human nature and the lack of correct observation, to note that even
after the Pearl Street station had been in actual operation twenty-four
hours a day for nearly three months, there should still remain an
attitude of "can't be done." That such a scepticism still obtained is
evidenced by the public prints of the period. Edison's electric-light
system and his broad claims were freely discussed and animadverted upon
at the very time he was demonstrating their successful application. To
show some of the feeling at the time, we reproduce the following letter,
which appeared November 29, 1882:

"To the Editor of the Sun:

"SIR,--In reading the discussions relative to the Pearl Street station
of the Edison light, I have noted that while it is claimed that there
is scarcely any loss from leakage of current, nothing is said about the
loss due to the resistance of the long circuits. I am informed that this
is the secret of the failure to produce with the power in position a
sufficient amount of current to run all the lamps that have been put
up, and that while six, and even seven, lights to the horse-power may be
produced from an isolated plant, the resistance of the long underground
wires reduces this result in the above case to less than three lights to
the horse-power, thus making the cost of production greatly in excess of
gas. Can the Edison company explain this? 'INVESTIGATOR'."

This was one of the many anonymous letters that had been written to the
newspapers on the subject, and the following reply by the Edison company
was printed December 3, 1882:

"To the Editor of the Sun:

"SIR,--'Investigator' in Wednesday's Sun, says that the Edison company
is troubled at its Pearl Street station with a 'loss of current, due
to the resistance of the long circuits'; also that, whereas Edison gets
'six or even seven lights to the horse-power in isolated plants, the
resistance of the long underground wires reduces that result in the
Pearl Street station to less than three lights to the horse-power.' Both
of these statements are false. As regards loss due to resistance, there
is a well-known law for determining it, based on Ohm's law. By use of
that law we knew in advance, that is to say, when the original plans for
the station were drawn, just what this loss would be, precisely the same
as a mechanical engineer when constructing a mill with long lines of
shafting can forecast the loss of power due to friction. The practical