The Syracuse Journal, Volume 16, Number 28, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 8 November 1923 — Page 3

History of the Electric Light

Smithsonian Institution Issues Pamphlet Reviewing the Earliest Experiments. Washington.—“History at Electric Light* Is the title ot a pamphlet Issued by the Smithsonian Institution dealing with a subject of almost universal Interest Many ot the inventions described In It are now exhibited In the United States National museum In the divisions of mineral and mechanical technology. At the present time there are about 350,000,000 Incandescent and about 200,000 magnetic arc lamps In uae in the United States alone, and about an equal number of Incandescent lamps In use In foreign countries. This world wide use of electricity as an 11lunilnant was made possible only by patient research and experimentation through a period of 123 years by many men of many nationalities. Origin of Electricity. Following a brief resume of the early records of electricity and magnetism. beginning with the derivation of the word “electricity" from th? Creek word for amber “elektron," and describing Otto Van Guericke's electric machine of 1650. a ball of sulphur rotated against the hand; the first condenser made by Von Kleist, bishop Os Pomerania, In 1745; and later known ns the Leyden jar. from the repetition of hhi experiments nt the University of Leyden; and the accidental discovery of animal elpctrlclty In 1785 by Luigi Galvani—-the Important work of Alessandro Volta, a professor of physics tn the University of Pavla, Is taken up. Volta discovered that electricity could be generated by chemical means and In 1799*nuide a pile of .silver and tine disks with cloths wet with salt water between them. The first use of electricity as an fllumtnanr was made two years later by Sir Humphry Davy, who demonstrated that electric current can heat carbon and strips of metal to incandescence nnd give light. Experiments of Oersted. The next step in electrical knowledge takes us out of England and Into Denmark and France, where the experiments of Hans Christian Oersted, a professor of physics In the University of Copenhagen. and of Andre Marie Ampere in Paris, led In 1820 to the discovery by the latter that electric current flowing through a colled wire gives it the property of a magnet. ampere, the unit of flow of electric current, la named In his honor. Next Bavaria claims our attention, where Georg Simon Ohm, the son of a poor blacksmith and a teacher in the high school at Cologne. In 1825 discovered the relation between voltage. amperage and resistance In an electric circuit, which is called “Ohm’s Law." The ohm, the unit of electric resistance. Is named for him. F'rom 1825 to 1870 experimentation was widespread and various. Merely touching on the outstanding features of this perold, described in detail tn the pamphlet, there may be mentioned the discovery of the principle of the dynamo. by Sir Michael Farady; the demonstration of an experimental incandescent lamp, In which a platinum wire was made incandescent, by Sir William Robert Grove; the first patent on an Incandescent lamp, tn which powdered charcoal operated In ah exhausted glass globe, obtained by Frederick de Molyns; the first commercial Installation of an electric light made tn an English lighthouse In 1862; the invention of the “self-excited” dynamo, by Sir Charles Wheatstone, and the invention of the “electric candle,** an .arc light commercially used for lighting the boulevards of Paris, by Paul Jablochkoff. Edison Takes Up Study. When Edison first began the study of the incandescent light In 1870 there were several commercially established

Plan to Raise Money for the S. P. C. A. I

I

A memorial for pets la maintained by the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and far $5 any person may have a name inscribed on It. Mlaa Ruth Rittman, who has just given SIOO to the society for a memorial for her late kitten “Billie Dixon." and Billie’s living mate, are seen looking at his name on the plaque.

