| Show MORE LIGHT HASTEN SLOWLY OUR citizens are still discussing the sub subject j act of the electric light as a substitute for gas about two weeks ago we offered a little advice on this matter the heading and substance of which was dont be ina lna in a hurry we had nothing to say against 0 electric lighting in general nor the brush patent in particular neither did we make any attack on the person 0 who is endeavoring to rush our city fathers into a contract for the adoption of the light for which he is agent on the contrary we commended his enterprise and admitted the plausibility of his arguments we did not even criticize his sudden drop of 9 2500 per annum in II 11 his is I 1 price for lighting the city from an ornamental iron tower 0 nor touch on the fallacies that are presented in his bis latest offer to the city council yet this individual immediately rushed into print with an assault on the NEWS which our morning contemporary the merald herald courteously published as a I 1 bundle of false assertions sert ions in the deseret news 11 we did not care at the time to notice the communication at any length but waited for further information the only statement in our article that could be propel properly des designated ona oba ted as an assertion was t this is there is one thing that gives room for doubt as to the adaptability of the brush light to this city and that is that cleveland where it hails halls from has not adopted it and that the large cities do not find its claims sufficiently imposing to utilize it in the place of gas we understand that the reason offered why cleveland does not ue use it is because of the many trees in that cil cli cilcy if that is an objection in cleveland is it not equally jaley an objection in salt lake aua vua city ty or is this a place without trees the answer to this which appeared in the communication to the berald herald li was as follows the assertion that cleveland has not adopted the electric light because of the shade trees is false cleveland adopted the iloh ligh light t over two years yeal s ago and likes it so well vell that tower are being erected for a general illumination mi nation of the city we based our statement upon information which we con cou considered reliable and judging from other remarks of th the e agent who is so anxious to hurry salt lake into in to a contract with him we did not place implicit reliance upon his reply we are now ina lna in a position to lay the facts before the public following are verbatim extracts from a letter lette written by a prominent busine business Qs man of or cleveland whose name we for the tile present withhold but who stands in the front rank of Clev cleveland elands leading citizens CLEVELAND ohio oct 10 dear sir there is no truth in the statement that towers are being erected in this city for the purpose of erecting the brush light so far as I 1 am informed last spring spying when the contract was re let for lighting 0 the park with the brush light the company agreed to light a short wid wide e street and charge nothing for iti it i e to throw that in ahey have not 11 yec done it but have made preparations pam pa rations eions by placing three posta posts each ab ut SO feet hi high h the others are about 16 and I 1 presume presume these are the towers referred to there is ig no excitement here about the light licht some like it and some rome dislike it A A councilman volunteered to tell me lately that he thought it a bad light the writer sends some further particulars which we reserve for the present but adds gri III 1 I have noticed the new posts since writing the foregoing and they reach about to the eaves of an ordinary two story building and are merely long lamp posts when they have been tested I 1 will write again our correspondent says further the ill success at nantucket nan will probably give a quietus to a scheme for lighting holyoke mass if your council are wise they will not fool away the peoples money on electric lighting towers so far the letter from cleveland our information about the trees in in that city being the objection to the tile light by the municipality was obtained from a clevela Cl evelander ader who was wag here at the time when the brush light was tested in front of Z cini C M L I 1 we learned that the very city where the light hails balls from had not adopted it that it had been tried in monumental park there and was not considered suitable for city purposes we also by letter obtained corroboration of this statement ent and the writer said cleveland is not lighted in the manner you describe but mainly by gas lamps there are in the outlying wards many oil lamps monumental park is lighted by the brush electric light using globes placed say fifteen feet above ground some like the light others do noi not there are about twelve lights from this it will be seen that a bundle bund leof leot of false assertions has not been made by the NEWS but by the agent for the brush light now in this city if we had been in error it would have been but a mistake but that person has wilfully and intentionally tio nally attempted to deceive the public and the city council will do well to be extremely cautious how they receive any of his a assertions so far as we have made inquiries and wa have not been asleep on this question we cannot learn