NA TURE 



261 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1879 



GAS VERSUS ELECTRICITY 



THE gas companies are at last awakening to the 

 peculiarity of their position, and gas-shareholders 

 are recovering their confidence in the stability of their 

 property. It is interesting to observe how steadily the 

 shares in all the great gas companies have during the last 

 few weeks been rising, and unless any untoward event 

 occurs there is no reason why in a short time they should 

 not recover the position they so singularly lost in August 

 of last year. Looking dispassionately upon the events 

 that have occurred, it is difficult to understand how such a 

 panic and scare could have arisen. Nothing of any sort 

 or kind has been discovered either in the laws of electricity 

 or in their application to electric lighting to account for it. 

 We know no more of the electric light now than we did in 

 1862, when as great a display was made in our Exhibition 

 of that year as was made in the French Exhibition of last 

 year. There is no doubt, however, that the enterprise of 

 our neighbours on the other side of the Channel in light- 

 ing up so brilliantly one of their grand new streets pro- 

 duced a sensation that will not easily be forgotten. 

 Englishmen never like to be beaten. We are accustomed 

 to be startled by inventions from the other side of the 

 Atlantic, but we are not accustomed to be beaten either 

 in commercial enterprise or in inventive skill by our 

 neighbours on this side of the Atlantic. Hence, all of 

 those, whose name is legion, who visited Paris last year 

 came back with exaggerated ideas of the effect of the 

 electric light in the Avenue de 1' Opera, and spread through 

 England a profound opinion of the value of electricity as 

 a means of illumination. 



It seems to be forgotten that only three years ago a 

 competitive trial of gas and electricity was made in the 

 clock tower of the Houses of Parliament. Each of 

 these lights were tried for several months, the electric 

 ght being a Serrin lamp lit by a Gramme machine ; and 

 Lhat, after a very careful examination, gas was successful, 

 was adopted, and is now used by the Office of Works. 



Again, it seems to be forgotten that the Elder Brethren 

 of the Trinity House have been experimenting upon this 

 question ever since 1857, and that the results of their 

 experiments have only led to the adoption of the electric 

 light in three of their lighthouses. If the electric light 

 had had the wonderful advantage over gas or oil that its 

 projectors profess for it, surely the governors of such 

 an institution as the Trinity House would have fitted up 

 all the lighthouses upon our coasts with this wonderful 

 light. 



The recent experiments, however, have shown both the 

 strength and weakness of the position of the gas com- 

 panies. Their strength consists in their being in posses- 

 sion of the ground ; their weakness consists in their 

 producing only a poor light— and a very poor light— 

 'A-hen compared with electricity. But is there any reason 

 why this weakness should continue? Is there any 

 reason why gas should remain such an indifferent light ? 

 There is none but that of expense, and expense will not 

 deter people from having a better light if they can only 

 get it. The Phoenix Company has taken the question in 

 Vol. XIX.— No. 482 



hand, and has shown in the Waterloo Road what can be 

 done with gas when the question of expense is not con- 

 sidered. Indeed, it would almost seem, from the ex- 

 periments that have been made, that the quantity of 

 light to be produced by gas is only a question of the 

 quantity of gas consumed in 'a given space. There 

 are now burning in the Waterloo Road two brilliant gas 

 lamps, giving a light of 500 candles, and this is greater, 

 in point of fact, than the intensity of the light developed 

 by any one of the electric lights that are now on trial in 

 the thoroughfares of London. There is, however, a defect 

 in gas light which remains to be eradicated, and that is 

 the colour of the light. The one great advantage which 

 the electric light has over gas is that the electric light, 

 owing to its very high temperature, produces rays of 

 every degree of refrangibility, and therefore, as an illu- 

 minating power it is equal to that of the stm. But gas 

 light, owing to the lowness of its temperature, is deficient 

 in blue rays, and is therefore not so effective in dis- 

 criminating colours as the electric light. 



A ver)' marked advance towards perfection in this 

 direction in gas lighting has been made in the albo-carbon 

 process, by which the gas burnt is enriched with the 

 vapour of naphthaline" — a refuse of gas manufacture. 

 This process is being introduced by Mr. Livesey, and, to 

 judge by the experiments that have been shown, it is very 

 promising indeed. The intensity of the light of a gas 

 burner is improved at least five times, and in some expe- 

 riments witnessed by the writer the improvement was as 

 much as twenty times. 



The tentative trials that are being made with the 

 electric light in London cannot be said to be very suc- 

 cessful. That at Billingsgate was certainly a fiasco, that 

 on the Embankment is very brilliant, but we have yet to 

 learn its cost, and there is no doubt whatever that the 

 efficiency of the light is very much less than that usually 

 ascribed to the electric light. The trial on the Holbom 

 Viaduct is not a success. The experiment seems to 

 be conducted by some one who is not experfenced 

 in the working of electric circuits," for occasionally all' 

 the lamps are found extinguished, oh other occasions only 

 a portion of them are burning, and frequently they are 

 very dull. It is quite difficult even at this distance of the 

 Post Office to distinguish the gas from the electric'lamp. 

 The same effect is observed on crossing Blackfriars 

 Bridge and looking towards the Houses of Parliament 

 when there is the slightest miist in the air, ahd it is quite 

 evident that the electric light has no more — If as much — 

 penetrative power than gas. 



A most complete and careful inquiry into the working of 

 the electric light has been made by Mr. Louis Schwendler 

 for the East Indian Railway Company, and his results 

 are extremely interesting. He has recommended the 

 introduction of the light into certain railway stations 

 where no gas exists, and the system he proposes to use is 

 the Siemens dynamo-machine and one Serrin lamp, and 

 thereby save that waste which the multiplication of the 

 light unquestionably produces. He proposes to distribute 

 this single light by diffusion on a plan originally suggested 

 by the Duke of Sutherland. His investigation has been 

 conducted in a thoroughly scientific spirit, and when his 

 report is published it will be a very valuable addition to 

 our knowledge of the theory of the electric light. It has 



