The organist before beginning to play closes a double-pole, single-throw switch ([Fig. 24]), which sends the electric current to the motor.
The motor pumps air until the bellows is full, and if the organist delays playing, the strip of brass n ([Fig. 23]) is carried below the lowest point p, thus cutting off the current and stopping the motor. As soon as he uses some of the air in the bellows, however, n rises and makes contact with the points p and the motor starts.
This suggests that a somewhat similar thing is accomplished under electric cars which have air brakes. An electric motor pumps the air and compresses it in a tank. When the pressure reaches a certain point, say sixty pounds per square inch, it automatically shuts off the electric current from the motor which works the pump. But when the motorman uses some of the air to apply the brakes to the wheels, and the pressure in the tank falls below sixty pounds, the electric current is again automatically turned on to the motor.
Of course if an electric motor can operate a pump to compress air it may also work a pump to exhaust air. This is what is done in a vacuum cleaner. The electric pump as it is called (which means a pump worked by an electric motor), exhausts some of the air from a compartment in the machine, and the atmosphere pressing in through nozzle and hose carries dust from rugs and furniture with it into the compartment. The best vacuum cleaners will produce a pressure of seven or eight pounds per square inch, about half an atmosphere. This will remove dust from the warp and woof of a rug better than our greatest hurricanes can when the rugs are hung upon a line. There are three kinds of air pumps in use with vacuum cleaners: (1) bellows, (2) rotating disk or fan, (3) piston.
To milk cows by electricity is simply to apply the vacuum-cleaner idea to the process, and, in general, doing things by electricity usually means doing them by some machine that is made to go by an electric motor. This then is the first key to the Electrical Show, and if you will remember to look first for the motor it may remove much of the mystery from some of the exhibits. In many cases it is not necessary to have a complete electric motor, but simply an electro-magnet to do the work. In booth No. 56 you will find a piano played by electricity. Its keys are moving, but no hands strike them. There is no ghost at work here. A little strip of iron has been placed upon the under side of each key and a small electro-magnet is placed under that. It is only necessary that wires should run from these electro-magnets to two dry-battery cells and to push buttons, and a person far away may play the piano. In reality, however, it is not a person but a roll of punctured paper that opens and closes the electric circuits to these various magnets underneath the keys.
It often happens that you see a person playing a pipe organ with his keyboard far removed from the organ itself. In this case the keys simply act as push buttons to close the electric circuit through electro-magnets placed in the organ itself. These electro-magnets operate the air valves of the various pipes.
