2OO THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OF 



consumption per burner of 6 cubic feet of gas per hour, or a total 

 consumption of 37,500 cubic feet of gas to produce the same effect 

 of light. This would require 3|- tons of coal, and the electric 

 light about as many hundredweights. 



It would be fallacious to suppose, however, that in resorting to 

 the electric light we should be satisfied with anything like the 

 candle-power that now satisfies us in using gas, even as we are not 

 now satisfied with the light of lamps and candles since we have 

 become accustomed to gas-lighting. There is this further incon- 

 venience connected with the electric light, that its rays are so 

 intense that they must not reach our eyes without having first been 

 softened down, either by the interposition of some semi-transparent 

 substance, such as ground glass, or by directing the light against 

 screens, or against the ceiling of the room, as was suggested by 

 the Duke of Sutherland, so as to illuminate by reflection only. In 

 making due allowance for these losses of effect there remains, how- 

 ever, ample margin in favour of the electric light, to make it 

 cheaper, and certainly more brilliant than gaslight. Its practical 

 application for large halls and places where powerful light effects 

 are required, will therefore be a question only of time, while for 

 domestic purposes gaslight will long continue to hold its own, 

 owing to the greater facility which it offers of subdividing the 

 effects of light, and of accommodating its intensity to immediate 

 requirements by simply opening and closing an ordinary tap. 



My present object, however, is not to discuss the relative merits 

 of the two modes of illumination, but simply to show that power 

 derived from a distant source is capable of being utilised for the 

 production of light of a very brilliant character, a light which is 

 comparable with solar light in showing every object in its true 

 colour, and in producing similar chemical effects, such as the 

 taking of photographic images. 



If mechanical force is required to be distributed, the arrange- 

 ments are in every respect similar to those for the distribution of 

 electric light, and it has been proved experimentally that the 

 amount of power recovered at the distant station is nearly equal 

 to half the power employed at the central station. 



At first sight this loss of power may be considered large, but if 

 we compare the cost of producing a limited amount of power by 

 the magneto-electric machine, and by a gas or steam engine, it 



