. Bulletin. Science. Figure 14.—Current regulator and arc-light regulator of Lacassagne and Thiers. From Bulletin de la Societe f Encouragement pour Plndustrie Nationale, 1857, vol. 4, pi. 113. unskilled workmen to handle. Moreover, even with the best cells of the time, the power was such that the light was appreciably reduced after several hours use. If the light were to be maintained constant, a new battery had to be switched into the circuit. In addition, the cells were too bulky (at least 20 Bunsen cells had to be used for each arc lamp) and too fragile for any application to th
. Bulletin. Science. Figure 14.—Current regulator and arc-light regulator of Lacassagne and Thiers. From Bulletin de la Societe f Encouragement pour Plndustrie Nationale, 1857, vol. 4, pi. 113. unskilled workmen to handle. Moreover, even with the best cells of the time, the power was such that the light was appreciably reduced after several hours use. If the light were to be maintained constant, a new battery had to be switched into the circuit. In addition, the cells were too bulky (at least 20 Bunsen cells had to be used for each arc lamp) and too fragile for any application to the industrial arts. There was a laboratory device oh hand, however, that did not depend on the consumption of metals to produce electrical power but, instead, transmuted mechanical power into electrical. The reciprocal relation between mechanical motion and electrical current was discovered in the early 1830's, but almost half a century passed before it was possible to apply this knowledge to the commercial generation of electrical power. Such an application did not become possible until the device known as the dynamo was invented, but simpler generators were well known in the laboratory before that date. Once it had been shown that these generators could be used to supply power for illumination by electricity, a number of inventors sought to bring them from the laboratory into the field of commerce. This laboratory instru- ment was based on Faraday's discovery of electro- magnetic induction, and we must briefly return to the 1830's to discuss the development of the generator. Like Oersted, although for somewhat different reasons, Michael Faraday felt that all the forces of nature must be somehow related. In particular, if a certain relation exists between two different forces, the converse of that relation must also exist. Such considerations led Faraday to seek an effect to that of Oersted—that of obtaining an electric current from magnetism. He finally discovere
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