Scientific Lectures. 141 



For ten days or two weeks she was near our shore, failing to see our 

 light ; and when she arrived, the spoiling of the fniit, and the loss of 

 the market had occasioned a loss of $15,000. This is but a homapathic 

 illustration. What would be the value of the light to a magnificent 

 steamer, worth half or three-quarters of a million, with freight worth 

 a million of dollars, to say nothing of the valuable lives on board ? 

 Had the ill-fated Arctic possessed such a light, would she have been 

 stabbed between wind and water as she was, and her cargo not alone, 

 but precious lives, lost ? Again, I am told that the galvanic battery 

 is difficult to keep in order. Do we know it to be a fact that we can 

 send a telegram from here to Bostou, to Philadelphia, California, or 

 to the other side of the ocean? Do we not know that thousands of 

 galvanic batteries are kept in order night and day ? And are we to 

 have our coast guarded only by oil lights ? When I spoke to the 

 president of the Chamber of Commerce about this a year ago, he said, 

 " We know nothing of the matter ; we are not familiar with these 

 chemical themes ; and we leave it to this illustrious scientific board." 

 It is to be regretted that after all the discoveries made within the 

 past few years, we have not science applied on the coast of America 

 as it is applied on the coast of Europe. [Applause.] I wnll now show 

 you one or two experiments to show the power of this electric light. 

 You will readily believe that my able assistant. Dr. Wilkinson, 

 experimenting with the galvanic light was so overwhelmed by it that 

 he had to shut himself up in a dark room for forty-eight hours, unable 

 to bear even a candle light. Passing a spark under water, you see 

 that we have light under most unfavorable circumstances. And 

 here you find that we can produce it even in a vacuum. It is the 

 nearest approximation to sunlight known to us. It is due to the 

 union of certain elements. The basis of all light is oxydation, and 

 we know" that ever since the Almighty breatlied upon man the breath 

 of life it has also been the basis of our life. 



I regret that the time is so short that I cannot exhibit to vou all 

 the phenomena I desired to show, as, for instance, relative to the 

 employment of refractors of light and reflectors of light. We have 

 here a reflector having that peculiar curs^e denominated a parabola, 

 which, when perfectly made, has the power of reflecting beams of 

 light in a parallel direction. The same may be accomplished by tlie 

 beautiful lenses devised by the French investigatoi', Fresnel. It is 

 highly important in lighting the coast that, instead of the light being 

 radiated above and below in every direction, the rays shall be sent in 



