Year: 1870

The Uses or Electricity.
IT Is only a few years since electricity
was Gabriel-an archangel of light and
mysterious servant of God, that could
not, with impunity, be approached or
questioned. When, in 1852, BENJAMIN
Franklin, without harm to himself, took a
bottle of Pennsylvania mot Jersey light
ming, and thereby proved that it was iden.
tical with electricity, he WAS denounced
as an infidel for tampering with the heav-
enly messenger. "'Spose tits electricity"
said an alarmed deacon, to the blasphe
nous kite.f flyer, whats it good for p
"Well," answered the philosopher, al
don't know; what is q new baby good for
In fact, when you come to that, what is
anything good forp


We, in this fearless age, have learned
that electricity Is "good for " great many
things, and some recent developments are
of sufficient Importance 20 challenge pub
lie attention. The invention and practi.
cal usefulness of the marvellous telt graph
turned the thought of scientific expert
menters towards the possibility of by
snd.by hitching this subtle power to the
wheels of traffic and Of laDor, j. is now
= score of years since Professor Boynton
exhibited his working model of lOcomo
tive propelled by galvanic electricity. He
showed that it would work, and that it
was very manageable but it proved more
expensive than steam.


NJ. Emile Provost, French scientist,
has overcome Boynton's difficulty by an
invention which enables him to develop
the power at very slight expense. The
invention consists in the peculiar manner
of tempering and adjusting the magnet.
He has recently exhibited three batteries
in New York, one representing six-horse
power, another one horse, power, and the
other one-man power (One-tifth of horse
power). The batteries will run sewing
machine or Hoe printing press, and he
claims that the cost of each is only ten
cents day 1t seems quite impossible
that the promise of NJ. Provost can be real
lied, for it would create total revolution
In the propulsion of all machinery. Such
prophecy would have alarmed old
Thales, the discoverer of electricity 60
years before Christ, and have puzzled even
the industrious German who constructed
the Leyden jar, hundred years ago,


The application Of electricity to the
alarm telegraph in cities and to lighting
the gas and ringing the bells in hotels,
halls and factories, is becoming more and
more general every month.


Electricity is rapidly coming into use
as an Illuminating agent. The New York
Hoentng Post says on this point:


"There are many electric lights in use !;
Ia lighthouses on the coast they are found
not only more brilliant than any others +,
but far more serviceable; being independ
ent of the weather, and less easily thrown
out of order. In cities they are little
known; but chiefly, it seems, for want of
enterprise; since no reinforcement of the
police of a great city would be at once so
cheap and so efficient as a sufficient sup
ply of these lights, which recent improve
ments have made self-regulating, steady
and sure. All the machinery for very
large automatic electric lamp, sufficient to
light up q great factory or long street,
il now sold in London for eight guineas !;
and the advertisements would seem to in
dicate an active trade"


Electricity also consents to act as the
tool of gamblers. An electric faro box
has been so constructed as to permit cards
to be secretly drawn, at the will of the
dealer, without the possibility of the cheat
being detected. If the exposure of the
fraud should have a tendency to intimi-
date greenhorns and render the "tiger 4"
unpopular, the alliance of the celestial



Not always is it unholy to cast out devils
by Beelzebub.


Z But the quaintest electrical suggestion
is of course reserved for France. The
| Frenchman who constructed the first
guillotine was moved to the CHASTITY work
by motives of humanity; so now has a
savsnt OF the Academy inaugurated the
system of killing by electricity. Culprits
sentenced for capital offensesa are hereafter
to be touched with a streak of artificial
lightning. Instead of being compelled to
face q horrible chopping block, or TO
writhe for quarter of an hour at ropes
end, In vain effort to get out of the af-
fiicted body, instantaneous deliversnce
will come on the wings of the tricksy
Ariel. Instead of all the clumsy and
barbarous machinery wherewith the
dangerous offender Of to-day is strangled
to death like a noosed partridge, or bled
to death like q chicken, we shall have a
better way. The law of the higher
civilization will declare that no man shall
be slain hy society, il he can be saved
alive without importing society, and, il
the worst comes, and he scales peniten
tiary walls and defies jtils, the court will
give secret sentence and the gentlemanly
sheriff will slyly take the pole of a battery
|
with it in the nape of the neck, and the
slouRhed off flesh will drop upon the
ground and the emancipated spirit will
60 to its own place. No longer will there
be an endless anticipation Of pain, nor the
torture of prayers by the Reverend Mr.
Ohadband.


But this is not all. Our inventor is to
have electricity take the place of the axe
and knife in the butchers hand. No more
oxen with a severe headache moaning on
the ground because they cannot die; no
more hogs squealing and trying to shuttle
OFT their mortal coil no more ours strug-
Cling tearfully with dog button, and
gazing reproachfully upon a Chicago
policeman no more sick omnibus horses
tormented with hatchets by philanthro-
pists who fain would hasten their en-.
trance TO the blissful realm of horse.
heaven. A little trap in a cigar box, and
an attenuated streak of lightniDg there
from will do 1t all Then We can kill
whales with magnetized harpoon at the
end Of a galvanized rope; then we can
shoot birds with surcharged shot then we
can fly an omnipotent kite against Sebas
topol, Gibraltar Moro Castle-the rams
horn against Jericho would be nothing u
it. And then we can calmly take Oul
stand in the observatory of the Chicago
University, and bring down tribe O
Piegans at long range. Oh, happy day
make haste -Ohicdgo Post.


| N


MilliOnaires.


To BE considered wealthy in Manhat
tan Ia 10 ha WEALTHY indeed PersOns who