THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 



the production of the opera "The Prophet" the sun was 

 to appear, and for this purpose an electric arc light was 

 used. The success of this effort an artificial sun being 

 produced that seemed almost as dazzling to the as- 

 tonished audience as Old Sol himself stimulated 

 further efforts in the same direction. The previous year 

 W. E. Staite in England made experiments along similar 

 lines in the large hall of the hotel of Sunderland. He 

 generated a light "resembling the sun, or the light of 

 day, and making candles appear as obscure as they do 

 by daylight," according to the Times of the following 

 morning. The electric light was therefore proved to be a 

 practical illuminator, although it was not until the intro- 

 duction of the Gramme dynamo-electric machine that its 

 great economic utility was demonstrated. 



THE JABLOCHKOFF CANDLE 



In Sir Humphry Davy's experiments with his arc 

 light he was led to believe that the light between the 

 two points of carbon would be produced even in an 

 absolute vacuum, if it were possible to create one. 

 Several scientists at the time disputed this conten- 

 tion, and M. Masson, Professor of Physics in the Ecole 

 Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris was par- 

 ticularly active in combatting the idea, maintaining that 

 the arc had the same cause as the electric spark the 

 transport by electricity of the incandescent particles of 

 the electrodes through the atmosphere. It was certain, 

 at any rate, that no light was produced when the op- 

 posing carbons were brought into contact with each 



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