Electricity.
The employment of electricity for illumination, and as a mover of machinery, has added an interesting chapter to the volume of our national history; and the name of
Edison as one of the chief promoters of the use of the mysterious agent for lighting, heating, and motive power is coextensive with the realm of civilization.
Ever since the discovery of electro-magnetism, thoughtful men have contemplated the possibility of producing a controllable electric illuminator and motor.
In 1845
John W. Starr, of
Cincinnati, filed a caveat in the
United States Patent Office for a “divisible electric light.”
He went to
England to complete and prove the utility of his invention.
There
George Peabody, the
American banker, offered him all the money he might need, in case his experiment should be successful.
It proved so at an exhibition of it at
Manchester before scientific men.
Professor  |
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Incandescent lamp. |
Faraday pronounced it perfect.
Starr was so excited by his success that he died that night, and nothing more was done with the invention.
In 1859
Prof. Moses G. Farmer (q. v.) lighted a parlor at
Salem, Mass., by an electric lamp, but the cost of producing it, by means of a galvanic battery in the cellar, was so great that the use of it was abandoned.
These were the pioneers in our country.
Now the generation of electricity by dynamos, magnets, etc., produces brilliant light at less cost than by illuminating gas. It is used so extensively in cities for various purposes that it has created a new phrase in our vocabulary— “Industrial electricity.”
For the provision of light, heat, and motive power, extensive plants are established in almost every city, town, and village in the country.
For light, two kinds of lamps are used— the
arc and the
incandescent. Electricity moves
sewing-machines, elevators, street-railway cars, the machinery of factories,
agricultural implements, and mining drills; and, with all its marvellous adaptations and achievements towards the close of the nineteenth century, its development was then considered still in its infancy.
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Arc light |
