[399] - Alluding to the huge manufacturing systems of Great Britain, her innumerable railroads and her ubiquitous marine, it was remarked by Emerson that steam is the half of an Englishman. If this be so, it may be said with equal truth that electricity is the half of an American, for while the earlier discoveries in electric science were made in other lands, no nation has displayed such aptness and ingenuity in adapting them to practical use. Here the patient and ill requited toil of Samuel Morse has fructified into a network of telegraph lines, which carry the tidings of the world with the swiftness of thought to every section of the republic; here was conceived the plan for the first of our submarine cables, and here was invented the telephone, by means of which many millions of spoken words are carried daily over the wires. And so with apparatus for lighting, motion, the transmission of power, and other purposes, our electric lamps and dynamos, our motors and cars being now exported to every quarter of the earth.

And yet today we know no more of what electricity is than did Theophrastus or the elder Pliny, both of whom speak of the property of amber for attracting such light substances as straws and leaves. We have learned that it is not a fluid, as was formerly supposes, that it is not matter, any more than are light and heat; but when we say that it is a force, or rather the cause of a force, we have said about all that has thus far been discovered as to this the most puissant of nature�s potencies. It is not until recent years that electric power has been applied to practical purposes apart from the telegraph, or indeed was supposed to be capable of such application. In 1882, for instance, was opened the first central station for lighting street and buildings; in 1893 there were nearly 1,300 stations with 2,500,000 lamps. In 1881 the first isolated plant was erected on the shore of Blue Mountain lake; in 1893 there were 3,500 isolated plants with 1,443,000 lights. In 1885 was built the first electric railway with its mile or two of track; [400] in 1893 there were 435 electric railways in operation, with 5,000 miles of track and 8,500 motor cars. In many steamship lines on ocean, lake, and river vessels are lighted by electricity, while in warfare, in mining, metallurgy, mechanics, and in the transmission of power for various purposes, it is rapidly coming into use. All this is fully illustrated at the Fair, where electricity is almost ubiquitous, for there is hardly a corner of the buildings or grounds where its agency is not manifest in one form or another.

To the majority of Exposition sight-seers the most attractive feature in connection with the department of Electricity is the illumination of grounds and buildings, of fountains and waterways, forming, with the play of search-lights, a more striking illustration of the wonders wrought by this science than any mere collection of machinery could possibly be. The decorative lighting of the grounds is concentrated chiefly on the main plaza, the shore line of the central basin, its border of flower beds, and the cornice lines of the buildings, rising to a uniform height above the court. The outer surface of the Administration buildings, with its dome and corona, are also traced in lines of light. Elsewhere exterior illumination is restricted to the Wooded island, to loggias and colonnades, to Festival hall and the terminal railway station.

As to interior illumination, the following description by the chief of the department may be of interest: "The two problems of lighting, by far the most difficult presented, have been the lighting of the Art galleries, with their two miles of reflecting screens, and the lighting of the dome of the Administration building, which is larger by far than the dome of the capitol at Washington. On the floor of this dome, which is octagonal, there are in the eight angles as many great spreading candelabra of special and beautiful design, each bearing 50 lamps. High up, at the spring of the interior dome, is a gallery running clear around it. The gallery has a metal railing, and upon this railing are 56 seven-light standards, forming a great corona of light 120 feet in diameter. Far up above, and through the opening in the top of the false dome, is seen the beautiful painting upon the ceiling of the outer dome, as illuminated by a circle of arc lights which are themselves hidden from view between the two domes."

[401] - "An effective piece of lighting appears in the Fisheries building. The large circular pavilion upon the east is used as an aquarium. Around the building are arranged continuous concentric rows of great tanks. The sides of these tanks are or clear glass, and are continued in the ceiling by stained glass screens, so that the observer walks in a covered corridor the sides of which are of glass, and through which can be seen the representatives of all the finny tribes disporting themselves in their native element. No lights are visible; but the tanks are lighted by hundreds of incandescent lamps placed under screens above the tanks, so that the light does not strike the eye, but is diffused throughout the water, which is illumined as effectively as at noonday."

In the illuminated city of the Fair the attraction is not in the myriads of arc and incandescent lamps, with their elaborate settings, nor in the circular electroliers, some of them suspended, as in the hall of Manufactures, 150 feet above ground. Rather is it the part that each one plays in the general effect, the special feature that its light accentuates, all contributing to give to this wondrous display the aspect of a veritable fairyland, to raise it, for the moment, almost beyond the realm of matter.

Let us imagine ourselves standing at eventide in the central court, now almost a solitude, haunted by the shadows of deserted temples cast athwart the plaza. Toward the east darkness is settling over the waters of the lake. Northward and to the west a heavy pall of smoke broods over the great midcontinent metropolis, and far to the south the lurid flames of a blast furnace are faintly visible on the dusky horizon. Suddenly a beam of light shoots like a falling star from the lofty dome of the Administration building, and a moment later its symmetrical outlines stand out in tracery of fire. At its base is a circling wheel of light, and a hundred torches further relieve the black abyss beyond. Meanwhile a thousand lamps, clustered around the central avenue, have turned the night into day. Thus also the other great buildings that encircle the court assume their robes of light, with pillars, porticos, and colonnades blending in weird, yet brilliant perspective, like the threshold of an enchanted palace.

From the summit of the Manufactures building a pyramid of dazzling light is cast on the dome of the Administration building, throwing into strong relief its delicate tracery of gold and white. Then in swiftly changing streams of white, green, and blue, purple, [402] yellow and scarlet, three search-lights are turned simultaneously on the central court, the basin, the MacMonnies fountain, and the statuary here displayed in lavish profusion. In the heroic statue of the republic, with its background of double columns shining like pillars of Carrara marble, every inch of its golden surface glitters beneath the piercing rays. Presently the search-lights sweep the horizon, one of them resting for a moment on the graceful figure of Diana, poised against the sky as though suspended in mid air. Another is turned toward the lake, casting its bright sheen on the waters of Michigan, and striking the sails of a passing vessel, whose white wings slowly vanish from sight. Gradually the scene grows warmer in its wealth of coloring, and the lights and shades more intense in contrast, the copses and groves of wooded island, with its garb of verdure, throwing their shadows across the tracery of fire.

But the climax of all this brilliant display is in the electric fountains at the head of the lagoon in front of the Administration building. Here are light effects of surpassing loveliness, in rich varying hues, sprays, jets, and columns of water appearing as though ablaze in the glow of these powerful electric currents. Between them is the MacMonnies fountain, its waters iridescent as the rainbow, the centre-piece with its group of figures resembling a phantom ship with phantom crew, beautiful but with an unearthly beauty. Under these changing colors the vessel seems to float, now on a sea of white, and again on a rose-colored expanse, on frosted silver or on molten gold. Near by gondolas and electric launches speed swiftly to and fro across the lagoon, breaking its resplendent surface into a thousand glittering fragments, while from the plaza strains of music are wafted into the still night air, and above all is heard the ceaseless murmur of the waves, breaking on the shore adjacent, as with the low sad monotone of ocean.

Such is the entertainment offered by night at the Fair, but on no two nights alike, presenting a new combination of brilliant effects at each illumination, and varied at times with fireworks, the latter, as it would appear, somewhat out of place amid this marvellous scenic display, and more than once threatening serious disaster to the Exposition buildings and their rich contents. No wonder that these artistic glories of the night, surpassing even the spectacular marvels of the day, brought visitors to the grounds by scores of thousands, and to the management a goodly increase of revenue. Under the glow of myriads of lamps the architectural symmetry of the design is displayed to excellent advantage, the uniform cornice level of the buildings, sixty feet above ground, standing clearly forth in tracery of incandescent lights, while encircling the basin near its water level an unbroken circle of vari-colored jets, each reflected from its glittering surface, gives to the scene a brilliance almost too dazzling for human eye to rest upon.

