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Car v gr” 3 A Nanu Baw rears, Rupe and F Cable Drums and Docs, de. Cc

Machinery Desnried and Constracted: for: ihe Complete Kquipment of Velegrap Gable Factories and Vosseie wire. Testing achi: nee for Tensio n,. and Special Wire 57 Une Mach:

4 Shall and Deep \ er. AG Apparatus and Material used in the Construction and of A1 ND LINER 7 in “aay wong) Vid N Phillips’ Patent Fluid Ius À all Kinds the din ty; r W. Bh 1 ®, 4

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the ordin "7 forms. Contractses for the 3 Fane Farb. 58 Butt. ry Pate ol Laght purp nes Makers of Apecial Underground Torpedo and Field Gahies, with Angle or deres. fnsulaial Copper Wires, Strand and ones. taped QT 07 COTON. OF SUR ELECTRIC LIGHT-Makers of Arc Lamps, Switches, Keys, SOLE MAKERS OF HIGGINS" GASCADE BAT TERY.

Every description of Leading WIRES aud CABLES. both: and Connie.

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in sizes varying

Specification.

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PLATES in wll sizes, with or withont Terminals.

BATTERY -

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COPPER OF HIGH CONDUCTIVITY

FOR BLEODPRICAL. PURPOSES. hy MANUFACTURE Rd. 0. MOUCHEL, 10, ROR COMMUNES PARIS.

SOLE AGENTS FOR ENGLAND— |

DAVIS. AND TIMMINS.

GREEN LANE, FARRINGDON ROAD

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—

AuqusT 11, 1883.]

THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

AUG aed oBe — 93

THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

Electrical Review.

VOL. XIII.—No. 298.

THE ELECTRIC LIGHTING BILLS OF 1888.

Now that the Electric Lighting Act of 1882 has been put into force by the granting of many provisional orders, and that these provisional orders have passed the House of Commons, the present time seems fitting for us to present to our readers a short but connected account of what has transpired up to the present time.

It will be remembered that the Electric Lighting

Act of 1882 (45 & 46 Victoria, c. 56) was the result of

the labours of a parliamentary committee held in that

The aim of this Act was, while it left the supply of

| electricity unfettered, by those who did not desire to break up streets to lay their mains, to impose restric- tions on those who desired compulsory powers. For

neither at common law nor by statute can permission

be given either by an owner, or any local authority, to

_ disturb a road over which the public hasirights of way.

In return for these powers the persons desiring to

supply electricity, and who are istyled “ undertakers,”

must agree to construct the necessary works, and to supply electricity to all, within fixed limits, who are willing to pay for it, at prices not exceeding the maxi-

mum provided by the Order, and to abide by regulations

for the due supply of electricity and for the safety of the public.

The local authorities whose duty it is to represent the

interests of the public, are in general those bodies to _ whom is entrusted the care of the public health. They

are therefore the urban and rural district boards under

the Public Health Act, 1875, and the various vestries,and

they may in general either elect to light their districts

themselves, or support the claims of other persons to do so.

The supreme controlling authority is the Board of

Trade. The powers above indicated! may be obtained

in one of two ways—either by applying for a licence to the Board of Trade, which may be given for seven years with the consent of the local authority, or else by applying for a provisional order, which may be granted by the Board of Trade for an indefinite period, without the consent of the local authority, subject, however, to à condition that the entire plant may at the end of 21 years be purchased by the local authority at its market value without any allowance for goodwill.

As soon as the Act had been passed the Board of ä Trade, acting under their powers, made a series of rules

as to the mode of applying for provisional orders and licences respectively. These were published in October last year. Under them, an undertaker desiring a licence is compelled first to obtain the consent of the local authority, then to advertise his intended applica- tion, and after all objections have been duly heard, his licence may be granted. But if he desires a provisional

order, he must commence operations before July Ist in any year, by giving notice to the local authority. He will obtain the order from the Board of Trade in the spring of the next year, and it will be confirmed by parliament in the ensuing summer.“

During the last year 106 applications for provisional orders were received by the Board of Trade. Of these 23 were promoted by local authorities ; 97 of the applications related to places in England ; 8 to places in Scotland ; and 1 to Belfast, Ireland, 35 related to London and the suburbs.

The first act of the Board of Trade was to formulate an order which should serve as a model for the rest. For this purpose the Provisional Order for Chelsea was selected, and was revised on behalf of the Board of Trade by Mr. Meysey Thompson and Major Armstrong. The interests of the applicant company were repre- sented by Mr. Fletcher Moulton.

The principle adopted was to divide the district into two areas, A and B, one of which it should be compul- sory for the undertakers to light within two years. The other was to be lit after the expiration of two years on the application of the local authority, otherwise it was to be forfeited. RER.

In each case {a specific capital was required to be “ appropriated ” to the undertaking, and it was provided that within six months after the coming into force of the order a sufficient caution money varying from 10 to 30 per cent. of the tappropriated capital should be deposited or secured to the satisfaction of the Board of Trade. The safety regulations provided that alternating currents should not have an E.M.F.1exceeding 100 volts, nor continuous, exceeding 200 volts, and elaborate pro- visions were made for_testing the mains, and for for- feiture of the order on breach of duty.

As to the limitation of price, this was purposely allowed to be high, the Board of. Trade having ex- pressly and repeatedly laid it down that the granting of a Provisional Order or Licence is not to be con- sidered as the grant of a monopoly, and that in all cases where the undertakers fail in their duty, or charge too high prices, rival companies will be per- mitted to intervene in the districts. |

Of these orders some were withdrawn, some refused, and some granted, the opinion of the local authority being consulted in almost every instance.

The result was the presentation to Parliament of 11 bills, as follows :—

Names or Districts. No. 1 Bill ...Cambridge

‘ UNDERTAKERS. ...Provincial Brush Company.

Canterbury ... South-Eastern Brush Co. *Chelsea ... ...Metropolitan Brush Co. F inchley eee eee 55 » Folkestone ...South-Eastern Brush Co. Gravesend on 75 Greenock... ...Board of Police. *Greenwich Metropolitan Brush Co. High Wycombe... ...Provincial Brush Company. Maidstone ... South-Eastern Brush Co. Sunderland ...N.-Eastern ElectricLight Co.

* For the history of the passing of the Electric Lighting Act, see Bower and Webb on Electric Lighting, and for the procedure forms and orders of the Board of Trade, see Cunynghame on the Law of Electric Lighting.

| | — — year. Z | — | | | | | | | | |

THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

94 ELECTRICAL REVIEW creed Names or District. UNDERTAKERS. Local Boards, the Lighting Committee of the Vestry of No. 2 Bill . Aston „South Staffordshire Co. St. James’s, the Jablochoff Company, the Telegraph Birkdale... .. . Local Board. | Construction and Maintenance Company, and a body of Dudley .. .…. South Staffordshire Co. local inhabitants. an Aig 3 os The action both of the Board of Trade and of the West Bromwich _ South Staffordshire Co. Committee illustrates so well the mode in which these | Wolverhampton à PA » matters were dealt with that we need no apology for No. 3 Bill ...Balsall Heath ... ..… „ „5 75 giving a short account of the matter. — UE „ Incandescent Light Co. There can be little doubt but that early in the pre- 333 ° — sent year either a combination or an agreement has No. 4 Bill . Barton, Eccles, Winton, : Et taken place between the Edison and Swan Companies and Monton … Board. and R. E. Crompton, the manager of the Swan Carlisle ... be ...Corporation. Company. 1 The Edison Company, after a wider scheme had been Margate... ... —— Brush Co. 8 abandoned, applied last year for a district Which no Nelson pire Local Board. one can fail to see embraces the most profitable part of ts: stv ie 2 Brush Co. London. It consists of two sections, A and B. Section „ ee: Pincial B A is a rectangle about one mile long by a quarter br Ne. 5 Bill — — 4. and approximately bounded by Piccadilly, Long Acre, Clerkenwe Bow Street, Wellington Street, the Thames, North- Hampstead ...Ferranti-Hammond Co. umberland Avenue, the Mall and Arlington Street. It Holborn . Metropolitan Brush Co. thus embraces the area of the principal theatres, hotels F2 1 ” * and clubs in London. The outlying section B consists e 7 „ of a block bounded by Bond Street, Conduit Street, St. James & St. Martin's. Edison Company. Oxford Street, and Wardour Street, and another block St. Luke's … Metropolitan Brush Co. consisting of the greater part of St. James's Park. _. Wandswortn … 5 Sa These districts are reserved for the Edison Company No, 6 Bill ae 350 for two years. | 2 “Webs. Ses The four Swan districts comprise (1) the portion of Rotherhithke Metropolitan Brush Co. London between Bow Street and Temple Bar down to St. Giles. . Pilsen-Joel Company. the Thames; (2) Hanover and Grosvenor Squares; — — Metropolitan Brush Co. (3) Victoria Station; and (4) an area in South Ken-

Shoreditch rm * Wednesbury & Darlaston.South Staffordshire Co. No. 7 Bill ...Barnes and Mortlake ...Metropolitan Brush Co.

Hackney ... eee . ” ” ” Islington... eee eee St. Pancras ses ... Vestry. Whitechapel... ...Metropolitan Brush Co. No. 8 Bill . Bradford... .. Corporation. Brighton... Hanover Square ... Swan Company. u ensington . Swan Company. No. 9 Bill .. Bristol. * . Corporation. Grantham * Lowestoft ae Provincial Brush Company. No. 10 Bill...Chiswick ... ove ...Metropolitan Brush Co.

St. Geo Martyr No. 11

We thus see that

To Local Authorities there were granted 15 orders.

„ The Metropolitan Brush Co. 23 „

„ South Eastern Brush Co. rae

» South Staflordshire Co.

» Provincial Brush Co.

» Swan Co.

„ Incandescent Electric Light Co.

„ North Eastern Brush Co.

„ Edison Co. gp

„ Ferranti-Hammond

eee EL LL ...Gas Commissioners.

eee

No licences have as yet been granted, but ten are at present under consideration, three of which are by local authorities and seven by companies.

On the Bills above mentioned being brought into

Parliament, notice of opposition was given for those orders marked in the above list with an asterisk. But part of this opposition melted away, and there resulted only a real opposition to four of the orders—viz., those for St. James’s and St. Martin’s (Edison), the Strand, South Kensington, and Victoria (Swan). _ The Bills having been read in the House of Commons, it was resolved to remit them to a Hybrid Committee, and further, to take the somewhat unusual course of allowing any one that pleased to have a locus standi to oppose them.

The result of this was that to the Edison and Swan Companies (who were really working in concert) there appeared as opponents the Strand and Westminster

sington.

When the above orders were applied for by Edison and Swan, due notice was of course given to the local authorities, among whom are the Strand Local Board for the Edison order and for the Swan Strand Order, and also the Westminster Local Board for part of the Swan Order for Victoria. |

At first the Strand Local Authority appeared favour- able to Edison and Swan, who up to a late period in the present year anticipated no difficulty, but towards the end of April, when the extended time for inquiry by the Board of Trade had almost expired, the Strand Local Board, whose district extends over the whole of the proposed Swan order, and over a small eastern part of the Edison order, announced that they were un- favourable to any Provisional Order, and that the only thing they desired was the grant of a licence over their whole district to the Jablochkoff Company.

Upon this a local inquiry was ordered, which took place at Westminster Sessions House on May 10th, before Major Marindin. At this inquiry the represen- tatives of the Jablockhoff Company were present, but declined to explain their financial position, or the arrangements they proposed to make, whereupon, in accordance with the report of Major Marindin, the Board of Trade granted the Edison Order for the district above mentioned, almost all of which is within the area of St. Martin and St. James (who were favour- able to Edison), and as to the Swan Strand district, they granted the Order, but with a proviso (clause 67) that if within six months after the Order was granted, the Board of Trade granted a licence to the Jablochkoff Company, as desired by the Strand Board of Works, that then, pro tanto, the Swan Order was to become null.

The Swan Orders for Victoria and Kensington were also granted. |

In this condition of affairs, the four Orders for St. Martin and St. James, the Strand, Victoria, and Kens- ington, came before Parliament.

The first of these was opposed by the Strand Local Board, inasmuch as asmall part of its district was taken.

There also appeared a new opponent, viz., the Tele- graph Construction and Maintenance Company, whose

ground of opposition was, that as owners of the Gordon

dynamo, they would be prepared to undertake to supply electricity at a maximum price of 6d. per unit, as against the 9d. maximum of Edison. But they had as yet applied for neither Order nor licence, and it was objected to them, that it is not usual to stay a parlia-

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THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

ELECTRICAL REVIEW. 95

mentary bill which is otherwise unobjectionable, on the ground that someone else says he intends to apply next year for a bill to do the work at a cheaper rate.

The Jablochkoff Company was the next opponent who offered to show that they had successfully under- taken theatre and other lighting at Paris, and urged that they were supported by the Strand Local authority, calling attention to the rule of the Board of Trade by which priority is always given to the wishes of a local authority.

The Strand (Swan) Order was also opposed by the Strand Local Board, and by the Jablochkoff, and to this Order a new opponent presented itself, in the form of an enemy, but as a disguised friend. This consisted of a petition on the part of the proprietors of the Lyceum, Gaiety, National, Savoy, Olympic, Globe, Opera Comique, and Strand Theatres. :

It will be remembered that in the; Strand En Order, clause 67 had made it contingent on a Stran licence not being granted to the Jablochkoff Company. This clause the above theatre proprietors wished to strike out, so as to make the Swan Order absolute. This application could not have been made by the Swan Company, to whom the Order had been granted, for, in taking it they engaged to be bound by all its conditions. The making of the application by third persons who were apparently co-petitioners against the bill, operated therefore, in an ingenious manner, as an attempt to obtain the omission of the clause.

The Victoria and South Kensington (Swan) Orders were opposed chiefly by the Westminster Local Board of Works, on the ground that they were not satisfied with ‘the provisions for lighting their district, part of which was left unlit.

Various witnesses were called. First Mr. Farrer and Mr. Calcraft, the Permanent Secretary and Under- Secretary of the Board of Trade. Their position was peculiar, as, being a sort of inferior tribunal, they were not cross-examined, but only “ questioned to elicit their

views,” with as near an approximation to cross-exami-

nation as was thought prudent and respectful.

In addition to these, Sir F. Bramwell, Dr. Hopkin- son,and Mr. R. E. Crompton, gave evidence for the Edison and Swan Companies. On the other hand, Mr. Reeves, the manager of the Jablochkoff, and several other witnesses, were called on behalf. of that company. Sir Daniel Gooch, Sir George Richards, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Spagnoletti, and Sir Charles Bright, gave evidence for the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company.

As a result, the Committee threw out clause 67 above- mentioned, apparently on the ground that it is not expedient that Acts of Parliament should be made con- tingent on the action of the Board of Trade. With this omission, they passed the Edison Order. They also passed the Swan (Strand) Order, and so 21 of the Victoria and South Kensington Orders as di ele és with the:district of the Westminster Local

The Committee of the House of Commons has thus ignored the wishes of the Strand Board of Works, which was of opinion that at the present stage of electric lighting it was not desirable to tie up the Strand District for a period of more than seven years, er therefore objected to the part of a Provisional

rder. |

The grant of a district in opposition to the wishes of the Local Board has thus only been made in the case of the Strand Local District. The reluctance with which it was done, and the attempt to insert a clause to save it, shows the unwillingness of the Board of Trade to contravene the wishes of local authorities.

The Provisional Orders thus having passed the House

of Commons, will shortly be brought before the House of Lords.

Patents for Inventions Bill—In the House of ommons, on Saturday, the report of this Bill was received, and several verbal amendments and new clauses were agreed to. The Bill was then read a third time amid cheers.

THE STRIKE OF TELEGRAPH OPERATORS IN AMERICA.

