Electric lighting

“ It must be remembered that electric lighting is comparatively a new science, and not yet fully understood. There is very little doubt that, by practice, it will before long approach more nearly to perfection, and sooner or later entirely supersede gas, the arc form of lamp being employed for the illumination of streets and large areas, while the incandescent pattern meets domestic requirements.—Good Words. ”

“ Experience in Germany, which has two magnificent electric lighthouses, and in Scotland, certainly supports this contention, and I have been assured that the sole reason why electric lighting has not been adopted more widely is the heavy cost, both of installation and of maintenance. When electric lighting is rendered cheaper and is brought more to the level of existing lighting arrangements, one may expect another complete change in lighthouse practice. ”

“ The electric light in the form of the well-known powerful and dazzling arc-light is the favourite illuminant for lighting harbours, railway stations, docks, public works, and other large spaces. But it is to the incandescent lamp that one must look par excellence for the ‘light of the future.’ It has been satisfactorily established that lighting by incandescence is as cheap as lighting by gas, provided that it be carried out on an extensive scale. ”

“ In the distant future, electricity will be used for electric lighting only as subordinate to other uses to which it may be applied such as heating houses, taking place of stoves for cooking, being used as a substitute for the steam engine. In fact the motor is rapidly becoming of as much practical use as the electric light. ”

“ The amendment, in 1888, of the Electric Lighting Act of 1882, before long caused a huge development of public electric lighting in Great Britain. By the end of the 19th century every large city in Europe and in North and South America was provided with a public electric supply for the purposes of electric lighting. The various improvements in electric illuminants, such as the Nernst oxide lamp, the tantalum and osmium incandescent lamps, and improved forms of arc lamp, enclosed, inverted and flame arcs, are described under Lighting: Electric. ”

“ Thirty years ago electric lighting was not in vogue, and the system of street lamps was far less complete than at present, although the gas burned in them may not have been any worse. The lamps were much fewer and farther between, and the light which they emitted had a feeble, sickly aspect, and did not reach any distance into the moist and murky atmosphere. And so the night was dismal enough, and the few people upon the street were visible only as they passed directly beneath the lamps, or in front of lighted windows; seeming at other times like moving shadows against a black ground. ”

“ It can no longer be a matter of reasonable doubt, therefore, that electric lighting will take its place as a public illuminant, and that, even though its cost should be found greater than that of gas, it will be preferred for the lighting of drawing-rooms and dining-rooms, theatres and concert-rooms, museums, churches, warehouses, show-rooms, printing establishments, and factories, and also the cabins and engine rooms of passenger-steamers. ”

“ Nor must it be forgotten that electric lighting will not easily be adapted in old cities and towns, where, in addition to the main streets being narrow and crooked, there are few large open spaces suitable for intense lights, and there are numerous small courts and alleys which require lighting, and this for a long time to come will probably be effected with gas. ”

“ The advantages of electric lighting for many purposes, as in public libraries, in cases where many persons work together under conditions rendering the vitiation of the air by gas lighting exceedingly mischievous, and in cases where the recognition of delicate differences of tint or texture is essential, must far more than compensate for some slight difference in cost. ”

“ Electric lighting has become a matter of course, both indoors and out; and, while it has been proposed to annihilate night in the city of Washington by setting up four huge electric ‘suns’ on the hill of the Capitol, so rendering any other illumination in the streets and houses as unnecessary as in the day-time; a modified lamp of a few ‘candle-power’ has recently been devised for small rooms, supplied by a little battery which might stand on the mantel-piece. Tennis is played and photographs are taken by the electric light; electric bells are as common as door-knockers ”

“ An electric lamp answering certain specific requirements would, indeed, be the key to the situation, but its commercial adaptation required a multifarious variety of apparatus and devices. The word "system" is much abused in invention, and during the early days of electric lighting its use applied to a mere freakish lamp or dynamo was often ludicrous. But, after all, nothing short of a complete system could give real value to the lamp as an invention; nothing short of a system could body forth the new art to the public. ”

“ Although there is a variety of ways of producing electricity, from the rubbing of a piece of sealing-wax on the coat-sleeve to the vast engines employed at large central lighting-stations, yet here we will consider only such methods of producing the force as are in practical use on a moderate scale. The current for electric lighting may be obtained either from chemical batteries or from machines termed dynamos. ”

“ The Electric Light is the brightest meteor that has flashed across the horizon of promise during the present century. When first exhibited as a means of illumination, about twelve years ago, the splendour of the rays emitted, and the delusive representations of the small cost required to produce such a brilliant light, led the public to believe that the career of gas-lighting was drawing to a close, and that night would be turned into day by this wonderful demonstration of electrical power. ”

“ In order that such may be obviated, it must be an earnest hope that ere long such improvements will be made in electric lighting, that it may become generally used in our homes as well as in all public buildings. ”

“ Electric Lighting by Incandescence, had barely got beyond the stage of a laboratory experiment, and the possibility of lighting large districts from a central station, as successfully as with gas, was doubted by men who now stand high in electrical circles. ”

“ Among the advantages of an electric lighting system is the freedom from care on the part of the women. There are no lamps to clean or broken chimneys to cut a finger, so that when the system is properly installed the only work the women have to do is to turn the switches to throw the lights on or off as needed. ”