From this brief description of the Fair by night let us turn to the exhibits proper of the department of Electricity, for here also are many attractions for every class of visitors. While some portions of the Exposition are largely occupied with technical collections, such as are of special interest only to those with whose business or studies they are connected, here is one that represents the greatest and yet the youngest and most progressive of the sciences, one whose marvels, though surpassing the wonders of dreamland, are presently to be excelled by others yet in store.

Passing from the railway station along the northern side of the central court the visitor will observe in the spacious portico of a building on his left, a colossal statue mounted on [403] a pedestal, and on the frieze above it the following inscription: Eripuit Coelo Fulmen Sceptrumque Tyrannis.

In the statue he will recognize that of the great philosopher who, if he did not, as the epitaph would have us believe, wrest from the tyrant his sceptre, was the first to steal from heaven its lightening. Passing through the portal and beneath the arch which encircles it, we find ourselves in the hall of Electricity, an edifice somewhat daring in design, but with such elements of the picturesque as it special uses would permit. Before making further mention of this structure, let us pause for a moment within its portico, for here is one of the main architectural features of the composition.

In describing this gem of artistic workmanship, with the facade to which it gives emphasis, I cannot do better than adopt the words of one of its artificers, Henry Van Brunt, of the Kansas City firm of Van Brunt and Howe, to whom I am partially indebted for my sketch of other Exposition buildings.

"On the south side," he says, "it was necessary to make a concession to that spirit of grandeur and ceremony which should prevail around the great court of the Exposition. Accordingly the vertical line, predominant elsewhere in the building as a foil to its long, low, horizontal mass, is here subordinate to the spirit of repose. To this end the campaniles on the corners are set back from the front, but connected with it by gabled pavilions, and the principal entrance on this side is treated as a triumphal arch, crowned with a classic pediment containing an escutcheon, which bears the electromagnet as a symbol of electricity, and is supported on each side by a female figure representing the two principal industries connected with this science - electric lighting and the telegraph. Above, in contrast with the somewhat fantastic movement of the skylines elsewhere, rises a solid elevated attic, forming a severe horizontal outline against the sky. This central mass is buttressed on each side by great consoles, supporting emblematic statues resting on pedestals, and embellished with medallions of Morse and Vail, the American inventors of the electric telegraph."

In the centre of the great portal is the statue of Franklin, by Carl Rohl-Smith, fifteen feet in height, and one of the best conceptions ever presented of the great discoverer, his gaze turned upward toward the lowering clouds, in one hand the kite, and in the other the key of which all the world has read. Upon the frieze are inscribed in alphabetical order around the building the names of more than threescore electricians of all nationalities, [404] whose names have become historic, the fame of those who are still among the living resting upon the exhibits within.

In preparing the plan of the Electricity building a space of twenty-three feet was adopted as the unit of measurement, fifteen of these modules forming the interior width of the building, and five that of the longitudinal nave which forms its central feature, the latter intersected by a transept of equal width and height. On each side of the nave are aisles, one module in width, and above is a series of galleries connected by bridges, and to which access is afforded by spacious stairways on either side of the principal entrances. To provide for the central areas occupied by nave and transept, both are unencumbered with columns, their pitched roofs being supported by arched trusses of sufficient height to admit of clear-story windows, and with a range of skylights at the foot of the pitch. Flat roofs with skylights cover the remainder of the building.

The area of Electricity hall, apart from galleries, is little more than five acres, fronting on the main court 350 feet, and extending about twice that distance length-wise toward the lagoon. Hence in this structure, small by comparison with its neighbors, but only by comparison, it was a part of the design to give to it such features as should mask its inferiority of size. But this could not be secured by giving additional height to the curtain walls, which must not exceed sixty feet from ground to cornice. The bays were therefore fashioned so as to furnish at frequent intervals bases for towers, and between them pilasters of the Corinthian order, projecting boldly from the piers, and ending in pedestals supporting banner-staves, which served also for a continuous series of electric lights. Further to emphasize the vertical lines of the building, in the centre of its two longer facades the intercepting transept ends in a pavilion, flanked with towers, upon which rests an open belvedere with rounded attic, supporting a cupola, and ending in candelabra of electric lights reflected from the overhanging canopy nearly 200 feet above ground. In front of the pavilions are porticos, with columns more than forty feet high, and also of the Corinthian order. On the north side, where the proximity of the lagoon permits more freedom of style, the portal is placed midway between two semi-circular projections, the towers on either side resembling those of the east and west pavilions, while on the panels of the arch are recumbent figures typical of discovery and investigation. Elsewhere the decorative scheme suggests the purposes to which the building is devoted, helping with the tall campaniles and their intermediate domes, to relieve a too strict conformity to classic models.

While the main object of the Electrical department, contained for the first time in a building of its own, is to display, with competitive tests, the working of electrical apparatus in practical use, it is also intended to present a history of this science from its very inception, with models, and in some instances the actual appliances used by the earlier inventors. Of the plant located in Machinery hall mention has already been made, and in addition to lighting its power is applied to manifold purposes, among them for the operation of an elevated railway within the grounds, for mining, milling, and metal work, for exhibits of electricity used for artistic effect, and in a word for all the wide field in which electric science has gained a permanent foothold.

Says the chief of the department: "The general scheme to be carried out is twofold. The exhibits will be practical, and they will also be popular. Every electrical concern and enterprise of any importance in [406] the world will be represented. By means of the practical arrangement of the exhibits, by means of their scientific classification, covering the entire field of electrical science, by the opportunities afforded to compare the results of the more prominent electrical systems in supplying electric service for light, power, heat, and commercial purposes, with each of these different systems in actual operation side by side, and almost under identical conditions, great popular object lessons will be presented, which will not only be intensely interesting to the eye and sense, but will also be highly educational to the electrical engineer, the central station manager, the manufacturer, the student, and the public in general. The final object is the enlightenment of the people as to the progress of a branch of science and industry yet scarcely out of its cradle, and to foreshadow the possibilities of its future."

In the centre of the building, and forming a part of the exhibits of the General Electric company, is the Edison tower, the so-called tower of light, its shaft encircled by thousands of miniature lamps, arranged in unique innumerable pieces of crystal, and at its base a pavilion, surrounded by a circular peristyle, and containing a number of electroliers and globes exhibited by a Pittsburgh company, these also illumined at night by electricity. Thus, when at the silent touch of an unseen hand, the twoer from base to apex is arrayed in robes of scintillating and many colored lights, we have here the very incarnation of electric science.

In the company�s display are illustrated nearly all the uses to which electricity is put, their collection including machinery and apparatus of every description from the smallest of lamps to the most powerful of dynamos, and from electric toys to motors and motor cars. West of the tower of light is a section containing 2,500 specimens of Edison incandescent lamps, such as are made at the company�s works at Harrison, New Jersey, and as declared by the highest courts of justice in Europe and the United States, the only lamps that are lawfully manufactured. Lamps are also shown in different stages of construction, illustrating the experiments of the inventor from their first inception to the perfected mechanism of the present day. In one of the compartments is apparatus for decorative purposes, so arranged that the quantity of light consumed can be regulated and registered by meters. In this section also is the first dynamo for incandescent lighting constructed by Edison in 1880 at his works at Menlo park, and near it is one of the dynamos used, some ten years ago, at a New York station of the Edison Electric Illuminating company. Though both are now somewhat out of date, they were regarded at the time as among the marvels of the age. The isolated incandescent lighting systems, such as are adapted to the use of hotels, theatres, and large business buildings are shown in a separate group.