AS our readers have already been informed, the recent dissatisfaction of the American operators culminated in a general strike on the 19th July. Rumours of what was about to take place had been freely spread in the public journals on the other side of the Atlantic for some months previously, the operators, it was under- stood, demanding higher salaries and fewer hours of labour. On the 16th July, three days before leaving their occupation, they presented a memorial, asking certain concessions, to the executive officers of the Great North Western Telegraph Company of Canada, the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company, the Western Union, the American Rapid, American Dis- trict, and several minor Companies. The following is a copy of the memorial sent to the Western Union Company, which differs from the others only by the addition of the Wheatstone clause

CENTRAL OFFICE, BROTHERHOOD OF TELEGRAPHERS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA.

Thos. T. Eckert, Esq., General Manager and Acting President of the

Western Union Telegraph Company, New York City.

Srr,—The Executive Board of the Brotherhood of Tel hers of the United States and Canada, acting in accordance with in- structions from that body, respectfully petition your favourable consideration of the following memorial, embodying the desires of all classes of employés in the service of the Western Union Telegraph Company :

SECTION 1. Believing that man’s physical and mental welfare

uires that at least one day in seven accorded him for rest and recreation, we request the total abolition of Sunday work asa compulsory duty, unless compensated as extra service.

Sec. 2. That eight hours shall constitute a day’s work and seven hours a night’s work.

SEC. 3. Both sexes shall receive equal pay for equal work.

SEC. 4. That a universal increase of 15 per cent. on all salaries now paid be granted. J

LINEMEN’S INTERESTS.

SECTION 1. That eight hours shall constitute a regular day’s work, and that compensation at the rate of two days’ pay be allowed for all Sunday work. That the lowest salary paid a regular lineman shall be $65 per month and for helpers $50. That the duties of linemen be confined solely to their legitimate work.

WHEATSTONE INTERESTS.

Section 1. That the salaries of first-class Wheatstone operators be increased to $75 per month and second-class operators to $60 per month, and that they receive in addition the 15 per cent. in- crease asked for Morse operators.

SEC. 2. That the working hours of Wheatstone operators be the same as Morse operators.

A reply at the earliest possible moment solicited.

The document was signed by the Chairman, Secre- tary, and five members of the Executive Board. General Eckert received the committee in person, and his views on the matter were made public by a long tele- gram sent to the general superintendent at Chicago on the day following. The message read thus :—

New York, July 17th.

To R. C. Clowry, General Superintendent Western Union Telegraph Company, Chicago:

A committee of six persons called upon me yeëterday and pre- sented a memorial addressed to the Western Union Telegraph Company, and signed by themselves as members of the Executive Committee [of the Brotherhood of Telegraphers of the United States and Canada. The memorial calls upon the company for certain concessions in regard to hours and rates of pay, substan- tially in accordance with the programme with which jyou have been familiar since their March meeting in Chicago.

The parties were asked if they represented the employés of this company, and upon replying affirmatively, they were requested to furnish a list of such employés. This, they said, they were not able to do, stating that it would require a long time to * a list, and that they were here on expense. They were told that the company did not know the committee, or whether its members had authority from the Western Union employés to present any demand, and we could not deal with outside parties. Aside from the questionable manner of presenting such a memorial, one demand is that both sexes shall receive equal pay for equal work, and another for 15 per cent. increase on all salaries.

An operator now receiving a salary of $50 a month would by this plan get a smaller increase than one getting $80 or $90 a month, thus widening the difference now existing. An $80 operator at present now works nine hours daily, twenty-six days a month, equal to 34 7 cents per hour. Under the schedule in

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THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

96 | ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

[AUGUST 11, 1883,

the memorial the same operator will receive $92 per month for eight hours daily, equal to about 30 per cent., in addition to the Sunday allowance just granted under the new rule. This is the increase demanded. In case a Wheatstone operator receives $50 per month for 26 working days, equal to 21,45 cents hour, the proposed schedule would give him 41,4 cents per — an increase of over 94 per cent. Another demand is that linemen shall be allowed two 1 * pay for Sunday work, and that $65 shall be the lowest rate o pay, regardless of location or importance of service, and ‘that the duties of linemen shall be confined to legitimate work. :

Nothing is said about the duties of other classes being restricted to that particular line of employment, but if such concession were allowed one class there is no reason for withholding it from others, and why linemen should have helpers is not understood. Again, double pay for Sunday work offers temptation to the men to slight their Saturday duty to create a necessity for the Sunday work. The demand that both sexes shall be paid the same for like service looks to the driving of women labor from the ranks, as were the company to concede it, it would be to its interest to prefér men operators who can be availed of for a greater variety of service than women operators who may be equally capable for general duty. |

In a published interview with a member of the committee the latter stated that since the organisation of the — y petty wire troubles and mistakes in messages have practically ceased, and that business has been greatly facilitated, these results being attributed directly to the fact of the organisation. The reverse is the case. Operators declining to join the League have been inter- fered with in their duties.

Wires have been thrown out of working condition, and in numerous cases the official business of the officers of the company has been mutilated and seriously delayed. A strike of the American District Telegraph Company's linemen, members of the League, took place in this city recently, since which time the strikers have been engaged in cutting the wires daily, one man now being under arrest and indictment for such lawless work. With thousands of able-bodied men out of employment all over the country applying to us for work, such a demand is remarkable. It is known that a large proportion of operators have been led to join the League under compulsion, and others under the belief that the organisation was co-operative for legitimate and benevo- lent purposes, many of whom have stated that they will repudiate any arbitrary action of the striking element.

(Signed) Tomas T. Eckert, Acting President.

The Electrical World of New York, to which we are indebted for our information, says, in its comment on the strike, What the result will be no one can truth- fully predict. As to the wisdom of the strike, the operators only and not the public can judge, since they only understand the situation and suffered the existing injustice. One feature of their revolt must command the respect of all just minds, and that is the modesty and dignity with which the movement was conducted.

When it became apparent to the Western Union officials that the Brotherhood was about to make some decided move, they sought to anticipate any possible demands by making ‘concessions’ unasked. Accord- ingly, on the 12th inst., they promulgated an order that At all independent Western Union offices which may be required to keep open all day Sunday, nine hours’ actual service in a day, six days in a week, and seven hours’ actual service at night, seven nights a week, will constitute a day’s (?) work. All service in excess of above-named hours, including Sunday, will be regarded

_extra, and will be paid for at regular salary, ona basis

of seven hours to a day.’ Although this order did benefit the employés of a few offices, it actually reduced salaries in others, so that the trick and its diaphanous character was apparent to every one when they had time to look into it—the new rule practically effecting a saving to the company.

“General Eckert's quibble about not knowing whether the committee of the Brotherhood represented the operators was a small and shabby evasion of respon- sibility, and an open violation of the law of business courtesy, which a manly man ought to be ashamed of.”

„Now that the strike has occurred,” says our con-

temporary in conclusion, “there is but one thing for the operators to do to insure success, and that is to tand firm. Strength lies in concerted action. Any other course means ultimate ruin to all. They must expect much thunder from their opponent’s artillery ; they must be prepared for all manner of stories and reports regarding the actions of strikers in other cities, but the day is theirs if their courage is sufficient.”

Further information from American sources reaches us in time to allow of giving our readers the latest infor-

‘a dynamo-machine driven at the surface.

mation — somewhat contradictory, it is true —as to the present position of the respective parties to the dispute. The New York Electrical Review says: —“ The indica- tions already point toa failure of the great telegraphers’ strike. A variety of causes, not easily foreseen, have conspired against the Telegraphers’ Brotherhood. |

“The ill-advised action of their committee, in preci- pitating the strike without, even for a day or two, wait- ing till the action of the grievance committee of the Western Union could be ascertained, has largely alien- ated the powerful support which might otherwise have been found for the movement in public sympathy and interest.

“ It required, to assure-success, that the rush of out- going employés should be potent enough to make a clean sweep, or at least enough to greatly perturb, if not wholly disconcert the current business of the lines: but no such decided result of the kind appears. |

All these things being considered, it is not difficult to hazard the prediction that the operators will soon again be at their desks, and the telegraph business of the country restored to its normal conditions. How- ever useless it may then be to regret the unnecessary expense and waste involved to all parties by the strike, it should not be forgotten to accord the fullest sympathy to those of the unfortunate operators who have been

misled into the doubts, difficulties, and hardships of a

strike, by designing men engaged in promoting their own selfish ends.”

On the other hand, the latest issue of the New York Electrical World states that the operators are gaining all their points, and that they will shortly secure a great victory, the Rapid Telegraph Company having already effected a compromise.

ELECTRICITY FOR MINES.

AMONGST the interesting papers read at the meetings

of the Mechanical Engineers at Liege last month, was

one by Mr. Alan C. Bagot, of London, On the Appli- cation of Electricity to the Working of Coal Mines.” Mr. Bagot had, during the three years subsequent to 1874, carried on a series of experiments to ascertain whether insulated cables, naked copper wires, stranded copper wire, stranded iron wire, or.the ordinary gal- vanised iron telegraph wire, was the most suitable for conveying currents of electricity in the shafts. He found that No. 4 G. I. telegraph wire was the best for shaft-conductors, and No. 8 for the engine plane. As applied at the Risca, North Dunraven, and other col- lieries, the arrangement of the No. 8 wires was prac- tically the same as in ordinary overhead telegraph lines ; shackles of brown earthernware spiked into the props on one side of the road for a single wire, and into the overhead collars or cross timbers when more than one wire used. In the engine-plane the bell signals are made at any point of the road by simply making a connection between the line and the return wire, and this work can be done by the boy in charge of the journey, while the tubs are running. The men use the inclines as travelling roads, and not unfrequently meet the tubs coming out and get crushed against the sides of the road. Under certain cir- cumstances it is advantageous to introduce electric train indicators. Electricity has also been applied so as to indicate the variations in speed of the air in the mines —as an anemometer, and Mr. Bagot has further ex- tended its usefulness by employing it to hear the action of the pump valves in the pit, instead of sending the sinkers down. The electric light has been applied in several collieries with considerable success, but 80 many systems are before the public, and it is so diffi- cult to decide upon the most suitable, that few coal- owners have considered it advisable to incur the expense of putting down the necessary plant, being content to wait until it is conclusively shown which is the best method. At the Risca Collieries the electric light is led into the pit, the current being supplied by The leading- down cable is carried along the shaft, and connected

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THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

Avaust 11, 1883.]

ELECTRICAL REVIEW. obs

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a series of Crompton arc lamps at the bottom. — light is shown, which greatly facili- tates the working of the cages, and the work of the men in the gate-roads. Speaking of the experi- ments conducted at Harris’s Navigation Collieries, where a Gramme machine is driven off the engine that works the Schiele fan, Mr. Bagot said: The results showed that incandescent lamps were not so suitable for the work as powerful arc lamps, fixed 40 feet above the ground. On account of the absence of colour in the light, the coal-trimmers could pick off “brass” and « pyrites” more quickly by the arc light than by the incandescent light. In every way the experiments proved conclusively that electric illumination of the surface was desirable at a mine of any great magni- tude, and that the ordinary engineering staff of a colliery was capable of maintaining the appliances in operation after a week’s instruction, but it was gener- ally agreed that the introduction of high-tension current machines was very undesirable, on account of the likelihood of accidentstothemen. He had observed that no amount of warning to the colliers would induce them to leave the line wires alone. Of all types of

where there is likely to be an accumulation of explosive gas, no light or lamp other than a locked safety shall be allowed or used.” Can an incandescent lamp be considered “a locked safety lamp”? It is, of course, well known that when this rule was passed, the incan- descent lamp was not generally kno |

A NEW SOLDERING IRON FOR TELEGRAPH | PURPOSES. 8

MR. J. O. FRY, of the National Telephone Company, Nottingham, has patented a very novel and ingenious soldering iron for telegraph or telephone wires, which it is said has supplied a long-felt want in this branch. We need scarcely point out the advantages of the new iron as compared with the present one in use. 6

Fig. 1 is a sectional view showing the internal ar- rangements. |

Part 1 A is the well or trough for receiving the solder into which the joint is dipped.

1 B is the groove by which the surplus solder is dipped into the cylinder, 1 c, for receiving the waste

FIGS.

dynamo-machines, the Edison low-tension machine is most suited for colliery purposes; while the Brockie, n, or Crompton arc lamps are suitable, if an arc is

required for illumination, in connection with a Gramme or Siemens dynamo.”

Mr. Bagot is of opinion that no increased safety

would be afforded by the electrical illumination of the working faces, as such accidents as the fall of a roof, the breaking of a lead, or the breaking of a lamp can- not be guarded against. Again, the electric light gives

no notice of an accumulation of gas in the mine, and

this the present safety lamp does. Another difficulty in the way of a general introduction of the electric light 18, that at present, setting the details of expense aside, it can only be applied to the illumination of the working faces by means of hermetically sealed glass Incandescent lamps, containing a supply of electricity for nine hours’ consumption. If this is charged from à dynamo-machine at the surface, due regard must be had to the length of time occupied in the operation. e weight of the lamp, moreover, should not exceed

t of the present lamp in use, or 3 Ibs. as a maximum. uch an appliance does not at present exist. One more difficulty requires to be overcome. The 7th general tule, Section 76, of “ The Mines Regulation Act 1872,” Provides that “in every working approach, in places

FI..

solder, where it reforms into a stick, ready for imme- diate use.

1 Dis the handle of the iron, which unscrews from 1 C the cylinder, when it releases the surplus solder.

Fig. 2 is a plan of the soldering iron.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the copper bit, which may be disconnected by removing the two side screws, marked A and B, so that a new bit may be inserted when neces- sary, thus saving the expense of a complete new iron.

a Fig. 4. A side view of the well for solder, when the iron is in use. |

Fig. 5. Plan of cylinder, which ‘is slightly coned to allow of the solder being released freely.

Fig. 6. Side view of the handle.

Fig. 7. Side view of the screwed boss connecting the copper-bit with cylinder.

Fig. 8. A plan of the screwed terminal boss and gauge.

Where heavy construction is carried out, especially deviations and alterations of poles with many wires, the iron will be found invaluable, considering it retains sufficient heat in one heating to solder eight or more joints, thus saving a great amount of time, labour and expense, and risk of fire in over-house work, as against the present system in use. As every construction man is aware of the great waste of solder, first in preparing or

| THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

[AUGUST 11, 1883,

| facing the iron, and then the amount that is wasted in

soldering the joints, not less than a quarter of a pound of the metal it is stated being used over one joint, and by the time the iron reaches the man at the top of a high pole or on a building it has cooled down, and has hardly retained sufficient heat to make athorough joint, hence the slipping of these joints during contraction of the wires, more especially during winter time. More- over the present irons are so small, they are generally made red hot when required a short distance from the centre of operation, and the wire naturally becomes brittle from overheating. Hence numerous breakdowns, leav- ing out the risk of fires where the iron has to be hauled up on roofs, whereas, as mentioned, this iron will retain sufficient heat to thoroughly solder eight or more joints without ,risk of fire. The flat or other side of the iron may be used for ordinary soldering purposes. On this side also there is a small groove, to allow of the waste solder to run into the cylinder, 1 C. We understand that this iron will be made in various sizes, to suit large or small guage wires or cable work.

THE ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION AND STORAGE OF POWER.*

By. Dr. C. WILLIAM SIEMENS, F. R. S., M. Inst. C. E.

[Am the Aime Dr. Siemens’ paper was read we gave a rief abstract of the same, and we have now the

pleasure of presenting this discourse to our readers in

its entirety ELEC. REV.]

MR. PRESIDENT, COLLEAGUES, AND GENTLEMEN,—If I interpret rightly the intention of your Council, it was not that these lectures should be what may be called popular lectures, or appeals to mere amateurs interested in the subject; nor do I understand that it was their intention that they should be strictly scien- tific lectures, such as would deal with ultimate laws and. formule, or such other information as might be found in text books ; but I presume the intention was that those- members of your body who have given thought and study, and also attained experience in particular branches of engineering, should communi- cate their knowledge to their colleagues; having regard particularly to the younger members of the profession.

The general subject that has been selected for the- present session is electricity—the most subtle of the.

forces of nature which it is the business of the civil engineer, according to the terms of our charter, to direct. The two 13 preceding this have been devoted to the action of electricity when it is a swift agent, carrying our thoughts to distances only limited by geographical bounds. The first lecture, by Mr.

