VARIOUS GENERATORS OF ELECTRIC LIGHT. 63 



be introduced into these machines, and all the electricians 

 of the time contributed each a stone to the edifice. 



Among these improvements there is one by which double 

 the effect is at once obtained. It was suggested by Masson, 

 it that lime professor of natural philosophy at the Ecole 

 Centrale, whom I took to see these machines, and consisted 

 in the suppression of the commutator formerly used in all 

 such machines. All these improvements, which" were ad- 

 mirably carried out by Van Malderen, the Company's engi- 

 neer, made it possible, in conjunction with the improvements 

 he himself introduced, to carry the machines to a degree of 

 perfection which the most sanguine had scarcely hoped for, 

 and which it was thought could not be surpassed. And then, 

 for the first time, attention was turned to the availability of 

 the electric light for the illumination of ships and lighthouses. 

 Jn conjunctfon with Reynaud and Degrand, experiments 

 were thereupon instituted, and shortly afterwards, in 1863, 

 it was found possible to illuminate the lighthouses of La 

 Heve in this way. 



About the same time experiments were made regarding 

 the use of the electric light for ships. These experiments 

 did not at first prove entirely successful, owing chiefly to the 

 opposition of the navy. But after a while the importance of 

 the results obtained came to be understood. France thus 

 led the van in this double path of progress, as she still does 

 in the matter of public illumination ; but we must point out 

 that the civilized world is indebted to the Alliance Company, 

 .and to the enterprise of its intelligent manager Berlioz, for 

 these beautiful applications of electricity. 



Now that we have acknowledged our obligations to a Com- 

 pany whose efforts fortune failed to reward, we are going to 

 study the constructive details of their machines. 



The principle of the Alliance Company's machine much 

 resembles that on which Clarke's machine is based, but the 

 mechanical arrangement is so contrived that the induction 

 -coils and magnets may be multiplied without inconvenience. 



