Electric Railway Engineering,
appendix A._
ELECTRICITY: A. D. 1841-1880.
The Incandescent Electric Light.
"While the arc lamp is well adapted for lighting large areas
requiring a powerful, diffused light, similar to sunlight, and
hence is suitable for outdoor illumination, and for workshops,
stores, public buildings, and factories, especially those
where colored fabrics are produced, its use in ordinary
dwellings, or for a desk light in offices, is impractical, a
softer, steadier, and more economical light being required.
Various attempts to modify the arc-light by combining it with
the incandescent were made in the earlier stages of electric
lighting. ... The first strictly incandescent lamp was
invented in 1841 by Frederick de Molyens of Cheltenham,
England, and was constructed on the simple principle of the
incandescence produced by the high resistance of a platinum
wire to the passage of the electric current. In 1849 Petrie
employed iridium for the same purpose, also alloys of iridium
and platinum, and iridium and carbon. In 1845 J. W. Starr of
Cincinnati first proposed the use of carbon, and, associated
with King, his English agent, produced, through the financial
aid of the philanthropist Peabody, an incandescent lamp. ...
In all these early experiments, the battery was the source of
electric supply; and the comparatively small current required
for the incandescent light as compared with that required for
the arc light, was an argument in favor of the former. ...
Still, no substantial progress was made with either system
till the invention of the dynamo resulted in the practical
development of both systems, that of the incandescent
following that of the arc. Among the first to make
incandescent lighting a practical success were Sawyer and Man
of New York, and Edison. For a long time, Edison experimented
with platinum, using fine platinum wire coiled into a spiral,
so as to concentrate the heat, and produce incandescence; the
same current producing only a red heat when the wire, whether
of platinum or other metal, is stretched out. ... Failing to
obtain satisfactory results from platinum, Edison turned his
attention to carbon, the superiority of which as an
incandescent illuminant had already been demonstrated; but its
rapid consumption, as shown by the Reynier and similar lamps,
being unfavorable to its use as compared with the durability
of platinum and iridium, the problem was, to secure the
superior illumination of the carbon, and reduce or prevent its
consumption. As this consumption was due chiefly to oxidation,
it was questionable whether the superior illumination were not
due to the same cause, and whether, if the carbon were inclosed
in a glass globe, from which oxygen was eliminated, the same
illumination could be obtained.
{776}
Another difficulty of equal magnitude was to obtain a
sufficiently perfect vacuum, and maintain it in a hermetically
sealed globe inclosing the carbon, and at the same time
maintain electric connection with the generator through the
glass by a metal conductor, subject to expansion and
contraction different from that of the glass, by the change of
temperature due to the passage of the electric current. Sawyer
and Man attempted to solve this problem by filling the globe
with nitrogen, thus preventing combustion by eliminating the
oxygen. ... The results obtained by this method, which at one
time attracted a great deal of attention, were not
sufficiently satisfactory to become practical; and Edison and
others gave their preference to the vacuum method, and sought
to overcome the difficulties connected with it. The invention
of the mercurial air pump, with its subsequent improvements,
made it possible to obtain a sufficiently perfect vacuum, and
the difficulty of introducing the current into the interior of
the globe was overcome by imbedding a fine platinum wire in
the glass, connecting the inclosed carbon with the external
circuit; the expansion and contraction of the platinum not
differing sufficiently from that of the glass, in so fine a
wire, as to impair the vacuum. ... The carbons made by Edison
under his first patent in 1879, were obtained from brown paper
or cardboard. ... They were very fragile and short-lived, and
consequently were soon abandoned. In 1880 he patented the
process which, with some modifications, he still adheres to.
In this process he uses filaments of bamboo, which are taken
from the interior, fibrous portion of the plant."
_P. Atkinson,
Elements of Electric Lighting,
chapter 8._
ELECTRICITY: A. D. 1854-1866.
The Atlantic Cable.
"Cyrus Field ... established a company in America (in 1854),
which ... obtained the right of landing cables in Newfoundland
for fifty years. Soundings were made in 1856 between Ireland
and Newfoundland, showing a maximum depth of 4,400 metres.
