THE EtaCTRtC LlGHt. 42? 



cerned. The light produced is powerful beyond any 

 other that I have yet seen so applied, and in principle 

 may be accumulated to any degree ; its regularity in 

 the lantern is great ; its management easy, and its care 

 there may be confided to attentive keepers of the 

 ordinary degree of intellect and knowledge.' Finally, 

 as regards the conduct of Professor Holmes during these 

 memorable experiments, it is only fair to add the 

 following remark with which Faraday closes the report 

 submitted to the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House 

 on the 29th of April, 1859: 'I must bear my testi- 

 mony,' he says, ' to the perfect openness, candour, and 

 honour of Professor Holmes. He has answered every 

 question, concealed no weak point, explained every 

 applied principle, given every reason for a change either 

 7 in this or that direction, during several periods of close 

 questioning, in a manner that was very agreeable to me, 

 whose duty it was to search for real faults or possible 

 objections, in respect both of the present time and the 

 future.' 1 



Soon afterwards the Elder Brethren of the Trinity 

 House had the intelligent courage to establish the 

 machines of Holmes permanently at Dungeness, where 

 the magneto-electric light continued to shine for many 

 years. 



The magneto-electric machine of the Alliance 

 Company soon succeeded to that of Holmes, being in 

 various ways a very marked improvement on the latter. 

 Its currents were stronger and its light was brighter than 

 those of its predecessor. In it, moreover, the com- 

 mutator, the flashing and destruction of which were 

 sources of irregularity and deterioration in the machine 

 of Holmes, was, at the suggestion of M. Masson, 1 



1 Holmes's first offer of his machine to the Trinity House bear* 

 date February 2, 1857. 



* Du Moncel, 1'ElectriciteV August, 1878, p. 160. 

 57 



