THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Evening Star, Issue 4943, 6 January 1879, Page 4

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

: Mr-Edison, the inventor of the telephone tod phonograph, says he has discovered how to make electricity a sheap and practicable Substitute for illuminating gas. Many Scientific mr j H have worked assiduously in that direction, but with little success. A powerful electric light was the result of these experiments, but'the problem of its division ,into many ' small bidits was a M? 21 ?. 1 '- "While on a visit"to William Wallace, the electric machine manufacturer m Ansonia, Connecticut, he was shown the lalely perfected dynamo-electric machine for .transmitting power by electricity. When power is applied to this machine it will not only reproduce it but will turn it into light. Although said by Edison to be more powerful than any other machine of the kind known, it will divide the light of the electricity produced into but ten separate lights. These'being equal in power to' 4,000 caudles, their impracticability for general purposes is apparent. With the process Mr Edison has just discovered he can produce I,ooo—aye 10,000— from one machine. Indeed, the number may be said to be infinite. With fifteen or twenty dynamo-electric machines he says he can light the entire lower part of New York city, using a 500 horse-power engine. Ke proposes to utilise the., gas burners and chandeliers now in use. .'Whenever it is desired, to light a jet it will only be necessary to touch a little spring near it. No matches are required. " Again, the same wire that, brings the light to you," Mr Edison says, ." will also bring power and heat. 1 With the power you can run an elevator, a sewing-machine, •or any other mechanical contrivance that requires a motor, and by means of heat you may cook your'food. To utilise the heat it will only be" necessary to have the ovens or stoves properly arranged for its reception. This can b« done' at trifling cost. The dynamoelectric machme, .called a telemachon, and which has already been described, may bo run by water or steam power at a distance. When used iu a large city the machine would of necessity be run by steam power. He has computed the relative cost of the light, "power, and' heat generated by the electricity transmitted to the telemaclioii be but a fraction of the ccst where obtained in the ordinary way. ■ By a battery or steam power it is forty-six times cheaper." A fooi-b-sll match was played at Sheffield on the 14th October under the electric light. Alxxit 17.000. persons witnessed the game, and the experiment was completely successful. It is stated that an ingenious 'mechanic lias discovered a simple method of generating the electric current without the machine power required for the Gramme, Siemens and other methods, and by hi 3 system,: after an outlay of about L2O, a house can be lighted by electricity at the en>;t of onlv a few pence per month. This invention "has mot the approval of an influential engineer, who is supplying the means' for perfecting it, and it is expected that before long it will be brought' before the public. The machine-room of the 'Times' was •lighted, by RapiefFs electric light during the printing of the issue of the 13th October. The inventor claims that by-this method an absolutely fixed point of light-is secured. He also, subdivides the current, and obtains a continued steady supply of pure light, irrespective of the necessary changing of the carbon, or the accidental interruption of the current. The proprietary ,of the ' Times * baye just now constructed a fine new steam engine to work Mr RapiefFs.?ystem, and the lighting up of the large machine-room was considered by those who saw it to show that the object mentioned had been on the whole satisfactorily accomplished.'