Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1880 — The New Electric Lights. [ARTICLE]

The New Electric Lights.

There does not appear to be any question that Mr. Edison has at last solved the problem of the electric light, as the dispatches report that his test on Christmas Eve was successful in the illumination of his laboratory and several houses, and even Christmas trees, at Menlo Park. He himself says that his work is done, and now, after many sleepless days and nights, he shall rest. He has given to the world a Christmas gift of rare value, use and beauty, and one which will send his name down to posterity high up in the ranks of the world’s great inventors. It is only a little lamp, about the size of an orange, and a strip of paper of the shape of a horseshoe, but a lamp almost as magical as that of Aladdin, and certainly much more useful. This little lamp, which can be made at a cost of twenty-five cents, is a plain glass globe, in the bottom of which there is a metallic stopper, through which pass copper wires connected by a strip of carbonized paper. The secret of the process is sending a current of electricity through the strip of paper, the carbon becoming luminous at once in the globe, which is hermetically sealed. The only condition of success is the exclusion of the air. The carbon filaments are not consumed. On the other hand, though they glow with a very brilliant light, they grow harder, and more serviceable, and give better light, with use. Mr. Edison’s previous exSeriments had been made with platinum, ut a fortunate accident in one of his processes revealed to him that paper, which costs comparatively nothing, would answer all the purposes of the precious metal. ■; So far as the possibilities of this ligdt are concerned there seems to be no limit. Its endurance seems to be inexhaustible. It does away with matches to a great extent, as it only needs the touch of a key to produce the illumination. The light is warm, but there is no danger from the combustion sufficient to break the globe. There being no heat from it, the most intense illumination will not affect the temperature of apartments. There being no combustion of course v there is no smoke. The light itself is described as of the quality of mellow sun-light; it can be regulated to any degree of softness, and does not harm the eyes. There is no purpose of illumination to which it cannot be applied, and no place in which it cannot be used with perfect safety, and, once applied, there is no limit of the improvements that wil! be made. Other inventors* starting from Edison’s foundation principle, will increase its uses, for all we know of electricity even now is small as com{ared with it* wonderful possibilities, t must come in general use in the manufacture of dangerous compounds, in all dangerous places, on ship-board, in mines and light-houses, as we}l as for the lighting of streets and all public places. The Hash of Edison’s paper horse-shoe marked a moment of time from which epochs in science will date. There is another feature incidental to Mr. Edison’s discovery which has not received much attention, but which, if it be true, will be hardly less important than the illumination, and that is the curative power of the fluid in nervous and rheumatic complaints. Electricity as a remedy for physical ails is nothing new, but Mr. Edison, if reports are correct, has applied it with a degree of success in the curing of neuralgia, rheumatism, boils, fistula, poll-evil, and other diseases of the blood and skin, that will introduce it as a blessing to suffering humanity. What a blessing it would have been to Job and Lazarus had Edison lived in their day! Mr. Edison should be a happy man this Christmas, for he has made the world happy with the results of his skill and labor. He has provided it with one of its most indispensable needs in a more intense, beautiful, practical and economical form than ever before, and he has opened the door to its adaptation to every possible use, besides preparing the way for possibly still greater and more useful discoveries in this wonderful field of electricity. Among all his great discoveries none has been more remarkable than this, which give s the world safe, cheap and beautiful light; and it must add to his pleasure that he has lived to witness the success of his experiments and receive the congratulations of mankind.— Chicago Tribune.