. Preece, dealt with telegraphy; the second, by Sir

Frederick Bramwell, was upon that branch of telegraphy (for so I must call it) —telephony, which accomplishes the wonderful feat of communicating speech to reason- able distances. In both cases the receiving instrument is of the most delicate nature that the ingenuity of engineers has been able to contrive for recording the small efforts of energy flowing through the wire. The task that has been assigned to me is to introduce electricity to you, still as a precise and swift agent, but as one that can moreover accomplish quantitative effects, rivalling those produced by our steam-engines, by our hydraulic accumulators, and by compressed air. It is with reference to electricity in this form that I propose to put certain experiments and explanations before you.

Electricity, as you know, is the youngest form of energy with which we are practically acquainted. Although the only available source of that energy was until lately the galvanic battery, attempts were made, from the days of Volta, at the beginning of the present century, to apply that force for the obtaining and trans- mitting of power. A very little consideration will convince us that all those efforts must necessarily have

* Institution of Civil Engineers, March 15th, 1883.

—

been futile. A pound of zinc is produced by the com- bustion of from 15 to 20 pounds of coal, and while a pound of coal in burning gives out 12,000 heat units, a pound of zinc in burning gives only 2,340. Thus zing gives in burning only one-fifth of the effect in energy that coal does, and taking the cost of zinc at 50 times that of coal, it follows that the cost of energy, in the case of a galvanic battery, is, roughly speaking, 250 times greater than in a steam-boiler. Thus handicapped, it was not likely that electricity could be made available for producing powerful effects, although the attempts that were made—in ignorance of the laws of nature governing the force of electricity—were numerous, Before entering upon the most essential part of my subject, I must mention an invention or discovery of Seebeck in 1822—that of the thermo-battery. I have here a thermo-battery in which the heating agent is gas, which we will have lighted, and you will see that from it proceeds a current, exceedingly weak, yet a current which owes its origin entirely to heat ; and by it we can effect transmutation, so to speak, of heat energy into electrical energy, without any intermediate mechanism or contrivance. If alternate strips of metal, of different positions in the thermo-electrical scale, such as bismuth and antimony, are joined at the ends into couples, and one point of juncture is heated while the next is kept cool, a current is set up, flowing from the hot to the cold juncture, and the moving power of the current thus produced is proportionate to the dif- ference of temperature between the hot juncture and the cold, and to the relative positions of the two metals in the thermo-electric scale. If this transformation could be affected without loss, we might hope”that the thermo-battery would be the ultimate and most: perfect solution of the problem of developing electric energy out of heat. Sir William Armstrong, in his in- augural address at York in 1881, as President of the Mechanical Section of the British Association, drew particular attention to the thermo-battery, as one. of the most hopeful sources of ultimate electrical

effect, and physical experimentalists should never lose

sight of this interesting problem. Yet the thermo- battery has one drawback, in common with the steam- engine or any thermo-motor—that is, it is dependent, not only on the first law of thermo-dynamics, according to which heat is changed entirely into its equivalent of electricity, but also on the second law, which says that whenever such conversion of heat takes place, a certain amount of heat must descend from a point of high- potential to a point of low-potential. It is thus that our best steam-engines give in mechanical force only about one-seventh of the theoretical equivalent of the heat-energy ; and it is owing to this second law of thermo-dynamics that there must be necessarily a loss of heat, by conduction in the metal strips themselves, which conducted heat must be abstracted at the cooled extremities all round, in order to keep up the extremes of temperature upon which the action of the thermo- battery depends. We will now see whether we can produce a visible effect by the current on the electro- dynamometer, an instrument the nature of which 1 shall have occasion to describe hereafter. The action is not great, but you see that there is a very decided deflection to this side of about 5 degrees. The battery has not been on long, or it would probably amount to 10 degrees. From measurements which I have only lately made at leisure, I find that it would require one thousand eight hundred single pairs of these strips to produce a potential sufficient to work an incandescent electric light, showing how very slight the current really is. v I now approach a subject in our lecture which is of . the greatest importance. I have here the origi a magnet, and the original coil, which Faraday used in the year 1831—fifty-two years ago—to develop the first induction spark. In 1826, or 1827, he had already conceived the idea that when an armature was removed forcibly from a permanent magnet, the expenditure force should give rise to a current in the wire sur- rounding the armature ; but it took him three or four years to develop the idea. When Faraday saw the spark,

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AvausT 11, 1883.]

THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

ELECTRICAL REVIEW. 90

and was able to show it to the members of the Royal

Institution, it was a red-letter day in his existence, and he even then thought that it would be a point of departure of some importance, because he said on that occasion: Although this spark is very small, so that you can hardly perceive it, others will follow who will make this power available for very important purposes.“ Now that the light is lowered, I will draw your at- tention to the point of the wire touching this little disk or pan, and you will distinctly observe the spark when I break the connection. This magnet is the very steel magnet which Faraday used, and at that time it was quite a giant amongst magnets.

Faraday next turned his attention to magneto- electricity, and to what was called by him the magnetic field. I have here a horse-shoe electro-magnet, with

its two stems surrounded by coils of wire. If a current

is passed through the coils, these extensions become magnetic poles, and if I lay a piece of cardboard upon them, and spread over it some iron-filings, you will observe that, under the influence of the electric current, they distribute themselves in a very peculiar way. Most of the iron filings you see have massed upon two spots, exactly corresponding to the two poles; and all round these spots, lines which are called the lines of magnetic force are shown by the iron filings. It is, of course, difficult, in an experiment of this sort, to show the action as completely as one can in a laboratory ; I have accordingly brought some photographed cards, which are certainly very instructive. In these the result of the attraction of the poles, the outflowing lines, as it were, of force from the magnet running in all directions, are well depicted. In the one that has been reproduced, in fig. 1, the two half-circles, in- tensely white, are the magnetic fields of a dynamo- machine such as you see before you, and the diagram enables us to trace the intensity and direction of the magnetic action in every part of the machine.

Now if a wire forming a closed circuit was taken across these lines of force, although passing only through air (indeed it might be passing through a vacuum), it would encounter resistance due to the magnetism, and this resistance manifests itself as a

current of electricity passing through the wire. I shall

endeavour to make the.experiment in such a way as to render this action visible to you. I have here my magnetic field, that is to say, two polar surfaces opposed to one another, and a framework wound six times round and round with wire; a single wind would do, but by winding six times I repeat the action which would take place upon the one wire sixfold, and this action I expect will be manifested upon a galvanometer-needle with which this frame is con- nected. I can move the frame about away from the magnetic field and no action is produced on the needle, but when I move the wires into the magnetic field, there is an action in one direction, and when I move it out again there is an action in the contrary direction. The current produced in this wire is exactly proportionate to the amount of force which I exerted, and this again is proportionate to the rapidity of the motion and to the intensity of the magnetic field. If the two poles are set very close together, and if the current exciting the electro-magnet 18 great, the current produced in the induction wires will be great also. Again, if I move the wires through the magnetic field with great velocity I encounter greater resistance, and I shall obtain a still greater result. In fine the mechanical power expended in passing the wires through the magnetic field is con- verted at once into electric power or current.

en the magneto-current had been scientifically proved, it was soon taken advantage of in the construc- tion of the machines of Pixii, of Holmes, and of the Alliance Company, which latter machines were made successful at a very early date in lighting some of the coasts of France, and also of this country. Steel magnets were employed, between the poles of which armatures furnished with coils of insulated wire were made to rotate, when, by the inductive action thus pro- duced, alternating currents were set up in the coils and

conveyed to the electric lamp without being changed into a continuous current by means of a commutator, The next advance upon Faraday’s original conception

was an armature by which the inductive action can be multiplied considerably. In the Faraday instrament the armature was separated from the magnet by lifting it away from it. In this, which is generally known as the (Werner) Siemens’ armature, the coil is put upon an H piece of iron, and made to rotate in a magnetic field. There are in the magneto-machine placed on the table steel magnets superposed one above the other, and between the poles of. these magnets such an armature is made to rotate with considerable velocity., You will easily perceive that each time the iron head of the armature is separated from the line of poles of the permanent magnets, i. e., each time it makes a half- revolution there is a severance due to each of these magnets. Therefore, if there are eight bars, we have on the one side of the electro-magnet the joint effect of eight severances, and on the other side a similar amount of effect. So that for each half-revolution we get the result of sixteen such sparks as that shown in Faraday's experiment, and if this can be repeated at a

Fig. 1.—Sxzction or Dynamo Macurne.

very rapid rate we may get sixteen sparks perhaps ten times in a second. We will now connect the current, not with the dynamometer, because it would not be so suitable, but with one of these instruments which are generally used for exploding mines, and I will, with your permission, explode a mine. Instead of one we might have ten or twelve mine-exploders in a series. You observe a very powerful instantaneous current resulting from the action of the machine,

A further step in the development of magneto- machines was furnished by Mr. Wilde, of Manchester, by substituting for the steel magnets electro-magnets excited by the current from a separate magneto- machine furnished with the Siemens’ armature. By this arrangement Mr. Wilde was able to realise much more powerful effects than could have been obtained previously.

Another form in which the Faraday or induced current manifests itself is in an induction coil, and this also represents an essential action which we should realise before going any further. In an induction coil one spiral of insulated wire is put within another, both upon an iron centre. When a bar of iron is surrounded, as in this instance, with wire,

through which a current is passed, the bar becomes

a magnet; and if outside the wire of the primary coil, as it is called, fine wire is wound, a current is induced in the secondary coil which isof high potential, or tension, according to the number of turns which the

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| THE TKLEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

[AUGUST 11, 1883.

wire makes round and round the bar: therefore if a current of very high potential is wanted, very thin wire has to be taken and coiled round a great number of times, whereas if a current of larger quantity and small tential is required, a thicker wire has to be used, ving only a small number of turns. If I were to take a thick wire and make the same number of turns, the outer convolutions would be too far away from the magnet to produce energetic action; I am therefore limited by the space at my disposal round this bar of iron in the amount of effect either in quantity or in tential which I can command. I will now ask Mr. ebel to connect this wire, and you will see that we have here between these points such a potential that a k similar to a lightning discharge takes place across

e gap, about an inch long, between them. This represents, electrically speaking, a very high potential— probably 80,000 volts.

The machines which we have so far considered depend for their action upon the severance of an arma- ture from a permanent magnet. In the year 1865 another principle of action saw the light of day. It was first communicated by my brother, Werner Siemens, to the Berlin Academy ; it was also communicated by myself to the Royal Society three weeks later, and when my Paper was read Prof. Wheatstone brought the same idea forward. The principle consists in this, that when the current produced by the severance of an armature surrounded by conducting wire from the poles of an electro-magnet, is sent through the coils of the very magnet that produces the magnetism, a kind of re- generative action is set up. There must be a magnetic field to commence the action, and in our first experi- ments this initial amount of magnetism was produced by means of a small battery connected with a separate coil on the electro-magnets ; we soon found, however, that no such initial excitement was necessary, but that terrestrial magnetism sufficed to induce in the bars of the electro-magnets a magnetic action sufficient to cause a slight current in the coils of the rotary armature, which, in passing through the coils of the field magnets, increased their magnetic tendency ; the result was an increased inductive action, and an increased induced current ; this again, in passing through the coils of the field magnets, further increased the magnetic intensity, giving rise to increased inductive action, and to a current of increased intensity. The accumulative action thus set up is limited, however, by the point of magnetic saturation of which a bar of iron is capable. Up to that point the resistance of the rotary armature rapidly increases, thus causing a direct conversion of mechanical into electrical energy. This isthe principle upon which dynamo-machines are now generally con- ceived, and it gives us a power of increase which Faraday foresaw in his original experiment, when he said that the time would come when the primary effect which he showed would be multiplied indefinitely. The machine which I placed before the Royal Society in the year 1865 is now before you; it has done a great deal of useful work since, having been employed at the Telegraph Works at Woolwich to magnetise steel bars to make them permanent magnets; we will set it at work. The machine is now being worked by acurrent, for the dynamo machine can serve either as a power- giving machine, or as a power-receiving machine. If you pass a current through these coils, you transform electric into mechanical energy ; if, on the other hand, you turn the armature forcibly round at the same speed as before, you produce nearly the same current which was originally taken in driving it.

-At the time the dynamo principle was first announced, great interest was expressed in its behalf by my late friend Prof. Clerk Maxwell, who saw in ‘the mutual convertibility, by the same piece of mechanism, of mechanical into electrical effect, and vice versd, a great

ractical proof of the correlation of physical forces.

he phrase, attributed to him in popular essays, viz., that one of the greatest discoveries of the present century was the reversibility of the Gramme machine, must however be received with great reserve, consider- ing that the particular machine with which the name

of Gramme is associated was not brought out until five years after the dynamo-electric principle of action had been established.

It is a remarkable feature connected with dynamo- electricity that the second law of thermo-dynamics is not involved. Theoretically speaking, a certain amount of mechanical force can be converted entirely into electrical force; and electrical force theoretically speaking can be so converted into dynamical force. Practically speaking, of course, that is not so. There are necessarily losses, and one of these, which is self. evident, is that the current passing through the coils must produce resistance—and electrical resistance, wherever it appears, converts electric energy into heat energy. Again, the iron bars which are magnetised and demagnetised at every half-revolution set up currents in themselves, for it is natural that instead of the current flowing only through the convolutions of the wire, the iron itself being a metal, some current will be set up in it, and this current so set up produces the effect of heating the iron; it simply circulates round and round, forming as it were electrical eddies which must be productive of heat.

These losses, however, can be diminished almost in- definitely by increasing the size and conductivity of the wires, and as regards the iron, a form of armature has been devised, which is best illustrated in the machine before us—the Gramme machine—the original conception of which is due to Dr. Pacinotti in 1861. This consists in putting the iron, in the form of wire coiled round and round a non-conducting body, which is surrounded in its turn by the insulated copper wire forming the coils of the rotating armature. The iron wires being surrounded by a non-conducting material, electric eddies cannot circulate in the direction in which they would occur, viz., transversely to that of the wires, whereas the magnetic poles induced by the fieid-magnets are free to advance within the iron wires at the rate of the rotative motion imparted to them.

We have here another armature which is not entirely according to Pacinotti’s idea, but involves it—an arma- ture such as is now largely used in dynamo machines. On a wooden bobbin are wound coils of insulated wire in a direction parallel to its longitudinal axis, according to a plan due to Von Heftner Alteneck. Each coil of wire thus wound is brought successively into metallic connection with one of these laminæ, through which the current produced within the coil in passing through the magnetic field is conveyed by the commutator and its contact brushes, into the wire constituting the outer circuit, and the coils of the field magnets. A succession of currents is thus set up, all flowing in the same direction, and constituting in their aggregate a con- tinuous flow. The chief advantage claimed for this arrangement is that the whole of the wire upon the armature, except where it crosses from side to side at the end, is effective : whereas in the Pacinotti ring the copper returns on the inside of the iron ring, so that only one half of its length receives inductive effect in passing through the magnetic field. ,

Prof. Wheatstone in his Paper mentioned a very significant fact. He said: “If I make a cross-connec- tion between the circuit passing round the armature and the field, I get a momentary very powerful effect.” This cross-connection really severs the current into two parallel circuits, one portion passing at once out to the electric light or to the place where the electric effect is to be produced, and the other flowing round the bar- magnets and back again to the machine. If this arrangement is applied to a machine wound for a con- tinuous circuit, it will not produce any useful result, but if it is modified—that is to say, if, as I showed in a Paper before the Royal Society in 1880, the resistance of the wire on the field-magnets is increased a hundred- fold, then we get a machine capable of very sustained action, and this form of shunt dynamo machine, as it is called, has been since largely adopted in the production

of electric light. The greatest uniformity of current

is produced, however, in combining the shunt with the old method of winding the field-magnets by furnishing them with two separate coils, the one of low resistance

AUGUST 11, 1883.)

THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

forming part of the outer circuit, and the other of high resistance consisting of thin wire forming ashunt

uit. * (To be continued.)

THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION.

