HIE OMAHA' DAILY BEE: .SUNDAY. MAKCH 23. 1IHXI.
"3
HUMBLE GENIUS USHOSOBED
Contribution of a PittaW Drueirist to the
Proerem of Mankind.
.PUT GLOBE AROUND KEROSENE FtAIKE
Mihl Work Passible anil
Brlgfcteaea Path ! Civilisation
tmfw Lights aad Their
IlOTploamvat.
Dr. David T. Day of the. United States
geological survey. In a paper on 'Unlit,
the Clvlllser," In the American Illustrated
Mruln, presents an Interesting ami
plausible claim that the humble rittshurg
merchant who put a glass globe around a
kerosene flame, producing; a steady light
for night work, contributed more toCthe
spread of civilization and education than
Watt, Btephenson, Fulton or Edison. Sup
plementing the writer's claim Is an Inst rue
live review of the development of light. Tho
paper follows:
If Charles Umb could return today to
write a aequel to his "Popular Fallacies.".!
he might well five the place of honor to
the Idea that the last century was n era
of phenomenal growth In the material wel
fare and prosperity of mankind. It was
not. The statement would be equally true
or false, .of the last two or the last three
centuries. The last hundred years called
forth the discoveries and Inventions of sev
eral remarkable minds, such as Faraday
and Ericsson, but many, perhaps most, of
the Ideas fundamental to our material pros
perity belong to the preceding century, to
Watt, Lavoisier, Oalvanl, Volta and their
eera. Further,' It is not these Ideas but
Ihelr universal application that constitutes
material welfare, and the nineteenth cen
tury, as a whole 1m no more responsible for
their application than for thMr utterance.
The sudden Increase In the speed of ma
terial progress, with which s are so fa
miliar, belong not to the century but solely
to Its Utter half, and mainly to lta last
quarter. . In I860, though the great inven
tions, the steamboat, the railway, the tele
graph, the sewing machine and so on were
in use to some extent, though most of the
fundamental ideas had been laid down and
their application had already Increased" the
luxury of a limited 'class, the comfort of
the average cltlsen of civilized nations, and
the development of the average thinking
mind, had advanced no further, since. IStO,
than In previous half centuries.
The unexampled growth In comfort and
intelligence in the last half century was
chiefly due, not to the great scientists and
educators, but to the fortunate coincidence
of a chain of intrinsically Insignificant
eventa. Its cradle wae the unromantlc vi
cinity of Pittsburg. Pa., and most of its
prime factors are familiar to the point ef
contemut.
About 1M7 a Scotch chemist, Jamea
Young, began a series of experiments In
Glasgow In the distillation of mineral oil
from bituminous shales. Later he came to
Boaton, Mas., and continued his experi
ments on the shales, coals and asphalts
whipped to that point from Canada and
elsewhere. Others, following him, exploited
the still richer shales of Kentucky, and
trie hewa of thla exploitation came to Penn
sylvania and West Virginia, where oil al
ready distilled by nature was being found)
in boring brine wells. This oil was a nuis
ance to the brine prospectors. A little of It
was bottled and sold as a medicine.
Oil as an Illamlaaat.
fortunately for the world, Pennsylvania
oil, with Its high proportion of volatile
Ingredients, naphtha, gasoline and the like,
waa too explosive In Its natural state for a
fuel or an lllumtnant. Pittsburg, moved by
the success of the shale distillations, began
trying to refine it. And this brought It to
the notice of the greatest modern benefac
tor of mankind; Bamuel M. Kler. Kler was
a, Pittsburg druggist, a humble person who
had been selling oil aa a patent medicine,
"Kier's Petroleum." Like other patent
medicine dealers, he had a gift of utilizing
whatever came to his bands. When he and
his fellow residents began refining oil, he
began to burn It. Then came his step of
progress. He surrounded tho flame with a
glass chimney.
