THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 431 



to turn our machine, and it is this employment of our 

 cheapest fuel, rendered possible by Faraday's discovery, 

 which opens out to us the prospect of being able to 

 apply the electric light to public use. 



In 1866 a great step in the intensification of induced 

 currents, and the consequent augmentation of the mag- 

 neto-electric light, was taken by Mr. Henry Wilde. It 

 fell to my lot to report upon them to the Royal Society, 

 but before doing so I took the trouble of going to Man- 

 chester to witness Mr. Wilde's experiments. He op- 

 erated in this way: starting from a small machine like 

 that worked in your presence a moment ago, he em- 

 ployed its current to excite an electro-magnet of a 

 peculiar shape, between whose poles rotated a Siemens 

 armature; * from this armature currents were obtained 

 vastly stronger than those generated by the small mag- 

 neto-electric machine. These currents might have 

 been immediately employed to produce the electric 

 light; but instead of this they were conducted round a 

 second electro-magnet of vast size, between whose poles 

 rotated a Siemens armature of corresponding dimen- 

 sions. Three armatures were therefore involved in this 

 series of operations: first, the armature of the small 

 magneto-electric machine; secondly, the armature of 

 the first electro-magnet, which was of considerable size; 

 and, thirdly, the armature of the second electro-magnet, 

 which was of vast dimensions. With the currents 

 drawn from this third armature, Mr. Wilde obtained 

 effects, both as regards heat and light, enormously 

 transcending those previously known, f 



* Page and Moigno had previously shown that the magneto- 

 electric current could produce powerful electro-magnets. 



f Mr. Wilde's paper is published in the * Philosophical Trans- 

 actions ' for 1867, p. 89. My opinion regarding Wilde's machine 

 was briefly expressed in a report to the Elder Brethren of the 



