MancJiester Memoirs^ Vol. Ixiii. (1920) No. 5 7 



the action will be found in The Electrician, vol. 50, 1902-3. It 

 was brought before Mr. Justice Buckley in the Chancery Division 

 of the High Court of Justice, who ordered that the statement 

 of claim be struck out on the ground that it disclosed no 

 reasonable basis of action. The action was dismissed with costs 

 against the plaintiff. Against this decision Henry Wilde appealed, 

 but mthout success. 



Electric Searchlights. 

 One of the applications of Wilde's machines already mentioned 

 was for the purpose of providing electrical energy for arc lamps. 

 The lirst idea was to use arc lamps in lighthouses ; but when the 

 buildings were isolated there was difficulty in providing motive 

 power for the dynamos. Wilde supplied a machine to the Com- 

 missioners of Northern Lighthouses for the purpose in 1866, and 

 in the following year one to the United States Lighthouse Board. 

 In 1873 Wilde directed the attention of the Admiralty to the advan- 

 tages of electric searchlights for naval purposes. Experiments were 

 made at Spithead, extending over a year. They were especially 

 arranged so as to ascertain whether the searchlight would bei a 

 useful protection against torpedo boats. The experiments were so 

 successful that three warships, the Minotaur, the Alexandra and 

 the Temeraire were fitted with Wilde's apparatus. The report 

 of Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour stated that the searchlights 

 were of very great value for navigation, signalling, and general 

 naval manoeuvres. Wilde also introduced his inv^entions to the 

 Mercantile Marine service, but the Admiralty claimed the exclu- 

 sive use of the lights. After the loss of the Titanic, Dr. Wilde 

 communicated two papers to the Society: "On Searchlights for 

 the Mercantile Marine," and " On Searchlights and the Titanic 

 disaster," in which he strongly urged the compulsory inter- 

 national use of searchlights at sea. 



Aerodynamics and Aviation. 



The tenth volume of the third series of the Memoirs of the Man- 

 chester Literary and Philosophical Society is of special interest in 

 connection with the activities of Wilde in 1887. It contains five 

 papers by him, two of which relate to the efffux of air through 

 orifices. The first paper attracted the attention of Osborne Rey- 

 nolds, who in the same volume has an article " On the Flow of 

 Gases," in which he gives a theoretical explanation of the experi- 

 ments of Wilde. 



The experiments mentioned above were really the sequel of a 

 number that he had begun as early as i860, with the view of 

 finding some means of solving the problem of aerial flight. 

 Numerous trials were made on the discharge of steam and of air 

 at pressures from 10 lbs. to 120 lbs. per square inch directly 

 into the atmosphere from orifices of various forms. He also 

 experimented on the reactive force produced by the explosion of 

 a mixture of coal gas and air contained in a cylinder of steel. 