Strange Case of Dual Personality in London

London.—A strange case of dual personality is described in tike Lancet by Dr. Robert M. RlggalL The patient, who had been under the doctor’s observation for three years, *• the youngest of a family of ten. Two of his sisters are religious workers. A brother—the “alter ego” of his dissociation—was training as a mis* donary. but enlisted in the army and was tilled s

I Too Bu*y Playing Golf to Aid Wife | New York. —“Tm ao busy prac- « ticlng for a golf contest that I w ! have no time to look after my « ; wife,’* shameieealy admitted H ! Michael Ilohaly, twenty-three ; > years old, of this city, when be : ; was haled into court He hopes, ; he said, to become a professional : and get a large salary. The judge advised the bus- ■■ band to contribute. more to his ;i wife's support and. if golf con- J: ; traded his Income,- to give up j ; golf. He was dismissed under a ; suspended sentence. arc light systems In use in the United States. All these systems operated on the "series" system, and there were no means by-which one lamp could be turned on or off without doing the same with all the others on the circuit Edison realised that while this was satisfactory for street lighting where arcs were generally used, it never would be commercial for household lighting. After many experiments, Edison was successful, and In 1879 he made a dynamo which met every requirement and in the same year a carbon lamp In which the filament consisted of a carbonlxed piece of ordinary thread. "On October 21, 1879, current was turned Into the lanlp and It lasted 45 hours before It failed. A patent was applied for on November 4 of that year and granted January 27, 1880."

Kansas at War With Rabbit

Doubling of Bounty Increases Annual Kill to More Than 4,000,000. Topeka. Kan.—Four sail lion jack rabbits la the annual *BUU" of the Kansas hunters, according to an estimate/prepared by state officials following the receipts of reports from nearly half the counties of the state as to the bounty that had been puld fur- rabbits during the year. The bounty for Jack rabbits Is now 10 cents a head. It was five cents a head fur many years but this was not sufficient to pay the cost of the ammunition used to kid them and the rabbits became so numerous last winter and during the previous summer that the iestaiuture doubled the amount st the bounty. Damage Crops and Trees. Those who travel through Kansas «a xailroad trains or by motor car and are watching during the early morning or just about sundown can see the rabbits playing about In alfalfa fields or pasture lands. The tabbits may be seen (literally by the thousands any evening or any morning. They do inestimable damage to young creq>s and to trees. it Is estimated by officials that the average jack rabbit will do damage exoeedlng one dollar every year by girdling trees, particularly fruit trees and by cutting the roots of alfalfa and cutting the young corn and sorghum plants. In the eastern part of the state where the fields are well fenced and the country rather thickly populated. the Jack rabbit is not so numerous. Great Rabbit Drives. Ttsrasands of the rabbits are taken every year In great rabbit drives eov-

The patient is married and has three children. When his attacks of wandering come he apparently be* comes obsessed by the personality of his dead brother, until at times be is identified with him. A conversation under hypnosis la quoted where the patient was asked his name, and gave that of his dead brother. Asked who was his other seif, be gave his own name

HARDING GOLDEN RAIL

Here la Miss lone Lunt with the Harding golden memorial rail section which was laid by Southern Utah citizens at Cedar City recently to commemorate President Harding’s official opening of the new Union Pacific Zion National Park line to that point while on his last trip, June 27. Box of Sand From China Found to Be Gold Ore Bethlehem, Pa. — Speculation was rife when a 800-pound box. covered with Chinese symbols, was received at the chemical laboratory of Lehigh university and, when opened, was found to contain sand. Only the fact that all charges were prepaid dispelled the conviction that the laboratory was the victim of a practical Joke. The mystery was solved when a Chinese student happened by and, translating the writing, explained that the ‘‘sand” was gold ore, sent from China by a former student for use In the course In assaying, which is conducted at Lehigh every summer. Samples of the ore were distributed at once, and In a few hours the value of the ore was ascertained.

