.sYA" WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 415 



much practical knowledge in the process, and may now look for- 

 ward t<> that steady progress which, without appealing to the 

 imagination, is much more likely to yield permanently useful 

 results. Tin- illumination of the Fisheries Exhibition has fur- 

 nished, perhaps, the most decided proofs of the ease with which 

 lar-v buildings and spaces can be lighted electrically, effects of 

 beauty being at the same time produced peculiar to that source of 

 illumination ; and it is not, perhaps, too much to say that the 

 great success of these summer evenings' enchantments, which we 

 have all enjoyed, and shall not easily forget, could hardly have 

 been realised but through its agency. 



The International Electrical Exhibition of Vienna, which has 

 just closed its successful career, has served to illustrate very com- 

 pletely the capabilities and the present state of advancement of the 

 various useful applications of electricity. The Rotunda, the noble 

 conception of our late member and former secretary, Mr. Scott 

 Russell, is a building pre-eminently well adapted for the purposes 

 of an Exhibition. The illumination of the lofty central hall, 

 lighted as it was by 112 arc lights, arranged in two tiers, pro- 

 duced an effect analogous to broad daylight, the elevation of the 

 lights being sufficient to avoid a glare, and to cause partial atmo- 

 spheric absorption of the violet rays, which are commonly com- 

 plained of with reference to the electric arc light. Beneath this 

 mighty cone, and the galleries outside the supporting columns, 

 telegraphic electric apparatus of every kind and description were 

 displayed in graceful groups, and under pavilions representing 

 different nations ; while the spacious rectangular galleries en- 

 closing the cone afforded convenient sites for the dynamo-machines, 

 and the gas and steam-engines in motion. The central fountain, 

 throwing an ample jet of water eighty feet high by means of 

 power transmitted electrically, and descending over cascades bril- 

 liantly illuminated by electric lights seen through the falling 

 water, constituted an interesting exhibit in itself, and added greatly 

 to the general effect at night. 



On the outside of the building a theatre lighted by electricity, a 

 gallery of elegantly furnished apartments under the effect of 

 incandescent lamps artistically arranged, an electric rope-tram- 

 way, an electric boat upon the Donau Canal, an electric railway to 

 convey the intending visitor from the Prater Stern to the Rotunda, 