In its eastern section the company displays its Thomson-Houston arc-lighting apparatus in a larger oaken pavilion, containing also carbons of various grades arrayed in geometric figures, with dynamos and other appliances. Elsewhere in this section are the experimental apparatus used by Elihu Thomson for high voltage discharge, with portions of trees that have been struck by lightning showing the path of the bolt.

[407] - Among the objects of the department of Electricity was to illustrate the possibilities of that science as applied to mining and milling ores, not only in the transmission of power but in its direct application to purposes for which it could be made available. All this is demonstrated in the company�s exhibit of machinery and appliances, including engines for hauling rock, mining pumps, hoists, drills, dumps, pressure blowers, air compressors, and centrifugal fans, with blocks of stone to show the working of the drills, and a large water tank to display the operations of the pumps. Thus is scientific mining being gradually revolutionized through the use of electric apparatus, which is also largely availed of for the working and refining of metals. Such machinery is rapidly gaining in favor throughout the mineral regions of the continent, from the coal mines of Pennsylvania to the gold and silver mines of Colorado, California, and Mexico. In addition to their more economic and expeditious work, electric appliances can be used to advantage at all seasons of the year, for the current in the wires is never checked by frost, and suffers no loss from condensation.

Southwest of the Edison tower is the company�s office, and adjacent to this its display of electric motors for railway purposes, for power transmission, and for general application, with a specimen of such as are used in the electric launches which ply on the waterways of the lake. There are also derricks, hoists, and a large collection of railway apparatus, with photographs displaying among other objects of interest the first electric railway built, as I have said, in 1885. Elsewhere in the company�s collection are magnets, induction coils, converters, and transformers; instruments of precision, voltmeters, ammeters, and Watt meters; dynamos with direct and alternating currents, and for duplex telegraphic service, and apparatus used for war vessels, and for electrical construction and repair.

[408] - Upon the tracks west of the terminal station the company has on exhibition what is claimed to be the most powerful electric locomotive in the world. It weighs thirty tons, is more than sixteen feet long and eleven in height, and has two motors, one at each axle, supplying the power. The locomotive is substantially constructed, its cab being of sheet iron with a fine interior finish of hard wood. Although the engine has been especially devised for railway work, it is proposed to introduce it upon suburban and elevated roads, and upon switching and short freight lines. An electrical air compressor furnishes power for brakes and whistles.

In truth there are few exhibitors more fully represented in the various branches of the Fair. By this company was furnished the equipment for the elevated intramural railroad, with power sufficient to keep in motion on its road-bed eighteen trains at a time, and with accommodation for several thousand passengers. The electric launches on the lagoons are propelled, as I have said, by its motors, the power being furnished by storage batteries beneath the deck. The huge iron girders and trusses in the Manufactures and other buildings, the monster locomotives in Transportation hall, and the heavier groups of statuary were all placed in position by its motors, which are also largely used for supplying machinery with motive force. Finally the electric fountains and two of the search-lights used for illuminating purposes came from the company�s workshops.

Adjacent to the exhibits of the General Electric company are those of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing company, by which was installed in Machinery hall the great power plant used for lighting the Exposition and buildings, capable of supplying simultaneously nearly 200,000 lamps with a total capacity of more than 3,000,000 candle-power. In the collection of appliances for arc and incandescent lighting, prominence is given to its alternating current lighting apparatus; but here and elsewhere are fully illustrated all the more recent improvements in the various branches of applied electricity. An interesting feature in its display is [409] a profile of Columbus, with decorative scrolls and letters, traced in incandescent lamps against a background of terra cotta on the southern wall of the Electricity building.

Elsewhere in its 15,000 feet of floor space, and north of the Edison tower, is a darkened room for the display of what are termed high potential and high frequency phenomena. Adjacent to this we enter, through an archway richly colored in cream and gold, a section containing several of the first motors fashioned by the Austrian inventor, Nikola Tesla, with apparatus showing the results obtained in the use of high frequency alternating currents. Here also is fully illustrated the Tesla polyphase alternating current system for the transmission of power, including a 500 horse-power generator, the switch board at the generating station being connected with the one at he receiving or distributing station by an overhead four-wire circuit. The insulators that support this circuit are of the pattern designed for the San Antonio Light and Power company of Pomona, California, by which power up to 10,000 volts can be transmitted for 28 miles by an overhead circuit of bare copper wire.

In its southern section the company has a collection of street railroad apparatus, with two powerful multipolar generators, one driven by a compound engine, and the other by a belt, with cars equipped with motors of the single reduction type, beneath which are galleries permitting visitors to examine their interior mechanism. There are also lines of switches, ammeters, voltmeters, and circuit breakers, with minor exhibits pertaining to the construction and working of such electric railway systems as those in which the company�s cars carry their thousands daily between Chicago and its Fair.

A large area in the southeastern portion of the hall is occupied by the Western Electric company, of Chicago, whose exhibits consist of the apparatus which it manufactures, and the various spectacular effects produced thereby. The column which flashes forth zigzag lightning, around it revolving balls of fire, is one of the ornamental gems of the Exposition, and divides attention with the Egyptian temple whose exterior walls are decorated with native figures engaged in the manufacture and operation of the telephone, fire alarm, electric apparatus, and other of the company�s devices. Egyptians are manipulating cables, dipping reels of wire into insulating baths, and bearing to their queen, typical of Chicago, lamps, dynamos, motors, batteries, and other appliances.

The temple is colored in warm roseate hues, with frieze of old gold and stencilling in Egyptian designs, while lotus blossoms and cut-glass jewels, lighted by hidden incandescent lamps, form the most striking decorations of the main entrances. The interior is divided into two compartments, whose rich ceiling and columns of glass are illumined by more than 1,000 changing lights, their decorative scheme including the lotus, the eagle, and the hooded serpent. Around the walls are show-cases, lined with red plush, and containing apparatus of the company�s manufacture, as switchboards, receiving instruments, recorders, galvanometers, a stenographic machine for [411] the use of the blind, a printing machine for telegraph operators, district telegraph and police call boxes, electric bells and buttons for hotels, elevators, and residences, in short, a collection covering almost the entire range of electric supplies.

But the Egyptian temple and the electric tower by no means complete the company�s display. Close at hand is a switchboard composed of slabs of Tennessee marble mounted in bronzed copper, from which issue the currents which supply both these structures, its reverse side showing the various connections, and the entrance and distribution of the circuits which originate in the company�s plant at Machinery hall, half a mile away. Near the switchboard are various machines used by the company in manufacturing processes, including those which make nuts and screws, which insulate wires with silk and paper, braid the stands of conductors, and wind them upon spools, and perform a score of operations formerly done by hand. A compete exhibit of telephone apparatus is a feature of the display, including machines made by its factories in New York, Chicago, and Antwerp, and those constructed for the American Bell Telephone company. There is a large array of switchboards, showing the different styles fashioned within the past decade, with reels of cable covered with lead, and insulated with paper instead of cotton and paraffine.

In this section is the tabulating machine used in United States census work, and an ingenious mechanism whose long finger, terminating in an incandescent bulb, is continually writing in air the words, Western Electric company. Batteries and incandescent lamps are elsewhere grouped, and a portion of the space is occupied by a small scenic theatre presenting an alpine landscape, over which are cast the changing hues of night, dawn, midday, and sunset, thus showing that with skillful manipulation electric light may be shorn of its coldness and hardness, and endowed with all the rich colors of the natural rays. In a historic collection is a large portrait of Moses G. Farmer, and a handbill dated 1847, advertising the public exhibition of his recently invented electro-magnetic engine. The Farmer electric cars and incandescent lamps are still among the specialties manufactured by the company.

