Show electricity ON TAP alie tha potent fluid now handled like any merchandise something about the laws which WW h control athe the movements tg ot of the wonderful power currents current a commercial rates rate electricity once a plaything then a scientific study is now ilow a commercial product twenty years ago 0 electrical energy was generated in the laboratory for experimental purposes by a few physicians as a medicine of somewhat so me questionable repute reauie and in weak currents by those who applied it to use in the arts from the cylinder of glass or mastic excited by friction to set cork manikins or pitch balls a dancing to the dynamo that runs from one to a dozen powerful engines is a long step but one that has been taken within the memory of mentho men who still call themselves young electricity as a commercial product according to the new york sun is is to those that deal in it as commonplace an affair as eggs or butter the conditions and cost of its production are positively known and the product may me M asife as eye rw his yardstick measures dry goods you may buy your electricity by spec specific quantities and if you have the conveniences may carr carry yit it home with you as you would carry any other purchase it can be sent to you yon by express or delivered by messenger or it may be served out over a a wire in measured quantity as gas and and water are served through pipes all ali this seems mysterious to those not technically educated because the electricity shops do not count their product by dozens or measure ura it by yards and gallons but use outlandish denominations and a puzzling scientific nomenclature nevertheless the shopkeepers are at home with the mysterious umber limber thi thing 11 g in I 1 which they deal and they never stop to think about its mystery y although j just aist beyond the small field which their knowledge corers there lies an unknown area of conjecture electricity as a commercial product and a 6 handy tool applicable to adyth ing that mechanical power can accomplish is a thing approximately of only the last ten years before that time its cost made it mostly a matter of 8 splendid practical it ical i possibilities 1 tow now with conditi conditions ons gives given a skilled electrician can estimate to a hair the cost of producing the amount of electricity necessary to yield a specified power it is chiefly a question of the cost of ajai tj jal ai the existence of two simple laws makes electricity a practical power for doing the worlds work one is that when an armature is caused to rotate w within athin the magnetic field a current of electricity is excited in the armature armata r and may be taken up carried out over a wire wire and returned to the place of beginning this is what electricians call the law of the dynamo the other law is that when a current of electricity i Is passed through an armature 1 within the magnetic field th the e armature is caused to rotate that is what electricians call the law of the motor by the first law a current of electricity is ls set up and by the second that current is enabled to establish mechanical motion when these two laws became known the problem of applying electricity to the worlds work mainly needed for solution only a cheapening of processes such as should make it possible to produce a current at commercials commercial tates eve every ky dynamo whatever its form as regards the communication communicate ir of electric energy is essentially an electro macnei with a core of soft iron the armature within the magnetic field which is the s space between the two 0 poles of the electromagnet electro magnet every motor whatever its form is essentially the same thing with the core revolving under the influence of a current from the dynamo in accordance with the law of theodor theo the motor tor the core of the dynamo revolving under the influence of the magnetic field is a shaft the current generated is the belt communicating power to another shaft the core of the motor it is this transference of power by the invisible belt fro from m the dynamo to the motor that makes the trolley cars run the electrical engine revolve or any other mechanism perform its work under the influence of electricity thus generated the storage battery is simply an isolated reservoir of electrical energy for the time being independent of the generating source as if a user of water should prefer to fill a tank in the top of his house once a week rather than to draw from faucets fauce directly connected with the main source of supply |