Inventing A Complete System Of Lighting - 7

  Inventing A Complete System Of Lighting - 7

 Nor was this all. Eminent men in science who had previously expressed their disbelief in

the statements made as to the Edison system were now foremost in generous praise of his

notable achievements, and accorded him full credit for its completion. A typical instance

was M. Du Moncel, a distinguished electrician, who had written cynically about Edison's

work and denied its practicability. He now recanted publicly in this language, which in

itself shows the state of the art when Edison came to the front: "All these experiments

achieved but moderate success, and when, in 1879, the new Edison incandescent carbon

lamp was announced, many of the scientists, and I, particularly, doubted the accuracy of

the reports which came from America. This horseshoe of carbonized paper seemed

incapable to resist mechanical shocks and to maintain incandescence for any considerable

length of time. Nevertheless, Mr. Edison was not discouraged, and despite the active

opposition made to his lamp, despite the polemic acerbity of which he was the object, he

did not cease to perfect it; and he succeeded in producing the lamps which we now

behold exhibited at the Exposition, and are admired by all for their perfect steadiness."

The competitive lamps exhibited and tested at this time comprised those of Edison,

Maxim, Swan, and Lane-Fox. The demonstration of Edison's success stimulated the faith

of his French supporters, and rendered easier the completion of plans for the Societe

Edison Continental, of Paris, formed to operate the Edison patents on the Continent of

Europe. Mr. Batchelor, with Messrs. Acheson and Hipple, and one or two other

assistants, at the close of the Exposition transferred their energies to the construction and

equipment of machine-shops and lamp factories at Ivry-sur-Seine for the company, and in

a very short time the installation of plants began in various countries--France, Italy,

Holland, Belgium, etc.

All through 1881 Johnson was very busy, for his part, in England. The first "Jumbo"

Edison dynamo had gone to Paris; the second and third went to London, where they were

installed in 1881 by Mr. Johnson and his assistant, Mr. W. J. Hammer, in the threethousand-

light central station on Holborn Viaduct, the plant going into operation on

January 12, 1882. Outside of Menlo Park this was the first regular station for

incandescent lighting in the world, as the Pearl Street station in New York did not go into

operation until September of the same year. This historic plant was hurriedly thrown

together on Crown land, and would doubtless have been the nucleus of a great system but

for the passage of the English electric lighting act of 1882, which at once throttled the

industry by its absurd restrictive provisions, and which, though greatly modified, has left

England ever since in a condition of serious inferiority as to development in electric light

and power. The streets and bridges of Holborn Viaduct were lighted by lamps turned on

and off from the station, as well as the famous City Temple of Dr. Joseph Parker, the first

church in the world to be lighted by incandescent lamps--indeed, so far as can be

ascertained, the first church to be illuminated by electricity in any form. Mr. W. J.

Hammer, who supplies some very interesting notes on the installation, says: "I well

remember the astonishment of Doctor Parker and his associates when they noted the

difference of temperature as compared with gas. I was informed that the people would

not go in the gallery in warm weather, owing to the great heat caused by the many gas

jets, whereas on the introduction of the incandescent lamp there was no complaint." The

telegraph operating-room of the General Post-Office, at St. Martin's-Le Grand and

Newgate Street nearby, was supplied with four hundred lamps through the

instrumentality of Mr. (Sir) W. H. Preece, who, having been seriously sceptical as to Mr.

Edison's results, became one of his most ardent advocates, and did much to facilitate the

introduction of the light. This station supplied its customers by a network of feeders and

mains of the standard underground two-wire Edison tubing-conductors in sections of iron

pipe--such as was used subsequently in New York, Milan, and other cities. It also had a

measuring system for the current, employing the Edison electrolytic meter. Arc lamps

were operated from its circuits, and one of the first sets of practicable storage batteries

was used experimentally at the station. In connection with these batteries Mr. Hammer

tells a characteristic anecdote of Edison: "A careless boy passing through the station

whistling a tune and swinging carelessly a hammer in his hand, rapped a carboy of

sulphuric acid which happened to be on the floor above a `Jumbo' dynamo. The blow

broke the glass carboy, and the acid ran down upon the field magnets of the dynamo,

destroying the windings of one of the twelve magnets. This accident happened while I

was taking a vacation in Germany, and a prominent scientific man connected with the

company cabled Mr. Edison to know whether the machine would work if the coil was cut

out. Mr. Edison sent the laconic reply: `Why doesn't he try it and see?' Mr. E. H. Johnson

was kept busy not only with the cares and responsibilities of this pioneer English plant,

but by negotiations as to company formations, hearings before Parliamentary committees,

and particularly by distinguished visitors, including all the foremost scientific men in

England, and a great many well- known members of the peerage. Edison was fortunate in

being represented by a man with so much address, intimate knowledge of the subject, and

powers of explanation. As one of the leading English papers said at the time, with equal

humor and truth: `There is but one Edison, and Johnson is his prophet.' "