Adjoining the exhibits of the Western Electric company is a classic structure, with two large porticos, representing the American Bell Telephone company. At its main entrance is a broad stairway, guarded by two figures of the sphinx, over which are large candelabra of bronze, and a row of Ionic pillars opening into a court containing fountains of tasteful design. Beyond is the temple proper, octagonal in shape, through which one may pass to the opposite entrance, or examine the collections in either of the side corridors.

On one of the walls are tabulated statements showing the growth of the company�s business from 1881 to 1893, and from which it appears that in the former year it employed 1,400 persons, and in the latter nearly 10,000; that at the present time it operates more than 440,000 miles of wire in and between the larger cities, and that 552,000 of its telephones are in constant use. The map on which is represented its system of long-distance telephones indicates that Boston, Washington, and Milwaukee are at its extremities, with lines between all connecting points of importance. [413] Telephones for the use of marine divers and those who travel by water are also on exposition.

In a series of cases covering the entire length of one of the corridors is a historic collection, representing the essential features of the telephone first constructed by Alexander Graham Bell in January, 1875, with subsequent improvements; also the Blake transmitter, the Hughes microphone of 1878, and other inventions bearing upon his patents. In the opposite corridor is a central telephone office, with a dozen or more of operators, where one may observe all the workings of what to most of us has long since ceased to be a mystery. Here is also a series of drawings and photographs, showing the underground construction of telephone systems now generally adopted in the larger cities. Within the inner chamber of the pavilion is a life size painting of Bell, and a gallery of photographs showing the buildings owned or occupied by company. In the north portico beyond is a long-distance telephone connecting with New York, its workings daily exhibited and tested.

West of the space allotted to the Telephone company is pavilion of Grecian architecture, whose ceiling is colored in imitation of the mid-day sky. Without is a collection of magnets, coils, and dynamos, among the last being a generator such as is used in the Calumet Hecla copper mines. A space of 30 feet along the western side is occupied by the largest switchboard in Electricity hall, specially constructed for exposition, 30 feet in height, and with a capacity of ten circuits and 30,000 lights. The company has also an exhibit of switchboards for arc and incandescent lights, with electric motors of many kinds, and a large assortment of carbons.

The Fort Wayne Electric company, whose specialty is the manufacture of appliances used in the Wood system, has a large section in this vicinity in which are exhibited dynamos, magnets, generators, switches, motors, meters, and arc, incandescent, and search lights. Here also is displayed the first dynamo built by James J. Wood, in May, 1879, weighing only eighty-six pounds, together with the various lights used in several cities of metropolitan rank in which the Wood system has been largely adopted.

In the groups above mentioned are represented the more prominent manufactures of electric apparatus and supplies, their collections occupying the southern half of the Electricity building, and a portion of its northern section. But there are also numerous exhibits of a special, and some of them of a specially interesting character extending in unbroken array along the walls. Before describing them, in conjunction with the gallery display, let us first see what foreign countries have to show on the ground floor of the hall.

Among the German exhibits, occupying a liberal space in the northeastern portion of the building, may first be mentioned those of the Allgemeine Elektricitatz-Gesellschaft, or General Electrical society, whose headquarters are in Berlin, but with numerous branches elsewhere in Germany and other European countries. In the centre of its space are machines for the combined transmission of power by continuous and multiphase currents, the former being supplied by a large electro-motor, furnishing 100 horse-power and making about 500 revolutions to the minute. By means of such currents power has been transmitted from Lauffen on the Neckar to [414] Frankfort-on-the-Main, more than 100 miles apart, this being the longest distance to which electric power has been transmitted, though by no means the limit of distance.

An interesting display is the stage-lighting apparatus, so arranged that its action may be observed from any point of view. This is the result of many years of study and practical experience in collaboration with specialists, and is now being largely used in German and other theatres. By it are produced the broad glare of noonday, the glow of sunset, the silvery shades of moonlight, and the grey hues of dawn, with lightning flashes and other intermittent phenomena, all by a single instrument connected with colored lamps. Of arc and incandescent lamps there is also a number of specimens, with motors and materials for electric railways, apparatus for storage batteries, conductors, conducting and insulating materials in many varieties, measuring and controlling instruments, electric clocks, railroad signals, and appliances for heating and cooking.

By Siemens and Halske of Berlin is exhibited a railway carriage, driven by a three phase current motor, the current transmitted from a distance, and reduced by a transformer to the strength required. There are also arc lamps which burn, as is claimed, without flickering, with a clearer, steadier light than those in ordinary use; there are surveying and measuring instruments, and in the gallery is a collection of historic apparatus of which mention is made elsewhere in this chapter.

Among the exhibits by the Nuremberg firm of Schuckert and company the most remarkable are the searchlights on the roof of the Manufactures and other buildings, as described on a former page. Felten and Guilleaume of Carlswerk have a large assortment of wires and cables in coils and cross sections, many of them arranged in the form of pyramids, with barbed, braided, and other wires of many varieties and in many forms. Hartmann and Brown have numerous specimens of apparatus, manufactured at their works near Frankfort on the Main, where are produced surveying and measuring instruments, galvanometers, magnetometers, Watt-meters, volt-meters, ammeters, pyrometers, and whatsoever other meters are known to electrical science, with complete equipments for laboratories, and mechanisms for applying magnetic tests to iron. Elsewhere in the German section are machines and lamps for electric lighting, telegraph and telephone instruments and appliances, engraving and electro-plating apparatus, and miscellaneous exhibits, as of burglar and fire-alarm signals, lightning rods, and electric toys.

The French section adjoining on the north the exhibits of the General Electric company, contains both national and private collections, the former chiefly in the northwestern corner of the main floor. Here are explained the telegraph and telephone systems organized and operated under government control, and there are self-acting instruments registering changes in temperature, atmospheric moisture, and direction of wind. In one of the cases are machines for testing cables, for ascertaining the resistance of electric currents, and for measuring their speed. The multiplex telegraphic system of E. Mercadier, director of the polytechnic school, is illustrated by a collection of apparatus. By means [415] of rapid alternate currents it is possible to use the same wires with multiplex and simple instruments, the former transmitting twelve telegrams in one direction, or transmitting and receiving the same number simultaneously. Mercadier and others have several multiplex printing machines, and there are automatic transmitters, a sextuple telegraph, and a model Morse station of four lines. A curious instrument called the Caselli autographic telegraph, patented in 1864, has for it object, as yet only partially realized, the facsimile transmission of writing.

On the walls of this section are maps showing the routes of telegraph and telephone lines, and diagrams illustrating the development of the telegraphic system since 1851. As the exhibit is specially made by the department of posts and telegraphs, pictures are also shown of the quarters occupied by the government telegraph force. This consists of about 900 employees, the department representing a system which embraces 178,000 miles of wire, and despatches 40,000,000 a year of telegrams. To the telephonic systems there are more than 11,000 subscribers.

Among the private exhibits are large collections of apparatus for lighting, power transmission, and miscellaneous purposes. A prominent feature is the appliances used for lighthouses, with the most powerful of reflectors and revolving beacon lamps, casting a blinding glare as seen at night in operation. Of special interest also is the electric cupola and furnace of M. Moissan, in which that young French scientist has developed a heat up to 9,000 degrees of Fahrenheit. By A. Piat and Sons of Paris and Soissons is displayed a hydro-electric riveter, driven by a combination of hydraulic pressure and electricity, and largely utilized for bridge work. For this and other riveting machines manufactured by the firm special advantages are claimed, some of them having been used by the department of public works, as for the erection of 1,000 feet spans over the river Loire. Elsewhere in the French section are exhibits similar to those of Germany and the United States, together with such scientific curiosities as electric matches, musical appliances, and apparatus for towing vessels, based on the principle of magnetic adherence.