In ho doing he presented to human eye
the first steady bright light, except the
sun, that It had ever used. Bes!de this
achievement the work of Edison and all
other gteat Illuminators is absolutely
tilvlal. All previous lights, fire, the torch,
the candle, the open lamp, the gas flame
without Its modern adjunct, the jet. had
been flickering and unsteady, exhausting
to the eye and weak. The best of, them
still survive in a certain antiquated type
of lantern with a round, solid wick, giv
ing a wavering light of about one candle-
power. Kler's lamp, with Its argand burner
and chimney, waa thirty fold as strong and
perfectly steady.
Kler did- not Invent the chimney. Ami
Aigand had used it in KM. and Its origin
Ilka that of the steam engine and the
theory of evolution and most other vital
illscovarlea, may be traced back till it la
lost tn obscurity. But Kler put It to Its
flret practical use; he burned in It the new
ttltrmlnent which alone could make It imi
versa; It became an advertisement for
petroleum. People saw it, marveled, de
sired and from all around PittBburg came
You Look Better
You See More
With our RKTFO TORIO leuaea
the deep curve kind.
You look YOUNGER with our
"hho-Xot" Invisible litfoc-al (two
In one). Half the price of simi
lar lenk.es.
WE GUI N O 'EM ROTH.
NHIH-ON EYEGLA&8HK.
IlliTESON OPTICAL CO.
213 South 16th Street.
Factory on the Premise.
'ml
W Si.
a cry f.jr the of! that made the new light
possible.
Note the coincidences on which hung a
n"w epoch In the prosperity of the world.
Young comes from Scotland to Boston
transferring the center of activity in oil
Investigation to the country which Is to be
for decades the world's sole source of oil.
The tlrst petroleum Is refined In Pittsburg,
where Kler Is able to avail himself of It.
His lamp, again, I displayed In the heart
of the oil field so that the demand It cre
ates Is certain to be heard and met.
Wherever demand Is, not wide enough,
but Intense enough, supply Hs Inevitable.
Statues have been erected to E. L. Prake.
whi in WS drilled the first productive oil
well. Drake was an accident. He was a
promoter who had been drilling wells for
brine and turned to drill them for oil when
the demand changed. Greater credit be
longs to the mnn mho Initiated not the
supply hut the demand.
. A C'rlSleal Momeal.
In a few years thousands of wells had
been bored, and the ue of petroleum was
spreading In wider and wider circles over
tho continent. Then enme the critical mo
ment In the history of the bright light,
in the oil field, oil was the popular llluml
nant, within every one's reach, but as It
went further from Pittsburg the Increased
cost of transportation made It a luxury
for the privileged few. Yet Its value to
the" world depended on Its universality of
Use, Its cheapness.
Enter the third figure of our history,
John D. Rockefeller of Cleveland. Rocke
feller and his great organization made use
of the great characteristic of petroleum, lta
tendency to go through. Its use In the
lamp depends on Its ability to go through
a wick. Polish a glass or metal lamp, fill
It, and In half an hour it will be coated
with a thin film of oil, which has come
through the wick and crept over. Popular
superstition declares that it has come
through the glass. Put your oil In a
barrel. It will come through; put it in a
pipe. It will come- through. That Is what
Rockefeller did. He no more built the first
pipe line than Kler built the first chimney.
But he utilized the Idea of making the na
tural propensity of the oil the basis of a
new system of transportation, vaster and
more daring than has ever been devised
for another commodity. He stretched a
wick from the Alleghenles to the sea; he
looked through a piece of pipe In Pittsburg
and saw New York. Kler built the demand,
Rockefeller helped build and flnnlly con
trolled tht supply. Once on the seaboard,
transportation by water was cheap. It be
came possible to sell oil cheaply all over
the world; - the bright light .was within
reach of every one. ;
It was not Fulton, Stephenson, Morse,
Lister, Vlrchow, lCwas not Mann, Bright,
Thiers, Kossuth, Oaribaldt, that revolution
ized the welfare of the race. It was neither
more nor less than this, a bright light
within the reach of every one. A light
young; a bright light Kler and Ferris
within the reach of every one the pipe line
transporters. For with the advent of a
bright light, for the first time in lilstory
people began to read at night.