“ As a very natural consequence of such development, the company by 1902 had 420 miles of underground system supplying installation amounting to 1,928,090 fifty-watt equivalents.
Electricity a Living Factor.
To talk about electrical development in terms of power consumed tells but one side of the story. More impressive even than figures are the immense number of uses to which electricity is put. Electric lighting, introduced in 1882, has become practically the standard for illumination, not only here, but for the entire civilized world. ”

“ For the last fifteen years electric lighting of various types has been in use on cars in an experimental way. While possessing advantages, perhaps, in safety, owing to low voltages and small quantity of current, its general use has not yet been entirely practicable, owing to the complications involved, either in generating and satisfactorily controlling the current upon the cars, or in supplying it at terminals through storage batteries. ”

“ There is however one phase of this industry, which is rapidly placing—even a general knowledge, of the means by which the electric current is generated and distributed beyond the reach of all but those actually connected with it as a business, or the student who proposes to follow it as a profession; this is the tendency to centralize electric lighting and to substitute large central stations, where the machinery for generating the current is located and whence the wires are run for distributing the same, for the numerous small plants now scattered over the country. ”

“ No time will be lost in putting this announcement to the test, not only of scientific but also of practical verification, and the probability is that all electric lighting stations in the twentieth century will contain not only dynamos of one type for the supply of light, but also direct current generators for transmitting power in all directions over the same cables. ”

“ In practical electric lighting, the number of lamps receiving their current from a common central station^ often runs up into thousands; and, as it is neither practicable nor desirable, to run these lamps all from one generator, a number of generators have to be combined together to furnish the necessary current, each generator having a capacity of a given number of lamps. ”

“ For indoor, public room or factory lighting, inverted arc lamps are sometimes employed. In this case the positive carbon is the lower one, and the lamp is carried in an inverted metallic reflector shield, so that the light is chiefly thrown up on the ceiling, whence it is diffused all round. The alternating-current arc is not only less efficient in mean spherical candle-power per watt of electric power absorbed, but its distribution of light is disadvantageous for street purposes. ”

“ With the development of a waterproof base in 1900, by the use of a waterproof cement instead of plaster of Paris to fasten the base to the bulb, porcelain at first and later glass being used to insulate the terminals of the base from each other, lamps could be exposed to the weather and give good results. Electric sign lighting therefore received a great stimulus, and lamps as low as 2 candlepower for 110 volts were designed for this purpose. Carbon lamps with concentrated filaments were also made for stereoptican and other focussing purposes. ”

“ Electric light especially, with its harsh white glare, which no expedients have as yet overcome, has taken from our drawing-rooms all air of privacy and distinction. In passageways and offices, electricity is of great service; but were it not that all "modern improvements" are thought equally applicable to every condition of life, it would be difficult to account for the adoption of a mode of lighting which makes the salon look like a railway-station, the dining-room like a restaurant. ”

“ Ever since the introduction of electric lighting, the public have been assured, by those interested in the different kinds of lamps—arc, glow or otherwise—that henceforth, by means of such lamps, rooms are to be lighted without heat or baneful products such as they assert attend the use of gas, lamps, or candles. ”

“ He has perfected his system of duplex telegraphy and invented the carbon telephone-transmitter, the phonograph, the platinum burner, and the carbon burner for the incandescent light. He has patented very many inventions, and his system of electric lighting for houses is now in general use. Edison's whole life is an interesting study for young people.
At the present time the two methods of lighting by electricity are the arc light and the incandescent light. The arc light is used for lighting large buildings like churches, halls, and railway stations, and for lighting the streets of a city. ”

“ Several other London theatres have since adopted the incandescent electric lamps, and it is obvious that the system will become universal. In all ocean-going passenger steamers, electric lighting of the saloons and cabins is now the rule. No mode of illumination so readily adapts itself to the production of artistic and decorative effects as the glow lamps: for the covering glasses may be tinted of any required shade, and the lights may be placed in any position. ”

“ For 220-volt service lamps are made in sizes of from 25 to 1000 watts. For sign lighting service, 5-watt lamps of low voltage are made for use on a transformer located near the sign to reduce the 110 volts alternating current to that required by the lamps. Lamps are made from 5 to 100 watts for 30-volt service, such as is found in train lighting and in gas engine driven dynamo sets used in rural homes beyond the reach of central station systems. ”

“ There is no reason why those connected with electric lighting interests in the various cities and towns should not give the matter their special attention, as they are the best informed on electrical engineering and already have a local control of the supply of current needed for charging. ”

“ If the building to be lighted is at some distance from the engine-house the battery should be placed in the basement of the building, and underground or overhead conductors, to convey the charging current, brought to it from the dynamo.
It is usual, in the case of electric lighting installations, to reckon all lamps in their equivalent number of 8 candle power (c.p.) incandescent lamps. In lighting a private house or building, the first thing to be done is to settle the total number of incandescent lamps and their size, whether 32 c.p., 16 c.p. ”

“ Nothing looks worse than to see a couple of dull lights in the same room as a lot of bright ones. By seeing to these matters we can make the lighting much more satisfactory than it otherwise would be. During the first few evenings we shall probably have some of the lamps go out through the filaments breaking. Weeding out of bad lamps. This I consider a weeding out of defective lamps, because if it were that the current was too strong, the fuses would have given way. Some of the fuses give way when the current is not too strong ”