Having succeeded after several attempts in laying a cable
between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Field founded the
Atlantic Telegraph Company in England. ... The length of the
... cable [used] was 4,000 kilometres, and was carried by the
two ships Agamemnon and Niagara. The distance between the two
stations on the coasts was 2,640 kilometres. The laying of the
cable commenced on the 7th of August, 1857, at Valentia
(Ireland); on the third day the cable broke at a depth of
3,660 metres, and the expedition had to return. A second
expedition was sent in 1858; the two ships met each other
half-way, the ends of the cable were joined, and the lowering
of it commenced in both directions; 149 kilometres were thus
lowered, when a fault in the cable was discovered. It had,
therefore, to be brought on board again, and was broken during
the process. After it had been repaired, and when 476
kilometres had been already laid, another fault was
discovered, which caused another breakage; this time it was
impossible to repair it, and the expedition was again
unsuccessful, and had to return. In spite of the repeated
failures, two ships were again sent out in the same year, and
this time one end of the cable was landed in Ireland, and the
other at Newfoundland. The length of the sunk cable was 3,745
kilometres. Field's first telegram was sent on the 7th of
August, from America to Ireland. The insulation of the cable,
however, became more defective every day, and failed
altogether on the 1st of September. From the experience
obtained, it was concluded that it was possible to lay a
trans-Atlantic cable, and the company, after consulting a
number of professional men, again set to work. ... The Great
Eastern was employed in laying this cable. This ship, which is
211 metres long, 25 metres broad, and 16 metres in height,
carried a crew of 500 men, of which 120 were electricians and
engineers, 179 mechanics and stokers, and 115 sailors. The
management of all affairs relating to the laying of the cable
was entrusted to Canning. The coast cable was laid on the 21st
of July, and the end of it was connected with the Atlantic
cable on the 23rd. After 1,326 kilometres had been laid, a
fault was discovered, an iron wire was found stuck right
across the cable, and Canning considered the mischief to have
been done with a malevolent purpose. On the 2nd of August,
2,196 kilometres of cable were sunk, when another fault was
discovered. While the cable was being repaired it broke, and
attempts to recover it at the time were all unsuccessful; in
consequence of this the Great Eastern had to return without
having completed the task. A new company, the Anglo-American
Telegraph Company, was formed in 1866, and at once entrusted
Messrs. Glass, Elliott and Company with the construction of a
new cable of 3,000 kilometres. Different arrangements were
made for the outer envelope of the cable, and the Great
Eastern was once more equipped to give effect to the
experiments which had just been made. The new expedition was
not only to lay a new cable, but also to take up the end of
the old one, and join it to a new piece, and thus obtain a
second telegraph line. The sinking again commenced in Ireland
on the 13th of July, 1866, and it was finished on the 27th. On
the 4th of August, 1866, the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Line was
declared open."
_A. R. von Urbanitzky,
Electricity in the Service of Man,
pages 767-768._
ELECTRICITY: A. D. 1876-1892.
The Telephone.
"The first and simplest of all magnetic telephones is the Bell
Telephone." In "the first form of this instrument, constructed
by Professor Graham Bell, in 1876 ... a harp of steel rods was
attached to the poles of a permanent magnet. ... When we sing
into a piano, certain of the strings of the instrument are set
in vibration sympathetically by the action of the voice with
different degrees of amplitude, and a sound, which is an
approximation to the vowel uttered, is produced from the
piano. Theory shows that, had the piano a much larger number
of strings to the octave, the vowel sounds would be perfectly
reproduced. It was upon this principle that Bell constructed
his first telephone. The expense of constructing such an
apparatus, however, deterred Bell from making the attempt, and
he sought to simplify the apparatus before proceeding further in
this direction. After many experiments with more, or less
unsatisfactory results, he constructed the instrument ...
which he exhibited at Philadelphia in 1876. In this apparatus,
the transmitter was formed by an electro-magnet, through which
a current flowed, and a membrane, made of gold-beater's skin,
on which was placed as a sort of armature, a piece of soft
iron, which thus vibrated in front of the electro-magnet when
the membrane was thrown into sonorous vibration.
