tests of these circuits, when the dynamos are not running, show perfect insulation. This is probably true, yet the 'leakage' indicated by the Health Department measurements averages 45 per cent. af theiressure upon the conductors.

"This is because the alternating current is used. When an electrical current is set up in any circuit, a momentary current in the opposite direction is produced in any parallel conductor, by what is called induction; when the first current is stopped an induced current is produced in the same direction as the first.

"It is therefore evident that with the alternating current, which is a series of impulses, flowing first in one direction and then in the other, a corresponding series of induced currents is produced outside the insulation of the wire, if any moisture is present to serve as a conductor. If the wires are contained in lead or iron pipes the metal transmits the induced current.

"There is no insulation known to science that can prevent the mysterious action of induction, and the distances at which it will act are almost incredible. Mr. Edison, in his railway train telegraph, has transmitted signals by induction through over 400 feet of dry air, which is an excellent insulator. This telegraph system is operated by a feeble battery current, which could not possibly inflict injury, but in the alternating system of electric lighting the pressure is at least five times as much as is required to produce death. Wires transmitting the latter current, whether on pole lines or underground, can in no way known to science be so insulated as to be safe. For instance, in Dallas, Texas, where the conductors are said to be well insulated, inclosed in pipes and placed underground, a working man named Thomas Madigan was killed on April 23rd, 1889, by touching an insulated house or secondary wire while at work in the. Grand Windsor Hotel.

The alternating current has been in extensive use for less than two years, and yet it has killed at least 40 persons. On the other hand, arc light currents have been widely used for the past 10 years. During this time the high-tension continuous current has killed but 10 persons, and the high-tension pulsating current 60. There has never been a single death caused by the lowtension continuous current which all companies are free to use.

"All are light currents may be made safe by proper precautions, without cutting the pressure down to the limits advised, but unless some device can be invented which will guard against the effects of induction, the high-tension alternating current should be prohibited. The only reason that the deadly alternating current is used, is that the electric light companies may economise in wire at the expense of public safety."

SOME NEW FORMS OF ELECTRICAL
TREATMENT.

THE President and past-Presidents of the City and Guilds of London Institute Old Students' Association gave a very pleasant soirée at the Institute of Medical Electricity, Waterloo Place, S.W., on Thursday, December 19th. The proceedings commenced with a reception, and included, besides a vocal and instrumental concert and dancing, an exhibition of electrical apparatus, and of Edison's phonograph, kindly lent by Col. Gouraud. A special feature of the evening was an address, with experiments, by Mr. H. Newman Lawrence, on "Some new Forms of Electric Treatment," which was delivered in the "electrified room."

The lecturer said. I am afraid I can hardly speak of this address as part of the evening's amusement. Perhaps it is rather too serious a matter for the occasion; but it was thought by our committee that this would be a good opportunity for one who has been so long connected with this association to say a few words about a special work, which is to a large extent new, and has created a considerable amount of interest, especially among my friends of the electrical profession. I do not propose to enter into anything severely technical; but, just as briefly as may be, to say a few words upon a few special modes of treatment which have been practised, and are being practised and investigated in this building, under the auspices of the Institute of Medical Electricity. Most of us, no doubt, are acquainted with what they call the ordinary methods of treatment by electricity. They are generally familiar to us, though in the form of shocks, more or less unpleasant, which we have at one time or other experienced-perhaps more in fun than anything else but still we do not like them. Another method, and, perhaps, a little better one, is what is called ordinary galvanisation, or putting the battery on. Those of you who are electricians will be able to appreciate the extreme scientific accuracy of that treatment. The ordinary methods such

as

we practise here are, briefly, the passing of electric currents through the different parts of the body under different conditions, careful measurements being taken in all cases. I will not stop to go into this more fully than to say that they include the use of continuous currents, alternating currents and interrupted currents. I desire more particularly to call your attention to the few new forms which we have adopted here. First of all I will speak of the apparatus known as the "electrified room." This electrified room was invented by Captain Byng, R.N., and we have adopted it here for the very special reason that it enables us to pass electric currents-very minute perhaps through patients without their being aware of the presence of these currents. The apparatus consists, briefly, of a metal floor insulated from the other floor, and a metal ceiling, or

