THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 557 



1853 an attempt was made to organize a company in Paris for the pur- 

 pose of procuring, through the decomposition of water by a powerful 

 magneto-electric machine constructed by M. Nollet, the oxygen and 

 hydrogen necessary for the lime-light. The experiment failed, but the 

 apparatus by which it was attempted suggested to Mr. Holmes other 

 and more hopeful applications. Abandoning the attempt to produce 

 the lime-light, with persevering skill Holmes continued to improve the 

 apparatus and to augment its power, until it was finally able to yield a 

 mao-neto-electric light comparable to that of the voltaic battery. Judged 

 by later knowledge, this first machine would be considered cumbrous 

 and defective in the extreme ; but, judged by the light of antecedent 

 events, it marked a great step forward. 



Faraday was profoundly interested in the growth of his own dis- 

 covery. The Elder Brethren of the Trinity House had had the wis- 

 dom to make him their " Scientific Adviser " ; and it is interesting to 

 notice, in his reports regarding the light, the mixture of enthusiasm and 

 caution which characterized him. Enthusiasm was with him a motive 

 power, guided and controlled by a disciplined judgment. He rode it 

 as a charger, holding it in by a strong rein. While dealing with 

 Holmes, he states the case of the light ^>ro and con. He checks the 

 ardor of the inventor, and, as regards cost, rejecting sanguine esti- 

 mates, he insists over and over again on the necessity of continued ex- 

 periment for the solution of this important question. His matured 

 opinion was, however, strongly in favor of the light. " I beg to state," 

 he writes in his report to the Elder Brethren, " that, in my opinion. 

 Professor Holmes has practically established the fitness and sufficiency 

 of the magneto-electric light for lighthouse purposes, so far as its na- 

 ture and management are concerned. The light produced is powerful 

 beyond any other that I have yet seen so applied, and in principle may 

 be accumulated to any degree ; its regularity in the lantern is great ; 

 its management easy, and its care there may be confided to attentive 

 keepers of the ordinary degree of intellect and knowledge." As regards 

 the conduct of Professor Holmes during these memorable experiments, 

 it is only fair to add the following remark with which Faraday closes 

 the report submitted to the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House on 

 the 29th of April, 1859 : " I must bear my testimony," he says, " to the 

 perfect openness, candor, and honor of Professor Holmes. He has an- 

 swered every question, concealed no weak point, explained every applied 

 principle, given every reason for a change either in this or that direc- 

 tion, during several periods of close questioning, in a manner that was 

 very agreeable to me, whose duty it was to search for real faults or 

 possible objections in respect both of the present time and the future." ' 



Soon afterward the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House had the 

 intelligent courage to establish the machines of Holmes permanently at 



' Holmes's first offer of his macbine to the Trinity House bears the date February 

 2, 1857. 



