ELKCTRK LIGHT. ($79 
into a circuit traversed by a current of only moderate 
electro-motive power. M. Keynier is also the inventor of 
a very beautiful little lamp, in which the point of a thin 
carbon rod, properly adjusted, is caused to touch the cir- 
cumference of a carbon wheel which rotates underneath 
the point. The light is developed at the place of contact 
of rod and wheel. One of the last steps, though I am 
informed not quite the last, in the improvement of 
regulators is this: The positive carbon wastes more pro- 
fusely than the negative, and this is alleged to be due to 
the greater heat of the former. It occurred to Mr. 
William Siemens to chill the negative artificially, with the 
view of diminishing or wholly preventing its waste. This 
he accomplishes by making the negative pole a hollow cone 
of copper, and by ingeniously discharging a small jet of 
cold water against the interior of the cone. His negative 
copper is thus caused to remain fixed in space, for it is not 
dissipated, the positive carbon only needing control. I 
have seen this lamp in action, and can bear witness to its 
success. 
I might go on to other inventions, achieved or pro- 
jected. Indeed, there is something bewildering in the recent 
rush of constructive talent into this domain of applied 
electricity. The question and its prospects are modified 
from day to day, a steady advance being made toward the 
improvement both of machines and regulators. With 
regard to our public lighting, I strongly lean to the opinion 
that the electric light will at no distant day triumph over 
gas. I am not so sure that it will do so in our private 
houses. As, however, I am anxious to avoid dropping a 
word here that could influence the share market in the 
slightest degree, I limit myself to this general statement of 
opinion. 
To one inventor in particular belongs the honor of the 
idea, and the realization of the idea, of causing the carbon 
rods to burn away like a candle. It is needless to say that 
I here refer to the young Russian officer, M. Jablochkoff. 
He sets two carbon rods upright at a small distance apart, 
and fills the space between them with an insulating sub- 
stance like plaster of Paris. The carbon rods are fixed in 
metallic holders. A momentary contact is established 
between the two carbons by a little cross-piece of the same 
substance placed horizontally from top to top. This cross- 
