MACHINE FOR MAKING ELECTRIC LIGHT CARBONS.
One of the hinderances to the production of a regular and steady light in electric illumination is the absence of perfect uniformity in the carbons. This defect has more than once been pointed out by us, and we are glad to notice any attempt to remedy an admitted evil. To this end we illustrate above a machine for manufacturing carbons, invented by William Cunliffe. The object the inventor has in view is not only the better but the more rapid manufacture of carbons, candles, or electrodes for electric lighting or for the manufacture of rods or blocks of carbon or other compressible substances for other purposes, and his invention consists in automatic machinery whereby a regular and uniform pressure and compression of the carbon is obtained, and the rods or blocks are delivered through the formers, in a state of greater density and better quality then hitherto. The machine consists of two cylinders, A A', placed longitudinally, as shown at Fig. 1, and in reversed position in relation to each other. In each cylinder works a piston or plunger, a, with a connecting rod or rods, b; in the latter case the ends of the rods have right and left handed threads upon which a sleeve, c, with corresponding threads, works. This sleeve, c, is provided with a hand wheel, so that by the turning it the stroke of the plungers, a a, and the size of the chambers, A A', is regulated so that the quantity of material to be passed through the dies or formers is thereby determined and may be indicated. In front of the chambers, A A', are fixed the dies or formers, d d, which may have any number of perforations of the size or shape of the carbon it is intended to mould. The dies are held in position by clamp pieces, e e, secured to the end of the chambers A A', by screws, and on each side of these clamp pieces are guides, with grooves, in which moves a bar with a crosshead, termed the guillotine, and which moves across the openings of the dies, and opening or closing them. Near the front end of the cylinders are placed small pistons or valves, f f, kept down in position by the weighted levers, g g (see Fig. 2, which is drawn to an enlarged scale), which, when the pressure in the chamber exceeds that of the weighted levers connected to the safety valve, f, the latter is raised and the guillotine bar, h, moved across the openings of the dies by the connecting rods, h', thereby allowing the carbon to be forced through the dies. In the backward movement of the piston, a, a fresh supply of material is drawn by atmospheric pressure through the hoppers, B B', alternately. At the end of the stroke the arms of the rocking levers (which are connected by tension rods with the tappet levers) are struck by the disk wheel or regulator, the guillotine is moved back and replaced over the openings of the dies, ready for the next charge, as shown. The plungers are operated by hydraulic, steam, compressed air, or other power, the inlet and outlet of such a pressure being regulated by a valve, an example of which is shown at Fig. 1, and provided with the tappet levers, i i, hinged to the valve chest, C, as shown, and attached to spindles, i' i', operating the slide valves, and struck alternately at the end of each stroke, thus operating the valves and the guillotine connections, i² and i³. The front ends of the cylinders may be placed at an angle for the more convenient delivery of the moulded articles.--Iron.
MACHINE FOR MAKING ELECTRIC LIGHT CARBONS
NEW ELECTRIC BATTERY LIGHTS.
There has lately been held, at No. 31 Lombard Street, London, a private exhibition of the Holmes and Burke primary galvanic battery. The chief object of the display was to demonstrate its suitability for the lighting of railway trains, but at the same time means were provided to show it in connection with ordinary domestic illumination, as it is evident that a battery will serve equally as well for the latter as for the former purpose. Already the great Northern express leaving London at 5:30 P.M. is lighted by this means, and satisfactory experiments have been made upon the South-western line, while the inventors give a long list of other companies to which experimental plant is to be supplied. The battery shown, in Lombard Street consisted of fifteen cells arranged in three boxes of five cells each. Each box measured about 18 in. by 12 in. by 10 in., and weighed from 75 lb. to 100 lb. The electromotive force of each cell was 1.8 volts and its internal resistance from 1/40 to 1/50 of an ohm, consequently the battery exhibited had, under the must favorable circumstances, a difference of potential of 27 volts at its poles, and a resistance of 0.3 ohm.
When connected to a group of ten Swan lamps of five candle power, requiring a difference of potential of 20 volts, it raised them to vivid incandescence, considerably above their nominal capacity, but it failed to supply eighteen lamps of the same kind satisfactorily, showing that its working capacity lay somewhere between the two. A more powerful lamp is used in the railway carriages, but as there was only one erected it was impossible to judge of the number that a battery of the size shown would feed. Engineering says the trial, however, demonstrated that great quantities of current were being continuously evolved, and if, as we understood, the production can be maintained constant for about twenty-four hours without attention, the new battery marks a distinct step in this kind of electric lighting. Of the construction of the battery we unfortunately can say but little, as the patents are not yet completed, but we may state that the solid elements are zinc and carbon, and that the novelty lies in the liquid, and in the ingenious arrangement for supplying and withdrawing it.
Ordinarily one charge of liquid will serve for twenty-four hours working, but this, of course, is entirely determined by the space provided for it. It is sold at sevenpence a gallon, and each gallon is sufficient, we are informed, to drive a cell while it generates 800 ampere hours of current, or, taking the electromotive force at 1.8 volts, it represents (800 x 1.8) / 746 = 1.93 horse-power hours. The cost of the zinc is stated to be 35 per cent. of that of the fluid, although it is difficult to see how this can be, for one horse-power requires the consumption of 895.2 grammes of zinc per hour, or 1.96 lb., and this at 18l. per ton, would cost 1.93 pence per pound, or 3.8 pence per horse-power hour. This added to 3.6 pence for the fluid, would give a total of 7.4 pence per horse-power per hour, and assuming twenty lamps of ten candle power to be fed per horse-power, the cost would be about one-third of a penny per hour per lamp.