Tower supporting high tension transmission cables of long span crossing
of Niagara River between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Canada.]
How is Electricity Brought into a House?
The electric transmission of power is effected by employing the source
of power to drive a machine called a dynamo, which generates an electric
current.
This current is conveyed by a copper conductor, insulated from the
earth, to the distant station, where it passes through a machine called
an “electromotor,” one part of which is thereby made to revolve, and
imparts its motion to the machinery which is to be driven.
This is the simplest arrangement, and is that which is commonly employed
when the original currents are not of such high tension as to be
dangerous to life in the case of accidental shocks. There is, however, a
great waste of power in employing low-tension currents when the distance
is great; hence it is becoming a common practice to employ high-tension
currents for transmission through the long conductor which connects the
two stations, and to convert these into low-tension currents before they
reach the houses or workshops where they are to be used. This is done
sometimes by employing the high-tension currents to drive a local dynamo
which generates low-tension currents.
The discovery that a Gramme machine is reversible--that is to say, when
two Gramme machines are coupled together and one is operated as a
generator, the other will act as a motor--was an important step taken in
the transmission of power. Numerous efforts, since then, have been made
to utilize electricity for the transmission of power over a long range.
For this purpose the alternating current seems eminently adapted, as
transformers only are needed to raise the line to high transmission
voltage and to lower it again for use.
The possibilities offered by electrical transmission of water power for
sections of country favored with waterfalls are numerous and have been
extensively developed, which should result in making them great
industrial centers. In this direction much has been done in utilizing
the immense power of the Niagara Falls by electrical transmission, works
having been built for this purpose both in New York and Canada, and
several hundred thousand horse-power developed. The application of the
power of waterfalls to the generation of electricity is rapidly
extending, and promises to become a great source of mechanical power in
the future.
What was the Origin of Masonic Signs?
Fable and imagination have traced back the origin of freemasonry to the
Roman Empire, to the Pharaohs, the Temple of Solomon, the Tower of
Babel, and even to the building of Noah’s ark. In reality, it took its
rise in the middle ages along with other incorporated crafts.
Skilled masons moved from place to place to assist in building the
magnificent sacred structures--cathedrals, abbeys, etc.--which had their
origin in these times, and it was essential for them to have some signs
by which, on coming to a strange place, they could be recognized as real
craftsmen and not impostors.
What is a Dictograph?
The dictograph, to which much publicity is now given, by reason of its
use in detective work, is an instrument for magnifying sound. It was
invented by K. M. Turner of New York, in 1907.
It consists of a master station in the form of a box less than a foot
long and six inches deep, and any number of sub-stations that may be
required. Any voice within fifteen feet is taken by the receiving
instrument and carried over the wires to any distance within about a
thousand miles.
It has now been adopted by a great many business organizations as a
convenient means of inter-communication.