{777}
... It is quite clear that when we speak into a Bell
transmitter only a small fraction of the energy of the
sonorous vibrations of the voice can be converted into
electric currents, and that these currents must be extremely
weak. Edison applied himself to discover some means by which
he could increase the strength of these currents. Elisha Gray
had proposed to use the variation of resistance of a fine
platinum wire attached to a diaphragm dipping into water, and
hoped that the variation of extent of surface in contact would
so vary the strength of current as to reproduce sonorous
vibrations; but there is no record of this experiment having
been tried. Edison proposed to utilise the fact that the
resistance of carbon varied under pressure. He had
independently discovered this peculiarity of carbon, but it
had been previously described by Du Moncel. ... The first
carbon transmitter was constructed in 1878 by Edison."
_W. H. Preece, and J. Maier,
The Telephone,
chapter 3-4._
In a pamphlet distributed at the Columbian Exposition,
Chicago, 1893, entitled "Exhibit of the American Bell
Telephone Co.," the following statements are made: "At the
Centennial Exposition, in Philadelphia, in 1876, was given the
first general public exhibition of the telephone by its
inventor, Alexander Graham Bell. To-day, seventeen years
later, more than half a million instruments are in daily use
in the United States alone, six hundred million talks by
telephone are held every year, and the human voice is carried
over a distance of twelve hundred miles without loss of sound
or syllable. The first use of the telephone for business
purposes was over a single wire connecting only two
telephones. At once the need of general inter-communication
made itself felt. In the cities and larger towns exchanges
were established and all the subscribers to any one exchange
were enabled to talk to one another through a central office.
Means were then devised to connect two or more exchanges by
trunk lines, thus affording means of communication between all
the subscribers of all the exchanges so connected. This work
has been pushed forward until now have been gathered into what
may be termed one great exchange all the important cities from
Augusta on the east to Milwaukee on the west, and from
Burlington and Buffalo on the north to Washington on the
south, bringing more than one half the people of this country
and a much larger proportion of the business interests, within
talking distance of one another. ... The lines which connect
Chicago with Boston, via New York, are of copper wire of extra
size. It is about one sixth of an inch in diameter, and weighs
435 pounds to the mile. Hence each circuit contains 1,044,000
pounds of copper. ... In the United States there are over a
quarter of a million exchange subscribers, and ... these make
use of the telephone to carry on 600,000,000 conversations
annually. There is hardly a city or town of 5,000 inhabitants
that has not its Telephone Exchange, and these are so knit
together by connecting lines that intercommunication is
constant." The number of telephones in use in the United
States, on the 20th of December in each year since the first
introduction, is given as follows;
1877, 5,187;
1878, 17,567;
1879, 52,517;
1880, 123,380;
1881, 180,592;
1882, 237,728;
1883, 298,580;
1884, 325,574;
1885, 330,040;
1886, 353,518;
1887, 380,277;
1888, 411,511;
1889, 444,861;
1890, 483,790;
1891, 512,407;
1892, 552,720.
----------End: Electricity----------
ELEPHANT, Order of the.
A Danish order of knighthood instituted in 1693 by
King Christian V.
ELEPHANTINE.
See EGYPT: THE OLD EMPIRE AND THE MIDDLE EMPIRE.
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES, The.
Among the ancient Greeks, "the mysteries were a source of
faith and hope to the initiated, as are the churches of modern
times. Secret doctrines, regarded as holy, and to be kept with
inviolable fidelity, were handed down in these brotherhoods,
and no doubt were fondly believed to contain a saving grace by
those who were admitted, amidst solemn and imposing rites,
under the veil of midnight, to hear the tenets of the ancient
faith, and the promises of blessings to come to those who,
with sincerity of heart and pious trust, took the obligations
upon them. The Eleusinian mysteries were the most imposing and
venerable. Their origin extended back into a mythical
antiquity, and they were among the few forms of Greek worship
which were under the superintendence of hereditary
priesthoods. Thirlwall thinks that 'they were the remains of a
worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic mythology and
its attendant rites, grounded on a view of Nature less
fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to awaken both
philosophical thought and religious feeling.' This conclusion
is still further confirmed by the moral and religious tone of
the poets,--such as Æschylus,--whose ideas on justice, sin and
retribution are as solemn and elevated as those of a Hebrew
prophet. The secrets, whatever they were, were never revealed
in express terms; but Isocrates uses some remarkable
expressions, when speaking of their importance to the
condition of man. 'Those who are initiated,' says he
'entertain sweeter hopes of eternal life'; and how could this
be the case, unless there were imparted at Eleusis the
doctrine of eternal life, and some idea of its state and
circumstances more compatible with an elevated conception of
the Deity and of the human soul than the vague and shadowy
images which haunted the popular mind. The Eleusinian
communion embraced the most eminent men from every part of
Greece,--statesmen, poets, philosophers, and generals; and
when Greece became a part of the Roman Empire, the greatest
minds of Rome drew instruction and consolation from its
doctrines. The ceremonies of initiation--which took place
every year in the early autumn, a beautiful season in
Attica--were a splendid ritual, attracting visitors from every
part of the world. The processions moving from Athens to
Eleusis over the Sacred Way, sometimes numbered twenty or
thirty thousand people, and the exciting scenes were well
calculated to leave a durable impression on susceptible minds.
