Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1916 — ELECTRICAL ACHIEVEMENTS. [ARTICLE]

ELECTRICAL ACHIEVEMENTS.

(.'nr Great Advances in Devices of liar .and l’eace Thai Were Made During i«n.J. Each year sees a remarkable development in the electrical industry, and though the European war has made progress along these lines, an impossibility in most of the countries on the other side of the ocean during the past year, nevertheless 1915 has contributed its share toward electrical advancement in this country. ' Though much of the elect rival apparatus in use at. the present time has reached such a high state of development that there is little room for improvement and marked advance except by radical invention, new appliances are being found all the time for electrical power, and it is along this line that the development during 3 915 is’ noteworthy. Perhaps the greatest progress of the year has been made in the electrification of railroads. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad On October 1 completed the electrification of the first 113 miles 0 f the Montana division,' from Three Forks to Deer Lodge, Mont., and in addition another 100 miles was put in operation on Jan. 1, 1916. It is

planned to electrify another 200 miles during the present year, and it is expected ultimately that the entire 850 miles from Harlowton to the coast will be operated by electricity. * The New York, New Haven and Hartford the Pennsylvania, the Norfolk and Western, the New York Central and the Anaconda and Butte are other railroads which have extended their electrification during the year or have inaugurated the reform, so that today there has been electrified over 2,500 miles of single track of steam railroads in the United States. An electrically operated brake has been put in service during the year on separate units of a train, and has made much more rapid stopping possible than could heretofore be accomplished by means of the old air brakes. This development, it is said, will add materially to the safety and economy of railroad operation, as previously much valuable time was lost, in putting on the brakes, in communicating the impulse by means of the air brake from the engine to the different cars of a long train. ! In the field of wireless development much has been achieved during 1915. Uninterrupted communication has been carried on beteewn Tuckerton, N. J., or Sayville, L. 1.. and stations in Germany, and nies- ’ sages have been transmitted between the Eiffel tower in Paris and Washington, while wireless telephone .communication between the Atlantic' coast cities and San Francisco was commercially established. The wire-' less telephones has been successfully operated on moving trains of the’ Lackawanna railroad, and will not only be a convenience to the public hut will be eventually used in sig- 1 nal work on freight trains to avoid 1 the necessity of stopping for orders. This will mean a material saving to the railroad companies, as each unnecessary stop of a long freight train means a loss to the company of be-1 tween S2O and S3O. On Sept. 30, T 9.15, the human voice was successfully transmitted by wireless telephony between Wash-' ington and Pearl Harbor. Hawaii, a ' distance of 4,600 miles, a test which served to show the infinite possi-. bilities in this branch of the service. 1 One of Europe's greatest electrical achievements during the year is the 1 (development of wireless signalling from aeroplanes, which has made! scouting in the European war in this way an effective means of locating 1

enemy troops and batteries, and has done much toward revolutionizing modem warfare. Progress has also been made during the year in the use of electricity for navigation. The battleship California, the keel of which was recently laid in the New York navy yard, will be the first electrically driven battleship built, and it is claimed that the big advantage in the new power will lie in the great saving in both weight and space, amounting to 40 per cent, when compared to the oil style of reciprocating engines. The purification or sterilization of milk and water electrically is also new, and is an important step in the progress of the industry. A dairy company not far from New York is now operating a machine which purifies 1,000 quarts per hour, the treatment completely destroying disease carrying organisms without affecting the digestive and nutritive quality of the milk. This deVice, it is said, will mean a great saving in time and money.—New York Commercial.