ELECTRIC CANDLES. 231 



each other, and then it causes a greater or less separation 

 which can be maintained, for the movable carbon is sub. 

 jected during the whole time of its combustion to two oppo- 

 site effects, which keep it always in a position more or less 

 near the fixed carbon, from which position it can vary only a 

 very little. This arrangement seems very nearly the same 

 as that which Rapieff described in the Telegraphic Journal 

 of the i5th December, 1878, and the ist February, 1879. 

 It remains to be seen who is entitled to the priority. The 

 Meritens system is composed of three parallel carbons not in 

 contact. The current passes in the outside carbons, and the 

 middle one is merely the means of facilitating the discharge 

 and rendering it uniform. Nevertheless, this system has not 

 given regular results; but that of Soligniac, in which four 

 carbons are used, has been much more satisfactory, and we 

 shall speak of it further on. The important condition in all 

 these systems is that the two carbons shall never be able to 

 assume a perfectly parallel position, for in that case the 

 luminous point may be displaced, and pass from one end of 

 the carbons to the other. 



One system has been proposed in which the carbons are 

 inclined and applied one to the other, until they are lighted 

 by being separated by a rod of refractory matter introduced 

 between them, the movement being controlled by an electro- 

 magnetic action. 



Jamiris Candle. Of the electric candles invented since 

 the Jablochkoff, none has attracted more attention than the 

 Jamin burner, which is represented in Fig. 67. It is a 

 candle of the same kind as Wilde's that is to say, there is 

 no insulator between the carbons. The luminous point is 

 constantly maintained at the end of the carbons by the action 

 on the arc of the current itself passing through a conductor 

 beneath the arc, and returned on itself four times, forming a 

 rectangular figure about the carbons. Two parallel currents 

 in the same direction, as we know, attract each other, and 

 therefore it wiil be understood that the arc is attracted by the 