Readlaa- Msule I'nlveraal!
Up to 1860, virtually up to 1875, society
was divided into two great classes, clergy
and laity, read and unread. The clergy read
by day; It was part of their work. Tho
layman had other work by day; at night,
with body and brain tired by the day's
work and eyes tired by a weak, flickering
light, he could read nothing which required
concentration; practically, he did not read
at all. Reading at night waa a feat of
phenomenal effort, handed down as the
achievement of a few men like Franklin
and Lincoln, and doubtless responsible for
much of their success.' The bright light
made reading a universal habit.
Following the abolition of the great class
distinction came industrial and commercial
revolution. - Before the bright light, ill
trades had been learned by apprenticeship
Theory and practice had been kept sepa
rate; the artisan, a mere human machine,
had the practice, the professional expert
had -the theory and often nothing else.
There were no technical magazines and
almost no technical text books except for
the expert. Now there are text books by
thousands and periodical by hundred for
the workers of every trade. Even the hat
ter and the barber have their trade Jour
nals. In a quarter-century learning by
book had become a world movement. The
artisan studies practice, by day and theory
by night, learns his trade, often, before
he enters the shop, and makes himself an
expert before he leaves it. The consequent
remarkable development in the quantity
and quality of skilled labor has resulted
on the one hand In the wonderful Industrial
progress of the world, and op the other 'n
the rise of the artisan Into an Independent,
Intelligent, prosperous class. The mer
chant, especially the smaU dealer, has been
enabled to keep his books at night, to
check up his results, to analyse, and order
his business, and correspondingly to en
large and improve It. Commerce, like in
dustry, has become scientific, and there,
upon has mastered the world. .
Intellectual and social growth is more
elusive than Industrial and commercial
prosperity, If in the last half-century It
has been no less evident. Thought may
have gained little in Intensity; It has gained
marvelously in distribution. Fifty years
ago It was a commodity as rare as cham
pagne; now It is as common as cofTee.
Along with the bathtub and the sewing
machine, it has become one of the things
with which no family can dispense. That
abstraction, the "average mind," haa
leaed into activity and Independence. At
the same time certain once potent means
of education have lost their strength. With
Webster and Beecher, oratory was a
weapon; It haa become an accomplishment.
With Keane and Maeready the drama was
a school; It haa become an amusement.
There Is no doubt a to what haa replaced
them. Independent of political democracy.
Intellectual democracy Is becoming a world
force and dragging social 'democracy re
luctantly after It. Russia In revolt, France
shaking off the ecclesiastic yoke, Germany,
America, the British Empire peacefully re
modeled In communities still political !ii
form, but Industrial, agricultural, com
mercial In essence, all seak .the book in
the hand cf tho toiler the work of the
bright light. Fifty years ago public polnion
waa a figure of speech. Today It holds the
tiller of the world. Its origin, like that of
other forces. Is humble and oderlferous.
The mother of public opinion ia kerosene.
Proof? Compare the relative progress of
the nations In the last half century, the
degree to which they have attained the
consummations mentioned abolition of the
clerical class distinction. Industrial and
commercial development, skilled labor and
a prosperous artisan class. Independent
thought. Intellectual democracy, public
opinion with their relative consumption of
kerosene.
Progress Use t oil.
Progress has been swiftest in these
t'nited States. We modestly ascribe It to
our superior brains. They're not superior.
They're neither aa capacious nor aa well
developed as the German variety. Our
progress is due to our oil. We had the
bright light earlier and more abundantly
than Europe and profited accordingly.