[416] - In the British section, west of the French exhibits, the most attractive feature is the collection of telegraphic apparatus contributed by the government, dating back to 1837, including the first specimen of underground telegraphs, and the earlier needle and other primitive instruments, all contrasting somewhat strangely with the modern appliances at their side. Add to these a few private exhibits, with those of the London branch of the General Electric company, and we have about all that Great Britain has to show us in this department. Among the former may be mentioned the display of the Homacoustic Speaking Tube company, consisting of attachments for voice tubes, and a homacoustic commutator with electric signalling device.

Near the northwest corner of Electricity hall is a tasteful structure, the purpose of which, except for ornament, does not appear until approaching close to it we find here a tower-like fabric composed almost entirely of carbons, cored and solid, and varying from an eighth of an inch to three inches in diameter. This is the exhibit of the Vienna firm of Hardtmuth and company, one of the largest of European manufacturers, and by which have been overcome the more serious difficulties in supplying a carbon adapted to modern conditions. Though more expensive than those of American make, it is claimed that this is more than compensated by superior efficiency, and thus it is that from the agents of the firm large quantities were purchased for use on the incandescent circuits within the Exposition grounds, for the illumination of the central court and basin, the electric fountains, and the battleship Illinois.

In the northeastern portion of the hall near an array of noisy phonographs, is a collection of silent and motionless instruments which have a deep meaning to the Japanese and all other peoples who live in dread of earthquakes. It represents the exhibit of the Earthquake laboratory of the imperial university of Japan, and the instruments, known as seismographs, were invented partly by natives and partly by Europeans, not only to record the direction and violence of shocks, but to foretell their approach by indicating the slightest tremor of the earth�s surface. The first earthquake instrument ever constructed, a drawing of which is displayed on one of the walls, is claimed as a Japanese invention, and bears date A. D. 132. In the more perfect machines of the present day the main feature of their construction is that during seismic disturbances they work from stationary points, and for minor shocks at least the diagrams written on smoked glass and paper are considered by scientists to be true measurements of the earth�s motions.

Many instruments are here exhibited, of different patterns and intended for various purposes. Upon the slightest disturbance of the earth the electric circuit is closed, and the machinery set free which drives the recording surfaces on which the diagrams are written. In one style of instrument this consists of a smoked glass revolving plate, the lines being written upon it by horizontal pendulums and vertical spring levers, both motions of the earth being thus registered. But whether the record is made in this fashion or by pencils upon bands of paper wound on drums, the machinery is kept in motion by electric clock-work, the rate of revolution is marked by an electric time ticker, and when convulsion or tremor ceases, the current is broken and the mechanism ceases to work.

Special instruments are used to record violent motions, wave-like undulations, and small, local displacements. A type of the last named is known as the mantel-piece seismograph, and is intended for the use of those who simply wish to know the direction and nature of motion as recorded at their own residences. The tremometer [417] is one form of an instrument used to record slight earth tremors, such as are common to many countries. Its essential feature is a delicate pointer from which electric sparks are discharged upon a band of paper, automatically moving across a brass table. If the pointer and the earth are at rest, then the holes which are burned are recorded in a straight line; otherwise, the bands of paper are perforated in all directions around what would be the normal line. A more satisfactory and recent method of registering these motions is by means of a continuous photograph of a ray of light reflected from a small mirror attached to an extremely delicate horizontal pendulum. There are also in this group a clock for recording the duration of an earthquake, and several safety lamps which, if overturned, are at once extinguished. Under a glass case is a mass of wire, bent and twisted in all directions, representing the trend of the shocks during the great convulsion of January 15, 1887, the numbers at different points indicating the seconds of their duration.

Near the collection of instruments from the seismological laboratory is a series of pictures representing ruined buildings, dark fissures in fields and valleys, bridges hurled into rivers, and other effects of such convulsions as those of 1887 and 1891. Here alone is a sufficient explanation of the interest taken by the Japanese in the study of seismic phenomena, whereby they hope eventually to obtain such scientific data as will enable engineers to build structures that will withstand the strongest shocks and the most complex motions of the earth.

Electric motors, with their application to street, underground, and mining railways, and to machinery in general, are displayed in various portions of the hall and galleries, as well as in the Machinery and Transportation buildings. On the ground floor a factory at Portland, Maine, has among its collection a coffee mill which can be operated either by electrical or water power. By the former process it is claimed that coffee may be ground at a cost of five cents for every hundred pounds. Other of its exhibits are a combined water motor and dynamo, and a combined engine and dynamo, both of which are among the most powerful mechanisms of their kind.

On either side of the southern portal are exhibits of motors, the largest by an electric motor company of New York, which has also fans for ventilating ships and large buildings, with blowers for forges and furnaces, pumps for mining operations and water works, travelling cranes and hoists, organ bellows, elevators, mill machinery, and telephone and telegraph apparatus. Opposite is the dainty bronze pavilion of the Indianapolis company, another manufacturer of electric power machinery. Near the western entrance of the hall, the company which operates the moveable sidewalk at the lake pier has a large collection of generators, motors, dynamos, and appliances for incandescent and arc lighting. For its so-called Novak lamp, outlined on the pavilion in letters of light, it is claimed that this is the only incandescent lamp that retains to the last its original candle power.

[418] - The largest manufactures of electrical machinery who exhibit in the body of the hall, make a specialty of supplying street, underground, and elevated railroads, with their operating apparatus. There are also several companies whose operations are restricted to these specialties, a Cleveland firm displaying one of the simplest of all such mechanism, a single motor suspended on rubber cushions from the trunk frame, so protected that it cannot be injured by heat or cold, dust or gravel, water, snow, or slush. Another company shows a gearless street-car motor, for which it is claimed that few of its appliances will either wear out or injure any of the surrounding parts.

Near these exhibits is a collection of machines made by an electric welding company, of Boston, and largely used by manufacturers. The current is made to pass through the ends of the metals that are to be welded, the heat being generated at the point of contact, and whether it be required to fasten strands of wire or the links of a watch chain, or to forge steel projectiles of war, the joints of rails, or the chain armor of an iron clad, the result is uniform. Shells and other projectiles used by the government are welded by this company, and there are here on exposition sheets of wrought iron, four inches thick, which have been pierced by shells at a distance of ninety feet, their lines of juncture still remaining intact. Thus also are welded metallic coils; fences and wheels are thus welded, the several processes being daily illustrated by machinery in operation. Side by side with small machines worked by hand are those whose beds are many feet in diameter, but the adjustments of each as so perfect that in every instance the welding is performed with the utmost precision.

On the opposite side of the hall is another exhibit by a Boston firm, which also forges by electricity. Both companies manufacture switches, rheostats, safely appliances, and various apparatus for the transmission and regulation of the electric current, and by several companies are displayed cement-like pipes and other conduits, chiefly for underground service. Makers of insulated cables and wires, tapes and compounds, are mainly represented in the galleries, but on the ground floor a Massachusetts company has specimens of its so-called insulac, claimed to be impervious to oil and other substances which interfere with electrical circuits, and said to possess four times the resistive power of the finest grade [419] of shellac. As the discovery of a perfect insulating compound is one of the problems of the day, such exhibits are of special scientific interest.

