ELECTRIC LIGHT AND ELECTRIC FORCE.
IF the beautiful experiments exhibited at the Royal Institution by Mr. Tesla, the able lieutenant of Mr. Edison, are of practical value, and not the mere play- things of the lecture-room, we may be on the eve of some of the greatest discoveries that the world has ever seen. What mankind want during the waking hours of the night is not a glow in the darkness, however intense, but a suffusing, pervading illumination. They want, in fact, sunshine at night. But this, it seems, is what Mr. Tesla is on the eve of offering to us. At his lectures at the Royal Institution, the following striking experiment was shown. It consisted " in joining two sheets of tinfoil, one over the lecturer's head, the other on the table, to the poles of his generator. The space between these two sheets immediately became electrified, and a long vacuum- tube waved about in it, without attachment to any con- ductor whatever, glowed in the darkness like a flaming sword. This experiment was intended to illustrate the possibility of rendering an entire room so electric, by plates in the ceiling or under the floor, that vacuum-bulbs placed anywhere within it would yield a light." In other words, we shall be able to fill our rooms with the potentiality of light, and then be able, by the simple introduction of vacuum-tubes, to obtain any quantity of light. Those who want real daylight, and daylight, be it remembered, without heat, will be able to run a vacuum- tube round the whole length of the cornice, and so obtain a diffused illumination of almost any brilliancy. The relief to our eyes, were such a condition of things rendered practical for ordinary houses, would be immense. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that a strong light is bad for the eyes. Staring at a bright jet of flame point- blank is bad, just as staring at the sun is hurtful to the eyes ; but in practice no light that falls on the book can be too strong for healthy eyes. The proof of this is simple enough. Every one admits that it -is better to read and work by daylight than by- arti- ficial light ; but whoever got artificial light of any- thing like the strength of daylight ? Read by the most powerful of lamps in a darkened room, and then let the shutters be opened, and you will find that the light on your book, though you may be sitting close to your lamp, is at once greatly intensified. If, then, we fill our rooms with electricity, and draw off a daylight supply in our vacuum-tubes, we shall be saving, not injuring our eyes. It will be said, perhaps, that if the electricians perfect their appliances, and make electric lighting cheap, easy, and some twenty times more effectual than it is at present, the world will still be the loser, and for this reason. The presence of darkness compels a cessation of human labour, and so imposes a certain amount of rest on the poorest of mankind. But if night can be turned into day, men will be tempted to forego their rest, and thus the new discovery will only bind men more closely than ever to the chariot-wheels of toil. Possibly this argument may have had something in it when it was first used by a protesting and primitive philanthropist dis- gusted to find that an enterprising brother-troglodyte had sat up to finish his canoe by the flickering and precarious light of a resinous pine-branch. The friend of cave-man doubtless pointed out that from this small beginning would flow endless toil and misery to the sons of men ; and in the instinctive horror of night-work possessed by all unsophisticated persons, we can catch an echo of that primordial sermon. It was of little avail, however, and the more man progresses in civilisation, the more he insists on stealing life from the hours of darkness. The argument that electric daylight might prove a curse instead of a blessing, comes too late. Men have already insisted on working at night ; and therefore the better the light, the better they.will bear the burden of their toil. No one who has seen a couple of village carpenters working late to finish a coffin by one dip-candle can doubt that good, cheap light would enormously decrease the physical hardships of the poor. If factories and workshops could be made as light as day by electricity, not a. few of the physical ills from which our operatives suffer would be put an end to. While dealing with Mr. Tesla's experiments, we must not forget to notice the very curious facts con- nected with his generation of light in a vacuum-tube without the use of connecting-wires. The lecturer stands in " an electrostatic field" capable of illuminating a lamp without wires, and feels nothing. Nay, more, he holds a vacuum- tube in one hand, and touches " a terminal " with the other, a process which makes him " the channel for a current at something like fifty thousand volts," and yet does not receive the slightest injury. Yet, strangely enough, a. current of one-five-hundredth of this intensity would be enough to destroy him altogether. For some incompre- hensible reason, the greater the " pace " of the electricity, the less its effect on the human organism.
If the electricians give us sunshine at night, they will have bestowed on mortals a godlike gift. We want, however, something else from the electricians even more than that. It is a something they have often tried to give, but have never yet succeeded in bestowing on us,—a practical electric motor. In the first place, we want a motor which will supersede horses for the traction of light vehicles. Imagine the convenience of electric cabs and omnibuses ! At present, not only five million inhabitants have in London to be fed and watered and provided with air and light and room, but half-a-million horses. If these could be dispensed with, the saving would be enormous. Nor would the saving in keep be the only convenience. Carriages and carts with- out horses would take just half the room now occupied. Electrical traction would therefore put an end to the congestion of traffic which is so serious in many thorough- fares. Instead of a cab, we should have a light arm-chair on wheels, with a seat in front for the driver, which would carry us in safety at eight miles an hour. Quite as great is the need for a good electric motor for house-work. It is no good to talk about setting up in our houses neat little dynamos that a housemaid could learn how to work in a few hours. The housemaids never would learn, and we should soon find the neat little dynamo standing rusty and dust-grimed in the area, forgotten of man and maid. If electricity is to be any good in the house, it must come in ready in a box,—potted energy which can be applied, like grease, wherever it is wanted. In this shape it may have a hundred uses. The footman, instead of turning the knife-machine, will connect it with the electrical motor, the cook will use it to turn the handle of the egg- whisk, the coffee-roaster, and the coffee-grinder, and to turn the meat. In the laundry it will do our mangling and ironing. In the stable it will clip the horses, and in the gardener's department pump the water and cut the lawn. Everything, in fact, that now revolves by the exertion of muscular effort, will be arranged to turn by electricity. When the electricians have given us the household motor, and not till then, shall we be able to say that man has chained the thunderbolt, and made it an obedient slave.
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