France Is far behind us. The distinction
of clergy and laity still survives. There
is a-small, highly cultured class, a large,
primitive, industrial class, and a peasantry
sunk tn Ignorance. The French make their
streets glare with electricity, but they
don t light the Inside of their houses.
They put a heavy Import tax on refined
oil, because the demabd for it at any price
Is so latense that It makes a beautifully
OVERCOATS
$ QQO
Overcoats and
Cravenettes
Never before have
steady source of revenue, and under pro
tection of this tax do their, own refining
in a perfectly Inefficient manner. Conse
quently there I little or no reading by
night. The peasant haa choice of going
to"" mass or to bed. The city dweller fleos
to the one brightly lighted spot, the boulo
vards. All because cheap kerosene cannot
cross the border. "The Man With the Hoe"
typlfles humanity bereft of the sen-Ices of
kerosene.
Italy and Spain are still further behind,
more sharply divided Into clergy and laity,
with less commerce, less Industry, less
public opinion. Their progress In the last
half century has been greater than In pre
vious ones, but relatively to that of other
countries seems trifling. They have poor
lamps, poor oil and not much of It. Egypt,
Turkey. Syria. Persia have made no prog
ress. Except for the werk of .Europeans
within their borders they have stood still.
They have practically no lamps and no oil.
Bo of the rest of the East, save Japan.
Japan, however, has lately developed
enormous oil fields in Echlgo and elsewhere
and buys American and Russian oil in
great bulk. The relative development of
Japan and China la In exact proportion to
their respective importation of oil. Here
is proof quantitative as well aa qualitative.
Russia,' second In production of oil and
nearly last In progress seems an exception
to the rule. But Russian oil Is used princi
pally for fuel. Its proportion of illuml-
nant Ingredients is only a third that of
American oik and of this very small frac
tion four-fifths Is exported.
Great Britain, thanks to Young In Glas
gow, developed the shale oil Industry
parallel with the petroleum Industry in the
I'nlted States, and has followed Us sister
nation. In lighting and progress, as closely
as the difference in natural advantages
would permit. Germany took to the Ameri
can lamp and to American oil, promptly
and largely. The quality and quantity of
American oil Imported Into Germany and
France, aa into Japan and China, is (in
accurate measure of their relative progress.
Later Improvements In lighting have not
taken, and for a long time cannot take,
the place of oil. Gas 1 available only In
cities, electricity Is costly. Oil is the light
of the uneducated man, by which he be
comes a reading citlien. Aa he achieve
emancipation his lump is replaced, for con
venience, not for bettor light, by gas or
electricity.' But kerosene is the light of
progress. And progress is only beginning.
During the last two years the production
of oil haa Increased enormously without
meeting the demand; the price has risen
as well as the supply. Standard Oil has
been driven to another of Its remarkable
shifts. Atr this writing, to meet the in
creased needs of the refineries at Hunter's
Point. N. V., and Bayonne, K. J., oil is
being pumped "without change" from the
Kansas oil fields, half across the continent.
It passes smack through .the back yard
of the Chicago refinery, the largest in the
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Nervousness and sleeplessness are us
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The trouble with most tonics and med
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for a short time, is that they are largely
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vet in the end weakened and with vitality
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bottle of It bears upon lta wrapper Tha
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several Ingredients. For the drupglst to
offer you something he claims is "just as
good Is to Insult your intelligence.
Every Ingredient entering iuto tha
world-famed "Golden Medical Discover)'
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Tha "Golden Medical Discovery not
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root. In all stomach, liver and bowel
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"The Common be use Medical Adviser,"'
Is sent free la pspr covers on receipt of
11 oie-cent statu pis to pay the enei of mail
ing only. For Si stamps the cl.'th-boond
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Herce. Buffalo, N, V.
Ih. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets cure con
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(0)1
LEARDCs SALE
MEN'S SPRING COATS AND SUITS
15
THE GHOrNimOG WEATHER HAM A I (OUT KXriREl AX1) UNLESS HE HAS COXCLUHEtt TO WORK OVERTIME SPRING IS WITH IS.
