The age of electricity; from amber-soul to telephone by Benjamin Park 1849-1922

Author:Benjamin, Park, 1849-1922. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Electricity
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's sons
Published: 1901-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

of electricity from dynamos employ their capital fruitfully only about six hours in the twenty-four.

The question of how to store electricity so that we can generate it at one time, and use it at another, is therefore of very great moment. We know, however, that electricity is not a thing capable of storage, any more than it is a thing capable of being burned in a lamp. The water which in falling drives a wheel is not consumed : simply its energy is expended. If we go a step farther, and cause the wheel thus driven to wind up a spring, or lift a weight, we know that we can keep the spring wound up, or the weight in its lifted position, as long as we choose ; and that when we release the spring, or drop the weight, then we can use the energy thus stored. So that we are not to conceive of the idea of pouring an electrical fluid into something, and keeping it there ; but of causing the energy which exists in the form we know as electricity, to become stored, just as the energy of the water becomes stored in the wound-up spring or lifted weight. There is, therefore, no such thing as storage of electricity. What is really done is the changing of the electrical energy from the active condition to the potential condition, — from the state in which it may be doing work, to the state in which it is not doing work but is capable of so doing.

We have already found that if we plunge the ends of two wires leading from a galvanic cell into water, — or, better, dilute sulphuric acid, — bubbles of gas will appear upon the immersed wires,—hydrogen at the wire by which the current leaves, oxygen at the wire by which it enters. This experiment is usually shown by means of the apparatus shown in Fig. 91. This consists of a glass vessel ( V) containing water, and also two glass test-tubes (AB) inverted over a pair of platinum plates projecting up from the bottom of the cell or vessel. These plates are con-

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