{DECEMBER 27, 19

brass work, which is also insulated from everything else: charge these two by means of a large induction coil, whe now put in action, and ask these ladies and gentlemen sest: if they can feel any evidence of electrical action. Now, ther of this party sitting on this floor are electrified, though, I a they are not aware of any sensation. If anyone does tee thing perhaps he will kindly tell us; but I very seldom tali patients feel anything. What is happening now is that the of the atmosphere between these two poles is under strong dea agitation by alternating currents, and all those human r now upon the platform are influenced by it without aware of it. The simplest proof of that-a proof I sep Bu put into effect-is that if anyone stands off this floor, and they becomes connected to earth, touches any one on the foot and a distinct shock are instantly apparent. That in a simple proof of the fact that he is electrically influenced, z rate; but now I should like to submit a proof of the presy alternating currents, and if some gentleman will be kind e to come forward in order that I may put his body to the I shall be very much obliged.

I am going to put the electrodes upon the body of this g man, and attached to these electrodes is a telephone; and I you when I have set the apparatus going to kindly pass the telep round. It is connected now to the patient, as we will for the t being call him, and those of you who listen to the teleph.sev hear a distinct buzzing noise, which is always indiati alternating currents in the circuit.

You will observe that all the electric effect is coming free: patient, and not from anything else. The patient feels ar whatever of it.

There is a number of varieties of these experiments which m be carried on, showing the action in the field, even when sex efforts are made to insulate the patient; but I do not pops go through the whole series. I have just shown you that illustration of the way in which a patient can be infitens without being aware of it.

In addition to that, we use this room in a form combining ad it "massage," or manipulation, in such a manner that the ar of manipulation takes a portion of the current or the charge br. the patient through the body of the operator to the earth, so ta the patient gets the advantage of the manipulation and fe electricity at the same time. This particular form of treatme has proved extremely valuable in many cases, and we have de it with great success in such cases as chronic rheumatism, pary: infantile paralysis, nervous prostration, and similar diseas am not saying what might be done with it, but only what has b done with it.

Another and a still newer form of treatment occurred t. 2 and I had hoped to be able to show the apparatus here; but, " fortunately, it takes up too much space. It is what I a electro-gymnastic apparatus, and its object is to administer trical currents of various strengths and character during the to that mechanical exercise is being carried out.

One form of my apparatus consists of a platform carry upright post or support terminating at the top in a lever. Ta end of the lever is attached a cord connected to a weight ama sliding on an inclined plane, while to the other end cords handles are attached. Conductors are arranged along the apar and part of the lever to the cords and handles. Conduc wire gauze are also arranged upon the platform in such a ma that a patient may stand upon them and be otherwise insul These various conductors are connected in such a way to the p of one or more batteries that when a patient standing up a platform grasps the handle or handles currents of suitable stre and character may pass through his limbs or whole body, a may be required during the time that he is exercising his mas by pulling at the weighted lever. Other forms are arranged fr the passage of currents during the exercise of the legs either rately or together. It is easy to see that any number of cir may be arranged, all including such portion of the patient's b as may be under exercise at the time.

There is a very remarkable feature connected with the use of tr apparatus, and one which physiologists, so far at least as they a been asked, are unable to explain. Suppose we put the man current on while the patient is at rest; the moment he begins t move his muscles he finds the effect of the current diminished at least one-half, probably more. So the result of the use of t apparatus is that we can, while exercise is going on, admit much stronger currents than while the patient is at rest; ta object being to promote nutrition of muscles that are short an their proper development, and to get the advantage of the trical nutrition, in addition to the mechanical exercise. The apparatus has been tested with a few patients only; but all have tried it have been considerably benefitted.

