Coal and Glow

Events move so fast in electric lighting, these days, or rather claims, that they crowd one another. As pointed out, some time ago, the question was of getting the greatest percentage of illuminating energy from the energy of the coal bin. In addition to the magic names of Edison and Tesla, two other electricians now claim attention. They are McFarlan Moose and Dr. W. W. Jacques.

Mr. Moose has attacked the glow lamp problem and seems to have solved it, getting light without heat and Dr. Jacques has attacked the coal pile and gets electrical energy, which can be used for any purpose, by the direct oxidation of carbon without the loss of energy through heat, as occurs in the ordinary combustion of coal. By heating carbon with caustic soda and passing air through the liquid mass of soda Dr. Jacques obtains 82 per cent of electrical energy from his coal, which, burned in a boiler in ordinary manner, would give only 6 per cent of electrical energy.

This is revolutionary enough, to be sure, but Mr. Moose seems to cap it at the other end of the wire, for he is able to take the ordinary commercial current of electricity, and, by using a converter in a vacuum, to transform it into a current of such a character that it will light up a vacuum tube with a beautiful glow. His converter, the electrician says, costs but $1 against Tesla's $10,000 oscillator, and the amount of energy that is represented in actual illumination is vastly increased. Not only that, but his entire apparatus is simplicity itself.

While these discoveries must fight themselves to success in the laboratories and scientific world, they are worth noting and commenting upon as showing the tendency of the inventions of the day. It is trite, perhaps, to say we are on the threshold of great changes and great economies in the use, transformation and conservation of energy, but such is the case. The new century will dawn auspiciously.