In various sections surrounding the main body of the hall is machinery, at times in operation, for electrotyping, plating, gilding, and nickeling, with such as is used for separating metals from their ores or alloys. A Chicago company shows the first electro-magnetic machine, made in 1844 for an English firm, claiming that its own apparatus is in the line of direct succession. Besides electrotyping and electroplating, this company makes a specialty of polishing, lacquering, and buffing, a section of a walrus hide, thick and firm as a board, showing the chief material for the wheels used in these branches of work.

In the construction of electrical apparatus, as of other machinery, belting plays an important part, and here on exposition many varieties specially made for operating dynamos and engines. Some of the belts are fastened with cement, and others with wire screws, but as a rule belting for heavy machinery should be perforated, and of such there is a large collection. By a New Hampshire firm is exhibited what is claimed to be the largest piece of link-belting in the world, 200 feet long by five in width, with a weight of 4,200 pounds, and in the construction of which were used more than 400,000 pieces of leather and metal.

Of the special mechanisms displayed in the galleries there are also a few exhibitors on the ground floor, their groups including appliances for lighting purposes, for surgery, dentistry, and the diagnosis of diseases. Among the first is a small battery and spark coil which can be attached to burners and used for lighting or turning off gas. This, it is claimed, is an economical device, for the battery will last a year, and can be replaced for twenty-five cents. The largest exhibits of surgical and medical instruments are by a New York company, which confines itself to such as are used for cauterizing and diagnosis, and by a Philadelphia establishment which also covers this ground, and produces besides, small dynamos, batteries, coils, condensers, voltmeters, testing keys, and the numerous minor forms of electric apparatus used by educational institutions.

In the western galleries of the Electricity building are some of the most interesting of its contents, for here are several of the more remarkable among recent inventions. First of all may be mentioned the telautograph of Elisha Gray, who shares the honors with Edison and Bell in the domain of electricity. In 1887 he completed and later simplified the machine by which facsimile writings or drawings are transmitted. As now exhibited, it consists of two instruments at either end of the telegraph line, both contained in a wooden case somewhat smaller than a type-writing machine. To the transmitter is attached a pencil, and near its point is a collar, to the opposite sides of which are fastened two silken cords, passing thence at right angles around a small drum, revolving on a vertical shaft, [420] to which is attached a toothed wheel, the latter, as it turns with every motion of the pencil, acting on the wire with which it is in contact. Two wires are thus required to transmit the writing, the escapement wheel of the receiving instrument responding to every motion of the drum and the toothed wheel of the transmitter. At the receiving end of the line the order of the mechanism is reversed, the wheels being mounted on the shafts above the drums, with cords running from the latter to aluminum pens of the self-feeding or fountain type. As the wheels and drums are of the same size, the record made by the receiver is a facsimile of the transmitted manuscript. The invention is of special value not only to business men, but to journalists, and those engaged in the detection of criminals.

In addition to the Edison exhibits of electrical appliances, forming a portion of the General Electric company�s display, is a section in the southwest gallery containing the instruments of the Edison Manufacturing company; and in this locality, more perhaps than elsewhere in the Exposition, is represented the genius of the inventor. When first it was reported that Edison had constructed a machine which would store conversations, speeches, songs, orchestral music, and any other sounds given into its keeping, and reproduce them at any future time there were many who refused to believe it, and not until his phonographs were displayed at the Paris Exposition of 188, were all the skeptics converted. Since that date the sheet of tin foil then used for the purpose has given place to the hollow cylinder of wax, upon which, as it revolves, the point of the diaphgram cuts the lines of sound. Apart from the amusement derived from this machine, it is rapidly finding favor among professional and business men, taking the place of the amanuensis, while through its records scientists are enabled to make a more thorough investigation as to the nature of wave sounds.

In a brilliantly lighted pavilion is the ingenious exhibit of the Commercial Cable company representing an enterprise founded nearly a decade ago by John W. Mackay, of California and James Gordon Bennett, of New York. In general terms, it consists of a working model of their system, showing automatic transmitters, recorders, and other instruments of most approved and modern type. The hair lines of the recording machine are produced at the rate of about one yard per minute, the message being ground out from the other end by the automatic sender. Instead of being transmitted from New York to Europe via Nova Scotia and Ireland, the words are simply conveyed across the pavilion, but for all practical purposes the illustration is compete. In this collection also "faults" cut our of cables, showing the nature of the accident or defect, one of the specimens having been crushed into an almost shapeless mass and nearly severed by an ice-floe. There are also instruments for detecting breaks and injuries from whatever cause with a [421] machine that registers the amount of resistance which the current meets in passing through a given cable, each mile of the line being divided into units of resistance. When a break occurs in the current, the amount of resistance remaining is divided by the number of units to a mile, and thus the exact point of the damage is ascertained. In the centre of the group is a handsome model of the company�s repair shop, Mackay-Bennett, all the cable machinery on deck being a reproduction of the actual apparatus, and illustrating the process of picking up and laying cables. Specimens of perfect cables are also shown, one of the latest pattern being intended for shallow waters, and to resist rough usage, for which purpose it is covered with short sections of heavy steel tubing, so adjusted as not to impair its flexibility.

As already stated, the majority of the electrical instruments used in surgery and dentistry, and in the treatment of various physical ailments, are to be found in the galleries. One of the most elaborate exhibits is that of a Chicago physician, whose specialty is an electric belt for which he claims wonderful cures of nervous affections. However this may be, the observer cannot fail to admire the pavilion in which he displays his apparatus. Adjacent to the Edison collection, a portion of the space is occupied by a handsomely furnished parlor, in which are valuable oil paintings. Near by is the exhibit of an electric medical supply company, consisting of stethoscopes, batteries, and appliances for electric treatment, cautery apparatus, and special contrivances used in surgery or dentistry. Among other curiosities is a small rubber cylinder containing a galvanic battery and an inhaler, designed to relieve the sufferer from nervous and inflammatory disorders.

In this vicinity are several groups of electrical appliances which illustrate the investigations of scientists and manufacturers with a view to discover the best insulating agency. There are sheets and conduits, compounds displayed in bulk, and various kinds of paint which, it is claimed, will effectually shut off the electric current from all disturbing influences. One that has attracted much attention is known as isolatine, and is exhibited by a New York house, which also shows the many chemical substances used in the manufacture and operation of electrical appliances .

Elsewhere in this neighborhood may be studied the processes of gold and silver plating by electricity, and a simple yet effective machine by which any metal may be automatically engraved through the same agency. The letters may be automatically engraved through the same agency. The letters are securely clamped, and as the stylus follows their outlines an electric current is formed, and a corresponding motion imparted to the graver. Little practice is required to operate the machine with satisfactory results for the simpler kinds of work. In these western galleries are also electric doors, automatic guest calls for hotels, burglar alarms, and clocks which record the rounds of the night watchman, such as are used by the government, and in the buildings of the Exposition.

Close at hand one may study the system of an electric signal company; in a neat railway model marked "dangerous;" he may have a suit of clothes cut by an electric machine, or may seat himself in an easy chair while his [422] boots are polished by electric brushes. Here also is an electric incubator, with eggs in process of hatching. In one is a barely perceptible palpitation; another is heaving with suppressed activity; a third is partially opened, and from a fourth a pulp-like form has drawn itself partially into the world, and lays panting over its former prison walls, as if gathering strength to free itself. For hatching chickens by electricity, as compared with incubation by steam, the advantage is claimed that the needed temperature, a little over 100 degrees, can be made absolutely uniform, while the machine requires but little attention. From the time the egg is placed in the incubator until the chicken comes from the shell is an average period of nineteen days. Two jars of Mason batteries are sufficient to furnish the heat and operate the thermostat, the latter never varying more than one half of a degree. One of the most interesting features of this exhibit was the sealing of a machine containing a dozen eggs, which remained untouched until the chicken emerged in due time, and in as lively condition as though fostered by the mother hen.

