Electricity in 1900

Wonderful Changes Before the Dawn of the Next Century.

MANY NEW INVENTIONS

Applications for Printing, Lighting, Heating and Cooking That Will Revolutionize Present Customs — Some of Them Enumerated.

New York Correspondence Baltimore Sun.

An electric machine, called the “Emick Electric Page Printer,” will be put in operation this week in various Wall Street offices which, it is claimed, will soon be indispensable to all newspapers or other institutions or persons desiring a quick transit of news. It is a modification of the old tape printing “ticker,” which the general public has so long seen in use in hotels, banks and brokers’ offices to record stock transactions and such other news as is generally bulletined in that way. The “page printer” uses pretty much the same little wheel to do the printing. In place of the tape of narrow paper a continuous roll a little wider than two columns of the Sun is automatically fed in front of this wheel and prints in a broad line of clear type whatever the matter is that is to be published. This roll of news can be 2 inches, 2 feet or two yards long, or any other length desired. An expert telegrapher is now needed to send out the messages, which are printed simultaneously on all the instruments on the circuit. There is a keyboard like that of a typewriter on which the sender spells out his message. The instrument can therefore be briefly described as an electric typewriter with an automatic attachment. A speed of forty words a minute can be had and the circuit can be worked with one wire. The practical value of the machine is to be tried by one of the big dailies, which will put two or three of them at different stations in the city and have its reporters send their items to the publication office in this manner. The projectors of the machine are very sanguine of its success. It is certainly a long advance over the old-fashioned ticker, and much simpler and readier than Professor Gray’s electric writing machine.

The editors of four of the leading authorities, in response to an invitation to give their ideas on the probable development of electricity and its application, promise some wonderful changes before the dawn of the next century. The editor of the Electric World says: “We can expect no greater improvements in dynamos and motors, as they now return in electricity as high as 97 per cent. of the energy supplied to them. The arc lamp is practically perfect electrically, and while notable improvements may be made in the present form of the incandescent lamp, nothing startling can be expected. Electric railway traction will undoubtedly supersede all other methods for urban use, and, by the extension of networks in the country promises to largely revolutionize rural life; its application, however, to long trunk lines seems improbable. The electrical transmission of power will receive enormous extensions and probably entirely take the place of steam power within a radius of several hundred miles of water powers and in the vicinity of coal fields, whence the energy of coal will be distributed by means of the electric current instead of the coal itself being transported. The electric light will probably entirely supersede all other kinds of illumination in cities, towns and thickly settled rural districts, and electric motors will gradually enter into all operations requiring power and more and more narrow the field of the steam engine, if, with the gas engine as an ally, it does not drive it out entirely. Telephoning across the Atlantic is a probability and seeing by electricity a possibility.”

The editor of the Electrical Review also believes in the sure advent of the trans-Atlantic telephone, the further development of the transmission of electric power, and especially an elaboration of the domestic use of electricity. On this point he says: “Electric heating is now an important element in the rapidly extending railway business, replacing the disagreeable and dangerous car stove, and is advancing into the domain of the coal furnace and gas range, bringing cleanliness, convenience and economy with it. When fully perfected and understood, the electric heater will be one of the greatest boons that the electrical engineer has given us. Every housewife will rise up and call him blessed, and every husband will bless him and not rise up! He can lie abed and increase or originate heat in room and kitchen by simply turning a switch or pressing a button. Even this effort may be dispensed with and a clockwork attachment press the button automatically.”

The editor of the Electric Age coincides with this prophetic view of the household run by electricity. This is his view of 1900: “I expect to see our homes, offices, stores, etc., heated by electricity. The system of heating is entirely practicable, the only question involved being the all-important one, cost. It probably will be made popular by supplying electricity from large central stations through street mains connecting the premises therewith. Electricity may then be used for cooking and doing what mechanical work may be necessary about the house, store or factory. It can be made to perform all of these duties by simply turning a little handle or pushing a button. Electricity will be used to accomplish a thousand and one different things to save us labor and in directions little dreamed of at present. New things and applications are being constantly developed; it only needs more popular familiarity with them to find a wider use for them.”

The editor of the Electric Power joins all these and goes even further. Among the items of his prophetic vision are some hints of domestic beatitude like the following:

“In 1900 we shall probably have brought down the cost of current and of utensils to such a degree as to allow even people in moderate circumstances to use the cleanly current instead of the coal or gas stove. Then will the millennium of the servant girl have broken into dawn. The overhead or trolley system will very probably be superseded by a system not more obstructive than the cable on Broadway — a conduit system. The cars running underground will be propelled by electricity.

“In six years we can look for the supersession of the incandescent lamp as it is at present by a new lamp evolved along the line sketched out by Nikola Tesla, whose brilliant discoveries have recently been fully enumerated by our esteemed confrere, Mr. T. Commerford Martin. The new lamp will probably be without filament, but will glow by the luster of a high frequency current properly employed. There is even a possibility of the present bulb-shaped lamp disappearing, giving way to a long continuous tube of glass hidden away behind crevices and casting a soft light upon the ceiling and thence down upon the floor. The disinfection of the city will probably be effected by the agency of electricity. The canal boats will come down to the wharves propelled by electricity. The streets will perhaps be cleaned by an electrically-driven brush, and a mighty exhaust fan in city hall, driven by a motor, may serve to purify it.”