IN our issue of the 20th June we gave a brief descrip- tion of the electric lighting of this exhibition. Follow- ing are detailed accounts of the exhibits of the different firms now engaged in the enterprise ; and Mr. Gooch, the engineer, is undoubtedly to be congratulated on the satisfactory results achieved.

THE BRITISH ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY, Turk’s Head Yard, Turnmill Street, E.C., is illuminating the Norway and Sweden sections with 16 Brockie arc lamps of the new compensating type from two H Grammes, separately excited.

DAVEY, PAXMAN, & Co., Colchester, supply the whole of the steam power for the electric lighting of the ex- hibition. This firm has altogether six engines at work, one being 80 horse-power nominal, one compound 75, three semi-fixed 25 each, and one semi-portable 20. The average indicated horse power of the whole is about 940, but the engines are capable of working up to about 1,200, so that with their present re they are well within their capacity. The two large of the engines are fed by five separate boilers, the four others having engine and boiler combined. The 80 horse-power nominal engine is capable of indicating about 350 horse-power, and each semi-fixed. engine will indicate about four times its nominal power. These semi-fixed engines have been at work since the introduction of the electric light into the exhibition. Two of them were at work continuously for four months in connection with the Royal Aquarium Elec- tric Light Exhibition, and it was the satisfaction there given by them which induced the commissioners of the Fisheries Exhibition to request this firm to supply their necessary lighting power.

HENRY EDMUNDS, Victoria Mansions, Victoria Street, S.W. is lighting the promenade gallery with 25 2,000 candle-power Hochhausen lamps arranged in series and worked by one direct current dynamo. A similar machine will supply six large lamps of 12,000 candle- power in the tower 120 feet high, on the upper terrace ; and also some lamps in the eastern corridor. This system of tower lighting, which is designed to illu- minate the whole of the upper terrace and gardens, is used in America for outdoor lighting, and is here looked upon with much interest,

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT SUPPLY COMPANY, LIMITED, 28, York Street, S.W., illuminate the press-room and literary department with 40 Swan lamps, the machine used being a Franklin-Burgin running at 1,700 revolu- tions per minute, and giving an electromotive force of 160 volts. The lampsare arranged in parallel series, and the circuit well protected with fusible plugs. These plugs are made of metallic foil, enclosed between sheets of mica, which have the effect of localising the action in fusing and thus preventing danger from the scatter- ing of the molten metal. In this respect the ordinary lead wire fuses are more or less unreliable, their gauge of the wire being somewhat uncertain, but with a standard thickness of foil which can be cut to any width, the breaking of the current by the fuse can be regulated to a nicety. The life-boat shed is also lit by this company with six improved Jarman lamps, ar- ranged in series, and also driven by a Franklin-Burgin machine. This installation has been very successfully effected by Mr. James R. Strugnell.

FERRANTI, THOMPSON & INCE, 3, Fenchurch Avenue, E. C., light 19 large 1 tanks jin the aquarium, each with 12 incandescent lamps of the Swan type, and also the aquarium generally, with 30 of the same lamps.

ese are driven by a Ferranti machine, running at 1,350 revolutions per minute. A much larger machine

is expected to be at work soon, driving from 800 to 1,000 lamps, distributed in the aquarium, the piscatorial department, and the refreshment bar. The fittings, branches and mains for the greater number of lamps are now being adjusted.

THD GERARD ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER Con- PANY, LIMITED (Société Anonyme d’Electricité, Paris), is running eight 2,000 candle power arc lamps in the Russian section, driven by a Gérard alternating ma- chine. Each lamp is arranged on a separate circuit with a common return for all. The field magnets of the machine revolve, and the current is taken from the fixed armature coils to a set of terminals arranged on the top of the machine so that they can be adapted either for quantity or tension, or they can, as at present, be split up into a number of circuits. There are 12 field magnets, and 24 armature coils on each side. The speed is 750, and an A Gramme is used for exciting.

THE GULCHER ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY, LIMITED, Battersea Foundry, S. E., illuminate by means of the Giilcher system the China gallery, which comprises the China, Japan, and Eastern sections, with 600 Crookes’ incandescent lights, as also the machinery in motion and electric machinery sheds, with 30 of the same lamps, arranged in parallel, the whole being driven by five Gulcher direct current low tension dynamo machines. These machines are compound shunt wound, maintaining a constant electromotive force, so that both arc and incandescent lamps can be run on the same circuit from the same machine,

THE JABLOCHKOFF ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY, LIMITED, 1, Great Winchester Buildings, E.C., has 60 Jablochkoff lamps affixed in the Belgian, Netherlands, Newfoundland, United States, and Den- mark Departments. These are worked by three Jab- lochkoff Gramme self-exciting, alternating - current dynamos, there being four curcuits from each machine, each circuit supplying five lamps. The current for each lamp is about eight ampéres. Immediately out- side of the Netherlands department are four street lamps, with three candles burning in each, which are driven by another alternating Gramme machine of the usual type. |

CHARLES LEVER, Culcheth Hall, Bowden, Cheshire, has 28 of his lamps, of 2,000 candle-power nominal, alternately arranged on two circuits, distributed through- out the dining rooms, the lecture theatre, and council room. Sixteen are in the general dining rooms, and are worked by two compound Grammes. The current of each is 14 ampères, the electromotive force about 250 volts, and the speed 1,350 revolutions per minute. The indicated H.P. is 10 for each machine. Of the other twelve lamps, four are in the fish dining room, one in the fish kitchen, two in the lecture theatre, two in the council room, and three in the main kitchen, and these are worked by two Burgin machines, excited by an A Gramme.

SIEMENS Bros. & Co., LIMITED, 12, Queen Anne’s Gate, Westminster, S. W., illuminate the main gallery with nearly 1,100 Swan lamps of 20 candle-power each, driven by two of their large-size, alternating-cürrent, W. O. dynamo machines. In the conservatory this company has also four arc lamps (parallel) of 5,000 candle-power, each supplied by one large, shunt-wound, direct-current dynamo. The current is 128 ampères, or 32 ampères per lamp. Throughout the gallery the lamps are very evenly distributed, the arrangement being specially designed to show the adaptability of incandescent lamps for lighting large spaces, and the effect is gene- rally remarked upon.

THE SWAN UNITED ELECTRIC COMPANY, LIMITED, 9, St. Mildred’s, Poultry, E.C., light the royal pavilion with 60 Swan incandescent lamps, high resistance, arranged in parallel. The conservatory is lit by 60 half-lights, arranged to suit Messrs. Dick Radcliffe and Co.’s special class of conservatory fittings, and to give coloured and shaded light and water effects. The dynamos used consist of an alternating-current machine with exciter, and a direct-current dynamo, both on the Siemens’ system.

F. L. WILLARD, 85, Hoxton Street, N., is lighting

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102

ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

[AUGUST 11, 1883.

the eastern arcade with six of his arc lamps, which burn extremely well, driven by two Burgin machines.

: WOODHOUSE & RAWSON, 11, Queen Victoria Street, E. C., have 350 of their incandescent lamps illuminating the vestibule, the Fine Arts Gallery, and the entrance hall. In the vestibule is a large, handsome crystal electrolier, with 90 of this firm’s lamps, and on either side à smaller electrolier with 15 lamps. The whole 2 actuated by one of the Elphinstone-Vincent ma-

nes.

THE UNITED ASBESTOS COMPANY, LIMITED, 161, Queen: Victoria Street, E. C., exhibits in the machinery in motion department a large assortment of asbestos packing; made from Italian asbestos. This packing is used in all the engines of Messrs. Davey, Paxman & Co. at this exhibition. The especial advantage of the Italian asbestos over the Canadian and other varieties is said to be that it is free from any deleterious element. It has been largely adopted by several leading railway companies in England, and also by English steamship companies, and has apparently given much satisfaction. It is now on trial by some of the English and Scotch railway companies, several of whom contemplate adopting it permanently.

-LALANDE AND CHAPERON’S OXIDE OF COPPER BATTERY.

In the ELECTRICAL REVIEW of July 28th we pub- lished an illustrated description of this battery. M. Hospitalier, the Editor-in-Chief of L’Electricien, has made some experiments with one of these elements, which he describes in the last number of our Parisian contemporary. As the results may be of service to many of our readers we reproducethem. M. Hospitalier writes as follows :—

“We give the results of anexperiment we made upon one element of the model represented in fig. 1*, at the laboratory of the Industrial School of Physics and Chemistry at Paris. The ‘weight of the element was thus distributed:

| Grammes, Glass jar ... soi 2 spe — 454 Sheet-iron box and conductor... Zinc and slate lid Oxide of copper a oe 200 Commercial solution of potash at 40 per cent. 800 Total 1914

The battery, the initial electromotive force of which, one hour after being set up, gave 0°98 volts, was put in circuit for six whole days through a resistance of German silver wire of 0°38 ohms. The difference of potential at the terminals was measured by means of a graduated volt-meter of Sir W. Thomson. Thus the external resistance, R, and the difference of potential at the extremities of this resistance being known, it is easy to deduce from them the intensity of current, the quantity of electricity supplied, and the corresponding electrical energy. The accompanying diagram shows how much the intensity of the current varied during the six entire days of working the battery.

The current supplied was, on an average, half an ampére during six days, or 518,400 seconds. The total quantity of electricity supplied was 259,000 coulombs, the weight of zinc consumed 88 grammes, which corresponds to a theoretical production of 260,000 coulombs. This is a most important point, and very favourable to Lalande and Chaperon’s battery, for it shows that the local action is practically nil. The energy that the battery is capable of supplying is therefore available at will, without it being necessary to disturb the elements in order to withdraw the zinc from the liquid, as in the bichromate of potash batteries, for example. The useful, available rendering is 0°02 kilogrammetres per second. In six days, there- fore, the battery supplied 10,368 kilogrammetres of

* See EzecrricaAz Review of above date.

available electrical energy. This exceeds the results obtained up to the present with accumulators of the same weight, but we must add that the supply is much slower than with these latter. It is however easy to increase this rendering byi ncreas- ing the surface of the elements and by diminishing the distance of the oxide from the zinc plate. The result then increases more rapidly than the weight, and tends to approach that of the accumulators. |

The remarkable constancy of the rendering must be attributed chiefly to the fact that the product of the reduction is metallic copper, which is a good conductor, and that the solution of an alkaline salt of zinc which is formed presents a conductivity almost equal to that of the solution of potash. For a given weight of zinc dissolved, about three times the quantity of solid potash is required, and a quantity of oxide of copper, equal to 1:25 times the weight of the zinc. In our experiment, the consumption of zinc being only 88 grammes, required in the reaction only 260 grammes of solid potash and 110 grammes of oxide of copper, 2.e., that the battery was exhausted at about two-thirds only.”

M. Emile Reynier also contributes an article on the same subject, which will form an interesting addition to M. Hospitalier’s experiments. The author says :—

“The power and constancy of this battery, its great capacity for energy, and its absence of unpleasant smell seem to promise it several applications ; it is therefore worth while to study it from a commercial point of view.

The weight of each of the bodies assimilated or liberated by the reactions of the battery is obtained from the formula : |

P =f x n x X 00368 grammes, in which E is the

electromotive force of the couple in volts, & the

chemical equivalent of the body, and n the number of

equivalents in question.

The reactions of Lalande and Chaperon’s battery

take up 1 equivalent of zinc, 1 of potash (or soda), 1 of

bioxide of copper, and liberate 1 of powdered copper. The values of a x 0°0368 are :

: Value of Name of Chemical Formula. : a x 0°0368 Substance. Equivalent. grammes. Zinc. Zn. 32°7 1:2 Potash. KO. HO. 56˙1 2˙06 Soda. NaO. HO. 40˙0 1°47 Bioxide of Copper. CuO. 39°7 1°46 Copper. Cu. 318 1:17

According to the experiments made at M. Hos- pitalier’s laboratory at the School of Physics and Chemistry, at Paris, the electromotive force varies a little. The six days’ experiment described indicates a mean effective electromotive force of about 0°8 volts.

With this value of E, the theoretical values of P, for a rendering of 3,600 kilogrammetres become :

Grammes. P, weight of the zinc 14:71 „ potash... 25°26 P, = „ bioxide of copper 17˙9

The impure potash of Croix (North) which the inventors employ is delivered at 70 centimes the kilo ; the percentage of caustic alkali in this being only 0°9 ; the price of the potash is really 0°70 fr.: 09 = 0°78 fr. the kilo. As to the reduced copper, although it is inferior to that supplied by the Daniell batteries it may be estimated at 1°20 fr., as it can be utilised in the revivification of the bioxide.

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THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

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The theoretical cost price of 3,600 kilogrammetres would therefore be : ,

For the potash battery—

zn . 001471 k. at 06 fr. … 00088 Potash... . 0°02526 k. at 0°78 fr. … 00197 Bioxide of copper 0°0179 k. at 1°75 fr. ... ... 00313

| Total. 00598 From which must be deducted :

Copper. ... 00143 k. at 1-20 fr.. 00172 Remainder ... ... 00426

And for the soda* battery— ies .. 0018 k. at 0°54 fr. 0°0097

Total : .:. ... From which must be deducted—

Copper . 00172 Remainder ... ... 00326

The co-efficient of chemical utilisation may be esti- mated at 15; by adopting here as elsewhere the value of 1'3 as co-efficient of physical utilisation, we get:

For the potash battery : es

Practical cost price of 3,600 effective kilogrammetres, 00426 fr. x 15 x 13 = 0-083 fr. Practical cost price of 1 horse-power hour = 0°083 fr. x 75 = 6°22 fr.

And for the soda battery :

Practical cost price of 3,600 effective kilogrammetres = 00326 fr. x 15 x 13 = 0-063 fr.

Practical cost price of one horse-power, hour = 0-063 fr. x 75 = 4°72 fr.

Thus Lalande and Chaperon’s couples, with soda, would necesitate an expenditure intermediate between those of the bichromate batteries and those of the sulphate of copper batteries, over which they possess the great advantage of expending hardly anything in open circuit.

ve. —

Dos „ 8

0 1 2 3 + 5 6 Days

The inventors hope to lower the cost price con- siderably by putting into practice certain processes of regeneration. I myself formed, three years ago, similar plans for a battery, which was certainly inferior to and not so simple as the one in question. I laid aside this branch of study as soon as I could see the practicability of the accumulators, which are batteries that can be regenerated without manipulation. Nevertheless, by collecting and utilising their waste, Messrs. Lalande and Chaperon may succeed in lowering the commercial Price of the materials consumed, so as to diminish con- siderably the expense of their primary battery, which possesses many advantages and has few faults.”

——ͤ—̃— —

* The soda battery has not been tried. It is here taken for

Vanted that the electromotive force is the same with soda as

with potash, but probably it is a little weaker.

THE AMERICAN PATENT OFFICE EXAM- INER’S DECISION ON THE TELEPHONE INVENTION.*.

ON the 21st ult. the first stage of the settlement of the

8 of priority of invention of the several parts of e telephone was reached, and the examiner of Inter-

ferences in the Patent Office promulgated his decision

in “the speaking telephone interference cases.“

The first of these interferences, of which there are eleven, was declared in March, 1878, and the Patent Office has at various times since then considered them and heard arguments upon them. The parties origi- nally involved were A. G. Bell, J. W. McDonough, T. A. Edison, E. Berliner, G. B. Richmond, E. Gray, A. E. Dolbear, A. G. Holcombe, C. E. Chinnock, C. A. Randal, F. Blake, J. H. Irwin, and G. M. Phelps. W. L. Voelker was made a party to three of the cases in 1879.

Of the original parties decisions have heretofore been rendered against Richmond, Holcombe, Randall, Phelps, Chinnock, and Berliner. The decision of the remaining eleven cases covers 348 printed pages. The several interferences are denominated respectively as interferences A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, J, L, and No. 1.

