weakens and would ultimately break up the carbon stick, and increases the sooty deposit.
The large battery was arranged for intensity, but even then it was found that the quantity (I use the old-fashioned terms) of electricity was excessive, and that it worked more advantageously when the cells were but partially filled with acid and sulphate. A larger stick of carbon might have been used with the whole surface in full action.
After working the battery in various ways, and duly considering the merits of the other forms of battery then in use, Mr. Starr was driven to the conclusion that for the purposes of practical illumination the voltaic battery is a hopeless source of power, and that magneto-electric machinery driven by steam-power must be used. I fully concurred with him in this conclusion, so did Mr. King, Mr. Dorr, and all concerned.
Mr. Starr then set to work to devise a suitable dynamo-electric machine, and, following his usual course of starting from first principles, concluded that all the armatures hitherto constructed were defective in one fundamental element of their arrangement. The thick copper wire surrounding the soft iron core necessarily follows a spiral course, like that of a coarse screw-thread; but the electric current or lines of force, which it is designed to pick up and carry, circulate at right angles to the axis of the core, and extend to some distance beyond its surface. The problem thus presented is to wind around the soft iron a conductor that shall be broad enough to grasp a large proportion of this outspread force, and yet shall follow its course as nearly as possible by standing out at right angles to the axis of the armature. This he endeavored to effect by using a core of square section, and winding round it a broad ribbon of sheet copper, insulated on both sides by cementing on its surfaces a layer of silk ribbon. This armature was laid with one edge against one side of the core, and carried on thus to the angle; then turned over so that its opposite edge should be presented to the next side of the core; this side to be followed in like manner, the ribbon similarly turned again at the next corner, and so on till the core became fully enclosed or armed with the continuous ribbon, which thus encircled the core with its edges outwards, and nearly at right angles to the axis, in spite of its width, which might be increased to any extent found by experiment to be desirable.
At this stage my direct co-operation and confidential communication with Mr. Starr ceased, as I remained in London while he went to Birmingham in order to get his machinery constructed, and to apply it at the works of Messrs. Elkington, who had then recently introduced the principle of dynamo-electric motive-power for electro-plating, etc., and were, I believe, using Woolrich’s apparatus, the patent for which was dated August 1, 1842, and enrolled February 1, 1843.
I am unable to state the results of his efforts in Birmingham. I only heard the murmurs of the capitalists, who loudly complained of expenditure without results. They had dreamed the same dream that Mr. Edison has recently re-dreamed, and has told the world so loudly. They supposed that the mechanically excited current might be carried along great lengths of wire, and the carbons interposed wherever required, and that the same electricity would flow on and do the duty of illumination over and over again as a river may fall over a succession of weirs and turn water-wheels at each. Mr. Starr knew better; his scepticism was misinterpreted; he was taunted with failure and non-fulfilment of the anticipations he had raised, and with the fruitless expenditure of large sums of other people’s money. He was a high-minded, honorable, and very sensitive man, suffering already from overworked brain before he went to Birmingham. There he worked again still harder, with further vexation and disappointment, until one morning he was found dead in his bed. Having, during my short acquaintance with him, enjoyed his full confidence in reference to all his investigations, I have no hesitation in affirming that his early death cut short the career of one who otherwise would have largely contributed to the progress of experimental science, and have done honor to his country.
His martyrdom, for such it was, taught me a useful lesson I then much needed, viz., to abstain from entering upon a costly series of physical investigations without being well assured of the means of completing them, and, above all, of being able to afford to fail.
There are many others who sorely need to be impressed with the same lesson, especially at this moment and in connection with this subject.
The warning is the most applicable to those who are now misled by a plausible but false analogy. They look at the progress made in other things, the mighty achievements of modern Science, and therefore infer that the electric light—even though unsuccessful hitherto—may be improved up to practical success, as other things have been. A great fallacy is hidden here. As a matter of fact the progress made in electric lighting since Mr. Starr’s death, in 1846, has been very small indeed. As regards the lamp itself no progress whatever has been made. I am satisfied that Starr’s continuous carbon stick, properly managed in a true vacuum, or an atmosphere free from oxygen, carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, or other oxygen compound, is the best that has yet been placed before the public for all purposes where exceptionally intense illumination (as in lighthouses) is not demanded.13
Comparing electric with gas-lighting, the hopeful believers in progressive improvement appear to forget that gas-making and gas-lighting are as susceptible of further improvement as electric lighting, and that, as a matter of fact, its practical progress during the last forty years is incomparably greater than that of the electric light. I refer more particularly to the practical and crucial question of economy. The bi-products, the ammoniacal salts, the liquid hydrocarbons, and their derivatives, have been developed into so many useful forms by the achievements of modern chemistry, that these, with the coke, are of sufficient value to cover the whole cost of manufacture, and leave the gas itself as a volatile residuum that costs nothing. It would actually and practically cost nothing, and might be profitably delivered to the burners of gas consumers (of far better quality than now supplied in London) at one shilling per thousand cubic feet, if gas-making were conducted on sound commercial principles—that is, if it were not a corporate monopoly, and were subject to the wholesome stimulating influence of free competition and private enterprise. As it is, our gas and the price we pay for it are absurdities; and all calculations respecting the comparative cost of new methods of illumination should be based not on what we do pay per candle-power of gas-light, but what we ought to pay and should pay if the gas companies were subjected to desirable competition, or visited with the national confiscation I consider they deserve.
Having had considerable practical experience in the commercial distillation of coal for the sake of its liquid and solid hydrocarbons, I speak thus plainly and with full confidence.
There is yet another consideration, and one of vital importance, to be taken into account, viz., that—whether we use the electric light derived from a dynamo-electric source, or coal-gas—our primary source of illuminating power is coal, or rather the chemical energy derivable from the combination of its hydrogen and carbon with oxygen. Now this chemical energy is a limited quantity, and the progress of Science can no more increase this quantity than it can make a ton of coal weigh 21 cwts. by increasing the quantity of its gravitating energy.
The demonstrable limit of scientific possibilities is the economical application of this limited store of energy, by converting it into the demanded form of force without waste. The more indirect and roundabout the method of application, the greater must be the loss of power in the course of its transfer and conversion. In heating the boiler that sets the dynamo-electric machine to work, about one-half the energy of the coal is wasted, even with the best constructed furnaces. This merely as regards the quantity of water evaporated. In converting the heat-force into mechanical power—raising the piston, etc., of the steam-engine—this working half is again seriously reduced. In further converting this residuum of mechanical power into electrical energy, another and considerable loss is suffered in originating and sustaining the motion of the dynamo-electric machine, in the dissipation of the electric energy that the armature cannot pick up, and in overcoming the electrical resistances to its transfer.
I am unable to state the amount of this loss in trustworthy figures, but should be very much surprised to learn that, with the best arrangements