ering many square miles. The rabbits are driven by men and dogs into a woven wire enclosure and there killed. During the late fall and winter there are many of these drives, some of them participated in by five to eight hundred men and boys and some women. The catch often runs as high as 4,000 rabbits. The usual practice is to scalp the rabbits and get the ears to collect the bounty, which frequently goes to some church or society, and the careasses are shipped to the Salvation army and other institutions In the large cities to be distributed to the poor or sold. The fur is taken for making hats and other sett cloth. There have been weeks In Kansas when as high as five carloads of jack rabbits, all under refrigeration, have been shipped out of the state. Highor Bounty Brings Results. The state does not pay any bounty for the killing of the jack rabbits. This bounty is paid entirely by the counties and It is a matter of local option iwhether or not the county pays the bounty. But every county where the rabbits have been particularly bad pays the bounty and the people are glad to pay It from the taxes In order to keep down the number of rabbits and the damage they do to growing crops and trees. In some counties the question has been submitted to a vote of the people and has always carried. The bounties frequently ran up to lour and five thousand dollars a year to the counties, anfi It will likely run considerably higher now with the bounty doubled. The amount was raised from 5 to 10 cents a head last April and all the counties showwd heavy increases in the numbers of 'rabbits killed every month. Some counties ran 50 per cent a month more bounties since the new law went into effect than before. Men and boys devote a good deal of time to bunting jack rabbits during the fall aad winter and the spring months. - For years Kansas had a fight with the prairie dogs, but they were finally driven away or killed off. The dogs were killed with poisons put in their burrows. But the jack rabbit has no burrow and has never been known to eat poisoned foods. During extreme weather the rabbits will cone Into feed lots and eat corn or other feeds ghren to cattle, ebeep or hogs, bet no <ne bas devised a scheme for poisoning grains to prevent the jack rabbit detecting it and avoiding the poisoned foods. Se&s Blood to Pay Costs of Wedding : Baltimore, Md.—To help deI' fray Me wedding expenses. Dr. ; W. A. Campbell, a young In- : terne at a hospital, sold a quart ! of his blood for SSO. "I would be glad to give my ; blood free, but I need all the : ; money I can get to pay for my ■ : wedding.” be said. Doctor Campbell's act saved ; the life of Henry Dannenfelaer, : sixty years old. of Long Beach. ltd.

| “Cases of true dissociated personal* 1 ity,” says Doctor Riggall, “are extremely rare, and it is considered al* most impossible to bring about a complete cure.** After Ho Is Dead. This world forgives a genius who doesn’t know bow to make a living—after he is dead. More than half the people in the Okavango river district in southwest Africa are held in slavery.

" THE SYRACUSE JOURNAL » _• IX—

•STORIES. ffom/fere and'77ien>

The Automobile Death Toll in Chicago

CHICAGO. —Automobiles, honking their way through Cook county for the last ten yearn, piling up twisted bodies, spilling youngsters* toys, and scattering books Hutched by lifeless school children, killed 4.193 persons. This is just 29 lees than the total lives lost in five great disasters —Johnstown flood. Iroquois fire, and the Eastland, Lusitania. and Titanic ship catastrophles. Since the first of January there have been more than 500 auto killings in Cook county. The first 500 of this number are divided into the following age groups: P. C. Under six 52 —10.4 From six to fifteen 104—20.8 From fifteen to twenty...... 14 — 2_B From twenty to f0rty..^....115— 23.0 From forty to seventy..... .192—38.4 Over seventy 25— 5.0 If this basts of age average Is applied to the entire 4,192 killed In the ten-year period, the estimate shows that 419 of that number were under the age of six years. The auto, during this period, was

Nebraska County Haunted by “Lights”

O’NEILL, NEB.—Northern Holt county is Infested with "ghosts" that go round with lighted lanterns, or something ©f th© kind. The whole community Is now out every night, phantom hunting. The district over which the “ghosts” have been appearing Is some six miles square. The ghostly manifestations are getting on the nerves of the ranchmen of northern Holt and they want somebody who can hold communication in spooky language to come out there and find out what the matter is. The manifestations take the shape of ghostly luminous balls which float through the air, skip along the ground, remain stationary, or rise to great heights, as the occasion seems to demand. Often they appear side by side, and being about the size of ordinary automobile headlights, have been mistaken for such by autalsts. They have been the cause of many near-accldents, because of their resemblance to auto headlights.