The subject matter of interference A is defined as “the art of transmitting and reproducing at a distance sonorous waves or vibrations of any description, which consists in increasing and decreasing the strength of an electric current traversing a circuit in such a manner as to produce in said circuit a series of electrical waves or vibrations precisely corresponding in their intervals of relative amplitude to the sonorous waves which are to be reproduced at the receiving station or stations, so that oral. conversations or sounds of any description can be telegraphically transmitted.” With regard to this interference, the examiner’ holds that the evidence shows that this art “had not been invented prior to the filing of Bell’s application for a patent, February 14th, 1876.“ Priority of invention is accordingly awarded to Bell on this count. The parties to this interference were Bell, Gray, Edison,‘and Voelker. |

The subject matter of interference B is defined as “the improvement in the art of transmitting vocal sounds or spoken words telegraphically, which consists in throwing upon the line, through the medium of a varying resistance, electric impulses corresponding to the vibrations of a diaphragm operated by the move- ments of the air produced by a spoken word.” The

arties to this were Bell, Gray, Edison, and Voelker.

he examiner holds that while Gray was undoubtedly the first to conceive and disclose the invention, as in his caveat of February 14th, 1876, his failure to take any action amounting to completion until after others had demonstrated the utility of the invention, deprives him of the right to have it considered as a continuous act.” He holds that it is not proved that Edison pos- sessed a knowledge of the art or method prior to June 25th, 1876, when Bell had reduced it to practice. Priority of invention in this instance is accordingly awarded to Bell. |

Two inventions included in interference C are thus defined: “First, the transmitter, consisting’ of. the combination in an electric circuit of a diaphragm and a liquid or equivalent substance of high. resistance, whereby the vibrations of the diaphragm cause varia-

tions in the resistance of the electric circuit, and, con-

sequently, of the strength of the current traversing said circuit. Second, in a telegraph instrument operated by sound the combination with the diaph- ragm of two or more electrodes placed in an electro- lytic liquid, and operating to increase and decrease the resistance of the electric circuit by the movement derived from the diaphragm,” In these inventions the examiner awards priority of invention to Bell.

The subject manner of interference D is in “an electro-hydro-telephone, the fluid holding vertically an adjustable tube, within which the ends of the platinum points are immersed.” The examiner awards priority of invention to Edison on the ground that in Edison’s “exhibit water telephone,” proved to have been made

* See our Note Columns.

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[AUGUST 11, 1883.

as early as December, 1876, the first embodiment of this feature is shown.

The invention embraced in interference E is defined as an acoustic telegraph “including sound producers as well as reproducers an armature plate (consisting of diaphragm of iron or steel, an armature fastened to a membrane diaphragm or a non-musical armature plate fastened at one end), the electro-magnet for the same and a closed circuit passing from the helix of such electro-magnet to the source of undulatory electric energy. The parties presenting claims were Bell, Edison, Dolbear, and Gray. The examiner awards priority of invention to Bell, fixing the date of his patent as February 14th, 1876.

The subject matter of interference F is define:! as follows: First, a telephonic transmitter, consisting of a coil of wire, one or more magnets, and a disc or diaphragm so arranged relative to each other that a motion of the diaphragm shall induce in the coil of wire an electro-motive force in virtue of the presence of the magnet or magnets ; second, the combination in one circuit of two or more discs or diaphragms so arranged relatively to each other that if one of the discs or diaphrogms be put in motion by the voice, by a current of air or otherwise it shall induce a transient current of electricity in its associated coil, which current shall actuate the other discs or diaphragms in virtue of the coil and magnets associated with them. The examiner holds that Gray and Dolbear are not shown to have invented the subject matter prior to February 14th, 1876, the date of Bell’s patent, and awards priority of invention to the latter.

The invention embraced in interference G is defined as a telephonic receiver consisting of the combination in an electric circuit of a magnet and a diaphragm sup- ported and arranged in close proximity thereto whereby sounds thrown upon the line may be reproduced accu- rately as to pitch and quality.”

The parties to this interference were Bell, Edison, McDonough, Gray, and Dolbear. May, 1875, is fixed as the date of McDonough’s invention, and priority of in- vention is awarded to him.

The declaration of interference I embraces a “ tele- 3 transmitter consisting of one or more helices orming a portion of the main circuit and surrounding a core or cores maintained in a magnetic state by the inductive influence either of an electric current or of a permanent magnet in combination with an elastic

inductive plate or armature, which is rigidly supported

at one or more of its edges, while the portion facing the poles of the magnetic core or cores is left free, so as to be capable of responding to sonorous vibrations traversing the atmosphere or other bodies.“ Priority is awarded to Bell.

Interference J includes the “combination with an electro-magnet of an iron or steel diaphragm secured to a resonant case for rendering audible acoustic vibra- tions.“ Priority is awarded Bell.

The subject matter of interference L is declared as follows : First, the combination is an acoustic tele- graph of an electro-magnet and a polarized armature formed of a plate of iron, steel, or other material capable of inductive action and a resonant tube or case. Second, the combination is an acoustic telegraph of an armature plate polarized by induction, a resonant case or tube, and an electro-magnet and circuit connections, whereby reversed currents are caused to act in the electro-magnet with varying intensity proportionate to the electric waves sent from the transmitting station.“ The contestants were Gray, Bell, and Edison. Priority is awarded Bell.

The subject matter of interference No. 1 is described as follows: “A spring forming or carrying one elec- trode and constantly pressing against the other electrode and the diaphragm to maintain the required initial pressure between the electrode and yield to the movements of the diaphragm.” The contestants were Voelker, Blake, Irwin, and Edison. Priority

of invention is awarded Edison.—New York Electrical World,

UNDERGROUND WI RES.

THE General Committee on Underground Communica. tion, 115, Broadway, New York, has issued a circular letter, with explanatory notes attached, calling attention to the following points. |

It is required that the conductors or wires of the telephone system, of the several different systems of telegraphic communication, and of the several systems of Arc and Incandescent Electric Lighting (systems greatly varying in electro-motive force used, and in character and strength of current) be laid in a single conduit or way, and—what is absolutely essential—in a manner so as to be inductively independent of each other and practically free from retardation.

As an example of the necessity of securing freedom from induction and retardation, the telephone may be cited. Being extremely sensitive, it responds to electrical impulses of many thousands in a second, and it is essential that no substantial modification of the electrical impulses shall take place during transmission, As induction varies inversely as the square of the dis- tance, it is evident that the necessary proximity of a large number of telephone, telegraph, and electric light wires in a single underground conduit, would very greatly increase the existing annoying interference from induction, not only from the telegraph and electric light wires but from other telephone wires. With any considerable length of wire comes retardation due to increased electrical capacity, and, as is well known, an enormous increase of capacity results when an insulated wire is placed underground. Retardation not only delays but modifies and distorts the signals. The sound produced by the voice must preserve certain and great rapidity of change, and when retardation is 80 great that signals cannot be transmitted with this ne- cessary rapidity, then said sounds are so imperfectly re- produced as to become partially or wholly unintelligible,

The Holmes Burglar Alarm Telegraph, central office system, is based upon the use of a continuous current of constant quantity and intensity, in connection with a delicately constructed galvanometer. Any deflection of its needle, caused by induction destroying the con- stancy or changing the intensity of the current, gives a false alarm, and thus induction destroys the entire system. |

The character of the service of the Time Telegraph Company, at present employing a metallic circuit, exacts perfectness of operation, and is such that occa- sional failure of working, except at very long intervals, would be fatal to its usefulness and its existence. In consequence, freedom from breakage, leakage, heavy induction, defects in insulation, and ground connection is absolutely essential.

The particular requirement of the District Telegraphs (Messenger service) is facility for making connection with every house without disturbing the pavement. Metallic circuits are employed of a length not exceed- ing one or two miles.

These will serve as illustrations.

The conduit or electric way must be of large capacity —say from 2,000 to 5,000 wires—and of a practicable form and size in cross-section. If naked wires are employed moisture must be excluded from them and from all connections. If insulated wires are used the character of the insulation will determine the necessity of exclusion of moisture. The details of construction must be such as to permit, without removal of the pavement, immediate connection, or repeated changes with every house or building for all kinds of electrical service, access for repairs and testing, and the laying of additional wires and their removal.

The secretary to the Committee, Mr. W. C. Behrens will be pleased to lay before the committee any plans which may be submitted for its examination.

The sub-committee on electrical and mechanical de- vices is composed of the following gentlemen : Henry Morton (Chairman), Albert B. Chandler, Joseph P. Davis, Frederick H. May, Henry W. Pope, Garret S. Mott, Elihu Thomson, J. Elliott Smith, The Governor and the Mayor (£x-officio), William C. Behrens (Secretary).

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5468450 FPS

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ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

NOTES.

Electric Lighting.—On the occasion of the soiree of the British Medical Association at Liverpool on Wed- nesday, August Ist, the great. hall of the Brown Museum and the central hall of the Mayer Museum were brilliantly illuminated with incandescent lamps. No engine power being available in the evening, the jchts were supplied from Faure-Sellon-Volckmar accu- mulators. The work was carried out by Messrs. Holmes and Vaudrey. On the same occasion the Picton reading room was lighted by Serrin arc lamps, this reading- room having been for some time past regularly lighted in this way by the Liverpool Corporation.

The hybrid committee of the House of Commons on electric lighting has passed the bill confirming an order ted to the Swan United Electric Lighting Com- pany for lighting South Kensington by electricity. A small portion of the district, under the control of the Westminster Board of Works, was struck out of the Bill. The labours of the committee were considerably shortened by the withdrawal of the Metropolitan Board of Works from any opposition to the bills.

In the House of Commons on Thursday of last week, on the order for the third reading of the Electric Light- ing Provisional Orders (No. 8) Bill, Mr. Sheridan moved that the Bill be recommitted in reference to the Strand district Provisional Order. The bill abolished the right of private contract, prevented an important section of the metropolitan district from taking ad- vantage of the Electric Lighting Act, and confiscated an agreement made with the Jablochkoff Company, and handed over a monopoly of lighting the Strand district to the Swan and Edison companies for twenty-one years. He objected to the ratepayers in the Strand being burdened for twenty-one years with the Edison and Swan light, which they had no desire to have. They had previously decided to have the street lighted by the Jablochkoff, and they could see no reason why the agreement they had entered into with that company should have been ignored by the Board of Trade. The latter body alleged that they had no means of ascertain- ing whether the Jablochkoff Company could carry out their contract. But surely information on this point was procurable easily enough. He submitted to the House that very serious questions were involved in the action of the Board of Trade. If the House sanctioned this measure it would place the Board of Trade, as far as centralization was concerned, in such a position as to render it absolutely dangerous to the liberties of the people. Sir J. McKenna said the committee had fully acknowledged the efficiency of the Jablochkoff light. He therefore asked that the Bill might be re-committed, in order that this matter might be set right. The motion for the third reading was agreed to.

In the House of Lords, on Friday of last week, on the motion of Lord Redesdale for dispensing with a sessional order of the 2nd of March last, so that a second reading might be given to the first of nine Electric Lighting Provisional Orders Bills, Lord Bury stated grounds on which he asked their lordships to assume that the object of certain promoters who, through these Bills, wished to obtain 25 Acts of Parlia- ment was none other than to sell those Acts, they themselves not being in a position to carry out the undertaking which they were promoting. In respect of price for the supply of electric light, and other im- portant details, these Bills required careful considera- tion by their lordships. He therefore suggested that the motion before the House should be postponed, with the view of sending the nine Bills before the Select Committee, which would have to deal with two opposed Electric Lighting Provisional Orders Bills, which would come on for second reading on an early

te. After some discussion, the order was sus- pended, and the second reading of the first of the nine

ills was agreed to, it appearing that it would become an opposed Bill. the Bills was also agreed to ; but, when it had been, Lord

The second reading of the second of.

Bury moved that this Bill be referred to the same Select Committee as that to which the first Bill was to go. Ona division, this motion was rejected by 25 to

20. The remaining seven Bills were then read a second time. | À

The ss. Takapuna has made her trial trip on the Clyde. She is allowed to be one of the most elaborately fitted-up ee in the world, and is lighted throughout on the Edison system: every apartment is provided with its own lamp.

The electric light is used to illuminate the new church of St. Francis Xavier in Cincinnati.

The Brush Electric Light Company of Cleveland, Ohio, is arranging for the erection of four electric lights of 2,000 candle-power each, to be used in connection with the construction of the crossway from Dalhousie Street to the Princess Louise Embankment, Quebec.

The Edinburgh Theatre Royal has been recently partially lit by electricity. Only 150 incandescent lamps of various designs are used, in conjunction with gas, but it is hoped that the system will soon be so perfected as to admit of the use of 200, and so dispense with gas altogether; while it is also contemplated to use the electric light for the colossal chandelier pending from the centre roof. The introduction of this system of lighting the theatre has been effected under the personal super- intendence of Dr. Paget Higgs, the patentee. One of Sterne’s gas engines, of about 26 H.-P. indi- cated, at present supplies the motive power. Four of Dr. Higgs’ dynamo machines, each giving light to 50 incandescent lamps, have also been fitted up ; but when in full working order storage batteries, which have been constructed near the engine-house, can at any time supply light to 600 lamps. Each machine is self- regulating, and the engine is supplied with a gas regu- lator, which prevents any flickering of the neighbouring lights. Opalescent glass shades are fitted over the small incandescent lamps, and give the light a mellow appearance. During the day the engine will be used to charge the storage batteries, which will be able to keep the lamps burning for three or four hours there- after if required. The lighting is very successful.

The contractors for dredging the Louise Basin, Quebec, are arranging for the electric light to facilitate operations.

The ss. Clan Macintosh, built by Messrs. Scott and Company, Greenock, for Messrs. Cayzer, Irvine and Co.’s Clan line, made a preliminary trial trip on Mon- day. The vessel is very handsomely fitted up, and lighted by 110 Edison incandescent lamps. Four large lamps are set apart for lighting the decks when work- ing the cargo by night.

On Monday evening the lawn of the Croydon Vicarage and the field adjoining were each illuminated by a Jarman arc light of 4,000 candle-power. The lamp in the case of the lawn was suspended under a large elm tree, and in that of the field, it was attached to the top of a pole thirty-five feet high by a pair of iron sup- ports. The current was supplied by a Jarman dynamo, The occasion was a large temperance fete, and the lighting was most successful. The steam-power was supplied by Messrs. Wenham and Waters, sanitary engineers, from their works, Waddon Road, where several incandescent lamps were lighted to show the advantage of Mr. Jarman’s dynamo for either arc or incandescent lamps. The Vicar of Croydon, the Rev. J. M. Braithwaite, has decided to have the vicarage lighted by Mr. Jarman’s system, and it is also contem- plated adopting the same system in St. John’s Church.

Mr. Chas. Mossop, the Chairman of the Electric Lighting Committee, of Chelsea, in a letter to the Times dated August 4th, says:—On the question of monopoly every company has had notice from the Board of Trade that the order does not confer on them a monopoly. We do not want two sets of undertakers in one district to pull up our pavement. Rather than have two companies in one district we prefer to make

— 108 | —— (—V— ñä —.— — | | — | | ly he nd | 80 | 1e- le, Ice | ant | ith | on On- 8 ire pa | it, | Ca- als, In avy | ion | phs ion | ent. | ed - city | able | are and the | sity tion | the | ges | ical | ig of | | ens 1 de- enry avis, lihu | ayor

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the company go to another part of the parish, so that area A does not have the monopoly of the light and the rest of the parish be deprived of electricity. A monopoly on a luxury imposed on ourselves is very different from a monopoly on a necessary forced on us by another. London is large enough for all. Six hundred acres of Chelsea are going a begging. Yet the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, with only one machine calculated to light 12,000 lamps, but which has lighted only 1,800 because they have not got steam power capable of driving the engine, steps in and stops the way. It is the costermonger’s cart stopping the coach of State. When the company has done what it is thought they can do they will find plenty of customers. As for poor Jablochkoff with its seven years’ licence in which to get back principal, interest, costs, and profits, they will live to be grateful to the Hybrid Committee for saving their money. The company do not see that the local boards cannot bind their successors to give another seven years. Each of the members of the present board will have to be re- elected twice with the additional chance that local boards in seven years will be things of the past. Surely the Lords will not at the last moment snatch the fruit of our labours from our grasp without some better reasons than have at present been advanced. + Mr. Reeves, the Jablochkoff manager, replied to the above;as follows :—The Jablochkoff Company are not seeking powers to supply electricity within the district of Chelsea, and are, therefore, not opposing any Bill in which Mr. Mossop, at least in his official capacity, is interested. . . . With respect to the streets in Schedule A which Mr. Mossop says must be lighted by the undertakers within two years under provisional orders, I may state that we have already done more in laying. down electric mains in the Covent Garden dis- trict than the Edison Company would be bound to do within that time. We are also under contract with the Strand District Board of Works to deposit a large sum of money as security for a further very considerable outlay in the Strand district in the first twelve months, whereas neither the Edison nor Swan Companies make any deposit. As to the business capacity of the Jab- lochkoff Company, I need only refer Mr. Mossop to Mr. Stayton’s report to the Chelsea Vestry in November last year. . . . Mr. Mossop might have spared him- self the trouble of wasting his pity upon the Jablochkoff Company. They have been longest in the field, and have consequently more experience than any other

electric company. They are, I venture to say, well able

to manage their own affairs, and have sufficient confi- dence in the merits and simplicity of their system and of their ability to supply electricity for any purposes whatever. They are willing to take a seven years’ licence ‘in the full assurance that they will so carry it out that there will be no difficulty in obtaining a re- newal at the expiration of that term. The real issue which is now before the House of Lords is, Shall the Strand district be permitted to contract for the supply of electricity with the company of their own selection ? In Major Marindin’s report to the Board of Trade upon the Strand district under date of IIth of May last he said :—“The Strand District Board of Works stated that negotiations had been in progress with this com- pany (Jablochkoff) for some months, and that they had accepted their offer, only after careful inquiry.”

