The apparatus operates, then, like Sir William Thomson's replenisher. It is only necessary for the armatures upon the cylinder, A, to be at the start at a difference of potential as small as desirable to suppose it, in order to have the play of the machine multiply the charge and soon give it sufficient tension to cross the interval that separates the two points fixed at the extremity of the lighting rod, G. From a technical point of view, the ingenious and new idea resides in the application of a multiplier of charges with which the priming and operation are always secured, provided the insulating parts are so dry that the losses due to dampness are inferior to the machine's power of production. This result, moreover, is easily attained by the use of a hermetically closed system, and of drying substances placed in that part of the cylinder which forms the handle of the apparatus.
From a mechanical point of view, the lighter contains a series of practical and simple arrangements which make it an apparatus at once convenient, strong, and sufficiently perpetual, as regards duration, to partially justify the name that has been bestowed upon it by its inventor, Mr. J. Ullmann.—La Nature.
INSULATORS FOR TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE LINES.
In the accompanying cut we bring together a few figures of porcelain insulators for uncovered wires placed inside or outside of houses.
PORCELAIN INSULATORS FOR TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE LINES.
Figs. 1 and 2 represent simple and double channeled pulleys to be fixed against a wall, or upon a pole or a door post, by means of nails simply. Fig. 3 shows a pulley of larger dimensions for iron wires. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 show perforated insulators, that are quite convenient for holding and supporting a wire, but which are not convenient to put in position when the wire is of some length. Fig. 7 shows a device for protecting a wire that passes through a wall. Fig. 8 shows a support designed especially for small poles. It may be used either by passing the wires through the aperture or winding it around the neck of the bell. Fig. 8 shows a cleft insulator designed especially for fixing a wire in places where it must form an angle.—La Nature.