Milestones in Electricity

In the course of the celebrations which have been held marking March 20, 1936, as the 50th anniversary of the establishment by William Stanley of the first alternating current system in America, it was observed that the villagers of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, "who saw the lights flash on the sleepy streets did not realize at the time that they were witnessing an historic event that marked the ushering in of a new era in civilization, with a network of power lines spanning the continent, affecting life in the remote hamlets as well as in the largest cities."

Certainly the villagers may well be excused for their lack of comprehension. It may be doubted today if any large percentage of the millions of users of electricity understand so that they can explain the difference between direct and alternating current. At any rate there have been many more spectacular inventions marking the development of electricity in the last fifty years. That which is serviceable is not always spectacular and vice versa. Moreover, a thing may come under both headings and momentarily revolutionize human habits, without being permanent. Some newer invention may directly displace it or may drive it into disuse through competition.

Perhaps the trolley car on the one hand and the radio on the other have been the most spectacular electrical developments in the last fifty years. Anyone could grasp their functions and possibilities. The trolley car actually changed suburban life in the United States; indeed, it changed urban through affording opportunity for millions to sleep outside the closely built cities. But the subsequent invention of the gasoline propelled single unit has nearly driven the trolley out of the transportation business in these few years. Strangely enough, the radio has thus far given little if any indication of shortly superseding the telephone, which was born only about a decade before the trolley — although for a few years it was widely predicted the "wireless" would completely supplant both telegraph and telephone wires.

The difference between such a development as the alternating current and that of the trolley car or radio is that the first may be regarded as a fundamental, with the latter merely a machine to be operated by it or because of it. But whether we take the fundamental or the machine, we find that many minds and many hands have been involved in the inventions and applications. Thus, as one of the speakers at an alternating current celebration remarked: "The devotedly applied talents of many men had inscribed their names in the honor roll of electrical engineering — Stilwell, Scott, Schmidt, Tesla, Lamme. Thousands of other engineers have, in the subsequent years, contributed their indispensable quotas to bring alternating current to its present day stage of perfection."

But is it so near perfection? Does not the future open the way to nearly as great advancement in the possibility of putting long distance wires underground, or otherwise eliminating the present hazard from storms and breakage? A wonderful advance in fifty years without question; but in dealing with a force no one really understands the field for further discovery may be deemed without limit.