The electric light has just been added to the Army and Navy Hotel, Westminster, 180 Swan high resistance

lamps being used in the various rooms. These rooms

are all run on independent circuits, and are controlled from the hotel office. The current is generated in the basement of the building, aten horse-power steam-engine being used for this purpose. The dynamo is a Schuckert Brush machine, and charges fifty-five Faure-Sellon- Volckmar storage batteries. The engineers for this work are Messrs. Holmes and Vandrey, Messrs. Wood- house and Rawson being sub-contractors for the

Cable Repaired.—The fault which has for some time existed in the cable belonging to the Great

Northern Telegraph Company, which is worked be- tween Aberdeen and Egersund, was removed on Saturday last. The defect was localised to 80 miles east of Peterhead. On Thursday the H. C. Oerstad arrived on the ground, and on Saturday the cable wag grappled for, picked up, and repaired. :

Telegraphic Extension.—Mr. Andrew McConnell, of Qu’Appelle, has obtained the contract for the telegraph line Touchwood to Hembold. The work is to finished by the 3lst inst. ng

Telephonic.—Telephonic communication has been established at Shoeburyness, between all the ranges and the batteries and the camp, This arrangement gives the greatest satisfaction, enabling, as it does, the work to be carried on more expeditiously, and with | less uncertainty in regard to the value of the different shots than was possible under the oldeystem.

The Strike of Telegraph Operators in America. From a telegram dated New York, August 7th, we learn that the telegraph operators on strike that day re- ceived a most important accession of strength in the shape of the men employed on the numerous railways belonging to or controlled by Jay Gould and Garrett, who, in accordance with their pledges to the Tele- graphers’ Brotherhood, struck work at noon. This event is considered to be the most important that has occurred since the commencement of the strike, and will go far towards deciding the struggle -in favour of the strikers. The action of the operators on Gould’s railways was not unexpected, but it was thought Garrett’s men would have remained in, because it had been announced that an increase of wages had been offered them. It turns out, however, that, probably owing to the Gould influence, this concession was withdrawn, and the men promptly took their revenge by joining the strikers. We also read, with ‘great regret, that considerable numbers of telegraph wires are being cut in various directions near New York.

The Electric Railway at Brighton.—This railway, which has been constructed on the Brighton beach by Mr. Magnus Volk, the Brighton Corporation electrical engineer, was formally opened on Saturday of last week. The line is about a quarter of a mile in length, and the rails are two feet apart. The driving machinery is located in the Royal Humane Society’s arch. One of Crossley’s gas engines of 2 H.-P. drives a Siemen’s D5 dynamo machine, and the electricity is conveyed to the rails by cables running under the beach. The wheels of the car pick it up, says a local report, from the rails and carry it to the motor, which is enclosed in a box on one of the footboards at the end of the car, and the driving wheels, which are under the seats, are con- nected with the motor by an ordinary driving belt. The car accommodates 10 adults and the driver, and also a conductor if necessary, and on the level the machinery propels it at the rate of about six miles an hour. The car was well patronised, and its running throughout the day proved highly successful.

The Railway and Electric Appliances Company, Limited.—An appeal from the dismissal, with costs, by Vice-Chancellor Bacon, of a petition by a majority the directors of this company for a winding-up order, was heard before the Master of the Rolls and Lords Justices Cotton and Bowen on Monday. The parti- culars of the petition we have already given at le Mr. Davey, Q.C., and Mr. F. C. J. Millar, Q.C. (Ar. Carson with them), were heard in support of the appeal. Sir Hardinge Giffard, Q. C., Mr. Hemming, Q.C., Mr. Burton Buckley, Mr. Marten, Q.C., and Mr. North- more Lawrence, Mr. Maidlow, Mr. Decimus Sturge, and Mr. Israel Davis, appeared for the National Electri¢ Company, the Williams Railway Patents Company, other fully paid-up shareholders of the company, Wh? opposed the petition, but were not heard. The Master of the Rolls, in giving judgment, said it could not in any legal sense be just and equitable, within Section 179

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of the Act of 1862, within which it was contended the ease fell, that the company should be wound up at the instance of a minority in the face of the opposition of go large a majority. The actions for fraud might or might not fail. They were, as yet, undecided, and the Court ought not to act as though the fraud charged in the actions had been proved. The decision of the Vice- Chancellor was, in his opinion, right, and the appeal must be dismissed with costs. Lords Justices Cotton and Bowen expressed their concurrence.

The Pilsen -Joel and General Electric Light Company (Limited).—A petition for the winding-up of this company was set down for hearing before Mr. Justice North, in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice, on Tuesday, when Mr. Cozens Hardy, Q.C., with whom was Mr. Mulligan, for the petitioners, explained that after the decision of the Court of Appeal on the previous day, in the case of the Railway and Electric Appliances Company, he wished to withdraw the petition. Mr. Higgins, Q.C., and Mr. Rawson appeared for the company ; and Mr. Haldane appeared for a large number of shareholders. The petition was ordered to be dismissed with costs.

The Telephone Patents in America.—Our readers will find in our other columns the decision of the Patent Office Examiner on the disputed points for priority of invention of the telephone. It will be seen that Bell gains eight claims, Edisontwo, and McDonough one. Our American contemporary, commenting on case G, says:—“ This claim, as conceded, practically covers the receiver as now made and used by the Bell Company, and not only debars it from the legal right of using this receiver, but prohibits its using any form of receiver combining a magnet with a diaphragm. Nevertheless, the case presents a curious anomaly, be- cause the claims of Bell in cases A, B, C, and others, exclude McDonough in turn from the right to use his receiver. For that matter A practically gives Bell the monopoly of the telephone, for there is no other means of transmitting speech except by the method therein set forth, . . However, the evidence in case G showed that McDonough made and used a receiver before Bell. Now, if McDonough used a receiver in the transmission of articulate speech then, and if there be no other way of doing this except by the principle of undulatory currents, he must be himself in fact the inventor of the ‘art’ claimed by Bell in case A. It is not improb- able that McDonough will take this ground, and seek to establish his right to the claim of Bell.” Mr. Draw- baugh, another claimant, threatens to overturn the order of things existing. He is now urging his claims before the Patent Office, and these are said to be dated earlier than those of all the others.

The United Telephone Company v. the London and Globe Telephone and Maintenance Company.—This Was an appeal by the defendant company from an injunction granted by Mr. Justice Pearson to restrain the defendant company from interfering with the tele- phone or telegraph wires, instruments, or apparatus belonging to the plaintiff company, and came before the Master of the Rolls and Lord Justices Cotton and Bowen in the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justice on Friday of last week. The case, upon the application before Mr. Justice Pearson, was reported in THE ELECTRICAL REVIEW, and as at the suggestion of the Court the injunction was discharged upon under- takings given by the parties, no decision was, at this stage of the action, given upon the rights asserted by the plaintiff and defendant companies respectively, it will be sufficient now to state that in the result the order for an injunction was discharged, both parties undertaking not intentionally to interfere with the wires, &c., of the other, with liberty to apply to the Judge in Chambers for directions in case any difficulty 8 ould arise in carrying new wires or maintaining the old wires without interference by the other company.

€ costs to be costs inthe action. Mr. Hemming, Q.C., and Mr. Phipson Beale appeared for the defendant

ELECTRICAL REVIEW. 107

company, the appellants ; Mr. Cozens Hardy; Q.C., and Mr. Moulton for the plaintiff company, the respondents.

Telephonic.—During the meeting of the Angus and Mearn’s Rifle Association at Montrose, last week, telephones were fitted up between the firing points and the targets. The marking at the garrison gun compe- titions was also done by telephone, the old system of semaphore signalling giving place to its more reliable rival. The work was done by the National Telephone Company.

Overhead Wires.—At a meeting of the St. George's Vestry, last week, Sir Arthur Hobhouse initiated an important discussion by reporting the result of the action taken by the Vestry with regard to overhead wires. The Government considered they were not justified in appointing a responsible body to control them. Sir Arthur urged, at some length, that the vestries were not responsible, and ultimately the fol- lowing resolutions were passed :—“ That this vestry is always willing to exercise its lawful functions, but it has no control over the laying of wires high above the streets, and declines to accept any responsibility for any damage resulting from such wires ; that the vestry regrets that her Majesty’s Government has declined to take any steps for placing the dangerous practice of placing such wires over the streets under proper control, and that copies of the resolution be sent to the Local Government Board, the vestries and district boards of the metropolis, and that they be asked to take the matter up.” 3

Telegraphic Facilities in the North.—The secretary of the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce has received the following letter, dated 30th July, from Mr. C. H. B. Patey :— With reference to the memorial praying for an additional wire between Inverness and Aber- deen, I am directed by the Postmaster-General to acquaint you that the telegraph arrangements in the North of Scotland are about to be. carefully inquired into, and that the representations made by the memo- rialists shall not be overlooked.”

The New Indo-Australian Cable.— The communica- tion to the Times, on Tuesday last, to the effect that Sir Julius Vogél has obtained a concession from the Government of Wéstern Australia which will enable him to lay cables from that colony to Ceylon and to Singapore, en route for China, has attracted a good deal of attention. Besides the advantage of an alter- native route between India and Australia, it is explained that this will be shorter than that already in use by the Eastern Extension Company, and the following particulars are given as to the reduction and tariff to be anticipated therefrom : The present cost of a word from Sydney to London is 10s. 10d., and it may be divided as follows—Sydney to South Australia, 3d. ; South Australia to Port Darwin, ls. 2d.; Port Darwin to India, 6s. 10d. ; India to London, 2s. 7d. The first two items, amounting to ls. 5d., will, if the scheme can be carried out on the basis proposed, be reduced to 5d., and on the item (6s. 10d.) also, it is hoped, some re- duction can be made. The cost of cables and. the laying them is very much less than formerly, now that the business is so well understood and is so subject to competition. If the Eastern Extension Company

desire to avoid this threatened competition, the best

thing they can do would be to concert with the South Australian Government for an immediate and substan- tial reduction in their tariff. This would doubtless

be followed by much additional business. The public

may certainly, in any case, expect to benefit by this concession.—Æconomist.

Verily he hath his Reward.—The announcement at the meeting of the Anglo-American Telegraph Com- pany, that £4,500 was to be given to Mr. G. P. Harding is, says the Bullionist, somewhat of a staggerer. It was explained that that gentleman took an active part in the arrangement of the differences between the com- pany and the French Cable Company at the time the

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joint-purse agreement between them was made, some years ago. We should have thought that these were the precise duties which ought to be discharged by the directors of the company. In 1880 it was proposed that Mr. Harding should receive a sum of money, but the proposal fell through, and it was withdrawn. Now, three years after (says Truth) “ Mr. Harding receives a sum nearly equal to the annual salary of the Prime Minister. Is it surprising that when. transactions of this sort are common, the Americans should endeavour to free themselves from a gang of impudent and financ- ing monopolists?” We trow not.

Business Notice.— The firm of Laing, White, and Wharton, electrical engineers and contractors, 8 & 9, Holborn Viaduct, E.C., has been changed to Laing, Wharton, and Down, Mr. White having retired, and Mr. F. J. Down, C.E, taken into partnership.

The Electric Carbon Storage, &c.,, Company.—Mr. J. Evans Jackson, secretary to the above company, writes to us correcting a statement which appeared last week in our “ Notes,” respecting the Leeds Corpora- tion. Mr. Jackson says that although the tender of the company was conditionally accepted, no contract was signed, and also that the sum mentioned by us is more than double the amount of the tender. A letter from the town clerk of Leeds on the same subject appears in our correspondence columns, and we regret that our former information was not strictly accurate.

The Telephone and the Post Office. We hear that

the Postmaster-General is about to commence an action

against a telephone company, which carries on its operations in Lancashire, for infringement of his rights by transmitting messages without a licence.

NEW COMPANIES REGISTERED.

Electric Brush and Appliances Company (Limited).— Capital, £10,000 in £1 shares. Objects: To purchase for £1,000 cash and 3,000 fully-paid shares the British, French, and Belgian patents granted to Joseph Norman Aronson for improvements in electric brushes and combs. Signatories (with one share each): J. F. Jenner, 29, Blenheim Grove, Peckham; C. Finch, Hornsey ; R. Lewis, 47, Lothair Road, Finsbury Park ; C. Richards, 29, Tichborne Street, W.; R. Henderson, 150, Hornsey Road, N.; A. Levy, 3, Froburg Terrace, Landcroft Road, S.E.; C. Ruder, 7a, Cornwall Resi- dences, Regents Park. Registered 2nd inst. by Watney, Tilleard, and Freeman, 34, Clements Lane, E.C.

Bull’s Power gg (Limited), — Capital £1,000,000 in £1 shares. egistered office, Cumber- land Chambers, Cumberland Street, Liverpool. Objects : To manufacture gas and steam engines and apparatus and electric appliances. Signatories (with one share each) : H. Clay Bull, J. J. Warry, E. Barrow, W. H. Strype, J. E. Perkins, J. Warry, R. L. Roberts ; all of Liverpool and neighbourhood. Registered 4th inst. by Vaughan, Waldron Jones, 1, Hackins Hey, Liverpool.

CITY NOTES, REPORTS, MEETINGS, &c.

The National Telephone Company, Limited.

Tun third annual ordinary general meeting was held at the offices of the company, 11, Queen Victoria Street, E.C., on Thurs- day, Colonel R. Raynsford Jackson, the chairman, presiding.

e secretary, Mr. W. B. Campbell, read the notice convenin the meeting, and the report of the directors, which we publish in our last issue, was taken as read.

