Show THE AGE OF electricity excerpt from an address delivered before the southern commercial congress at atlanta georgia march 10 1911 by mr george westinghouse had a jules verne sought to imagine some universal servant of mankind he would well have depicted some magic agent which would apply natures forces to do mans work which could take the energy of her hidden coal of the air or of her falling water carry it by easy channels and cause it to give the light of a million candles the power of a thousand thousia nd men or to move great loads faster than horses could travel to produce heat without combustion and to unlock chemical bonds and release new materials no such wonder was pictured by the imagination of the seers of the past and yet a subtle force which transcends the powers of the imagination is dally daily doing all these things a vitalizing force which is already stimulating the physical recovery of the south and if we still think of the present as the era of steam and steel the coming epoch whose dawn we are privileged to witness will be known as the age of electricity tri city first the toy and long the mystery of the scientist electric power is now a fam elior tool for the accomplishment of the work and the increase of the comfort and pleasure of mankind although Althou gih we may not know the ultimate nature of electricity yet we do know some of its essential laws and methods of controlling and using it during the 25 years in which I 1 have been intimately interested in the electrical art a development has been witnessed which has surpassed the most optimistic predictions at the beginning of this period it was the general conviction that electricity would be limited to local use in the lighting of denely populated districts or the supply of power to adjacent factories indeed there had been no developments to remotely foreshadow what has since been accomplished complis hed at that period however there had already been developed and operated electric lighting circuits of high voltage extended over rather large areas with the pressure upon the wires of from 2000 to volts which practically demonstrated that considerable sid side erable rabIe electric power could be cheaply transmitted if means could be found to utilize safely high voltage electric current for power and light and for other purposes but such iveans were not then known it atten happens when something is greatly needed for any great purpose that as a result of a lively appreciation by many of the existing need there arises in due course invention or discovery which meets the demand and so it was in the matter of anven tion and discovery which gave us a simple static device consisting of two coils of copper wire surrounded by sheets of iron which could without an appreciable loss of energy transform alternating currents of high voltage and small quantity dangerous to life into low voltage currents of large quantity safely available for all power light heat and other purposes to the part I 1 took in bringing forward in the of the last century the alternating current system of electric generation and distribution I 1 owe much if not all of the reputation accorded to me as one of the many pioneers in what is now a great and important industry |