ELECTRIC “SHOE-BLACKS.”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 972, 18 June 1883, Page 4

ELECTRIC “SHOE-BLACKS.”

Professor Ayrton,! iouifelivering the Second of bis lectures at the London Institution, dwelt on the future uses of electricity &b> - traWsriiiifting power, working tools and machines, end propelling trains, carriages, cars, JKfefifilnarkhd—“A%ip resent much household work is done by hand simply because there are no easily worked, it. The Old knife board has given way to the rotary knife-cleaner; but even that requires a certain amount of grinding to give the knives a-polish, so that for large establishments a knife-cleaner boy is still accessary. The blacking of boots, the blacking. of r gra.tes, and the cleaning of doorsteps arb all'done in a most laborious way by hand. Now, there can be no doubt that very shortly as gas is now, to bouses for lighting purposes, and when this has been accomplished the conveys i the; electricity for lighting will be employed to convey the power to work electricmotors, to turn rotaty-knife-cleaners, to turn a wheel for the blacking of boots, and a small motor carrying a brush ali over the grate for the purpose of giving it a good black polish. The black-lead brush will then be tasen r off ahct' Replaced by the blacking brush for the boots, and later on in the day a rotary flannel will officiate for the doorsteps.” There is indeed scarcely a limit to the possibilities of electricity in the driving of small the class that can be taken to the work instead of the work being brought to them, in many cases this will be effected with stored electricity. “ Two years ago,” said the professor, “ the storage of electric energy in black boxes, and their power taken opt of b f have passed before the minds of the public as one of those mere seven days’ wonders which in ..these, latter . times/ hav£ bwSme soedfemdh. Hiit to the .men, whpj jcqu.ld. foresee the possibilities connected with the electrical storage of power, these experiments of Sir William Thomson were of preeminent importance. The two latest employments of electricity stored in Faure - Seilen - Volckmar accumulators are in the boat Electricity which may have been seen running at Kew, and the electric tricycle of Professor Perry and myself. In the tricycle no work is done by the rider, but little black boxes, carried on the base-board, contain the stored electric energy, pretty much in the same way as a horse’s body contains its breakfast of oats and hay, with the difference that with the accumulator it is the receptacle which has weight, so that neither in receiving its feed in the morning nor discharging I its power during the day does the accumulator gain or lose in its weight. By means of a tap the rider can turn on more or less electricity and go faster or slower.”