The Chairman said :—Gentlemen,—The report and the balance- sheet themselves sufficiently explain the position of the company, and I shall not occupy your time further than to refer to one or two of the salient features. First of all you will find that whereas we carried over a balance, after paying a dividend, last year of £144 9s. 8d, we carry forward this year £2,530 16s. 6d., having paid a dividend upon a much larger capital. The next point of

importance is, that there is a considerable increase in the grogs revenue of the company, that increase being £15,643 5s. 5d. ; the amount carried forward as allocated to the gross revenue for the ensuing year is £24,089 10s. 6d. Those are the only points to which i think, as regards the balance-sheet of the company, it is necessary that I should call your attention. At our meeting last year I referred to our tion with relation to the Post Office, and to the character of our relations with the Postmaster-General and the permanent staff of the department, I pointed out that those relations were extremely satisfactory, and that there was every disposition on the part of the depart. ment to relax the pressure of the restrictions imposed upon us by the Postmaster-General under the powers given to him by the Telegraph Acts; and I have now er to state that the same disposition has been indicated in several important matters. In the Midland district we had the Postmaster. General's licence for a small area of a mile-and-a-half round each of five towns, and it was found almost impossible to establish in this small area—in those small towns—telephonic exchanges which could be worked with advantage to the company, I have made application to the Postmaster-General to give us two larger areas, one including three districts and the other two. At first there was a great indisposition on the part of the post-office to make that concession; it was refused once or twice, but as circumstances arose tending to indicate that it was for the interests of the public as well as of the com- pany that the concession should be granted, on further represne- tation the Postmaster-General made the concession, and we now, therefore, instead of having five small, insignificant areas, have two large areas of considerable value, within one of which we are enabled to connect three towns of some im ce, and two in the other, by our own wires, without calling in the assist- ance of the Postmaster-General. I told you also last year that we had lost heavily by our trunk arrangement with the Postmaster- General. I described te you its character, and you will see by the balance-sheet that in the last year we lost by that arrangement. I held out to you the expectation that the trunk agreement would be modified, and that we should be placed in a better position to carry on the business in the future than we had been in the past, so far as the connection with distant centres is concerned, and I am happy to inform you that an important concession has been made by the Postmaster-General in that particular. Instead of being obliged to take a trunk wire, and pay for eight subscribers, not being allowed to — on more subscribers, and losing if we did not secure eight subscribers, being in a ition to lose but under no circumsances to gain, we shall in future be better situated, the Postmaster-General havi agreed to grant us trunk wires at £10 per mile for the dou wire, and to allow us to put on as many subscribers as we can give a satisfactory service to, we accounting to the Postmaster-General for half the receipts above the original payment. I believe that will very largely facilitate our trunk business and enable us to give a very satisfactory service to the public, at the same time, of course, developing our exchange business. I referred last year to our relations with the United Company from which we hold our licence. I told you our relations with it were of a very satisfac tory character, and I am happy to inform you they so continue to be. It is a matter of satisfaction to us all to know that the United Company have succeeded in vindicating its patents, and in checking to a very considerable extent, if not entirely, attempts at —

ment which tend to injure its business and that of the com

which hold licences from it. I also referred last year to various other matters in which we are interested, but I did not dwell u one of importance, and that is the position in which we stand in regard to the new municipalities. It has been the endeavour of this company, whenever introducing the telephone into any new town, to make satisfactory arrangements with the municipalities, and to put our relations with them upon such a footing as would secure to us the support rather than the hostility of the authorities in the towns to which we extend our system, and I am happy to say that our relations with the municipalities are as satisfactory as they could well be. This being the case we are on all sides and over the whole area of our districts upon a satisfactory footing with all those with whom we come in con- tact, the consequences of which have been the great extension of our business, that it is expanding at a very considerable pace, and that our gross revenue is increasing at the rate of about £1,500 a month. In the months of April, May, and June, the in- crease was £5,000. I anticipate a considerably further increase during the current year, and that we shall carry forward a much larger balance than we have done in the past year. I think, therefore, you will agree with me that the position of the com- pany is such as to entitle it to the confidence of the shareholders ; and I trust the service the company gives entitles it also to the confidence of the public. I beg to move that the reports and accounts be passed.

Mr. J. P. Bigelow, the vice-chairman, seconded, and the resolu- tion was, without further comment, adopted.

The retiring directors—Mr. W. Hardwicke Bradbury, London; Mr. W. Lowson, Dundee; and Mr. Samuel de la Grange Wil- liams, Birmingham—were unanimously re-elected, as were also the retiring auditors, Messrs. Quilter, Ball, and Co.

A vote of thanks to the Chairman closed the meeting.

The Great Northern Telegraph Company.—Tele- graph stations have been opened by this company at Nanching, angchow, Ningpo, and Shauhing, for which telegrams are accepted at a uniform charge of 9s. 7d. per word.

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ELECTRICAL REVIEW. 109

The Anglo-American Telegraph Company (Limited).

rdinary general half-yearly meeting was held at the Cannon — Hotel — Friday of last week, the Marquis of Tweeddale PThe Secretary, Mr. T. H. Wells, read the notice convening the meeting, and also the minutes of last meeting; and the report, which we published in our last issue, was taken as read.

The Chairman said before asking the shareholders to adopt |

the report and accounts, he should occupy their time for a very few moments. If they would allow him he should, at the outset, refer to the absence of their respected chairman, Lord Monck. Lord Monck had returned from abroad with his health very much improved, and the directors hoped that before long he would resume his place in their councils. In reference to the report, he was glad to be able to allude to several satisfactory features in it. In the first place, the traffic receipts exceeded those of the corre- sponding half-year of 1882 by the considerable figure of £36,333. It was quite true that that was due to the resumption of the 2s. tariff, and must satisfy everyone of the extraordinary importance of coming to a friendly understanding with those competitors who render the reduction of tariff necessary. The next satisfac- tory feature was on the expenditure side of the account. From it they would perceive that the expenses of the last six months showed a reduction of very nearly £4,000, the exact figures being £3,976, as compared with the corresponding six months of the previous year; and when the expenses were contrasted with those of the year preceding that, namely, 1881, they would find that the reduction reached considerably over £7,000. He hoped these would be considered as affording evidence of the desire of

the Board, which had often been expressed by those representing the. Board, to reduce the expenses of the company to as low a as was consistent with its efficiency. The third satisfac- feature in the report was that their cables were in excellent condition, and that meant more than appeared at first sight, because the great difficulty that cable companies had to contend with were the immense sums which occasionally had to be spent in repairing cables. He was happy to say their cost on that head had been very small as far as they went, and there was no pros- pect of any large expenditure under that head being necessary in the immediate future. Then the report referred to the establish- ment of a separate office in New York. That was demanded by the telegraphing public in America, who required that there should be more than one office for the reception and delivery of messages, and the company to bear a portion of what appeared to them to be very necessary in the interests of the company, and he was glad to say that independent office had worked with entire success, and was attended with considerable advantage to them all. Although he had been able to dwell on certain satisfactory features in the report, it could not for a moment be disguised that the general result, as shewn by the dividend they were enabled to give them, was not altogether what they should like, either from the point of view of the share- holders or from that of the directors. At the same time the causes were very apparent. In the first place there had been a long continuance, he was sorry to say, of great dulness and slack- ness of trade throughout, he believed, the whole world. That was reflected in the receipts; and again there was the fact that they had to share the gross traffic with additional cables. The gross traffic had now to be distributed over {eight cables. They were aware, of course, that the company enjoyed no monopoly of the Atlantic Ocean. Cables could be laid, notwithstanding what appeared in well-informed journals, by any person between America and Europe, and, of course, England ; therefore, it was impossible for directors to be blamed for that very potent cause, namely, the increase of cables which naturally lessened their traffic. They were equally helpless in regard to trade. Well, then, in the future what had they to look forward to? They must rely, first; on trade recovering, and reflecting its recovery in

increased receipts ; secondly, in the laying of cables ceasing; and

thirdly, in the time coming when it would not be necessary for them to lay such a large sum apart to the renewal fund. The last subject of the three had been referred to by a proprietor who took an interest in the company, and was a considerable shareholder init, but he need hardly tell them that the directors had not altered their opinion in regard to the importance of the renewal fund, recog- — at the same time that there would be a period when it would not be necessary to put so much to it as they considered it desirable now. For instance, the Direct Cable Company had a reserve fund, and if they were to have a reserve fund equivalent to it they should require over a million of money—nearly 41,200,000. He was not to express any opinion as to what the Board considered the figure which should be reached by the renewal fund before the sum of £150,000 which they were adding to it was reduced, but he hoped it would be something less than 24,200,000. There was only one other point to which he had to refer, and it was the announcement that the directors had agreed to pay, and had now paid the sum of £4,500 to Mr. Harding for services rendered by him in 1880 in connection with arrangements cae into with the French Company—the Compagnie du élégraphe de Paris à New York. When that French company Was established a war of rates took place which led to a lamentable off in the receipts of their company. Negotiations were entered into without loss of time with a view to bringing about ai gement on an equitable basis which would render this less Ft. These negotiations continued a long time. Those employed in negotiating met with considerable difficulties and obstacles, but they were eventually removed in a considerable

degree—he would not say altogether—by the instrumentality of Mr. Harding, a gentleman whose long residence in Paris and acquaintance with the directors on both sides of the water made him a fitting person to conduct such negotiations. . The arrange- ment was a very satisfactory one and had worked with complete success. Mr. Harding placed a very high, he magn say an — poses value upon the services which he rendered. The were not willing to re ise his exaggerated value, and after careful and long consideration of the matter they arrived at the conclusion that the sum of £4,500 would be a fair remunera- tion for the services which Mr. ing had’ undoubtedly rendered. He — — add that the Direct Company took exactly the same view and also paid a certain sum. He had only to sa that gentlemen acquainted with the members of the Board woul feel assured and satisfied that not one penny more than they considered proper had been spent in the interests of the company. With these observations, he would move that the report and accounts be adopted. he Sir Daniel Gooch, M.P., seconded. Captain Trotter did not know whether it would be an improve-

ment for them to have some further information in regard to the.

transaction with Mr. Harding, but speaking for himself—one of the oldest shareholders in the company—he did think £4,500 a very excessive amount for the services rendered and a very un- satisfactory charge. He was a discontented shareholder (laughter.) In certain members of the Board who occupied prominent posi- tions they had all confidence, but he had no confidence in the management of the company. The policy of the Board, in his

opinion, had not been a wise one or a satisfactory one to the

shareholders. It was not agreeable, after are. À bought shares at a high premium, to see one’s property gradually going away. (Hear, hear.) There was another matter which was not altogether pleasant. He was at the last meeting of the company, and he noticed that several remarks were made which were adverse to the policy of the Board, and he thought certain personal remarks were e. He „ received a newspaper containing a report of the meeting from the company, and he found that that report omitted everything that could be looked on as a*reflection on the directors. He was quite certain members of the Board could not sanction such an omission. What he contended was that if the company sent out a report it should be a verbatim one. (Hear, hear.) | AAC

Mr. Newton felt that the payment of £4,500 was one that ought not to have been made by the Board. The directors had paid Mr. Harding for doing work which he ht the directors ought to have done themselves, and he doubted very much whether the Articles of Association gave them the power to pay such a large sum to any one man for such services, , It was the payment of such large sums as that which was really what was called in the City “ plunder,” and which brought into existence rival companies, and the very gentleman who received the money would, he believed, be the first to join a syndicate to form a rival company if there were any prospects of such negotiations, and such enormous sums being paid to him. y, again, had there been such a delay in paying the claim? If the money had not already been paid he should have moved that it was an un- called-for and an unjust claim. .

The Chairman said the directors did what they could in the

interests of the company, and he thought they might accept his

assurance that in this particular case they had done their best. The Board were perfectly justified in making use of any person likely to bring a matter of that kind to a satisfactory issue. Before the arrangement they were receiving £980 a day, and immediately after the arrangement came into force they received £2,122 a day. The amount Mr. Harding received might appear liberal, but he (the Chairman) did not himself think that it was more than he was entitled to. The directors were not responsible for the reports of meetings sent out. The complaint of speeches not being reported was a common one, not only there but in other places. | —

Mr. Seeley considered the interest they got on their invest ments — something like 3 per cent.—was exceedingly small. He suggested that the Board should continue, as far as possible, to narrow the expenses of the company—in the management of it, and in every other way they could. 0

Mr. Griffiths considered that there was no necessity for increas- ing the renewal fund to a still larger amount. He should prefer that some portion of it should be distributed in dividends, or, instead of investing that large fund at so little interest, a por- tion of it might be used in buying up stock. It would realise a larger percentage, raise the price of the stock, and increase the value of their property. ;

Mr. Aston thought that, instead of £150,000%a year being added to the renewal fund, £50,000 was quite enou i

h. Mr. Smith was of opinion that, instead of laying by £150,000 .

to the renewal fund, only £100,000 should be put by for that pur- pose, and that £50,000 should be put to a defence fund—not a defiance fund. He quite agreed with the directors ‘that Mr. Harding was entitled to the amount paid him. Mr. Ford also supported the action of the directors in respect to the transaction with Mr. Harding. * The Chairman, in reply, said the directors had been doing everything in their power to reduce the expenses of the company. A shareholder had suggested the buying of stock with their renewal fund. Such a course was unlawful. Mr. Smith's

suggestion would receive the careful consideration of the Board.

He might say that the renewal fund of the Direct Cable Com- pany, £315,000, which had only one cable, was very nearly the

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110

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same as theirs—£490,000—and they had four cables. With every desire to meet the wishes of shareholders, ially deferred, he thought it must be clear that the Board could not consent to a policy which would so far depart from what they considered ordi- prudence in dealing with that question. (Hear, hear.) e report and accounts were then unanimously adopted. A vote of thanks to the Chairman closed the meeting.

The Cuba Submarine Telegraph Company, Limited. —The report of the directors for the half-year ending 30th June, states that the gross receipts, including the balance brought from last account, amount to £23,173 3s. 7d., and the gross expenditure, to £6,445 7s. 3d., leaving a sum of £16,727 16s. 4d. to the credit of revenue account. Of this, the sum of £3,262 10s. has been placed to the Reserve Fund, increasing that fund to £54,000. After pro- viding for the preference dividend, a balance of £10,465 6s. 4d. remains, out of which the Directors recommend the payment of a dividend on the Ordinary Shares at the rate of 9 per cent. per annum, free of income tax, which will absorb £7,200, and leave £3,265 6s. 4d., to be carried forward to the current half-year’s account. The cables are at present in good working order, with the exception of the 1875 Cienfuegos-Santiago one. Operations were commenced for the repair of this cable, in the course of which it became apparent that a complete renewal of the shore ends would be — cable to a reliable working condition. New cable n shi for this purpose, on the arrival of which, the company's — Mr. Keith. will

with the work. The decision in favour of the company, in the suit instituted against the Spanish Government at Havana, for a return of the tax erroneously levied on the Havana-Santiago business, and which was appealed against by the Havana au- thorities, has been confirmed by the Madrid courts, and the amount ordered to be repaid. The Company’s manager has — been instructed to apply to the Cuban Government for paymen

TRAFFIC RECEIPTS. , Limited. The number of messages passing

The Cuba Submarine Telegraph Com e correspon month o A — for April, — at £3,900, realised £3,982. The Direct Spanish Telegraph Company, Limited. The estimated receipts for Jul were £1,372, against £1,846 in the 2 period of last year. oy 1

Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, Limited. The estimated receipts for July of against 070 in the same month of the preceding

The Eastern Telegraph Com „Limited. The estimated receipts for July amounted to £47,142, against £51,000 in the same month of 1882—a — of £4,458. ges

The Great Northern Telegraph Company. The receipts in July were £22,200. Those from the ist of January to the 31st of July, 1883, were £145,080, and for the cor- responding months 1882 and 1881, £137,965 and £137,166 respectively.

The London Platino Brazilian Tele h Com , Limited. The receipts in April were estimated at £1,913 (Western Brazilian portion £1,296, land fase 22117 25 against £1,688 for the corresponding period of 1882.

NEW PATENTS—1883.

3533. Electric meter.“ W.McWurrrer. Dated July 18.

35583. Electric meters.” G. HaAmmersLey, C. H. Worsery. Dated July 19.

3565. “ Plates or electrodes for secondary or storage batteries and apparatus employed in the manufacture of the said plates.” R. CunnineHam. Dated July 20.

3575. Voltaic batteries.“ W. R. Lake. (Communicated by J. M. Stebbins.) Dated July 20.

3621. „ Telegraphic and telephonic apparatus.” H. H. Lake. (Communicated by F. van Rysselberghe). Dated July 24.

3632. Mode of preparing insulated wires.” (Communicated by A. A. Cowles). Dated July 24.

3633. Machines for obtaining electric currents.” Dated July 24.

3684. Iron ships’ compasses and binnacles.“ B. Brads. Dated July 27.

3692. System of electrical distribution.“ Dated July 28.

3702. Dynamo electric machines or electric generators.” S. Z. de FERRANT1, A. Thompson. Dated July 28.

3724. Apparatus for transmitting and receiving telephonic messages and si ing apparatus therefore.” G. F. REDFERN.

P Communicated by C. Mildé fils et Cie, C. F. A. D’Argy, and F. Lund). Dated July 30.