NEARLY EVERY MAN WILL RE WANTING A SPRING SUIT, ANI HE WILL WANT IT VERY SOON, AND
..... M O N D A Y MORNING
Coumieui one of the greatest cloud bursts of men's spring clothing that Omaha has ever known. Last season's overcoats ami
suits, equally as good as new and of no material difference to this season's style, will be placed on separate tables and sold as
long as they last. There are several hundred overcoats, cravenettes and suits, and all sizes, and the patterns are withont number.
Easy and satisfactory choosing assured
That Sold Up To
$25.00 for
you seen auch qualities at such irfce. We want the room. Wo .want to
don't mind the loss. Don't be the last to get a chance at this
world. Six months ago engineers believed
the feat Impossible.
w Methods of Ilahtlna.
Since the Introduction of the bright light
each of our expositions and one of those
abroad haa exploited a new method of
lighting; a fair Indication of the way we
have maintained our lead in illumination.
The Centennial exposition was character
ised by the are light. The Chicago exposi
tion was lighted with electric incandes
cents, which replaced the arc for the first
time as an outdoor light. Atlanta produced
the perfected "Welsbnch, Nashville the
acetylene light. Omaha returned to kero
sene with the Kltson light, which burned
oil under pressure in a Welsbach mantle.
At the Paris exposition appeared the
Nernst light, an incandescent without a
vacuum, formed by a glowing cylinder of
magnesia and zlrconia. Buffalo Introduced
the osmium end Portland the tantalum
light. In which the carbon filament of the
ordinary Incandescent ia replaced by a wire
of metallic osmium or tantalum. St. Lou's
showed no new lllumtnant, but did bring
forward radium.
Radium Itself is not likely ever to bo a
direct source of light Its Ulumlnant inten
sity Is much too low but It served an In
valuable purpose In the history of illumina
tion. It made the; public for the first time
aware of the two warring principles of
light, giafe and glow. It advertised the
idea of Illumination by glowing surfaces
Instead of by glaring points.
In Illumination .as in other lines of hu
man activity, there Is a kind of progrr
beside which the contributions of particu
lar men are almost childish, a tide in which
Individual impulses are no more than waves.
This tide radium lifted from the subcon
sciousness to tho consciousness of the
public. It revealed the fact that there
had been growing, gradually and without
recognition a demand for light from radi
ant surfaces Instead of from brilliant
points, a rebellion against the Intensity of
the kerosene flame and the torture of the
arc light. Radium kindled this rebellion
Into open revolt.
Exposition Teals.
The trend of illumination, as well as the
Invention of new lights, may best he traced
through the expositions, the business of
which Is to Inform the public of the latest
tendencies of civilization. Mention should
be made first, however, of gas, which ante
dated both expositions and kerosene, n
smoky, wavering flame such as you can get
by unscrewing the Jet from a fixture and
holding a match to the open pipe. The Jet,
by which two fine currents of gas nre
forced together and flattened Into a fan,
produced a bright light, as did the chimney,
by bringing a greater supply of oxygen in
contact with a smaller supply of fuel. But
though the Jet followed the chimney, Its
light was inferior. The gas aflame is more
intense and glailng than the oil flame, ami
(because even pressure in a gas pipe is im
possible) it Is not nearly as steady.
The arc lights of the Ceniennlnl were a
further retrogression. Their Intensity was
painful; they were all glare and no glow.
