Electric Notes (Aug. 16, 1894)

America is by far the largest user of electric light, but the methods of production and utilization in use here do not appear to be quite so economical as those practised abroad. The plants throughout Europe are generally on a much more modest scale than here, except in a few such cities as Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna, yet recent statistics show that some of the smallest are competing successfully, not only with long established gas-works, but with petroleum. Very little of the current, however, is used for power purposes, and conveniences like the fan motors now running daily by the hundred thousand in the United States are well-nigh unknown; so much so that when needed they are shipped from New York. In Berlin 19.9 per cent. of the current is employed in lighting dwellings and hotels, but in Hamburg the same item runs up to 38.7 per cent. Store lighting in the larger German and Austrian cities averages 80 per cent. of the current. Berlin and Vienna use much less than 10 per cent. of the current for driving motors in factories, stores, etc. Exceedingly little use is yet made of the current for heating. A large proportion of the stations have storage-battery equipments; in America this auxiliary is almost unheard of in central-station operation, though nobody appears to know why.

Complaint is often made of the effect of stray electricity on valuable watches; and electrical plants are now so common that the trouble is likely to increase unless delicate works are properly made or adequately shielded. Capt. Wharton, the hydrographer of the British admiralty, has lately reached some interesting results with non-magnetisable watches that he put under test. They were subjected to the magnetic influence of a large dynamo, giving 400 ampères at 80 volts, and with a field whose lines of force were manifest at 70 feet distance. The watches were put within one-quarter inch of one of the poles of this machine for ten days, and at the end of the time were, if anything, keeping better time than when not exposed to any specially harmful influence. The daily error never reached one second, and on four days was less than could be determined. The construction of these watches is not stated in the report. Hitherto there have been two methods of protection in vogue — one to put a “magnetic shield” or case around the works, inside the gold mount, and the other to use special non-magnetic metal in the escapement or main parts of the works.

Power transmission by electricity continues to absorb the attention of engineers, and not satisfied with seizing upon all the waste water energies, from Niagara down, they are proposing to handle the coal mines in a similar manner. Mr. T. C. Martin, editor of one of the electrical journals, has suggested as a novel feature of engineering for the Paris Exposition of 1900 that the power required for operating its machinery shall be transmitted electrically from coal consumed at the mines in the Pas de Calais region, or that of the Marne. This power would not exceed 20,000 horse-power, and may be less. The suggestion is to obtain gas from the coal and employ large gas engines to operate the electrical generators. Mr. Martin named a unit of 800 horse-power for the gas-engines, but the discussion has developed the fact that a Scotch firm is building and guaranteeing gas-engines up to units of 800 horse-power, and even larger, to use not more than eight-tenths of a pound of anthracite coal per indicated horse-power hour, for producer gas, and that figure to include everything used in the nature of fuel. Evidently the gas-engine is on the way to offer a more vigorous rivalry with the steam-engine; and if this really important suggestion for Paris is carried out, the information furnished by it will probably be of the greatest usefulness in a variety of directions. If large cities like Chicago can consume all their soft coal at a distance and still secure cheap electric current for light, heat, and power, it will improve them as homes and enhance their capabilities as manufacturing centres.

While quack electricity in the shape of belts, hair-brushes, pads, etc., is receiving many body blows from the experts and the courts, it is encouraging to know that the scientific application of electricity to therapeutical work is gaining ground rapidly. Not only are medical men themselves actively investigating the subject, but electricians like Edison, Tesla, Elihu Thomson, A. E. Kennelly, J. J. Carty, and others, are devoting considerable time and study to it. American medical papers contain many notes on new lines of work, and even the more conservative English press finds space to record advances in the electro-therapeutic art. A recent Lancet contains interesting references to the very successful use of electricity in curing trigeminal neuralgia, and to long-continued treatment of cases of tic-douloureux, which is practically the same thing, with long and short applications of the current. Success is uniform in all cases. It remains true, however, that English practitioners are still very slow to resort to electrical methods of cure, while in this country it is becoming so popular with all the schools that apparatus is now on the market from several well-known houses, enabling the use in the practising-rooms or the hospitals of the ordinary lighting current from the street mains.

The Australian visitors to the recent Intercolonial Conference at Ottawa were greatly struck with the magnitude and prosperity of the electric railway systems in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and other Canadian cities. They had not supposed anything of the kind existed under the British flag, chiefly because England herself had been so slow to adopt the trolley. It is said that one of the results of the conference, unintentional but none the less certain, will be the adoption of the trolley in many of the Australian and New Zealand cities, and that American builders are likely to secure some of the contracts. As a matter of fact, a demand for American electric railway apparatus has already sprung up beyond the Pacific. Our vice consul-general at Bangkok, Siam, reported lately on the highly successful working of an American trolley road in that city. The road, formerly operated with horses, is three miles long, and since it was “electrified” it has run four cars, and the receipts have increased 80 per cent. The local company now proposes to extend its line. The consul-general says that other lines are sure to follow as the result of this demonstration, and he recommends American builders to send out their representatives in order to exploit a market already won.