PERPETUAL OR EVER-BURNING LAMPS IOI 



a light, seen in the vicinity of an old lamp, might give rise 

 to the impression that the lamp had been actually burning 

 and that it had been blown out by sudden exposure to a 

 draft of air. 



Another supposition was that the flame, which was sup- 

 posed to have been seen, may have been caused by the 

 ignition of gases arising from the decomposition of dead 

 bodies, and set on fire by the flambeaux or candles of the 

 investigators, and it is quite possible that the occurrence 

 of each of these phenomena may have given a certain 

 degree of confirmation to preconceived ideas. 



After the discovery of phosphorus in 1669, by Brandt 

 and Kunckel, it was employed in the construction of lumin- 

 ous phials which could be carried in the pocket, and which 

 gave out sufficient light to enable the 'user to see the 

 hands of a watch on a dark night. Directions for making 

 these luminous phials are very simple, and may be found 

 in most of the books of experiments published prior to the 

 introduction of the modern lucifer match. They were 

 also used for obtaining a light by means of the old matches, 

 which were tipped merely with a little sulphur, and which 

 could not be ignited by friction. Such a match, after being 

 dipped into one of these phosphorus bottles, would readily 

 take fire by slight friction, and some persons preferred this 

 contrivance to the old flint and steel, partly, no ^doubt, 

 because it was a novelty. But these bottles were not in 

 any sense perpetual, the light being due to the slow oxida- 

 tion of the phosphorus so that, in a comparatively short 

 time, the luminosity of the materials ceased. Nevertheless, 

 it has been suggested that some form of these old luminous 

 phials may have been the original perpetual lamp. 



After the discovery of the phosphorescent qualities of 