They emphasised the darkness around them
Instead of softening It. And their violet
tinge aroused a constant protest from the
eye. The violet waves are the most perish
able of the constituents of light. They' are
the first to be absorbed by the refracting
medium; even glavs absorbs them; so does
air. Sunlight, which developed the human
eye practically without competition until
lgao, reaches It shorn of most of Its violet
rays by the atmosphere yellowed, so that
the eye has a constitutional preference for
yellow, and aversion for violet light. The
retinal capacity for violet has bten weak
ened by disuse so that we really see less
clearly by a violet light than by a yellow
light of equal power. Moreover, the violet
light of equal powr is uctually, so to
speak, the weaker, for many of lis pre
ponderant rays are abeorbed by glass and
air on their may to the eye, while the
yellow reaches the eye intact.
(.low ssS t.lare.
The preference of glow to glarr U simi
larly due to the structure of the eye. I'p to
16 the only offensive light was the direct
sun. Whatever she may have done for the
eagle, nature shirked her plain duly of ad
Justing the human eye tn direct sunlight;
she merely protected i with a lid. And
sini-e offensive light; became common, she
has taught the eye not to endure but only
to dodge them. The same amount of light Is
more grateful in a broad, evenly dtetrlbuud
glow than in a single brilliant point, for the
same reason that a heavier weight Is easier
to lift with all the muscles of arms, back
and legs working together than with one
linger. Light from one point Is focused to
one point in the back of the eye, and the
strain of meeting its entire intensity falls
upon a single "rod" or "cone" of the retina.
The same amount of light from a broad
surface Is distributed over a' wldQ tract of
the retina, no part of which la overstrained.
The only Ilium nations worthy of tl e nam?
at the Centennial were the fireworks, which
were thought remarkable Fireworks, alas,
have lost their charm. Our children do not
love them as we loved them In childhood.
More brilliant than ever, they seem less so.
TO $25 VALUES
ON
DIGPLAY
IN OUR
WINOOWG
The eye, accustomed to the subtle and
beautiful illumination achieved in the last
decade, finds tawdry the red and blue
sparks that once delighted it.
Despite the retrogression from oil to gas,
from gag to arc, the instinct of the race,
urged by the tortured retina, waa already
groping Its way towards the glowing sur
face. Those who could afford the most bril
liant atrocities of glare reverted again and
again to the candelabrum, an aged, smoky.
smelly device that yet distributed thirty-candle-power
over thirty points Instead of
gathering them into one. To distribute the
light and lessen the glare, gas flames and
arc lamps were surrounded with ground
glass. The attempt waa primitive; it soft
ened the light by weakening It, distributed
one-half and absorbed the other; but It
expressed the craving for glow years be
fore the advent of the man with whom this
craving became conscious.
Erilaun and "tlerlnarer.
While Edison was perfecting the incan
descent light he was doing a greater service
for Illumination In the training of Luther
Stlerlnger. Like his master, Btierlnger was
a genius, full of brilliant, daring concep
tions; unlike his master, a creative artlsf.
compelled by a keen sense of beauty. Un
like' his master, he could not follow out his
conceptions Into all the details of applica
tion, but depended for the execution of his
half-shaped schemes on the collaboration
of a gifted young executive, Henry Rust'n.
Btierlnger was called to light the Chicago
exposition. No one who saw the Illumina
tion of the Court of Honor will forget tho
Impression It made. It was a totally new
thing, an achievement of startling progress
and promise. The light that the Centennial
had concentrated into violet glares was
softly distributed in yellow Incandescents.
From that time till his death Stlerlnger
lighted all the American expositions, and
lit each better than the lant. At Atlanta
he developed tho idea of using water as a
reflector, which he had suggested In Chi
cago, till the lagoons of the exposition were
all aglow. And he continued his effort for
even, thorough distribution of light, cut
down the size of his Incandescents and in
creased their number. At Nnnhvllle he
weakened them and multiplied them again.
Here ho conceived the Idea of light har
mony. He would not allow two kinds of
light, of clashing color or discordant in
tensity, such as the arc and the. Incuuues
cent, in the same vista.
