426 Chronicles of Science. — [ July, 
Engineers, but it turned out that this result, so different from all 
other experience, arose from a settlement in the wood-work support- 
ing the electric lens, causing the lens to be out of its proper position. 
Since the alterations made at Dungeness the hight there has worked 
with great regularity and efficiency ; and the Elder Brethren have 
proposed to place similar lights at the South Foreland, Lowestoft, 
and Souter Pomt. The Board of Trade approve of the extension of 
this mode of illumination to the South Foreland and Lowestoft, but . 
at present suspend their decision respecting Souter Point. The 
Committee of Elder Brethren who attended at the Paris Exhibi- 
tion say :—As far as the eye is a test, the power of the English 
fixed light was considerably in excess of the French, and when 
both machines were in use, and there was a good current, the fixed 
beam of the English light did not contrast unfavourably with the 
revolving one of the French, the flash of which is of great power. 
The contrast of the electric fixed light with the French first-order 
oil dioptric revolving light was very marked: indeed, the one may 
be said to put the other out. But the most beautiful feature of the 
electric was the extraordinary beam it gave. It shone night after 
night, large, steady, and lustrous as a planet, and you could see in 
the darkness a beam passing as far as the eye could see. From the 
tower, with the light at our back, it was very marked, and quite lit 
the hills round Paris. The whole horizon in the plane of the 
light showed the white beam, and at the distance of four miles it 
shone upon the windows of some houses, making them appear to be 
lit up. By extinguishing, and relighting quickly several times, 
this was very plain. Altogether the light was very remarkable, 
and the committee are glad to be able to report such an advance as 
the powers of the light show over that at Dungeness; indeed, the 
latter gives to the observer no conception of what the present one 
is, and it is satisfactory to know that the result of five years’ work 
and observation, with imperfect and ill-arranged apparatus, has now 
borne such good fruit, and that as England was the first to test 
and adopt this adjunct to the sources of lighthouse illumination, 
so she still retains her superiority. It is due, however, to Mr. 
Holmes to say, that great as are the improvements already effected, 
he states that he is confident he can yet greatly increase the illu- 
minating power before the present apparatus is re-erected at a per- 
manent station, 
The following telegraphic feat, the particulars of which are taken 
from the ‘New York Journal of the Telegraph,’ deserves record here. 
At an early hour on the morning of February 1st, the wires of the 
Western Union Telegraph Company from San Francisco to Plaister 
Cove, Cape Breton and the wires of the New York Newfoundland 
and London Telegraph Company from Plaister Cove to Heart’s Con- 