Admitting New- United States Citizens

Denver, colo—to have served in th© same division during the war in which Federal Judge J. Foster Symes was a major, and to have carried messages and taken orders from the major, then to be denied bls naturalization papers by Judge Symes on the grounds that the business he recently purchased Is alleged to be disreputable, was the experience of James Kalliollas, proprietor of the Belmont hotel, 2058 Larimer street. After Kalllollas had been questioned by Judge Symes concerning the hotel, and Paul Armstrong, in charge of the naturalization bureau, had read a report of police concerning the .place, Judge Byrnes said: "I can’t admit you to citizenship until you get out of that business. Dispose of it, and start in an honest business, then make application for your naturalization papers again.’* Twenty-nine persons were admitted as citizens by Judge Symes in the first day’s hearing of the three days set aside for naturalization. There are 159 >eases on the docket. Joaepti Jobn Smith, who was before Judge Symes in May and his case con-

Oldest City Official in United States?

BL’BLINGTON, la.—With a career of public service which goes back to 1868. Christian Mathes, city treasurer of this city, celebrated his ninetieth birthday anniversary by making entries on the city’s ledgers and receipting tax payments. Mr. Mathes, claimed by Burlington officials t© be the oldest city officer In the United -States, has been as. official of Burlington or Des Moines county since the coming of kerosene lamps ruined a thriving tallow candte business back tn -the frontier days. Now Mattees is getting ready to retire, after nineteen years as city treasurer. As soon as the state examiners get around to look over his books and certify them he wIH quit the treasurer's office In Burlington's ancient city hall to spend the rent of his life In his tittle home oa North Fourth street. For nineteen years Mathes has kept the books of the city of Burlington by the ancient bookkeeping system he learned before tha Civil war. Every

Illinois Legal Aid for Wronged Poor

SPRINGFIELD. ILL.—The poor man who found that the “fine tot” he bad purchased was at the bottom of Lake Michigan, the widow who bought a strip of “blue sky,** the wife whose husband deserted her with four children—these were among the many who brought their troubles to the free legal aid bureau in Illinois the last year, finding the law a friend of the poor as well as the rich, according to the Illinois Bar aseociation. The “ridi man’s law" is no longer a charge that can be laid against the system of jurisprudence in Illinois, in the opinion of H. Allen Stephens, secretary of the association. With the development of what is known as the “Illinois plan" of legal aid work, Mr. Stephens declares, “the bar in this state may no longer be charged with neglecting the interests of poor litigants-" This Illinois system was given special mention in a report of the committee on legal aid work of the American Bar association, presented at the

not, however, partial to th© young. It killed 964 [based on the ratio for the 500 of this year] persons between the ages of twenty and forty. The group between the ages of forty and seventy —including heads es families, housewives. grandparents—lost 1,592. And there were 200 past seventy years old who met their death by automobiles. The coroner’s record lists 14 Industrial hazards causing accidental death. But the whizzing auto Is more dangerous than suffocating gases, thari burning metal, sudden explosions, electrocution or scalding water. The motor car is more fatal, statistics show, than the entire 14 hazards. Industrial accidents, the chart shows, through the years, have been cut down until the total for the past decade registers 2,981. Auto deaths, however, had been consistently mounting from 136 In 1913 to 736 last year. For the ten years they beat the Industrial figures by 1,211. There have been only 408 deaths from heat. Lightning took 26. Deaths from drowning total 2,324.

They are not “ignis fatuus,” will-o’-the-wisps, or swamp lights. The nature of the country precludes this. There Is not a swamp nor a piece of low land for miles and miles in any direction. On the other hand, the country is all upland around here. The lights are not new to Holt county, but their numbers have Increased several hundred per cent this year. For thirty years or so, ever since the advent of the white man into that section, they have been seen, off and on. And they hare never been explained. Each year they have grown more and more abundant until now they terrorize the superstitious and keep them Indoors after dark. This year the lights have singled out the big ranches of James Controlley, Thomas Gallagher and Edward Early, as their playground, about sixteen miles northwest of O’Neill. Time after time Connolley, Gallagher and Early, as well as some of their employees, have shot at the lights, using shotguns, rifles and. pistols, but there has been no result from these shots.

