. THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 425 



above that of the air. It generates an electric current 

 opposed in direction to the first, and reaches the table 

 with a diminished shock. The amount of the diminu- 

 tion is accurately represented by the warmth which the 

 momentary current develops in the coil. Various de- 

 vices were employed to exalt these induced currents, 

 among which the instruments of Pixii, Clarke, and 

 Saxton were long conspicuous. Faraday, indeed, fore- 

 saw that such attempts were sure to be made; but he 

 chose to leave them in the hands of the mechanician, 

 while he himself pursued the deeper study of facts and 

 principles. * I have rather,' he writes in 1831, * been 

 desirous of discovering new facts and new relations 

 dependent on magneto-electric induction, than of ex- 

 alting the force of those already obtained; being as- 

 sured that the latter would find their full development 

 hereafter.' 



For more than twenty years magneto-electricity had 

 subserved its first and noblest purpose of augmenting 

 our knowledge of the powers of nature. It had been 

 discovered and applied to intellectual ends, its applica- 

 tion to practical ends being still unrealised. The 

 Drummond light had raised thoughts and hopes of 

 vast improvements in public illumination. Many in- 

 ventors tried to obtain it cheaply; and in 1853 an at- 

 tempt was made to organise a company in Paris for 

 the purpose of procuring, through the decomposition 

 of water by a powerful magneto-electric machine con- 

 structed by M. Nollet, the oxygen and hydrogen neces- 

 sary for the lime light. The experiment failed, but 

 the apparatus by which it was attempted suggested to 

 Mr. Holmes other and more hopeful applications. 

 Abandoning the attempt to produce the lime light, 

 with persevering skill Holmes continued to improve 

 the apparatus and to augment its power, until it was 



