Page:Incandescent electric lighting- A practical description of the Edison system.djvu/75

 and lest we be tempted to turn aside, into the by-paths oi speculation and geological research, we will start with the furnace, that indispensible adjunct of the steam boiler.

Having generated sufficient steam for our purpose we open the valves and let it enter the cylinder of the engine, where its energy is transmuted into the rotations of the fly-wheel and these rotations are in turn transmitted—through the belt connecting the fly-wheel to the pulley on the armature shaft,—to the armature of the generator. Here our current is generated and hence it goes forth over the feeders to the thousands of lamps scattered over the district being lighted.

The glowing carbon in our furnace, has compelled by its heat the water in our boilers to assume the form of steam; the pressure of which in our engine has developed motion; and this motion, transmitted to our dynamo, has there taken the form of electricity, and flowing forth over the line, has in the lamps