tlnued because he did not know much about the bill of rights, was fully prepared to answer all questions. Smith started in and recited verbatim the first five amendments to the Constitution before the judge halted him. Pietro Clccarello, on his second appearance before Judge Symes for naturalization, was denied citizenship for five years, when Examiner Armstrong brought out the fact that Clccarello had paid a fine of $l5O in police court on a bootlegging charge. Clccarello, when he appeared June 26, denied he had been arrested and fined. “You will have to go five years without breaking the law.” Judge Symes said. “The five years will date from the time you made the false statement In this court that you had not been arrested.” The twenty-nine admitted represented twelve foreign countries. England lest three citizens, Poland the same number; Canada contributed four, two were Danes, three eame from Germany, five were born In Russia, one came from Czechoslovakia, three from Italy, two from Rumania, one from Sweden, one from Austria and <me from Hungaria.

year, when the state examiners have teoked them over, they have urged that the system be modernized, but Mathes has the official permission of the city and county to go right ahead using his own system a» long as he stays In office. ■ Horn in Germany at Ludwigshafen, in 1833, Mathes came to the United States as a boy of nineteen to escape compulsory service in ;the German army. First he worket in a pharmacy In Cincinnati. He came west to St Louis to sell leather goods, and made the trip to Burlington—then only a village trading post—on an old Mississippi river boat of the sort Mark Twain later made famous. At Burlington a man named Hecker offered film a partnership la .a tallow candle factory, and he went to work with him, and bought the latter’s share hi -the business in 1861. A slight man. with a skuM cap, a tuft of gray beard and gold-rtmmed glasses set on the end of his nose, Mathes looks like a Dickenstaa character aa he aits at his desk.

' annual meeting in Minneapolis recently. and a special contract, which officials of the State Bar association have devised for governing free legal aid work in this state, has been used as a model by the Carnegie foundation. Thousands of oppressed persons in this state, the prey of ignorance or neglect on their own part, and of the shrewdness and cunning of heartless money grabbers on the other, have found succor through the legal aid made possible by this little contract. In Chicago, where legal aid work is said to be developed in advance of other cities, there is an organized legal aid bureau. A special committee of the Illinois Bar association site with the board of directors of this bureau. Last June, in Cleveland, the National Association of Legal Aid organizations was formed with Chief Justice Taft as honorary president Over 100,000 legal aid cases are handled yearly in the United States, the American Bar association reports show.