At Omaha he refined on this idea to the
point of refusing to admit two Incandes
cents of different voltage In one vista. And
at this point he turned from the method
of lighting that had been In use since the
first ape-man kindled the first fire to a
totally new one. He began to show things,
not lights; to do, not lighting, but light
painting. He hid his lights and threw their
radiance on the buildings, bringing out
their architectural ornament in bold relief,
or painting them luminously In broad
washes of white and black. At the Phila
delphia Export expoeltlon-ln 1899. his next
effort, he gave up lighting altogether and
did nothing but paint buildings with lights.
Then he went to Paris, to see the most
artistic of nations light its great exposi
tion in 1900. He turned away In regret.
Lighting was not one of the things they
do better in France. France, as we noted,
was short of kerosene. Its trades were
still taught by apprenticeship. Its artists
were the foremost, ita artisans the hind
most of the world. Its exposition buildings
were covered with exquisite mural paint
ings, and lit with primitive barbarism.
Lights of different colors and Intensities
glared and fought In every vista. The
crowning glory of the illumination, the
great Chateau d'Eau. reverted to the primi
tive simplicity of the magic lantern. It
waa a transparency, lit from within.
Btierlnger returned to the Pan-American
exposition at Buffalo to teach the world
a lesson In lighting. On the shifting foun
tains he threw subtly blending lights tha'
made the Chateau d'Eau look like the
colored bottles In the chemist's window.
On the buildings he used lights of fourv
candle power, mere glow-worm sparks, by
thousands and thousands, all hidden. Tho
buildings themlves lit the exposition.
They rose against the sky, great glowing
masses of chiaroscuro luminous archi'ec
lure music not quite frozen.
The Tower of Light was his masterpiece.
While Its lights wuie slowly turned on and
It beeame gradually visible In its soft radi
ance, thousands every night stood rapt, or
cheered themselves hoarse, in a spontane
ous enthuxlasin, a vague delight, that they
could not expluiu. Inconselounly they
were expressing the triumph of the new
principle, the deliverance oC the eye from
the bondage of glare.
Then Stlerlnger tml.
Knetla'a Ill-Health.
Ruitln. worn out by the Pan-American
exposition, fled to a milder climate with
tuberculosis, and when the St. Iouis ex
position, with its vastly Increased vlntus
and perspectives, called Into existence new
problems In lighting, to which the old
methods were Inadequate, there was no
one to meet them. St. Louis tanked Into
bright point lighting, and Portland, though
its vistas wie emails!' and some uf its
Suits. Glnglo and
Double Breasted
clear out last nHnon' Mock before the
wonderful clothing, sale.
details excellent, was not on the whole an
advance.
Rated progressively at their glow value,
from low value to high, the lights in use
today rank about as follows: Acetylene,
arc, gas, candle. Incandescent, Welsbach,
Nernst, oil. osmium, tantalum and Hewitt.
The acetylene lights la even more glaring
Indoors than the arc light outdoors. Gas
is handicapped by lta unsteadiness. The
Incandescent la steady, but its light Is
concentrated iij a fine thread. The Wels
bach has a large radiant surface, but is
hampered by Its leaning towards violet
and by the unsteadiness of Its feed. It
varies less than the common gas flame,
but perceptibly. The Nernst light has a
glowing surface like the Welsbach, but lta
glow Is more Intense than moat glares.
So far it has been bearable only when
surrounded with ground glass.
The oil lamp, yellow, steady and fairly
soft, is still the supreme reading light in
general use, but the osmium and tanta
lum Incandescents threaten its supremacy.
