THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 447 



the work upon which he was engaged might be, he 

 would instantly turn aside from it to seize and realise 

 the ideas of a scientific man. He had an inventor's 

 power, and an inventor's delight in its exercise. The 

 late Mr. Becker possessed the same power in a very con- 

 siderable degree. On the Continent, Froment, Breguet, 

 Sauerwald, and others might be mentioned as eminent 

 instances of ability of this kind. Such minds resemble 

 a liquid on the point of crystallisation. Stirred by a 

 hint, crystals of constructive thought immediately shoot 

 through them. That Mr. Edison possesses this intui- 

 tive power in no common measure, is proved by what 

 he has already accomplished. He has the penetration 

 to seize the relationship of facts and principles, and 

 the art to reduce them to novel and concrete combina- 

 tions. Hence, though he has thus far accomplished 

 nothing that we can recognise as new in relation to the 

 electric light, an adverse opinion as to his ability to 

 solve the complicated problem on which he is engaged 

 would be unwarranted. 



I will endeavour to illustrate in a simple manner Mr. 

 Edison's alleged mode of electric illumination, taking ad- 

 vantage of what Ohm has taught us regarding the laws 

 of the current, and what Joule has taught us regarding 

 the relation of resistance to the development of light 

 and heat. From one end of a voltaic battery runs a 

 wire, dividing at a certain point into two branches, 

 which reunite in a single wire connected with the other 

 end of the battery. From the positive end of the 

 battery the current passes first through the single wire 

 to the point of junction, where it divides itself between 

 the branches according to a well-known law. If the 

 branches be equally resistant, the current divides itself 

 equally between them. If one branch be less resistant 

 than the other, more than half the current will choose 