Three foreign powers have installed exhibits in the western galleries, Austria having chiefly a display of signal clocks and technical instruments, and Italy a small collection of china insulators contributed by a ceramic society of Milan. France has a large assortment of musical instruments, many of them overflow exhibits from the department of Liberal Arts, and having no relation to electricity. They consist of beautifully finished orchestral pieces, and include some fine specimens of inlaid work in wood and pearl, showing what may be done with pianos and other instruments in the way of cabinet decoration. There are several French inventions, some of which can be played as ordinary pianos, or by attaching them to other instruments. The music may be produced mechanically by turning a crank, or by electric self-acting machinery, and when the harmonies are combined the effect is often pleasing. More than fifty pianos are here, ranging in price from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Of the new styles for which superiority is claimed, one has a frame of pure steel, and there is a French horn whose mouth is beaten from a solid piece of brass. In the gallery opposite this group is a row of tastefully furnished booths, the headquarters of the periodicals in the United States whose special field is electricity.

The principle that heat is generated by resistance to the electric current is illustrated in several portions of the building. Ovens and furnaces, and heating apparatus for railways, houses, factories, and public buildings, are exhibited on the ground floor, where also, as has been said, several companies show how welding may be accomplished by electricity. Other heating appliances are found in the galleries, a Wisconsin company which deals in novelties exhibiting a hair curler heated by electricity. But the most interesting application of this principle may be studied in the north gallery, where the housekeeper may see how her home can be comfortably warmed by electricity, and how her cooking may be done expeditiously and scientifically. The electric ovens are lined with wood and asbestos, which keep the heat within, and are supplied with doors of mica, and incandescent lamps and thermometers for ascertaining the temperature, and experimenting in all branches of cookery. As in other appliances, the electric current is governed by switches, the griddles, kettles, coffee-pots, tea-pots, flat-irons, and all other utensils having enamelled bottoms, in which are imbedded small copper wires. When the current is turned on and passes along the wires, the resistance offered by the enamel produces heat, which can be easily regulated and directed. For instance, in roasting beef, if one side of the piece is browning more rapidly than the other, instead of taking it out and turning it, the current is simply increased above or below as the case may require. The electric flat-irons weigh about eight [423] pounds, their upper portions being composed of non-conducting substances. Of all the companies which illustrate this phase of household economy, the Ansonia, of Chicago, has the most complete exhibit, presenting besides a display of cables, switches, batteries, motors, and a historical collection, including, as is claimed, the first dynamos.

In the south gallery opposite are miscellaneous exhibits, one of which, by a Philadelphia manufacturer, is specially deserving of note. Upon an arched wall space, having a background of light blue, is a large eccentric, composed entirely of switches made by the company and upon a small display board are the various patterns representing the evolution of these appliances. The first is one of a hundred made by means of a hand drill, hammer, and chisel, the later varieties, composed of porcelain and English ivory china, being of elegant workmanship, and forming a striking contrast to the others. Among the exhibits in this portion of the building may be mentioned that of a New York house, which presents many fine specimens of photo-engraving and electrotyping, the display being of plates only; the large pavilion also adjoining containing several cases of finely wrought instruments.

In the southeastern galleries is a pavilion surrounded by great coils of cable, and masses of a carbon-like substance, the latter the crude form of an insulating material known as kerite. The exhibitors manufacture insulating tapes and cables for underground and submarine use. A New York firm builds a cabin of wire ducts or conduits, and a Cleveland company erects a pillared structure composed of carbon, with pyramids and other forms within and around it. A manufactory of the same city occupies a considerable space with specimens of its handiwork in polished aluminum, brass, and nickel, arranged upon a large sample board which forms a background to the section. The specialty is a boiler alarm, which may be either in the form of a steam whistle or an electric gong, the danger signal being given when the water reaches the highest gauge, and the float raising the valve lever which releases the mechanism.

Safety appliances for the public are seen in the many devices of the telegraph systems which have been adopted by the fire and police departments of all large cities. A New York company which has furnished complete telephone and signal systems for many large cities exhibits its apparatus around a square pavilion, on whose cornices are the names of municipalities in which they are used. Near this is a booth from which float the national colors of Brazil, whose government manufactures its own telegraph and telephone instruments, as here represented. A large man is displayed locating the telegraph lines of the republic, and in book and pamphlet form is described the present condition of the system, and its development through native skill and ingenuity.

The exhibit of the Western Union Telegraph company is contained in a large plain pavilion, over whose main entrance are the words, "What hath God wrought," forming the first telegraphic message sent by Samuel Morse. In a case within is a photograph of this message, and the original Morse machine, side by side with the perfected instrument of 1893. Several portraits of the great inventor are hung upon the walls, with those of Cyrus W. Field, the father of the submarine telegraph system, and Thomas T. Eckert, who succeeded Norvin Green as president of the company. The pavilions also contains busts of Morse by the sculptor Greenough, and of Field, by Hartley. Several of Field�s medals and other personal souvenirs are included in the collection, [424] together with a reproduction of the Great Eastern, which laid the first cable, the model being loaned by one of her commanders, with various apparatus showing the workings of the system, now some quarter of a century old. On one of the maps are indicated the locations of the Western Union lines, which include 750,000 miles of wire; and on another is a model in relief of the bed of the Atlantic ocean, in which may be traced the systems operated by the Western Union, Anglo-American, Mackay-Bennett, and other submarine companies. This is the first profile chart of the kind, and was made by Captain Dutton, formerly of the cable ship Faraday, of which also a model may be seen in the company�s pavilion. But perhaps the most attractive exhibit is the huge, rusty grapnel, with its five prongs, which in 1866 recovered the cable lost during the previous year in nearly 2,000 fathoms of water. The cable had parted 1,100 miles from Valentia; the attempt to recover it was abandoned for a time, and a new line constructed.

With thee exception of the Western Union�s exhibit, and a small display of dry batteries, Germany occupies all the northeastern galleries with her well arranged collections. One large department is devoted to the exposition of optical, surgical, electro-medical, and scientific apparatus. A curious exhibit is that of artificial eyes, some of them such exact imitations of nature that when examined from different positions their pupils appear to dilate or contract. Another collection illustrates the diseases peculiar to the human eye, and its normal condition as observed in the German, Slav, Roman, Gaul, Mongolian, and Negro. In this section are some finely executed anatomical models, respiratory apparatus, a large operating table, and a complete collection of surgical instruments, the last furnished by the purveyor to the Prussian armies. More picturesque than these groups is the exhibit made by the German postal service, consisting of model post and telegraph offices, as well as reproductions of many in operation, and articles which constitute the entire working outfit of the department. There are models of telegraph towers and of imperial postal cars; telegraph instruments of the Hughes type, upon which the operators play as if upon pianos; telephones of German make, cumbersome as compared with those of American manufacture, and maps showing the distribution of telegraph lines and post offices throughout the empire. Telephones enter largely into the system developed in Germany, with some 80,000 in use. An important factor of the postal service is the pneumatic tube, and in this department is a miniature plant showing its operations. In another section are models of mail coaches, representative of early and modern plant showing its operations. In another section are models of mail coaches, representative of early and modern times, while here is also illustrated the service of mounted messengers established along the river Spree in the fourteenth century.