miyiiiHmmiiiiiiuimiiittyiiHiiHiiiiHHiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiijiiiihw To Brighten the Home When the Family Gathers at Evening to Rest By KATHLEEN D. MANNERING, ARE all tremendously affected by ths ever ehsngfng light es say climate. During a day ot lowering eloudg our spirits likewise droop. And during a day of clear sunshine we stride ever the ground with a buoyancy that is only partly physical. jTlie sunshine plays upon our moods like a deft player on a harpi Probably nowhere as on the farm is there need of better home lighting. The homes are set si great distances apart, with the intervening spaeea Arcaded in darkness st nightfall, save for the fitful light of the stara and an occasional full moon. At times it is a lonely life—that of the fanner. The very fact that the surroundings are dark sit nightfall—which has a tendency to depress the spirits—is the more reason that every effort should be made to light and brighten the home when the family gathers in the hush of ©vaning to rest, so read and to enjoy the pleasures of home. In the days gone by there was no remedy for such a situation. But , today farm electric lighting plants, at very moderate cost, bring the glowing lights of the city to every farm home. These plants cannot only make the farm haven of rest but a haven of cheerfulness. They light the home and the barns and supply the force that pumps the water and in other ways lighten the labor. I But the big fact is that they light the home, making it a place of sunshine for the young folks to dance to music records and to bring their friends, to read and to feel contented. Probably it would not be amiss to say that much of the discontent of the young men and women on the farms is due to a lack of appreciation of the vital fact that bright lights in the home make for contentedness. Surely, the farmer today who does not give this subject serious thought may be missing a means of keeping his children contented and giving his wife and helpmate some of the fine conveniences of life that she deserves. Reforming a Confirmed Beggar Can’t Be Done; a Good Living Too Easy By JOHN D. GODFREY, Brooklyn Bureau Associated Charities. , I have investigated or talked with thousands of mendicants. I have found men and women of extraordinary intelligence and talent My sympathy and confidence have been given to many of them —mistakenly, I admit Looking back on it all I have to confess that I have yet to uncover a single deserving case. , Three years ago my department sent out investigators who carefully followed up 800 cases of street begging. Not a single case was genuine. In every instance the mendicant was a professional. I Reforming a confirmed beggar can’t, apparently, be done. A good living is too quick and too easy. A well-trained professional need not work more than three or four hours a day, and in that time he may, if he is at all capable, take in from sls to $25. We have struggled with hundreds of beggars, trying to rehabilitate them. We have cleaned them, clothed them, fed them, and gotten them jobs—and within a month they are back on the streets again. nimmiiiiiiiimiminimimiiiinnininiiiimniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnininiH |> in | n | ii “Biggest Disappointment of My Life in Visiting South Sea Islands” By MRS. WHITNEY SPERRY, American Globe-Trotter. In Hongkong I met many American and English women stranded without a cent, whose real reason for going to China was to' get married. Most of them were more than thirty years old and more or less unattractive. They had heard, incorrectly, that there were so many more English and American men than women in China. Once there they couldn’t return. Java should'have been their goal. I received the biggest disappointment of my life in visiting th© South Sea islands. The scenery is beautiful, yes, but nothing startling. Java is more beautiful Those beauteous maidens one hears of, they are fat, nearly all of them, and sloppy. Voluptuous, yes, but, oh, so broad 1 There are derelicts of every race and nation, gone to seed. Os course, there is quite a colony of writers and artists, but even a large number of these have gone to seed. What struck me particularly was the number of white men, educated and cultured, many of them successful’writers and painters, who have married the native women. iinmimiiniinmiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiHiiiHmiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiii Chief Difficulty in Reconstruction of Europe Is the State of Mind By PRESIDENT BUSH, New York Chamber of Commerce. It is my opinion that the chief difficulty in the reconstruction of i Europe is the state of mind of the people in the various countries through which I passed. They are all doing much better than they did before |he war, but do not realize it. Their prosperity is covered with a froth of hysteria, of discontent, of suspicion, envy and hatred toward their neighbors. In some countries they hate other people so much that ' they have got to hating themselves. • Yet under that artificial surface there is an economic recuperation that the masses of the people cannot see. Fanners who two years ago I had only one or two cows now have three or four cows, and the grain and fruit production has increased in the same ratio unnoticed by the i owners of the soil. The state of mind is perhaps more serious than anything else and j little headway has yet been made toward curing it. I imHIIIIIIHIIIHIHIHIiniIIIIIimiIIIIIHHIHIIIINIIIIIIHIIIIHHIiniHIIIIIIHIIHIiniHtinB ! The Orderly Communist Becomes a Disorderly One at the Point of Hunger By EUGENE W. LOHRKE, German Correspondent in Konigsberg. So long as there is a possibility of bread the German Communist is likely to keep at work and behave himself. But the orderly Communist becomes a disorderly one as soon as he reaches the point of hunger. Once ths tide sets in strongly enough, there is nothing to hold it in cheek. Ths government continues to pour out paper money as fast as the mills can print it, and the confidence in such money is reflected in the comparative rates of foreign exchange as well as in the rising prices. • What one notices in particular is that the restlessness is never a local matter. When the torch begins to glow in one place, it breaks out suddenly into flame in another. I - E. BL Gary.—The moral and religious principles of the Bible, both' ths Old and New Ttwiamenfa, have never been and can never be succesefuDy cow bated- Since the preservation of history commenced there has never been anything approaching the Holy Bible as a literary production, nr a code for a proper and desirable human conduct, or as a foundation 4or future hopes. Ifi— Grace E. Frysinger, U. S. Agricultural Department—We had several farm women wear pedometers while they did their kitchen work. Tn many instances tiw instruments registered more than twelve miles a • « • « A•• •« A 11 1 2-1