Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 20, 1904)
Novel DphIkd la Klecfrollors. LAMP always made a room look J 1 homelike, and when it was Tele 's I rated with other old-fashioned things to the attic, the house seemed empty. With the Intro .-T.f. duction of tho electrolier some of the old time cheerful atmosphere has returned, for the electrolier Is really a lamp lighted by electricity instead of oil. Like Its predecessor. It comes In all shapes and Rises, but in more dignified forms. Art and utility combined have produced a lamp which pleases the eye aa well as serv ing Its purpose. A simple library table or desk electrolier has real bronze standards and a Phanomen art glass globe. In the daytime the latter is a beautiful peacock blue, but when the light is turned on the globe Is a faint greenish yellow. The effect Is pleasing, especially to one who reads or writes much by lamp light. Austrian art glass la also much used for globes on electroliers. An artistic one rep resents a pond lily leaf with a lily all In bronze. A light is hidden in the heart of the blossom, and over it Is an Austrian glass in the shape of an inverted lily pod. An elaborate bronze piano electrolier shows a Bacchante upholding a grapevine. The leaves and tendrils are in bronze, while the green grapes are of Austrian glass. The fruit hangs in. clusters, and skilfully hidden In each bunch 1st an electric light. When turned on, the light glows softly through the green grapes, and makes them stand out In bas relief as naturally as In life. This same idea Is carried out In electric light shades, which are simpler and less expensive. Instead of glass grapes, wax ones, which are as realistic, are used. These come in red and green. They are suspended around a liberty silk shade to match, and clipped to the electric light bulb. One of tho prettiest conceits in the elec trolier line was seen recently at a luncheon. From the center of a bowl of tulips on the table glowed as many electric lights through the yellow transparency. Tho tulips were artificial, but they looked real, both in texture and coloring. A baby bulb about the size of an egg was used Inside each tulip, and the effect was charming With tho yellow and white decorations. Drop electroliers for over the couch, or the cosy corner are a great convenience, as are also those which can be suspended from a hook on the wall wherever most needed. The latter can bo carried about from one room to another and attached where it seems desirable. People who live in hotels and apartment houses, and suffer from lights so high that they can scarcely Bee to read by them, will appreciate tho electrolier fixtures, which need not be left behind, but can be packed away In the trunk when migrating to now quarters. Apparatus for 11.UOO Volts. The handling of current at 11,000 volts at the new power station of the street railway company. Providence, is effected by an interesting group of electrical ap paratus grouped around a two-gallery switchboard thirty-one feet above the en gine room floor. The electrical conduc tors from the generators are carried over head on the under side of the celling In a well lighted gangway In the basement. The high tension busbars are located here; each U encased In separate brick housings upported on a slate platform, and con nections to and from them are made in oilbreak brick housed switches on the en glneroom floor. These are operated by re lay switches on the switchboard, the switches actuating the main switches through worm and wheel gearing driven by small direct-current motors, one on the brick enclosure of each switch. There are five alternating current feeders and tha conductors pass out of the building oppo site the second story of the switchboard. where there are cutout copper bar switches mounted on marble panels, with branches to the lightning arresters grouped under neath the first gallery. A feature of tho switchboard construction Is in the 3Vi-lnch pipe conduits built in pilasters against tho outside building wall for the passage of the conductors. At the bottom the pipes are set Into seeial cast Iron sockets, whioh give smooth, rounded surfaces Into tho marble cap of ihe pilaster. The high ten sion feeders are carried horizontally through the building wall In the center of an HxS-inch opening In it and outside under the cover of heavy slate hoods are tho tension insulators and the beginning of the transmission line. The alternating current feeder panels have recorded watt meters and three ammeters, the latter showing tho state of balances of the load on each phase. The generator panels have only one alternating current ammeter, but have both an indicating and recording watt me ter, together with an ammeter for field current. For the motors of the electric driven exciters there are two banks of three delta-conneoted transformers on tho slate platform in the basement. These step down to 480 volts and the motor panel of the switchboard contains the relay switches for cutting in and out the high tension current of the transformers, the switches being the motor operated oilbreak