72 Original Articles. ' [Jan. 
to the decision that the Magno-electric Light was to be exhibited at 
Dungeness, and partly in fitting up the lighthouse there (which by the 
way had been cracked by lightning) for the reception of its new 
occupant. 
It was not deemed desirable to trust the illumination of that head- 
land entirely to the Electric Light, hence the old apparatus was 
retained, and the oil-lamp has always been kept ready for use in case 
of necessity. A supplementary lantern was therefore constructed on 
the top of the ordinary one, and in this the electric lamp was fixed, and 
surrounded by a small combination of lenses and prisms made 
expressly for it by Messrs. Chance, of Birmingham. In the meantime 
Mr. Holmes had considerably improved his lamp by borrowing an 
idea from an arrangement devised by a M. Serrin. At length, in 
February, 1862, this lamp was lit at Dungeness, but it was extin- 
guished on account of the necessity of instructing fresh lighthouse 
keepers, who had to take charge of the apparatus, and it was not till 
the 6th of June that the brilliant star shone permanently on our 
Southern coast. 
In the meantime, the French have not been indifferent or idle. 
When the Royal Commission visited Paris, the Lighthouse authorities 
were found experimenting with a comparatively small machine, and 
had clearly not overcome the difficulty of maintaining the charcoal 
points at a proper distance. But they persevered, and last July there 
was published in the ‘Moniteur Universel’ a Report by M. Reynaud 
to the Minister of Commerce and Public Works, in which he expressed 
a most favourable opinion of the Electric Light, and the Minister gave 
an order for two Electro-magnetic machines to be placed in the double 
Lighthouse of the Cap de la Héve, near Havre. Thus France is 
following England in the adoption of this improvement in coast lights, 
just as, years ago, Great Britain followed France in the use of the 
Dioptric system of illumination. 
It is possible that some other nations may not be behind the 
French. The Dutch Government contemplate placing an Electric 
Light at Scheveningen, and a second one at Texel. The Lighthouse 
system in the empire of Brazil is excellent, and they have long had 
an eye on the Electric Light. Sweden is on the alert; and inquiries 
also have been made respecting its management and cost by the Impe- 
rial Academy of Vienna. 
Apparatus.—Many readers will be familiar with the apparatus 
both of Mr. Holmes and of M. Berlioz, from having examined them at 
the International Exhibition last year. It would be very difficult to 
describe them without drawings, but the following may give a 
sufficiently good general idea. In the apparatus at Dungeness, the 
power that produces the light is resident in 120 permanent magnets, 
of about 50lbs. each, ranged on the periphery of two large wheels. 
This power is called into action by a steam-engine, with Cornish 
boilers, of about three-horse power, which causes a series of 160 soft 
iron cores surrounded by coils of wire to rotate past the magnets. 
The small streams of Electricity thus generated are collected together 
