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��Paris conference. The members ot the con- ference also dieseuted from the conclusions of the Paris conference uixin tlie adoption of the platinnm standard of light; and a committec of the U. S- electrical eouference is now en- gaged Qpon the study of a suitable standard. The suggestion by Siemens to use the light emitted by a square centimetre of platinum at the point of fusion, under the action of a known current of electricity, seems a fruitful one; and the committee is testing its capa- bilities.
In telegraphy and telephony, there is not much that is new to chronicle. It is perhaps a blow to our national pride to learn that we are behind England in the art of telegraphj'. and that we are importing certain tulcgrapbic instruments instead of exporting them.
The London central telegraphic office is certainly not approached in this country for completeness and system. There is a certain analogy l^etween the action of the Irish settler in New England who burns np the fences and cuts down all the wood, and, iu short, skins the farm, and the action of telegraphic and rail- road corporations which run a system, but do not add to it as long as subsistence and divi- dends can be obtained. The American visitor to the London central office, however, can but be amused, that a sej>arate room, with in- struction, is provided for those operators who are to learn the reading of messages by sound. In America it was the operators who taught the superintendents that this method of receiv- ing messages was preferable to Lhe Morse register system.
We learn that the Hell telephone company has lately completed a special line between Boston and New York, and proposes to open telephonic communication between tliese cities. With the new powerful transmitters that have been and undoubtedly are to be invented, a great increase in the range of telephony is to be expected. Already most of the towns and principal cities throughout New England are connected by telephone-Iiues, to the great detriment of livery-stables and of stage-lines. The study of this new method of village-eom- municatiou we leave to the political-economist. The system is destined to work great changes in manners and customs.
Unfortunately, the storage of electricity, so called, does not fulfil the extravagant hopes that were excited when Fame's baiterj- burst upon the world, ll is now found that the Plants battery is more practical than the Faure, and that, under careful methods of forming. it gives better results than the Faure and its
��various modi fie atiouB. None of the storage- batteries now in use can be said to be commer- cial Buccesaes, for all of them deteriorate se- riously in time. To the scientific investigator, however, they are extremely useful. One having a small electrical plant can charge bia secondary batteries at his leisure, and thus have on tap a steady sonrce of electricity. To the investigator who has ruined many suits of clothes with acid- batteries, and wliose hands have almost ceased to be the insignia of gentle birth, the storage- battery is already a great boon.
Much has been said and written upon the subject of the transmission of power by elec- tricity. It is proposed to try different systems upon a certain portion of the elevated railways of New York. Nothing but an experiment upon a snfliciently large scale, under intelli- gent scientific supervision, can determine whether the electrical transmission of power can compete successfully with the use of the locomotive on public exposed highways. There is a future for this system in many ways, even if it fails on railways. The year, however, ha« added httle to our knowledge of it.
The subject of underground wires has been much agitated lately, and the Western union telegraph company has lately tried the experi- ment of placing many of its lines between two distant points in Boston under ground. present they work siicccBsfully ; but time ia needed to show that a suitable degi-ce of insu- lation can be maintained in this frost-afflicted climate.
The scientific theory of electricity has not received notable accessions during the year. The U.S. signal-service has established sta- tions for the study of atmospheric electricity at llaltimore and at Cambridge. It is believed that electrical observations will give additional data for foretelling the approach of storms. The subject of atmospheric electricity is still shrouded in mystery ; and little more is known than that there is s difference of electrical level between the earth' and the air, and that this difference undergoes modifications, and that we have methods of measuring these mod- ifications. Little progress has been made in our knowledge of the connection between earth- curients and changes in the electrical potential of the air. It is maintained by Mr. Blavier, who has had several es[)ei'iraentat telegraph- lines under his direction in France for the study of earth - currents, that changes in the potential of the air cause verj' small changes in the character of earth -currents, and that the latter have a real and separate existence.
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