type. The direct current board at present provides for thirty feeders In fifteen pan els. Each panel carries two ammeters for the two feeders, but only one circuit breaker. The generator panels have one switch on the switchboards In the nega tive side, and one circuit breaker In tho negative side, while on a pedestal at each machine there Is a positive switch and the equalizing switch.. The total direct current output is measured on a large re cording watt meter on a panel between generator and feeder panels, and this parel also carries a totalizing indicator ammeter. The positive feeders are 50,000 circular mills and tho negative returns 1,000,000 circular mills. The switchboards are equipped with standard instruments, they are of Ver mont marble two Inches thick, mounted on three-Inch longitudinal timber string ers. The switchboard strueturo Is of steel framing with slate floors.-Hoston Tran script. Automatic Telephony. The fact that the companies engaged In tho development of the telephone business are devoting a great deal of effort and money to the perfection of the automatic central switchboard Indicates a belief on tho part of those who are liest able to form an intelligent opinion that a revolu tion is imminent which will dispense with human agency in connecting and discon necting the instruments. This activity, we are told, is not confined to the Independent companies which are more or less success fully encroaching on the field of the tele phone business. The Bell company Is un derstood to be carrying on extensive ex perimentation to establish the value of the many patents it owns for automatic tele phony in one form or another, and in a small eastern town it now maintains an automatic exchange which is said to have given very good results, liut the greatest enthusiasm In this direction, naturally enough, is displayed by those who are anxious to break Into this field nnd make headway ogainst the established "monop oly." The Western Electrician says: "There are working automatic exchanges In Chicago, Orand Rapids, Mich.; Dnyton, O. ; Fall River, and other cities. The serv ice given. In Chicago at least, seems to be satisfactory to thoe- who use the tele phones. But tho mere fact that one is able to make connection nnd talk clearly through a new automatic exchange does not Indicate that the problem has been solved. There are many other things to be considered. Involving financial questions, the every-day working efficiency of the apparatus, and Its adaptability to the vari ous demands that are made on the modern telephone exchange. Today over 89 per cent of telephone conversations are mado through manually operated boards; the au tomatic have still to stand the test of time. But the fact remains that a growing num ber of telephone men are asking whether a change is Impending." A change of this kind Is rarely expected until it is imminent, and In view of the number of Ingenious inventors and capable adapters at work upon the problem It may be concluded that the stake Involved Is large. If an automatic swltchbonrd can be built which will meet the needs of practical service, telephony will undoubtedly receive a great Impulse. If the system can be so arranged that for what goes wrong the user of the transmitter has only himself to blame, there will be less complaining, and the atmosphere of telephone booths will be less sulphuroua New York Ttmea African Water Power. A. company has been formed to exploit Victoria fails, In tho Zambesi, and will build a hydro-electric generating station, with the expectation of supplying power to the Waukie coal llelds, Buluwayo, the Gwelo, Sebakive and Hartley gold fields, all of which are within Stxj miles. The falls aro over 400 feet high, and, while the total amount of energy running to waste at Niagara Is 7,000,000 horse iower, the corre sponding figure for the Victoria falls In tho wet seuson Is 35,000,000. The railway haa now been completed to within seventy miles of the falls and will reach them be fore the end of March. An Idea of how the river comes to form this gigantic waterfall is given by a writer In the I'uil Mall Gazette: "What happens Is this a broad river with a comparatively slow current suddenly hurls Itself Into a narrow crack or fissure In tiie earth which reaches across its bed from bank to bank. This fissure is of an average width of 300 feet and a deptii of 400 feet, und has one narrow outlet UuO feet wide by which the water collected in it can escape, und this nearer to one end than the other. As can easily be imagined, the volume of wator collected at the bottom of the fissure is enormous, and having only a small exit comes rushing and Burglng out with greut force. "Immediately after leaving the fissure the gorge into which tho water flows makes a shurp bend. This still more increases the agitation of the water, and tho name Boiling Pof-glven to this bend is most expressive. At the Boiling Pot the river begins a tortuous course of some thi-ty miles between cliffs 400 feet high. This gorge, or canyon, Is about 600 feet wide throughout Its entire length, and zigzags