INCANDESCENT LAMPS. 2 1 3 



ment was greeted, people ceased to recollect the proverbial 

 tanards Americains. Be that as it may, this pompous an- 

 nouncement caused many losses, and that at three different 

 times. People have now recovered from their fears, and, as 

 always happens, have passed from one extreme opinion to its 

 opposite. The truth is, that if Edison's invention were at 

 first but a very small matter, it might some day gain import- 

 ance ; and according to the information I have received 

 from ocular witnesses, the last patents of Edison's, which 

 require not less than 200 pages for their description, might 

 contain discoveries of the greatest importance. It seems 

 that even Edison's failures have not discouraged American 

 capitalists, and that they have put at his disposal not only all 

 the necessary amounts, but also engineers of all kinds, elec- 

 tricians, mechanicians, chemists, &c. According to the 

 persons who gave me this information, Edison has con- 

 structed a dynamo-electric generator superior to all those 

 we have mentioned, and capable of utilizing 90 per cent, of 

 the motive power. 



Without attaching too much importance to these accounts, 

 it must be admitted that a man so ingenious as Edison has 

 not for so long a time studied a question without making 

 something of it ; and while waiting until the new patents are 

 published, we must meanwhile give some account of the 

 lamp which has fluttered the financial world. It is repre- 

 sented in Fig. 6 1. 



According to Edison, the loss which is involved in the 

 division of the electric light is not peculiar to this kind of 

 light, but also occurs with gas when the elements of its flow 

 are placed under the like conditions. Thus, if a great 

 number of gas-jets are opened and the total amount of light 

 measured, a smaller luminous intensity will be found than 

 that resulting from a small number of these jets under the 

 same pressure of gas. But if that pressure be suitably regu- 

 lated, things may be so arranged that this loss would not 

 -exist. " Now," says Edison, " properly arrange the condi- 