... The formula of the dismissal, after the initiation was
over, consisted in the mysterious words 'konx,' 'ompax'; and
this is the only Eleusinian secret that has illuminated the
world from the recesses of the temple of Demeter and
Persephone. But it is a striking illustration of the value
attached to these rites and doctrines, that, in moments of
extremest peril--as of impending shipwreck, or massacre by a
victorious enemy,--men asked one another, 'Are you initiated?'
as if this were the anchor of their hopes for another life."
{778}
_C. C. Felton,
Greece, Ancient and Modern,
chapter 2, lecture 10._
"The Eleusinian mysteries continued to be celebrated during
the whole of the second half of the fourth century, till they
were put an end to by the destruction of the temple at
Eleusis, and by the devastation of Greece in the invasion of
the Goths under Alaric in 395."
See GOTHS: A. D. 395.
_W. Smith,
Note to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 25._
ALSO IN:
_R. Brown,
The Great Dionysiak Myth,
chapter 6, section. 2._
_J. J. I. von Dollinger,
The Gentile and the Jew,
book 3 (volume 1)._
See, also, ELEUSIS.
ELEUSIS.
Eleusis was originally one of the twelve confederate townships
into which Attica was said to have been divided before the
time of Theseus. It "was advantageously situated [about
fourteen miles Northwest of Athens] on a height, at a small
distance from the shore of an extensive bay, to which there is
access only through narrow channels, at the two extremities of
the island of Salamis: its position was important, as
commanding the shortest and most level route by land from
Athens to the Isthmus by the pass which leads at the foot of
Mount Cerata along the shore to Megara. ... Eleusis was built
at the eastern end of a low rocky hill, which lies parallel to
the sea-shore. ... The eastern extremity of the hill was
levelled artificially for the reception of the Hierum of Ceres
and the other sacred buildings. Above these are the traces of an
Acropolis. A triangular space of about 500 yards each side,
lying between the hill and the shore, was occupied by the town
of Eleusis. ... To those who approached Eleusis from Athens,
the sacred buildings standing on the eastern extremity of the
height concealed the greater part of the town, and on a nearer
approach presented a succession of magnificent objects, well
calculated to heighten the solemn grandeur of the ceremonies
and the awe and reverence of the Mystæ in their initiation.
... In the plurality of enclosures, in the magnificence of the
pylæ or gateways, in the absence of any general symmetry of
plan, in the small auxiliary temples, we recognize a great
resemblance between the sacred buildings of Eleusis and the
Egyptian Hiera of Thebes and Philæ. And this resemblance is
the more remarkable, as the Demeter of Attica was the Isis of
Egypt. We cannot suppose, however, that the plan of all these
buildings was even thought of when the worship of Ceres was
established at Eleusis. They were the progressive creation of
successive ages. ... Under the Roman Empire ... it was
fashionable among the higher order of Romans to pass some time
at Athens in the study of philosophy and to be initiated in
the Eleusinian mysteries. Hence Eleusis became at that time
one of the most frequented places in Greece; and perhaps it
was never so populous as under the emperors of the first two
centuries of our æra. During the two following centuries, its
mysteries were the chief support of declining polytheism, and
almost the only remaining bond of national union among the
Greeks; but at length the destructive visit of the Goths in
the year 396, the extinction of paganism and the ruin of
maritime commerce, left Eleusis deprived of every source of
prosperity, except those which are inseparable from its
fertile plain, its noble bay, and its position on the road
from Attica to the Isthmus. ... The village still preserves
the ancient name, no further altered than is customary in
Romaic conversions."