backward and forward until the river widen out again. At present only two places In this gorge ure known whero It Is possible to descend tho otherwise per pendicular cliffs to the level of the water. "It Is Impossible to describe the feeling of awe experienced as wo gazo from a height of 400 feet down at the troubled waters below. The waves Jostle ono an other In their haste to escape, and throw up shoots of spray, which, cnught by tho strong draught coming out of the chasm, are carried high Into tho uir. Tho roar here la terrific. We shout exclamations at each other, but few are heard. We step back for a moment to look round on tho panorama about us. On Ihe left the long line of falls stretches away Inlo mist to the east and west. Opposite, the dark per pendicular cliffs, shining with moisture, aro only COO feet away. To the right Is tho narrov gorge, down which the water in running like a mill race, and below the Boiling Pot, over which is suspended a brilliant rainbow. Word fall to give an idea of the scene. "Following round the top of the cliff, away from the falls and along the gorge, wo copie to a surveyor's flag and a narrow clearing through the scrub. Thla is where the bridge for the railway from the south Is to bo thrown across the gorge. We learn that the length of the bridge Is 65a feet. There will be three spans, two short ones of unequal length and the big central Mvtn of" 600 foot. It Is roughly calculated that rail level to water level Is 430 feet. Thla may lie called low water level, as the river is about at Its lowest In August, and hlKh water, level will be about forty feet les, or 3H0 feet. This measurement will tnnko the bridge the highest In tho world. "A mile or so below the bridge wo como to where the gorge makea Ita first bend. For a mile It h is been running straight In one direction, nnd then for no apparent renson doubles tsu-k at nn acute angle. This Is repeateil time after time until some thirty miles below, the Zambesi broadens out again Into a wide river." Paper I'aed for Iasalatlon. A new process of covering wire is em ployed In Providence. It is used in tha Insulation of fiat or rlblwm wire, and paper Is the material used. The paper Is ai piled to tho wire longitudinally; Its laternl edge are hemmed around tho lateral edge of tho wire and brought together along ono face of the wire, thus forming a longi tudinal straight seam. The paper strip Is first formed Into an envelope, which Is owiied longitudinally. Tlte wire Is In serted and the envelope la then closed around the wire. The paper Is twice tho width of the flat copper wire and nearly covers tho metal when 14 Is folded around it. Both strips lead from a reel to tho covering apparatus. The paper strip first passes between the peripheries of n pair of rolls. The upper roll has a smooth sur face of a width just sufficient to take in the paper strip and Is Hanked by flanges. Tho lower roll has two V-shaped ridges, separated from each other a distance ' about equal to the width of tho wlro to be covered. These rolls while turning aro pressed together so that tho ridges score tho under side of the strip as It passes be tween them. The scoring defines the linns on which the strip is afterward bent, and Insures accurate folding as well as pro venting buckling during tho folding pro cess. Wire Insulated in this manner Is not Intended to be handled very much ns "wire," but Is adapted for winding nt once Into electrical colls, In which one convolu tion resting upon another holds the paper securely upon the wire. The main differ ence between tho Insulating process de scribed and those commonly employed Is that the Insulation Js applied longitudinally to tho wire Instead of lielng wound around It. Hence the rapidity with which tha work can be done is Increased. Hlaaeat Head of Water. Tho Everett (Washington) Railway and Electric company has commenced the con struction of a power plant to generate 15, 000 horse power at Lake Isal el, on tha Great Northern, thirty-two miles east of Everett. The plant will be unique In that the head of the water used will be the greatest In tho I 'n I ted States. The Intake for a thirty-two-inch pipe will be thirty feet below the surface of Iwke Isabel. The pipe will he 12,000 feet long, with a full in that distance of 2,500 feet. Owing to the enormous pressure, a Hpecial steel pipo has la-en ordered, decreasing In diameter to twenty Inches near the nozclo. The diameter of the nozzle Itself will be only five-eighths of an ImV Using a Pel ton wheel this five-eighths stream will de velop 10,000 horse jmwer. Iit. r another stream und wheel will be Installed, developing j.7oo horse power. Tho pressure on the steel pipe will be 1,100 pounds to the square Inch. The speed of tho water leaving the nozzle will be 23,000 feet, or more than four miles, per minute. The plant will cost $000,000, and is to furl Mali the jower for the street railways and factories of Everett. The only plant In the world to exceed this In Its head of water Is one In Hwitier lund, having a head of S.1?j feet, in Cali fornia there is one with a head of 1 9u0 feet.