The portion of the gallery which is above the eastern to the building has been transformed into a court, approached by a broad stairway, the background and dais being festooned in crimson and gold, and bordered with evergreens, showing for its central object a bronze bust, mounted upon a massive pedestal, of the late Werner von Siemens, the famous German electrician and inventor. On either side are busts of Soemmering, announced as the inventor of the first galvanized telegraph, in 1809, and of Reis, inventor of the first telephone, in 1861. In the background also are medallions of Gauss and Weber, proclaimed as the joint inventors of the first electro-magnetic telegraph, operated in Gottingen in 1833. Fronting the busts and medallions, and arranged on the ledges of the enclosure, are the instruments, or their reproductions, designed to illustrate the historical development of the application of electricity in Germany. Here is the magnetic needle telegraph of Stohrer, 1817, Reis� telephone apparatus printing and writing. There are also collections of ringing apparatus, electrical appliances and signals for railroads, lighting machines, samples of cables chronologically arranged, indicators, alarms, stone drills, mineral separators, and clocks, with other mechanisms showing that the Germans have won for themselves a leading rank in every department of electrical science and invention.

World�s Fair Miscellany - The first general illumination of the Electricity building was on the evening of the 31st of May, and attracted many thousands of spectators. By eight o�clock the structure was one blaze of light, with myriads of incandescent lamps with revolving wheels displaying all the colors of the rainbow in ever changing hues, and with unseen pens writing mysterious inscriptions on the walls in letters of fire. But in the very centre of the building was a huge shrouded figure which loomed ghost-like almost to a level with the rafters. Presently the chief of the department stepped forward; a moment later the shroud was withdrawn, and the Edison tower and the classic pavilion at its base stood revealed in all their cold, chaste beauty of outline. But for a few seconds only; the glare of search-lights focused upon them, causing their dark surface to shine with a dazzling radiance. Then the crystal bulb at the top burst into flame, flashing like a crown of diamonds; and finally the entire column was arrayed in robes of purple light like a pillar of fire. It was the very apotheosis of electricity, and by a thousand voices was shouted the name of him by whom these marvels had been wrought.

The illuminations of grounds and buildings begun in May, were continued throughout the term of the Fair, at first on alternate nights, and then every night in the week except Sunday nights. Occasionally the admissions after dark were larger than during the day; but as the novelty wore off, and the average daily attendance gradually increased from 20,000 or 30,000 to 150,000, the proportion was not maintained. During one of the first illuminations, Machinery hall narrowly escaped destruction by fire. The shed that inclosed the machinery of the Westinghouse company�s engines, by which at the moment power was furnished, was set ablaze through the burning out of one of the connections, caused by the pressure on the wires. Only through the promptitude and coolness of the men in charge a conflagration was averted which would have swept the building out of existence.

The light for the fountains with their prismatic hues and chameleon-like changes of color, was produced in a subterraneous chamber, with which the fountains were connected. The lamps resembled the search-lights on board a man-of-war, except that for the lens used at sea was substituted a silver-lined parabolic reflector, from which the rays were shot upward for a distance of 150 feet. The lighting capacity of the lamps was controlled by a mechanism similar to clock-work, and could be intensified to a brilliancy of 350,000 candle-power. The water effects were also regulated in this mystic chamber, to the orifices of which a nozzle was attached, and through it the water projected in columns, jets, or sprays, with electric light playing upon them in varying hues from color screens beneath.

[425] - While electric light and power have been prominent factors at former expositions, they have never been so largely used and applied to so many purposes as at the Chicago Fair. At the Paris Exposition of 1879 there were some 1,500 incandescent lamps, and at the New Orleans Cotton Centennial in 1881 both arc and incandescent lamps were utilized to good effect. At the latter it was for the first time demonstrated that under this clear, white light, the delicate tints of flowers are almost as plainly visible as beneath the noon-day sun. At the Louisville Exhibition of 1883 there were 6,000 Edison lights, and at the one held in Paris in 1889, there were 1,000 arc and 9,000 incandescent lamps, both considered at the time a wonderful display of electric lighting. But in the buildings and grounds at Jackson park there were 6,000 arc and 120,000 incandescent lamps, the former each of 2,000 candle-power, while motive force of from 4,000 to 5,000 horse-power was generated for purposes mentioned in the text.

In the Electrical building was installed apparatus of all descriptions excepting generators, which were located elsewhere. Power, for whatever purpose used, was furnished and transmittted, as I have said, from the station at Machinery hall, the plant being so constructed as to be complete in itself, and yet composed of numerous smaller plants.

The floor of the building was intended to sustain a minimum weight of 150 pounds to the square foot. By railroad derricks machinery of a weight not exceeding fifteen tons could be moved into position, and generating machinery up to a weight of twenty-two and a half tons could be handled by travelling cranes.

Neither for illumination nor other purposes were any of the wires placed above ground, all being fastened on insulators inclosed by subterraneous conduits. The arc lights scattered throughout the park were supported by pillars or masts twelve feet high, most of them 50 to 75 feet apart, and all arranged with a view to landscape effect.

Side by side with the Edison exhibit of incandescent lamps was a case containing many sections of fibrous vegetable growths, used by the inventor in his search for the substance best fitted for a lamp filament. The selection finally made was that of a Japanese bamboo, which is now extensively cultivated on special plantations. It is said that in arriving at this result, Edison travelled many thousands of miles, and expended at least $200,000.

Near the pavilion of the Commercial Cable company a Fort Wayne establishment had an exhibit which overtopped all others in the galleries. It consisted of iron towers and poles such as are used in railroad construction, and for street lighting.

Nikola Tesla, the so-called wizard of physics, whose current motors are mentioned in connection with the Westinghouse company�s exhibits, is one of the youngest of our great electrical scientists, and yet a man of world-wide repute. His fame rests mainly on his multiphase alternating motors, whereby are produced high potential currents of remarkable frequency. On the 25th of August he lectured in the assembly room of Agricultural hall before an audience consisting largely of electrical engineers and scientists. During his discourse he exhibited a motor or oscillator driven by compressed air, which made 80 vibrations to the second, stating that he had made others capable of several thousand vibrations to the second. To this he attached a dynamo small enough to be slipped into the pocket, and yet of considerable power.

Elsewhere is noticed the exhibit by the seismological laboratory of the Imperial University of Japan. As stated, the first instrument to record motions of the earth was invented by a Japanese more than seventeen and a half centuries ago, but it was not until 1875 that an observatory was built for the purpose in Tokyo. The first instrument used was the one invented by Palmieri, the director of the observatory on Mount Vesuvius; but since 1884 this has been replaced by the Milne instrument, which records horizontal and vertical motions, with the time and duration of shocks. This year also marks the commencement of a system of investigation covering the entire empire, the observatory publishing guides for noting and reporting seismic phenomena, with or without the aid of instruments. These were distributed among hundreds of officials and others whose reports were transmitted free by the post-office. From these maps have been made showing the disturbed areas of the 3,800 earthquakes which have occurred throughout the empire from 1885 to 1890, as well as their relative intensity. Observations since that year have greatly added to previous records, especially those of the great earthquake of October 28, 1891. In this the centre of disturbance was almost in the middle of the main island, though with shocks more or less severe almost throughout the empire. Within a comparatively small radius over 7,000 people were killed, and 142,000 houses totally destroyed. The ground was rent and cracked, permanently depressed or upheaved, thousands of landslips were produced, water and sand were ejected, multitudes of embankments shattered, railway lines twisted, and bridges hurled into rivers which, with other havoc, was graphically depicted in the Japanese section of the Electricity building.

The enormous switchboard exhibited by the Brush Electric company was sold through its agents in Yokohama for the use of a power station now being erected in Manila, Philippine Islands, he company also furnishing several dynamos.