April \, 1886] 



NATURE 



507 



be an exti-aordinary anomaly if a carefully considered 

 organisation discarded at starting the scientific help on 

 which it will eventually have to rely. 



ELECTRIC LIGHTING LEGISLATION 

 T T is not so many years ago that our only notion of 

 practical electric lighting was the arc lamp. Experi- 

 ments had indeed been made for many years (com- 

 mencing as far back as in the year 1845) in the direction 

 of incandescent lighting, — experiments where platinum 

 and platinum-iridium wires had been made incandescent, 

 where carbon in the form of sticks or pencils having very 

 low resistance had been made incandescent. Indeed, 

 King's experiments in the year 1845 had been made with 

 the carbon pencil, and a proposition had been put forward 

 for preserving these carbons from combustion by their use 

 in closed vessels, in which either a vacuum was formed, or 

 a preservative atmosphere, such as nitrogen, was intro- 

 duced. But all these attempts at incandescent lighting 

 were, as has been said, in a purely experimental condition, 

 and the arc light was the only one in practical use. 



At that time it was said that even if a satisfactory in- 

 candescent lamp could be made there was still, even for 

 separate installations, the difficulty of dividing the electric 

 current, and as regards anything like a distribution of 

 electricity from a central source there was a further 

 commercial diiificulty in the great cost of the conductors 

 suited to carry the needed current. 



This state of things was followed by contradictory 

 rumours of what Mr. Edison was doing in the United 

 States. First that he had succeeded in producing a durable 

 incandescent lamp ; then that he had utterly failed ; then 

 that there was hope that he was about to succeed with 

 the lamp, but he felt he must abandon any attempt to 

 divide the current ; and then similar contradictory rumours 

 as to the possibility of supply from a central source. 



At length, some six or seven years ago, it became un- 

 doubted that Edison had devised an enduring lamp, 

 having a filament of high resistance ; that the current 

 could be readily divided to these lamps by placing them 

 in parallel arc ; and that, by the raising of the elcctromo. 

 tive force to that needed for the_woiking of the lamps, the 

 mains could be reduced to within reasonable limits of 

 cost. 



After some little time had elapsed no doubt there was 

 a very large amount of commercial speculation entered 

 into in connection with electric lighting, — a most unfor- 

 tunate thing for those who seriously desired its develop- 

 ment, a most unfortunate thing for private persons who 

 wished to adopt electric lighting. 



The promoters of electric lighting had thought that, if 

 they could show to Parliament they were prepared to 

 undertake the lighting of a district, they would obtain the 

 Parliamentary sanction needed in the case of railways, 

 docks, water, gas, and other industrial undertakings, and 

 under proper precautions granted by Parliament to 

 those who were willing to subscribe capital. But at this 

 point the Board of Trade intervened, under their then Pre- 

 sident, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, and setting all precedent 

 at defiance, obtained the passing of their Electric Lighting 

 Act of 1882, an Act jocosely called "An Act \q facilitate 

 and regulate the supply of electricity for lighting and other 

 purposes." 



From the title of this Act any one would imagine that, 

 while Edison had devoted years of his life to making 

 electric lighting by incandescence possible, Mr. Chamber- 

 lain, appreciating these efforts, had stepped forward with 

 a law which was to be generally applied ; and that the 

 labours of the statesman were to be in continuation of 

 those of the philosopher in developing electric lighting. 

 " Facilitate," on turning to Ogilvie's dictionary, one finds 

 " to make easy or less difficult," "to free from difficulty or 

 impediment." 



Mr. Chamberlain's interpretation of the word " facili- 

 tate," as one gathers that interpretation from the 27th 

 section of the Act, confirmed by four years' experience of 

 its effects, is a very different one. " Facilitate " with him 

 must mean "to make difficult or less easy," to "encumber 

 with difficulty or impediment, or to add to it." The 27th 

 section, which is set out in extenso in a footnote, may be 

 briefly summarised as follows: — After the expiration of 

 twenty-one years (or even a shorter period if the oppo- 

 nents can succeed in getting its insertion in a special Act), 

 any local authority, corporation, or local board, or sani- 

 tary authority in whose district the undertaking is situated, 

 may insist upon the undertakers selling to such authority 

 the undertaking, and if they cannot agree as to the price, 

 as, of course, they would not (for one does not agree in 

 cases of confiscation), the value is to be determined by 

 arbitration ; but the value is only to be the fair market 

 value oft he lands, buildings, works, plant, and material 

 at the time of the purchase, but nothing is to be added in 

 respect of " compulsory purchase," or of " good-will," or 

 of profits, past, present, or prospective. Be it observed, 

 however, there is no obligation on the part of the local 

 authority to purchase if the concern does not pay at the 

 end of twenty-one j'ears. The local authority may forego 

 the right to purchase. But then, still further to " facili- 

 tate " the investment of capital in electric lighting, the 

 local authority at the end of a further seven years is again 

 invested with the option, and so on from seven years to 

 seven years. 



At an interview between the parties something of this 

 sort can well be imagined : — Mr. Town Clerk to the Chair- 

 man of the Company : " The end of the twenty-one years 

 is coming, are you making a profit .'" " We have begun 

 during the last few years to pay a small dividend — 3 per 

 cent." "Oh ! we can get 10 per cent, out of the extension 

 of our gas-works. We sha'n't buy your electric light 

 undertaking." The twenty-seventh year comes. Mr. 

 Town Clerk and the Chairman again have an interview. 

 By this time electricity has been appreciated ; gas is going 

 out of fashion, and the electric lighting shareholders are 

 beginning to get some return for their years of labour, of 

 no dividend, and of low dividend. 



Chairman : " We made last year 7 per cent., and the 

 year before 6." 



Town Clerk : " Do you expect to continue 7 per cent, 

 or do you think it will increase ? " 



" Well, we have now so many applications for the electric 

 light in substitution of gas, that in frankness I must say I 

 believe the dividend will not only be maintained but will 

 be augmented, and within a few years will reach the maxi- 

 mum allowed." 



'■ Thank you, Mr. Chairman. .^fter the next council 

 meeting you will receive a notice that the corporation in- 



