410 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



These circumstances are, of course, all to be taken 

 into account by the proper authorities in respect to 

 every project for a new lighthouse. But we have 

 actually at present the great fact of 490 fixed lights 

 on the coasts of the British Islands ; and when it is 

 considered desirable or necessary to give more 

 brilliancy to any of them, this may not best be 

 done by converting it into a flashing light, but by 

 making it a more powerful oil or gas light, or 

 converting it into an electric light. Indeed, after 

 Mr. Douglas's communication of two years ago 

 (March 25th, 1879) to the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, on " The Electric Light Applied to 

 Lighthouse Illumination," and the discussion which 

 followed upon it, and considering the great progress 

 which has been made since that time in lighting by 

 electricity, we can scarcely doubt that, in the 

 course of a few years, nothing but the electric light 

 will be thought of for any new lighthouse of the 

 greatest importance. 



The great defect of fixed lights at present is the 

 want of characteristic quality by which the sailor, 

 when he sees a light which really is a lighthouse 



