PART VI. CONCLUSION. 



IF all that has been said in the foregoing work be mentally 

 reviewed, and its logical conclusions be sought for, the question 

 of electric lighting may thus be stated : 



The peculiar character of the electric light resides in its 

 concentrated power, by which an illumination equal to that 

 from two to four thousand Carcel lamps may be given to a 

 single point. This property may be extremely useful for 

 certain purposes, particularly for lighthouses and ships, but 

 it evidently is an inconvenience as regards public illumina- 

 tion, and for a long time methods have been sought by which 

 this brilliancy may be divided between several lights, in order 

 not only to diminish the glare ; but to extend the light over 

 a larger space. Unfortunately, the methods which have been 

 tried for effecting this division have solved the problem only 

 at the cost of a great loss of the intensity produced by a single 

 light But we shall see that by a well-known arrangement it 

 may nevertheless be utilized under sufficiently favourable 

 conditions. 



It is certain that if the electric arc gives a light too intense 

 to be directly borne by Ae eye, it must be moderated by 

 diffusing globes, by which much light is absorbed and simply 

 lost. This is the case with the Jablochkoff candles, the glass 

 enamel globes of which absorb as much as 45 per cent, of 

 the light But if by any means the light could be so divided 

 that these diffusing globes would be unnecessary, this loss 

 would cease, and it might happen that with a suitable arrange- 

 ment there would still be some advantage in using this system 

 in spite of even a considerable loss of light compared with 

 that produced by a single arc. In the first place, this mode 

 of lighting does not involve, like others, a great heating of 



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