1882.] on Electric Lighting hy Incandescence. 43 



entire banishment of gas — that the cost of internal wires for the 

 electric lamps is less than the cost of plumbing in connection with 

 gas pipes. 



I have expended an amount of time on the question of cost which 

 I fear must have been tedious ; but I have done so from the con- 

 viction that the practical interest of the matter depends on this 

 point. If electric lighting by incandescence is not an economical 

 process, it is unimportant ; but if it can be established — and I have 

 no doubt that it can — that this mode of producing light is economical, 

 the subject assumes an aspect of the greatest importance. 



Although at the present moment there may be deficiencies in 

 the apparatus for generating and storing electricity on a very large 

 scale, and but little experience in distributing it for lighting purposes 

 over wide areas, and consequently much yet to be learnt in these 

 respects ; yet, if once it can be clearly established that light for light, 

 electricity is as cheap as gas, and that it can be made applicable to 

 all the purposes for which artificial light is required, electric light 

 possesses such marked advantages in connection with health, with 

 the preservation of property, and in respect of safety, as to leave it 

 as nearly certain as anything in this world can be, that the wide 

 substitution of the one form of light for the other is only a question 

 of time. 



[J. W. S.] 