There is a third form of special treatment, a new form white due to my able colleague, Dr. Herries. Of course, electrolysis not new; but this is a special form of application which Herries has instituted with very marked success. He has 2% various electrodes, some of which have been designed by They are rather unpleasant-looking instruments; but patien? generally say that they do not find their action very unpleas Here we have a two-pointed needle, both points connected to same pole. Here we have a flat three-pointed needle, and be we have a further development in the form of a triangular-shap three-pointed needle, the triangle at the base being rather than one-half the triangle at the head. The use of these need is to surround, as far as possible, the unpleasant growths pr rent in some skin diseases. Dr Herries finds that many

DECEMBER 27, 1889.]

ese skin diseases are due most emphatically to the presence of erms, and he thought it would be a very good way of destroying ese germs if he could electrolysise them. These are the needles vented for this purpose, and they have been used with very tisfactory results. This three-pointed needle can be passed all -und the nodule, and when the current is passed we find a comete effervescence going all round the needle points; the nodule ecomes very pallid, and it is apparent that great agitation is going beneath the surface. It would take too long to go into the atter fully-I may simply say that it has resulted in the apparent estruction of germs in several cases. In one case of that very npleasant disease, lupus, of eight years standing, after seven ttings, Dr. Herries was able to send the patient away quite cured. f those under treatment some have made very rapid progress, ad others are progressing very satisfactorily, but some cases are extremely chronic that we cannot expect to deal with them in he short number of sittings I mentioned.

I now wish to call your attention to an entirely new method, hich is also mainly due to Dr. Herries, although he and I have worked together to carry the thing out. The name given to it is at of cataphoric medication, a word which carries its own meaning very well. It depends for its action on what is known s cataphoresis, or the power of electric currents to carry with hem solutions of drugs through a septum. It is a form of smosis hurried up by electricity, and we find it possible to pass hrough the skin by its means solutions of various drugs. We do Lot claim that the idea is new; it has been experimented upon in ermany with a certain amount of success, and in a small way in England without success, for the very simple reason that only one articular form of the operation was tried, and, as most of these hings are tried by the medical profession, in a very haphazard vay. The medical profession generally seems to suppose that lectricity is a thing to be played with (by themselves), and that here is no need to learn the various electric details before they ry various experiments on their patients. I am not saying this imply because you are for the most part an audience of electric olk, because I have said the same thing to an audience of medical nen quite recently, and they admitted what I said to be true. Many of the most important electrical operations of the day are utterly spoiled, and then condemned, simply through want of attention to electrical details. This method of cataphoric medication I had hoped to show you by an experiment, but I found t would take too long, and I was obliged to give it up. But the experiment has been carried out here, and I will just briefly illustrate

t.

We had two cups, one containing a solution of sulphuric acid and the other a solution of chloride of barium. We then connected the two by a conductor in the form of a glass tube filled with a conducting fluid, which had no action either upon the sulphuric acid or the chloride of barium, salt and water, in fact. Then by placing the positive electrode in the solution of sulphuric acid, and the negative in the solution of barium, and passing the current through for about three-quarters of an hour, we found that some of this sulphuric acid had travelled along the conductor in sufficient quantity to throw down the barium in the vessel, and we got a precipitate of sulphate of barium. That was a most distinct proof that the electric current has a power of passing solutions along certain conductors. Further, we proved that it has the power of passing solutions through the skin. We tried a solution of cocaine, and we found when we passed the current from one point to another of a man's body that, after 30 minutes of 20 milli-ampères, that portions of the skin under the positive pole was thoroughly anæstheticised; so much so, that we could pass needles to a depth of a quarter of an inch, without producing any sensation of pain in the patient. We had further proof. We succeeded in passing iodide of potassium into the kidneys, and tested its presence in the nrine two hours afterwards. In another case, one of rheumatic gout, the same thing was passed into a number of joints with excellent results. Solutions of mercury and other drugs have been similarly passed into various parts of the body, and we are hoping very shortly by this method to deal with such troubles as liver complaints, and possibly, lung diseases.

These few sketchy remarks may perhaps briefly, of course, indicate what an enormous field for investigation, and for good and useful work, is before us. I am glad to have had the opportunity of putting these few facts before you, because I wish my old friends of this association to see that at this Institute we not only treat patients as instructed by the doctors in the ordinary methods, but also endeavour to carry out scientific investigation, and by new developments promote good and more accurate work in electrotherapeutics.