The osmium looks like the ordinary In
candescent, but uses a much lower volt
age and gives a much softer and more
economical light. The tantalum light. In
stead of a simple filament, has a network
of wire as fine as 160 spool cotton, strung
from little hooks In the bulb. The number
of the wires, and their almost Invisible
fineness, give the effect of a soft glow
through a large portion of the bulb. If
this apparent glowing surface can be ex
tended. If the wires can be stretched close
together from end to end of a two-foot
tube, the tantalum light has great possi
bilities. It Is one of the three present light
ing principles that give any promise of
containing the germ of the light of the fu
ture. The second and best known of these la
the Hewitt light. At the moment when
Stlerlnger was reaching his senlth In the
Tower of Light. Peter Cooper Hewitt, the
gifted son of Abraun S. Hewitt of New
York, succeeded In making mercury vapor
In a sealed glass tube incandescent under
the electric current. He did for electricity
what the Welsbach did for gaa, but to a
far greater degree, for his yard or more
of soft blue light is the largest and mildest
glowing surface yet produced, except by
reflection. Its present drawback Is Its
ghastly color. But that this will be over
come Is as certain as that petroleum would
be produced In bulk when Kier's lamp had
appeared. The demand for a mercury
vapor light of ugreeable color la so Intense
Western Headquarters
FOR THK
Edison Phonographs
AND
1906 Model Phonographs
$10 to $100
Our Great Terms
Come to our store, take a ma
chine homo with you and pay for
it later at your own convenienca.
50,000 RECORDS
April Victor Racorda (
en Sal March 26th
PAY EXPRESS CHARGES
on All Retail Orders
WE
SEND
FOR CATALOGUE
ORDER BLAKXS
AKO
CEO. C. MICKEL, Manager
33d n Broadway
Counoll Biuffa
15th
SUITS
11 d '
That Sold Up To
$25.00(0-
new arrives.
We
R. S. WILCOX. Mgr.
as to make the supply, sooner or luter, and
probably sooner, a certainty. '.
Glow Competitors.
Buffalo, 1501, marked the beginning of
what promises to be the great conflict In
glow Illumination Hewitt's principle
against Stierlnger's. It Is almost .Incred
ible that any direct light should ever be
spread as softly over as wide a surface ax
Stierlnger's painted light. And Stierlnger's
principle haa already been applied to In
terior Illumination. The cafe of the Adams
house in Boston Is lit by a domed celling
that glows gently and evenly with the re
flected light of hundreds of Invisible In
candescent bulbs hidden around Its base.
In the great blue dome of the great pillared
reading room of Columbia university li
brarythe noblest educational building in
the country hangs what is locally known
as "the mothball," a huge globe of ground
glass. It Is perhaps a hundred feet above
the floor, yet at night, when four calcium
lights are turned on It, Its subdued, re
3ected radiance tills the whole hall.
These are probably not the only rooms lit
(like the philosopher's lamp) by reflection
tnu inry vei mini? U'l iiui Hjr mt mm n
lor reflected light. The trouble with light -painting
is its wastefulness. Like the
ground glass around the arc tamp It ab
sorbs half the light In distributing tho
other half.' But the recent Investigation
and discoveries of radio-active and radlo
responslve substances suggest a remedy
with which experiments are already being
made. Suppose In the future we coat our
walls and ceilings with phosphorescent,
radio-responsive substances, capable of re
flecting. In a modified form, aa much light
as they receive; barium sulphide, calcium
sulphide, Wllllamlte (a radio-responsive
silicate of zinc) or any of a hundred others
at our Band. In a given case, suppose we
select from these the one that will radiate
the quality of light most desirable under
the special clrcumstanoes. Then let us
throw on It from hidden recesses that one
of the dozen lights at our command from
which It can reflect the maximum quantity
of the kind of light we desire. Thus, per
haps, we shall ultimately be able to pro
duce at any time a light, the equivalent In
strength, quality and distribution, of dif
fused sunlight; not the light of a gray day,
but the light of a fair day with the sun
under a fleecy cloud, which, so far as hu
man experience goes, Is the perfect light.
The miracle of Joshua will be at our com
mand; with the turn of a switch we shall
i make the sun and moon stand still.
Direct
Representatives
of tho
Factories.
See Us Before
Buying
and Harnoy
Omaha
025 North 14th
South Omaha
Me 0oB