ELECTRICAL PLOUGHS, &c.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3667, 16 April 1883, Page 4

ELECTRICAL PLOUGHS, &c.

ByDk. J. E. Taylo_, F.G.S,

The electricians on the continent seem to be ahead of us in England in the application of electricity to other purposes than lighting. Electrical motors have been introduced at scA-eral French collieries. A Gramme machine has been in u-.* fulsome time past at the Blanzy mine, and others are at work in the Thibaud mines, belonging to the Terrc Noire Company, and also at the mine in Porriero. Some time ago M. Menier, distinguished for his chocolate, employed electricity on one oi his estates for ploughing the land, deriving the energy from a neighboring waterfall. Germany" has lately witnessed a similar agricultural application of what avc may regard as the ''coming force." At Ladenburg electricity avus recently employed instead of steam for threshing wheat. The space reserved for the machines was lighted by electricity, and ut the same time the elcclrical current was utilised lo drive an ordinary threshing* machine,. tlie cylinder of which attained a speed of 1100 vcA-olutioiis a minute. WhereA-or water poAver on large estates is uoav running to waste, in the shape of waterfalls o.r rapid streams, electricity may be easily generated, and as easily convoyed by wire to where its energy is required.

A great improvement has been made and a chief difficulty oA-ercome in the manufacture of accumulators or storage batteries. The old accumulators (how rapidly Aye move, for an accumulator of 12 months' standing is old) weighed loOlb when in working order : the neAvly-con-strueted ones weigh only 7-".. The former gave an energy equivalent to one-horse poAver for three-quarters of an hour: the latter gi\ r e out one,-horse power for one hour. They are, therefore, both lighter in weight and more poAverful. The plates are now so arranged that a defective one can be easily rc-nioA-ed.

In some respects the term '*storage," as applied to accumulators, is not only erroneous, but misleading-. In reality such a battery does not store electricity at all, but it is so constituted that an electric current sent through it causes chemical action. When the current ceases, a reverse chemical action takes place, wliich gives off a current of electricity. The I'itzgcrald-Crompton type of accumulator is now very popular. The plates of this battery consist of minute particles of lead, obtained by chemical or mechanical action, which are slightly oxidised and then compressed. Tho conqircssion rubs oil' the oxide, bringing pure metal points into contact, and so gi\*iug a metallic continuity to the whole. The plate thus obtained resembles a sponge. Great improvements have also recently been made iv the Faure battery.—Australasian.