EGYPT. 



ELECTRIC LIGHT, EDISON'S. 885 



the preceding year. Tho cotton crop, which 

 in 1878 was unusually small, promised to be 

 don Mod this year, amounting to ahout 9,000,- 

 000 can tars, of the estimated value of 7,500,- 

 000, while the value of the cotton-seed was 

 otimated at 1,500,000. The success of this 

 year's crops was due mainly to the high Nile 

 it nd the inundations of 1878. In Upper Egypt, 

 the grain and sugar crops were also in a much 

 bettor condition than in the previous year. 



The receipts of the Suez Canal Company in 

 1878, according to its annual report, were 

 82,403,611 francs, or about 500,000 francs less 

 than in the preceding year. The expenses had 

 also decreased 560,221 francs, the amount for 

 1878 being 16,897,750 francs. After the pay- 

 ment of 5 per cent, interest on the shares, 

 there remained a surplus of 3,627,109 francs, 

 of which 71 per cent, went to the shareholders, 

 15 per cent, to the Egyptian Government, 10 

 per cent, to founders of the company, and 2 

 per cent, each to the Board of Directors and 

 the employees. The number of vessels which 

 passed through the canal in 1878 was 1,593, 

 of 8,291,535 tons, against 1,663, of 3,418,949 

 tons, in 1877. Of the vessels which passed 

 through in 1878, 1,089 were merchant steam- 

 ers, 282 postal steamers, 75 transport-vessels, 

 59 tow-boats, 25 sailing vessels, 9 corvettes, 5 

 gunboats, 4 frigates, 4 ironclads, 14 avisos, 

 and 27 miscellaneous vessels. Of passengers, 

 there were 58,274 troops, 26,170 private citi- 

 zens, and 11,919 pilgrims. 



In June the Government issued a decree, in 

 the face of Oriental superstition, sanctioning a 

 census every decade, the first to be taken in 

 1880. The reasons given for this step are 

 noteworthy. It will be of service, said the 

 Minister, for the distribution of taxes, for mili- 

 tary conscription, and for the labor due to tho 

 state on works of public utility. In a minor 

 decree it was also recommended as useful from 

 a statistical point of view. 



Tho Egyptian Government, in accordance 

 with a resolution made some time ago, on Jan- 

 uary 1, 1879, opened the kingdom of Darfoor 

 to commerce. 



MOHAMMED TEVFIK, the new Khedive, was 

 born November 19, 1852. By tho firman of 

 1866, which changed the law of succession in 

 Egypt, he became the heir apparent to tho 

 throne. He took but little part in public 

 affairs prior to his appointment as President 

 of the Ministry in 1879. Mr. Edwin de Leon, 

 author of "The Khedive's Egypt." described 

 him as follows in 1878: "I believe the heir 

 apparent, Prince Mohammed Tevfik, has never 

 enjoyed the advantages of foreign travel nor a 

 foreign curriculum, but has been brought up 

 and educated at home. Yet he does credit to 

 his teachers, both as to mind and manners, 

 being one of tho most modest and at the same 

 time one of the best-informed young men to 

 be met with anywhere, universally respected 

 as well as liked both by foreigners and by na- 

 tive^, though he shrinks from rather than 



courts observation or society. Whether this 

 proceeds from native modesty or from policy, 

 the position lie occupies (1878) being a more 

 difficult and delicate orio in the East than else- 

 where, I am not Hutticiuntly intimate with him 

 to say ; but my impression was that the former 

 cause had as much to do with it as the latter. 

 Yet his retiring manner by no means indicates 

 a lack of will or firmness. On the contrary, I 

 should judge he was naturally obstinate. Leas 

 politic and plausible than his father, Prince 

 fevfik impresses you with belief in his sin- 

 cerity, a quality very clever men are often de- 

 ficient in. He does not affect the Western air 

 and habits, as do his two brothers, although 

 he wears the Stambouli costume, and is re- 

 puted a conscientious though liberal Mussul- 

 man in creed and practice. His private char- 

 acter is above reproach. Prince Tevfik is 

 decidedly Oriental both in face and figure, of 

 the Circassian type, with square head, heavy 

 frame, dark eyes and hair, and with something 

 solid and substantial about him. He is the 

 husband of but one wife, the Princess Emineh, 

 daughter of El Hamy Pasha, and has a son, 

 Prince Abbas, born July 14, 1874." 



ELECTRIC LIGHT, EDISON'S. The most 

 attractive field for inventive ability of late years 

 is that of electric illumination, a subject which 

 engrosses the attention of the electricians of 

 all countries, who have already produced so 

 many inventions for this purpose, on so many 

 different principles and systems, that the popu- 

 lar mind is bewildered in the attempt to follow 

 them. The development of the electro-mag- 

 netic machine by Niardet, Wilde, Brush, Ful- 

 ler, and many other inventors, but especially 

 through the improvements of Gramme and 

 Siemens, seemed to place the electric light, if 

 not the electric motor also, almost within reach, 

 so economically can electric currents be pro- 

 duced by the modern mechanical generators. 

 The important discovery of the divisibility of 

 the electric current for the production of the 

 voltaic arc between carbon-points by Jabloch- 

 koff made possible for the first time an electric 

 light of real practical value one which has 

 been applied with the highest degree of success 

 where an exceedingly brilliant, colorless, and 

 steady light is desired ; but the cost of produc- 

 tion, the attention which the apparatus re- 

 quires, the consumption of the carbon-candles, 

 and the limitations to the subdivision render 

 it unsuitable for purposes of general illumina- 

 tion. The Jablochkoff candle and the other 

 systems of illumination by the voltaic arc, de- 

 vised by Carr6, Foucault, Serrin and Lontin, 

 Rapieff, and Werdermann, were described in 

 the article ELECTRIC LIGHT in the Annual "Cy- 

 clopaedia" for the year 1878. In the same 

 place the generation of electrical currents by 

 the magneto-electric battery is described at 

 length, with the most recent improvements in 

 mechanical generators. 



When it was known that Edison, whoso ge- 

 nius has enriched the world with so many im- 



