146 ELECTRIC LIGHTING. 



believe those to be preferable in which combustion and the 

 voltaic arc are united to incandescence. We shall see that 

 in the systems of Reynier, Werdermann, &c., the results are 

 in fact much more satisfactory. 



Systems of E. Reynier, Werdermann, and others. By the 

 beginning of the year 1878 Emile Reynier, struck by the ad- 

 vantages which incandescent effects offered for the ready 

 production of the electric light, and especially for its sub- 

 division, bethought himself of combining these advantageous 

 effects with those of the voltaic arc, and for that purpose he 

 arranged the carbons of the King or Lodyguine system in 

 such a manner that they might burn and furnish at the point 

 of contact a small voltaic arc resulting from the repulsions 

 produced by contiguous elements of the same current, as in 

 the case of Fernet's and Van Malderen's regulators. He 

 therefore arranged above a large fixed carbon a very slender 

 rod (about 2 millimetres diameter), which was supported 

 vertically by means of a heavy holder, and he connected this 

 carbon with the current at a suitable height above the fixed 

 carbon, so as to give a bright incandescence to the thin car- 

 bon. And by this arrangement as the thin rod of carbon 

 was consumed at the point of contact with the large carbon, 

 it was renewed by a progressive advance produced by the 

 weight of the holder. From this combustion, however, ashes 

 were produced, which accumulated round the point of con- 

 tact, and therefore he arranged the apparatus so that the 

 large carbon might by a rotatory movement cause the ashes 

 to fall off. Under these conditions Reynier was able to 

 light 5 lamps with the current from a Bunsen battery of 30 

 cells, and he was even able to keep one of the lamps lighted 

 for more than a quarter of an hour with the current from a 

 Plante polarization battery of 3 elements. Some time after- 

 wards the same idea was taken up by Werdermann, who 

 used an arrangement the reverse of Reynier's. The stick ot 

 carbon was pushed upwards by a counterpoise, and thus the 

 large carbon did not require to be moved. According to 