3785. machines.” H. J. ALzison (Com- municated by R. N. King). Dated July 31.

3763. “ Electric clocks.” G. M. Herotizxy. Dated Aug. 1.

H. E. Newrron.

E. Jones.

St. G. Lane Fox.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

No notice can be taken of anonymous communications. ever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

Letters, &c., for the“ Correspondence” columns should arrive not later than Tuesday morning if they are desired to appear in the following number, such communications to be addressed to the Editors, Enzcrrican Review, 22, Paternoster Row, London, E.C

CORRESPONDENCE.

A New Departure in Medical Electricity.

My attention having been just drawn to your Review of the 14th ult. on my Pamphlet, entitled “A New Departure in Medical Electricity,” I hasten to reply, You very naturally found fault with the statement on page 4 that “the Electric Lamp transforms Electricity into Magnetism.” On referring to my manuscript, I find the printer, very unfortunately for me, omitted a whole sentence, and made the statement nonsense by substituting Magnetism for Light. The original reads thus :—The Electric Lamp transforms, by a material apparatus, Electricity into [Light, the Electro-Magnet transforms by a material apparatus Electricity into] Magnetism, and so on, of all the other forces, etc. I am extremely sorry this mistake should have been made, especially at the very beginning of the Pamphlet, You also state that my knowledge of Electrical laws is inaccurate, in proof of which you quote two statements, Now, Sir, as quoted by you, both the statements are imperfect. In my Pamphlet both are qualified by sup- posing the material apparatuses of transformation and also. other conditions to remain unchanged. If I am producing Light out of Electricity, by doubling the strength of the current of Electricity passing into the Electric Lamp the production of light must be doubled, unless the Electric Lamp is destroyed by the strength of the current, in which case the material apparatus” would not remain unchanged. Now, I have laid down, as a necessary condition for the truth of my statement, that the lamp should remain unchanged.

With reference to the other statement, a similar ex- planation holds good. As long as the “apparatus of transformation” remains unchanged, which I have laid down as a necessary condition, and that Electricity is being transformed into heat, the quantity of heat will be doubled by doubling the strength of current. For, suppose the current is passing through a wire and producing heat, will not the doubling of the strength double the heat produced wnless the wire is changed by the heat so as to produce light as well as heat,ior is melted by the heat ?

Trusting these explanations may be awarded space in your valuable paper,

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, | S. A. Mortimore Foote.

103, Star Street, Edgware Road,

August Ist, 1883.

P.S.—In proof of the greatness of my discovery, I defy any man to try the simple experiment of pressing away the blood in the tongue by means of a half crown and a penny, the one above, the other beneath, meeting in front. In this case the Electricity passes through bloodless flesh, producing very dangerous nervous er- haustion.

[Mr. Foote by this letter shows very plainly that everything we said in our criticism on his pamphlet was entirely justified. He evidently has not any

knowledge of electrical laws.—EDs. ELEC. REV.)

Philipp Reis, Inventor of the Telephone. By Sylvanus P. Thompson, B. A., D. Se.

I do not pretend to write a review of this book, 4 perusal of which cannot fail to prove conclusively, to any unbiassed mind, that Philipp Reis was the inventor of the telephone; but I make a few remarks upon cer- tain facts established by the contemporary document, and by “the contemporary witnesses” cited by the

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THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

ELECTRICAL REVIEW. 111

author; and with due deference I offer a few com- ments upon the “ review ” by your editorial critic, pub- lished in your journal of the 4th inst., with whom I

i e in toto. Your reviewer says:—“In plain words, almost the whole object of the book is to prove that variations of resistance by surface contact between two substances, as applied to telephony, is really the invention of Reis, and the author's arguments to prove his case, although in our opinion wtterly insufficient, are worthy of an eminent counsel,” and he reproaches the author for persistently, again and again, repeating that “electric mechanism, consisting of two or more

in loose or imperfect contact with each other, was an intentional characteristic of the Reis transmitter.” Your reviewer proceeds to say, “that the instrument was constructed with loose or imperfect contacts is un- doubtedly true, but that such was Reis’ intention we submit there is no evidence of any reliability to prove.” I submit, can any more reliable evidence be required to prove that Reis’ intention was to construct an instru- ment with loose or imperfect contacts, than the fact (admitted by your reviewer) that Reis’ (instrument was constructed with loose or imperfect contacts”; in fact, the construction of the instrument proves that Reis’ intention was to make the contacts of the most loose and imperfect kind—so loose and imperfect are they that their looseness and imperfectness makes the instrument exceedingly sensible to the action of air waves produced by the human voice, so that the slightest whisper upon it will cause variations in the strength of the electric current. I submit, have not all the imitators of Reis endeavoured to make a “ current regulator,” sensitive so as to avoid the necessity of speaking in a loud tone. How, then, Reis’ instrument, in which words spoken in a whisper are reproduced with marvellous accuracy, is objected to, because when words are spoken in a loud tone the articulation is indistinct ? I submit that the Reis instrument pre- sents the most beautiful construction of loose and im- perfect contacts in a current regulator—a current regu- lator which will do what no other current regulator, of which I am cognisant, will do, and that is, will repro- duce articulate speech in a louder tone than that of the words spoken to it; and to this current-regulator only can the term microphone be justly applied.

Your reviewer cites the “very fact that Reis chose platinum for this contact-points is a proof that he wished to obtain uniformity and completeness in his makes and breaks, and to avoid anything like an im-

perfect contact.” I submit, can there not be imperfect

contacts between two pieces of platinum? Cannot there be an imperfect contact between two pieces of the best metallic conductors? Professor Hughes’s beau- tiful invention of the microphone is constructed on the principle of loose and imperfect contacts, and did he not construct them of metal? Will your reviewer say that Professor Hughes did not intend to construct his microphone with loose and imperfect contacts because he used metals (aye, metals of much greater conduc- tivity than platinum)? Your reviewer says:— That Reis’ instrument did transmit articulate speech may be admitted, but that it did so as a result of the inventor’s endeavour to produce an wndulatory current and not an intermittent one we cannot admit,” and to sustain his assertion he quotes the following words. of Reis himself :—“The needle reproduces the tone which was imparted by the interruption apparatus.” I submit 18 hot an undulatory current produced by rapid perfect makes and breaks? Is not this a daily occurrence with the Morse key, when rapidly operated? Are not the effects of rapid makes and breaks visible to the eye When the Bain system of chemically-prepared paper is used to receive the signals ? Is it not well known that the recording chemically-prepared paper presents an unbroken, continuous line—broader and darker at in- tervals, with a narrower and fainter line connecting the broader and darker marks? Is this not the effect of an undulatory current, produced by perfect makes and breaks? It is then clearly evident that rapid makes and breaks will produce an undulatory current. I submit that it is impossible to make rapid makes and

breaks without producing undulations in the current. Now, from the construction of Reis’ instrument is it not evident that, even if it made “makes and breaks,” they are so rapid that it must produce undulations in the current; in fact, the rapidity with which the makes and breaks would be made by it cannot produce the effect of makes and breaks at the receiving end, which can be easily demonstrated by using a Bain chemically-prepared paper receiver with a Reis’ instru- ment. I have made such an experiment on a short line from my laboratory to another room, and I find that even when speaking in a very loud tone to the in- strument, the line on the chemical paper presented an uniform breadth and depth of colour, thus demonstrat- ing that although there were actual makes and breaks of the current by the transmitter, yet ‘they were so rapid that the line on the chemically-prepared paper gave very faint signs of the interruption of the current, showing a line darker and lighter alternately. |

Reis certainly speaks of the interruption of the current, and I will admit that his instrument will cause makes and brakes, or interruption of the current, but who will presume to say that Reïs did not know that such rapid makes and breaks as his instrument will produce, when spoken to in a loud tone, will pro- duce undulation in a current. Does not Reis, in all his writings, speak of “undulating curves,” and in his drawings represent variousiforms of undulating curves ? Who is so bold as to assert as a fact that the instrument of Reis, as the microphone of Hughes, does not act through the delicacy of make and break. Professor Blythe, in the Scottish case, on his examination, expressed himself as follows :—

“ Speaking popularly, what do you consider the action of the microphone to be ?—I am unable to say what the action is, but what appears to me to be the action is the delicacy of the make and break action. It acts through the delicacy of make and break. We know that an interrupted current does produce a musical sound, and we know also that the pitch of the note will depend on the frequency of the interrupting current. Now if we have a sufficiently delicate make and break, it seems to me quite possible, at least not impossible, that an expert might be able to transmit speech, seeing that articulate speech hasan accentuated sound.

“ You are still of opinion that that is most probably the action of the microphone ?—Yes ; of course I do not commit myself to saying, without further experi- ment, that that is the exact theory.

“ Is that view confirmed or not by the fact that sparks are noticed upon the carbon pencils of the microphone when it is seen in operation in the dark ?—It is; I have seen sparks emitted from the microphone when it is being used as a transmitter, and that indicates that there is more or less of a make and break.

“And you think that when there is a sufficiently delicate apparatus for making and breaking the current, there is no reason to suppose that it may not transmit articulate speech ?—No reason to suppose that it may not transmit articulate speech.

“They were occasional sparks, and gave evidence of the break at the time I saw them.”

Here, then, we have the opinion of Professor Blythe. Other scientific men may entertain a different opinion, but will any of them venture to assert that when there is a sufficiently delicate apparatus, such as Reis’, for making and breaking the current, that articulate speech cannot be transmitted ?

Your reviewer writes: Great stress is laid upon the use of the word tone, which. Prof. Thompson points out is the German word ‘ton,’ and is more nearly equivalent to the English word ‘sound,’ and includes articulate as well as musical tones. In other words, because articulate speech is included under the expres- sion ‘tone,’ therefore articulate speech as well as musical tones was certainly meant, an argument which fails to convince us.” The scepticism of the reviewer must be great indeed; in fact, incomprehensible. Is it not a maxim that the greater includes the lesser ?

These facts are fully established by Professor

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THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL AND

112

[AUGUST 11, 1883.

Thompson by the production of evidence which no unbiassed person can refuse to accept. |

1. Reis’ telephone was expressly intended to transmit articulate speech.

As proof of this intention of Reis, Professor Thompson quotes from a prospectus issued by Reis in 1863, these words—“ Besides the human voice, accord- ing to my experience, there can also be reproduced the tones of good organ pipes and those of a piano.” “In this same prospectus occur the instructions for the use of the signal call, by which the listener can communi- cate his wishes to the speaker. These instructions run—one beat — sing; two beats — speech.

2. Reis’ telephone, in the hands of Reis and his con- temporaries, did transmit speech. |

In proof of this fact Professor Thompson cites Professor Quircke, of Heidelberg, who testifies that he heard and understood words spoken through a Reis’ telephone in 1864. Also Professor Böttger, editor of the Polytechnischer Journal, published in 1863, who wrote—“ The experimenters could even communicate words to one another.” Also several others who give the same testimony, among them Mr. S. M. Yeates, of Dublin, testifies “ That in 1865 the instrument was shewn at the November meeting of the Dublin Philo- sophical Society, when singing and words were trans- mitted.”

3. Reis’ telephone will transmit speech.

In 8 of this fact Professor Dolbear, in his paper on “The Telephone,“ read March, 1882, before the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians, we find The speaker could testify that the instru- ment would talk, and would talk well.“ Reis did transmit and receive articulate speech with his instru- ment.” A great number of persons can testify to this fact ; and was not an actual trial of Reis’ telephone made openly in Court, before Mr. Justice Fry, who said, in giving judgment on the case, “ It is perfectly true that there is some evidence before me that Reis’ instrument will speak? 3

I forbear to add to this already perhaps too lengthy paper further extracts from Professor Thompson's book, especially as those persons interested in this wonderful invention of Philipp Reis will read the book and judge for themselves.

To Professor Thompson the scientific world owes a debt of gratitude for his indefatigable zeal and well directed and successful researches in establishing the fact that Philipp Reis was the inventor of the telephone,

and also the further fact that the claims set up by -

others to that invention are without foundation. August 6th, 1883. W. C. Barney.

Correction.

My attention has been called to a paragraph on page 86 of your issue of Saturday last, in which you state that the “Electric Carbon Storage Manufacturing Company of Scotland” has a contract for the lighting of the Leeds Corporation Buildings at a cost of nearly £10,000

Will you be good enough to allow me to say that this allegation is entirely untrue, and to ask that you will kindly publish this letter in the next issue of your journal,

George W. Morrison, Town Clerk. Town Hall, Leeds, Tth August, 1883.

The Utilisation of the Wind for Producing Electricity for the Supply of Cities, Towns, and Villages.

To employ the power of the wind and the tide for the production of electric energy has often been spoken of, and is now occasionally talked about. There may be better plans than those I am about to submit to you. I have never seen but one plan for utilising the power of the sea. It is the irregular force of both wind and tide that has to be overcome to make either practicable for the purpose of driving dynamos or magneto electric

ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

There is at the present time a number of windmills to be seen in different parts of the country, especially in Kent, for the purposes of turning millstones and pumping water. |

At first sight it seems that nothing could be more easily and cheaply erected than such a contrivance for the purposes of electric generation, and this would be

so if the wind always blew with the same force; but ag it does not, this falling off in wind pressure forms one of the greatest obstacles in using the power of the wind

for the driving of generators of electric energy.

That there is a very large amount of power generated

when there is a moderate breeze blowing is proved by seeing three or four pairs of millstones driven at the same time in a single mill.

There is a mill situated between Ramsgate and Peg. well Bay that drives four pairs of millstones, and yields, I believe, about twenty-four horse-power. There

is also another mill of a similar kind, situated near the

estate of Sir Moses Montifiore on the East Cliff, Rams gate, of about twenty horse-power. | Those mills, and the cliffs with the sea beneath, sug-4

gested to me several years ago how easily and readily power might be obtained with great constancy for the

driving of electric generators. I will, therefore, lu

before your readers the plans that suggested themselves and the way in which they could be carried out to g practicable and, I believe, a profitable issue, at or in any place where the land stands high, or near the sea, or in close proximity to a water stream. Plan 1: would be necessary in the first place to construct @ reservoir at the bottom of a cliff, to be filled with water when the tide was high. At the top of the cliff could be dug another reservoir. This upper reservoir would be filled with water pumped up from the lower resem voir by means of wind engines, and by either centre fugal or reciprocating pumps. Thus the water would

be lifted little or much, just as the wind blew, to he

allowed to fall again through pipes and drive suitable turbines, and those turbines again driving the electrié generators. It would be also advisable to have a suit able steam-engine for occasional pumping when thé wind did not blow. By the above means a constant source of power would be. supplied. At times, when the wind blew more than usual, there would be much more water pumped up, and therefore the upper reser voir should be much larger than the lower one, as thé lower reservoir could be filled every high tide if found necessary. Thus the electric energy could be used either direct from the machine, or stored in accumu: lators, or the two used together during night. If@ small stream of water was near it could be employed @ fill the upper reservoir, or to assist in keeping it filled The water, as it fell from the upper to the lower resers voir, would be constantly pumped up again, and thus the irregular force of the wind might be utilised im bringing about a very constant available force, which 18 so necessary either for the utilising of electricity direct or for the charging of storage batteries.

Plan 2: In isolated places, or otherwise, where & reservoir could not be constructed, wind power might be utilised thus. Erect a wind engine or two, and by this means raise a weight (say a large iron case filled with either sand or stones or earth), or it might be 80 made that it could have iron weights packed in. This weight might be increased to many tons, depending

upon the horse-power required out of its descent This weight must be so arranged that it can be lifted 4

through a given height, and when driving power required, by allowing it to descend; its falling power could be given out by means of a chain or rope suitably attached, so as to drive a dynamo-machine and be used direct, or for the charging of storage batteries. By this means it appears to me to be practe

cable to utilise an irregular natural force and bring

about a constant force. <a I feel that many will say that this is a very primitive way of going to work; nevertheless it is a means @

utilising those natural forces so often talked of for tht

production of electricity.

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