of any ornamental towers in use for th the electric light by any of the great great cities of the united states where the light has ha been tried it has either been erected on the summit of some building or on the top of a liberty pole and as we before remarked mar kedit it is till still an experiment and generally viewed in the light of a toy or a curiosity rather than a practical method of lighting cities as a substitute for gas the nantucket trial refer referred red to in the letter first quoted from in this thib article is thus described by a journalist on nantucket beach near boston the northern electric light company erected three wooden towers about feet high and mounted on each tower a circle of 12 westons electric lamps each lamp being estimated at 2501 candle power the towers were only feet apart and formed a triangle so 0 o that the light computed of candles candies was concentrated within all ail a limited area the motive of the electric light 0 company in in arranging this costly experiment was to prove the feasibility of their proposal tot tat li ligh lib b t towns with almost noonday bril h ancy from towers of similar desi design agn numbering four to the square mile and each mounting light aggregating ag candle power on the occasion under notice the current was produced by three weston ma chines using 36 horse power and the whole of the lamps burned well and steadily throughout the evening with only one slight flicker the light yielded was just sufficient lelent to enable two sets of base ball nine nines 3 to play in the centre of the triangle but on account of the tiie uncertain nature of the light 0 resembling that of a 1 full moon the games were poorly played and there was 1 little l atle light given beyond a circle of one eighth of a mile radius it should be observed here in in fairness that the experiment experimental at nantucket nan was with the weston VV eston not the brush light but it serves to show that elevated towers for city lighting ligh ting are not all they are lier lter cracked up Y tobe to be and to support curad our advice to the city council dont be in a hurry 11 now it is folly for any stranger or speculator cu lator to proclaim to the salt la lake ke public tb that at the deseret NEWS 1 is z against the electric light files of our paper will show that we have repeatedly drawn attention te to the tiie ia surjeet of lighting by elec i triciti tri city and espre expressed ased our conviction that it would be the light of the period but while we have full faith in the ultimate triumph of electra poy as a popular illuminator it does eitt follow that we are bound to sup nort norfa every pro project tu act that is put forward by active business siness men bent on making money toney we say sa a again gain sain this thin tiling is in in its in fancy infancy great improvements prove ments will be made in it the problem of its distribution will yet be solved we did not assert as this individual says we did that edison has perfected his light but after naming seven ditre difre different reni processes each claiming to be the best we added to say my nothing of the edlon edi edion on which the wizard of menlo park now claims to have perfected and which corn prel lends the division of the light the great grea desiderati um for a general illuminator for apart from household purposes it is 18 far preferable to have a divided light which will shine under the trees as our gas lamps do than to have one big bia elevated illumination casting great shadowy in every street the claim to which we alluded maybe may be found in the north morth american review for october in view of the imminent probabilities of important improvements is it wise to be in any great hurry to make the proposed contract accuracy is one of the chief alms aims of the deseret NEWS if we make any misstatement all persons and papers being liable to error it is never from a desire to misrepresent and we are always willing to rectify rectify any error into which we may fall in inadvertently in this case it will be seen that we have made no bundle of false assertions nor even one incorrect statement either purposely or unintentionally we oppose nothing simply because it is new we support not nothing hinc hinr for the reason that it is is old we have no axe to grind on this wheel we have no interest in stopping any one else from grinding except except public interest but we candidly confess that we do not wish to see any agent or other person using the peoples water power and the peoples grindstone just to sharpen his axe for his own personal use in hewing his way in other directions to big pecuniary profits for his private emolument with very doubtful prospects of any permanent benefit accruing to the public there is no need of a rush suspicion is naturally aroused when an effort is m made ade to hurry any one into a contract without due consideration a and nd careful investigation take rake time over this project find out for a fact how it succeeds if at all in other cities popular petitioning is all right but the popular mind is is apt to run a little ahead of discretion sometimes wise heads will think deliberately and wi wise wize ze public officials will follow the latin proverb that we quoted in our former article which in plain english is hasten aasten dowly |
