WHAT EDISSON IS DOING

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2455, 20 March 1909, Page 9 (Supplement)

WHAT EDISSON IS DOING

HIS NEW. BATTERY—HIS WONDERFUL MODEL HOUSES AND THEIR EFFECT ON OVERCROWDING/ AND HIS PLANS FO. VILLAGE THEATRES'.

That great scientist Edison is still busy in his Avorkshop thinking out many things Avhich Avill have great value to the people generally.

The most important matter now under consideration ds that of the portable electric storage battery. The problem is to make a battery light enough to be carried in a car and easily moA--ablc for re-charging, and at the same time capable of storing enough electricity to . move the A-ebicle "on Avhich the battery is carried for, say, a Avholc day. The London “Times” correspondent recently sent this neAVs as to Edison’s progress in this matter:— EDISON’S STORAGE BATTERY. “Mr; Edison’s long-promised iioav storage battery is about to be practically demonstrated. For a long time tlie im r entor lias been engaged .in perfecting such a device' for automobiles. The neiv battery' is for use on “ street car systems, iaiid will be put on trial shortly by Mr Whitridge, the Federal Receh r er of the Third Avenue Street Railway. The statement of the inventor, explaining the new battery, says that the elements are the same, as in the. battery Avhieh he practically perfected years ago —namely, niekeJLwitli an alkali. reaction, but with some improvements suggested by continued experimenting, until, he is now convinced, he lias the battery needed. He is satisfied he ; can put a car in, service that will run a ivhole day Avithout recharging. ,

. He expressed the opinion that the use of the new battery AA’ould rei-olutionise surface car traffic. He predicts that street car lines will employ none but cars equipped ivith the neAV batteries Avhen he has demonstrated, their commercial value; the tracks Avill be Avithout either, overhead or underground ivire®, or/rails for the transmission of current, U;and comparatively cheap stations only Avill be necessary Avhere the storage batteries may, be charged after-they have exhausted their store of current.

“Sir Ernest Gasscl is concerned in the English rights of this battery,-says Mr. Edison. Mi;. Pierpont Morgan, avliosc house Avas the first W be lit by electricity in 1878, is also interested ill this' remarkable inventioif, Avhich is destined to affect the ivliolc automobile industry. Mr. Edison’s first electric lamp Avas shoAvn at the Centennial Exlijbition in 1876, and since tlien it has made millions sterling by its use, but in the gigantic profits Mr. Edison has not shared to any extent, lie has not the commercial temperament. “Edison- was enthusiastic about the future wealth of Canada. He pointed out that Canadians have almost unlimit ed ivater poAver, and that electricity manufactured by that means Avould be the .poAver of the .future. He considers that steam raihvay locomotives are practically doomed, and he reminded the correspondent that the poAver derived from the Niagara Falls is iioav propelling tram-cars and hotel lilts, and driving factory machinery in, Syracuse, in Neiv York State, 160 miles aAvay. “Another matter interesting Mr. Edison is his model house for Avorkmcn, which can be constructed in three hours. Ho says that the cheapness Avith Avhich these houses could be built Avould lead to the rise of neiv toAvns all over the United States. If this were done he believed that poor people would desert the tenements in Avhich they crowded in the cities, and ivould live in houses at a rental of 7s 6 a Aveek—an unheard-of rent in this country,- where the rent of one room Avould amount to that sum, especially in New York. The model, house is practically constructed entirely bv automatic machinery, and contains excellent lining, and bed rooms, bath, add sanitary arrangements. Mr. Edison is having twelve patterns of the. house, prepared, and the architecture will be superintended; by Standford White’s firm of McKim, Mead, and White. Mr Edison is also experimenting with cinematograph films in color, but Ims not yet been able to overcome the difficulty of photographing red, and it cannot bo done instantaneously. He believes that the cinematograph as it will be developed’ Avill have a great educative effect. He is completing his simultaneous cinematograph and phonograph, and says that lie finds no difficulty in the perfection of the Illusion. : If the speaking apparatus is-.too close to the (inoving picture the effect of . the voice is artificial. At present -lie is obliged to remove the phonograph some 100 ft. behind the cinematograph. The difficulty will he overcome, and Mr. -Edison' belicves that in- a few; years every village in the world will- be provided with itsown cinematograph-phonograph theatre, and this will be one means by which, Mr. Edison says,: in combination with cheap houses and cheap transport, in the study of’;which Mr. Edison is also engaged, the great towns will be broken up iand the population scattered back to 'ljhe land. .. ■■ ■.. ;■. . ;;;. ; •