_W. M. Leake,
Topography of Athens;
volume 2: The Demi, section 5._
ELGIN, Lord.
The Indian administration of.
See INDIA: A. D. 1862-1876.
ELIS.
Elis was an ancient Greek state, occupying the country on the
western coast of Peloponnesus, adjoining Arcadia, and between
Messenia at the south and Achaia on the north. It was noted
for the fertility of its soil and the rich yield of its
fisheries. But Elis owed greater importance to the inclusion
within its territory of the sacred ground of Olympia, where
the celebration of the most famous festival of Zeus came to be
established at an early time. The Elians had acquired Olympia
by conquest of the city and territory of Pisa, to which it
originally belonged, and the presidency of the Olympic games
was always disputed with them by the latter. Elis was the
close ally of Sparta down to the year B. C. 421, when a bitter
quarrel arose between them, and Elis suffered heavily in the
wars which ensued. It was afterwards at war with the
Arcadians, and joined the Ætolian League against the Achaian
League. The city of Elis was one of the most splendid in
Greece; but little now remains, even of ruins, to indicate its
departed glories.
See, also, OLYMPIC GAMES.
ELISII, The.
See LYGIANS.
ELIZABETH,
Czarina of Russia, A. D. 1741-1761..
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, and the Thirty Years War.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1620; 1620; 1621-1623;
1631-1632, and 1648.
Elizabeth, Queen of England, A. D. 1558-1603.
Elizabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain.
See ITALY: A. D. 1715-1735; and
SPAIN: A. D. 1713-1725, and 1726-1731.
ELIZABETH, N. J.
The first settlement of.
See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1664-1667.
ELK HORN, OR PEA RIDGE, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-MARCH: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).
ELKWATER, OR CHEAT SUMMIT, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: WEST VIRGINIA).
ELLANDUM, Battle of.
Decisive victory of Ecgberht, the West Saxon king, over the
Mercians, A. D. 823.
ELLEBRI, The.
See IRELAND, TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
ELLENBOROUGH, Lord, The Indian administration of.
See INDIA: A. D. 1836-1845.
ELLSWORTH, Colonel, The death of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (MAY: VIRGINIA).
ELMET.
A small kingdom of the Britons which was swallowed up in the
English kingdom of Northumbria early in the seventh century.
It answered, roughly speaking, to the present West-Riding of
Yorkshire. ... Leeds "preserves the name of Loidis, by which
Elmet seems also to have been known."
J. R. Green, The Making of England, page 254.
ELMIRA, N. Y. (then Newtown).
General Sullivan's Battle with the Senecas.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1779 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
ELSASS.
See ALSACE.
ELTEKEH, Battle of.
A victory won by the Assyrian, Sennacherib, over the
Egyptians, before the disaster befell his army which is
related in 2 Kings xix. 35. Sennacherib's own account of the
battle has been found among the Assyrian records.
{779}
_A. H. Sayce,
Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments,
chapter 6._
ELUSATES, The.
See AQUITAINE, TRIBES OF ANCIENT.
ELVIRA, Battle of(1319).
See SPAIN: A. D. 1273-1460.
ELY, The Camp of Refuge at.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1069-1071.
ELYMAIS.
See ELAM.
ELYMEIA.
See MACEDONIA.
ELYMIANS, The.
See SICILY: EARLY INHABITANTS.
ELYSIAN FIELDS.
See CANARY ISLANDS.
ELZEVIRS.
See PRINTING: A. D. 1617-1680.
EMANCIPATION, Catholic.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1811-1829.
EMANCIPATION, Compensated;
Proposal of President Lincoln.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MARCH).
EMANCIPATION, Prussian Edict of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1807-1808.
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATIONS,
President Lincoln's.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER), and 1863 (JANUARY).
EMANUEL,
King of Portugal, A. D. 1495-1521.
Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, A. D. 1553-1580.
EMBARGO OF 1807, The American.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1804-1809, and 1808.
EMERICH, King of Hungary, A. D. 1196-1204.
EMERITA AUGUSTA.
A colony of Roman veterans settled in Spain, B. C. 27, by the
emperor Augustus. It is identified with modern Merida, in
Estremadura.
C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 34, note.
EMESSA.
Capture by the Arabs (A. D. 636).
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 632-639.