It is also said that during an east-going storm it was
found impossible to work the telegraph lines between New York and
Buffalo, but on taking off the batteries at both ends and looping the
ends of the wire in the air, that a constant current of electricity
passed from Buffalo to New York, and the line was kept in constant use
in that direction without any battery connection until the storm
abated. Now, how far or to what advantage we may be able to utilize
this differential tension of electricity in the earth and the air, we
cannot now say; but I think that we may justly look for valuable
developments in this direction.
If, as I verily believe, a process will soon be discovered by which
dynamic caloric can be produced by the oxidation of petroleum with
non-luminous combustion in an insulated chamber, as we now oxidize
zinc, electricity will then be obtained from so small a weight, and at
such a low cost, as to insure aerial navigation beyond a doubt. Not
with balloons and their cumbrous inflations, but with machines capable
of carrying the load, and traveling by displacement of the air at high
velocities. Therefore we may expect that aerial navigation will be
developed in the near future to be one of the greatest enterprises of
the world.
And lastly, will it pay to use luminous combustion as a first power
for generating dynamic caloric for use as a second power, as is now
practiced?
At the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, gas is consumed in
an Otto gas engine, which drives a Gramme generator; and the lecture
room is lighted with electricity, and I am informed that the light is
both better _and cheaper_ than when they used the gas in the ordinary
gas burners.
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