on Broadway
there have been displayed every day
for fortnight past, two electric lights,
and the passage way. the darkness of
which was formerly only slightly de-
creased by numerous gas jets, is now as
light as the street. The lamps used
were designed by J, II. Maxim. me-
chanlcal engineer Of this city, and their
success has been so great that the
Equitable company has given an order
for eight more, and in short time all
the corridors of the building will be
lighted by electricity The dynamo
magnetic machine which produces the
electricity is in the basement of the
building, and is run by shafting from
the immense engine which works the
elevators. The machine requires no at
tention whatever, and it is so construct
ed that the only points where it wears
out are in the journal-boxes. These,
however, will last very long time, and
when 1t becomes necessary to renew
them it can be done at .trihing cost.
Mr. Schuyler, a gentleman interested in
the success of the apparatus, described
1T yesterday as "a bundle of iron and
copper revolving between two electro
magnets, and generating at first a slight
current which reacts upon the magnets
and upon itself until very powerful
current results This current may be
said to be forced along the wire very
much in the same way as current of
ar is forced through pipe by fan.
The positive and negative wires run
from the machine to the lamps in the
hallway, and there, by an ingenious con-
trivance light which surpasses all 9th
ers produced by artificial means is OBJ
tanned. Attached to each wire is car
bon point, the upper one being about
ten and the lower one four inches in
length They last four hours and cost
about eight cents each The light, I'M
less protected, would be to dazzling for
the eye, and to ditfuse it without re-
ducing its power has been study.
Suspended over the lamp is silvered
reflector, which gives the rays a down
ward direction, while around the light
is glass shade having belt of ground
WI N Niuc CHouSu W llC DclW ccil lllc
eye and the burning point. The upper
portion of the shade is surrounded with
prisms. Up to the present time each
lamp has to be provided with its own
dyamo-magnetic machine. To have but
one machine has been found impracti-
cable, as 1t was ascertaincd that cleo
tricity was something like water, mas
much as it would always seek the larg-
est and easiest channel of escape. Thus
unless two lamps were of exactly the
same capacity, the largest would carry
of all the electricity, and the smallest
one would go without The dynamo
magnetic machine in use in the Equita-
BILE building is double one. The
lamps in use were manufactured by the
United States Electric Lighting Com
pany. Ex-Governor Warmoth of
Louisiana, yesterday paid a visit to the
company's office and inspected the
lights in operation in the bnilding. He
expressed his desire to have his sugar
house on his plantation, which covers
an acre of ground, Illuminated by the
electric light The first electric light
displayed in New York, was shown by
James Fisk, Jr, when the Grand Opera
House was opened, but it was worked
by means of batteries and at an enor-
nous expense. On the 4th of July,
1876, a light was shown from the tower
of the Western Union building The
electricity was produced by dynamo
magnetic maching manufactured by
Wallace 4 Sons Of Ansonia. Conn.