731

Improvements in secondary battery elements." Sir C. S. FORBES. Dated December 10.

19861. Improvements in secondary batteries." C. H. LOGAN. Dated December 10. (Complete.)

17718. Improvements in electric cut-outs or circuit breakers." T. PARKER and E. S. G. REES. Dated December 5. 6d. Consists of an electro-magnet, an armature, a switch, and a trigger which is operated by the armature to release the switch. The coil of the electro-magnet may form part of the main circuit, or it may be included in the shunt across that part of the circuit in which the E.M.F. is generated. The armature is held away from the electro-magnet by a weight or spring sufficient to prevent the attraction of the armature into contact with or proximity to the poles of the magnet until the current reaches a certain amount. The armature is provided with a projecting part, or is otherwise constructed so that some portion of it comes into contact with and releases the trigger when the armature is attracted. The trigger is constructed and arranged to hold the switch in a position closing the circuit until the trigger is released, whereupon the switch is pulled open by a spring. The switch is closed by hand. 1 claim.

18108. "Improvements in casings for electric cut-outs." H. H. LAKE. (Communicated from abroad by S. Bergmann, of New York.) Dated December 11. 6d. Consists in the combination with the body of the casing of an electric cut-out of a transparent incombustible cover. 4 claims.

18589. Improvements relating to secondary batteries." J. L. HUBER. Dated December 19. 8d. The inventor imbeds in the active mass for the storage of the electricity, such as metallic compounds or substances, conductors of electricity in the form of a grating or screen in such a manner that the active mass will form a layer all around the single bars or rods constituting the meshy or reticulated conductors, and the finished electrode will maintain the form of a network or sieve. 4 claims.

732

covery by Mr. Edison (?), "after thousands of experiments," how to reduce the internal resistance of a battery to a minimum. The same journal makes reference to an advantage which was claimed for the Lalande battery (which Mr. Edison, from accounts, claims to have discovered) at its inception in this country, that it would not only pay all expenses, but the balance realised by the waste products would show a margin of profit. Now, when the Lalande battery was first introduced here, the form or construction was not suitable for electric lighting on anything like a practical scale; but I believe it has evolved-to use a becoming more and more favourite Darwinian expression-to something like practical dimensions, although it is a long time since I heard anything about it.

The chemical combinations, I think, are excellent; the oxide of copper next the negative in a caustic potash solution, in which on open circuit, with fairly pure zinc, the local action is very small; and yet with a closed circuit the potash is an almost unrivalled solvent and a splendid conductor. No doubt, as is hinted, if Mr. Edison associates himself with this battery, we shall hear a great deal more about it, and its capabilities under the most favourable conditions. The last I heard was that the size of the battery cells, which were of cast iron, had increased to a capacity of about 15 to 16 gallons, and an electric capacity of something like 6,000 ampère-hours; the E.M.F., with an output of 100 to 150 ampères, being about 7 volt. To avoid the necessity of employing a large number of cells when lighting direct from the battery, an expedient was found in using a combination of six primaries in series (which were said to have less than th ohm resistance), charging a number of accumulators in parallel, which again were connected in series on the lighting circuit; the whole being operated by a series parallel switch, such as was employed by Planté in his researches. I should like to know what is being done with this interesting battery, and how far the anticipations of its original promoters have been realised. Mr. Edison evidently sees something in it, and, like many other ideas whispered over the waters, we shall see our "cousins" availing themselves of all its advantages, or "returning after many days."

