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om One JDbndUOtor. NeW York Herfid.J -■ il examination of Edi-lighti, lasting several hioh'nll facilities were the great-dhvontor in person, I am enabled to give the readers of the Herald the only, authoritative description of the same thus far published- Hitherto tjhere have appeared at intervals in journals, scientific and popular, both in Europe and - America, so-called descriptions of the light, some at variance from the truth, others apwere. _Great loss was. in consequenceEdison’s elcfctric light may be briefly summed iip in saying that the lamps fised give a light by incandescence of five, ten or fifteen candle power. It gives off no deleterious gases. No consumption of material takes place, and the proportion of heat to light is, infinitely less than that from a gas jet.THE SECRET ARCHIVES. Whether he will permit to be made public the specifications of the claims for which patents have just been allowed, Edison has not yet decided. Should proximating the real facts and one or I {he d,fm ^ necessary for his protection [wo accurately hitting upon a part of £Edison’s system; but'none before the present have reoeived his sanction. Yet the facts which I now present do not comprise the light in all its details, as many parts of the system, which is exceedingly complex, are not yet sufficiently protected by patents to warrant the inventor in disclosing the same.“So two of your patents for the electric light have been allowed in Washington?” began your correspondent explanatory of his visit. t. “ That’s what I hoar,” replied the inventor, clearing away a pile of scientific books from a corner of the table to give more. room-to-A-iew-ceUs-of _a_bato tery on the edge.“Then you will soon be ready to make the secret public?”“That don’t necessarily follow,” said Mr. Edison, still arranging the battery.“ Two patents don’t amount to much when 30 or 40 are necessary. I am not yet advised which claims have been allowed. My solicitor informs me that the claims allowed are numbers 156 and 162, but what particular points they cover I can’t now say.”“ Then you have other patents pending?”“ By all means. I have at the present time eleven in the Patent-officO. The system, you know, is a little complex.”After some further preliminary conversation Edison accorded me the privilege of examining in detail the lamp and the other appliances going to make up the light, explaining the parts with a, logical conciseness that brought out all in perfect clearness. I took down the points in detail, and submitted the same to his inspection to insure accuracy. After revising and correcting the same, and in some places striking out parts as describing the invention too much in detail, he gave his approval.HOW THE LIGHT IS PRODUCED.The light is produced by incandescence. The conductor,which is made incandescent by the electrical current passing through|it,is a small,curiously shaped apparatus, consisting of a high alloy of platinum and iridium, which can not be melted unlt;Jer 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A sufficient quantity of this metal is placed in each burner to give a light equal to that of a gas jet. Devices of exceeding simplicity, and, as repeated experiments have proved,of equal re-. liability, are connected with the lamp. They surmount the apparent impossi- j bility of regulating the strength of the light. This lamp, when placed in the electric circuit in which a strong current circulates, is absolutely independent of the strength of the current. This Edison considers one Qf the vital features of the invention. Thus, if the regulator is set so that the light gives ! only say ten oandle-power, no increase in the strength of the current will increase its brilliancy.EACH LIGHT INDEPENDENT.Each light is independent of all others in the circuit. A thousand: may be fed from the same conductor and the extinguishing of all but one will have on that one, Edison claims, no perceptible effect. Each lamp in the circuit, by means of the regulator, a description of which latter Edison for - the present withholds, is allowed to draw from the central station just sufficient current'to supply itself. In lighting by incandescence the light is obtained by the resistance which the conductor in the lamp offers to the passage of the electric current. Hence any other resistance exterior to the lamp used therewith to regulate it requires a current in proportion to its resistance although it gives no light. One of the main features of Edison’s invention consists in having all. the resistance outside of the main conductor produce -light, consequently there is maximum economy. The lamp devised by Edison is not merely a coil of incandescent metal, but a very peculiar arrangement of such metal whereby (by means of a discovery of his in connection with radiant energy) a much weaker current is made to generate a given light than if a simple spiral were used, and the considerable loss due to the division of the light is compensated for.INCANDESCENCE. VS. CARBON.It has been acknowledged by nearly all • electricians that light-ing by incandescence, especially incan-j ! deseence of a metallic wire, offers less ’ i obstaclerto the division of the electric ; light than by any Other method, and Edison believes it to be the only reliable method, because the light-giving metal is anelectrical “constant,” whose resistance can always be known and depended upon—A condition which is exceedingly essential when many hundreds of lights must be supplied from one conductor. In the case of the electric arc between carbon -rods, now sc freely used, the resistance varies nl every instant, not only from changes Sri the strength of the current, but from impurities in the carbon, from air currents and from many other Causes. Or this account ^Ir. Edison claims thal factors so variable coming in play ir bundredS'Of-lumps-makori-b impossi bk to calculate the strength of the curren or size of.the conductors. It would bi as difficult supplying gas from one mail where eaoh burner varied,from exeessivider the patent laws, flip the specifications in the secret archives of the Patent-office for a period sufficiently long to enable him to secure the necessary patents. Yesterday another specification for a British patent was sent by him to his patent solicitor, making the third protecting his light in Great Britain.LIGHT FROM ONE CELL OF BATTERYIn the course of his experiments on the electric light Edison made the discovery that ho could by a certain com-bination- in the form of the metal used in his lamp, secure sufficient light from the electricity generated from one pell of battery to enable him to read by. The celb used was an- ordinary one of Daniels’ battery. To his surprise- for he hardly expected such a result—the thin metal soon became a dull red. By changing the form again he produced a brighter red, and after several other changes he succeeded in obt.»: .ing a glow which made it not at a aifficult to read by the room being rk. Several of the laboratory han examined the phenomenon with curiosity. It served to demonstrate to Mr. Edison that he had hit upon the form of metal to produce the best result.Another new feature in the system of the light as a whole is his improvement on dynamo machine specifications, for a patent for which Mr. Edison has only just applied.limits with the rapidity of lightning Besides,' in 'the case of rcarb6n joints maqy, hundreds acting on each othei cause such an unsteadiness in the ligh as to' be unbearable. Lighting by in candescence, Edison claims, is free fron any of these defeots.Since Edison undertook the problen of lighting by incandescence many at tempts have been made in the same di rection, but owing either to a laok o knowledge or a misconception of thlt;
Newspaper Details
Republic County Journal
Scandia, Kansas, US
Wed, Jan 01, 1879
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Jenell J.
USA 10 Jun 2024
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