It will probably not be uninteresting to quote the plan for dealing with the products. The battery exhausted, we have in solution zincate of potash (soda was not so good because it carbonated more readily, and the E.M.F. was less), and the oxide of copper is reduced to the metallic condition. To revive the solution there were, as far as I can remember, three plans. The first was to throw the zinc down with sulphide of sodium, which adds its own base to the alkali, and thus increases it; the second was to add sulphide of barium; and the third, from which great results were expected, was to throw down the zinc by means of sulphuretted hydrogen; the sulphide of zinc thus formed being afterwards employed with an acid for the further generation of sulphuretted hydrogen for the treatment of subsequent quantities of the zincate of potash. "The same quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen Berving indefinitely for the operation of regeneration." When hydrochloric acid was employed, and the zinc was in solution as a chloride from the sulphide, sulphide of barium was added, which reproduced the sulphide of zinc, after first throwing down any iron which might be present with bleaching powder; and it was from the sale of this sulphide that a good return was expected. When sulphuric acid was employed both the barium and zinc went down, the former as the insoluble sulphate, both then forming the pigment, or "sulphide of zinc white," in commerce, the barium compound being the adulterant. Then there was a plan for getting back the zinc by electrolysis, mercury being the cathode-the zinc separated by distillation of the mercury. The copper was oxidised in a furnace. After all this, I am not sure that the company ever paid a dividend, a very good criterion of its working. But perhaps Mr. Edison will add some dividend-paying element; his name is a power; and after all these thousands of experiments of his ! There is another

(DECEMBER 27, 1889.

gentleman who could tell us something about this battery, Mr. Hugh A. Fergusson; he has been connected with its operations for a long time, and, I believe, introduced it to the Americans some years ago, James C. Richardson.

Ozone.

I much regret not feeling justified to gratify yo correspondent's curiosity in naming the hundreds commercial uses of ozone, or, as I would have called; electrical gas. I decline, for more reasons than to specify the commercial uses of ozone from A to Z but as I have offered an invitation to view my oz ne works, your correspondent will, I am sure, have every opportunity of seeing it. I herewith forward a few samples of the uses made of ozone, with a list of other uses to which I have from time to time applied this remarkable and powerful gas. I am engaged at the present in compressing the gas for portability, and have been fairly successful, with the exception the valves required for this speciality gas. I be however, to devise a means of overcoming the diffic when I shall be able to forward per rail ozone to r part where it is impossible to erect a producer plant. An erroneous impression exists that to produce the electrical gas sea air is required; that is not so, althong: my experiments and analysis of various atmospheres o sea and land point undoubtedly to the former for superiority. I am sanguine of success in erecting a plant on any ordinary floating sea vessel capable of pducing a high quantity of ozone which might be utilised for medical or sanitary purposes only. The dynamo machines could be utilised in lighting the ship. as I have proved at my ozone works.

Now, I wish to point out that I do not claim a monopoly in the uses of ozone or electrical gas, b what I claim is :

1. Having practically solved the problem of pre ducing ozone (or electrical gas) upon an unlimi scale for various commercial industries.

2. Having practically carried out a model plant fr producing and applying ozone commercially.

3. That my process is the only process in the world which produces from the atmosphere ozone or electrical gas on a commercial scale.

I have the assurance to believe that the production of electrical machinery for producing this remarkab gas will form an entirely new era in electrical e neering.

Ernst Fahrig, T.E

Munro and Jamieson's Pocket-Book.

In the first, third, and fifth editions of Munro and Jamieson's Electrical Pocket-Book, it is stated that "The number of cells required to form an accumulator is got by dividing the resistance of the lamp to be fed by 2."

Probably the word "resistance" is a misprint for "voltage:" for a lamp may have about 90 obs resistance to give 16 C.P., or about 45 to give 32 C.P. or about 130 to give 10 C.P. These figures are taken at random from measurements of lamps described as of these several C.P. But all the lamps are marked as of 48 or 50 volts, and would therefore require some cells in the secondary battery.

Perhaps, however, a high resistance lamp, say of 15 ohms, might be run as an 8 or 10 C.P. by 25 cells, or as twice that C.P. with about twice that number of cells. Is there any method of determining the prescribed voltage of a given lamp (unmarked)?

The cold resistance of the lamp can be taken, and the length and area of its filament can be guessed at pretty nearly. Are those data sufficient to determine the voltage at which the lamp was intended by the maker to be used, or at which its life, and its efficiency for tha life, would be a maximum ? NT

JW

Ajax.