TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 789 



Suffolk, with the Bude light of the late Mr. Golds-worthy Gumey. This light was 

 produced hy throwing- oxygen gas into the middle of a flame derived from the 

 combustion of fatty oils. The flame was of the dimensions of that of the Fresnel 

 four-wick concentric burner. An increased intensity over that of the flame of the 

 large oil-burner was obtained, hut it was not found to be sufficient to justify the in- 

 creased cost incurred. In 1857 a trial was made by the Trinity House, at Black- 

 wall, under the advice of Faraday, with one of Holmes' direct current magneto- 

 electric machines for producing the electric arc light for a lighthouse luminary, and 

 the experiment was found to be so full of promise for the future that a practical 

 trial was made during the following year. 



At the South Foreland High Lighthouse, on December 8, 1858, the first im- 

 portant application of the electric arc light, as a rival to oil and gas for coast light- 

 ing, was made with a pair of Holmes' machines, and thus were steel magnets made 

 to serve not only, as in the mariner's compass, to guide him on his path, but also 

 to warn him of danger. In 1859 the experimental trials at the South Foreland 

 were discontinued, but they were sufficiently encouraging to lead to the permanent 

 installation of the electric light at Dungeuess Lighthouse in 1862. In 1863 the 

 electric arc light was adopted by the French lighthouse authorities at Cape La 

 Heve. 



In 1871, after practical trials with a new alternating current machine of 

 Holmes, two of such machines were supplied to a new lighthouse on Souter Point, 

 coast of Durham, and in the following year the electric arc light, with these 

 machines, was established in both the High and Low Lighthouses at the South 

 Foreland, where it still shines successfully. The early experience with the electric 

 light at Dungeness was far from encouraging. Frequent extinctions of the light 

 occurred from various causes connected with the machinery and apparatus, and the 

 oil light had, at such times, to be substituted. As no advantage can counterbalance 

 the want of certainty in signals for the guidance of the mariner, no further step in 

 the development of the electric light was taken by the Trinity House until the 

 latter part of 1866, when favourable reports were received from the French light- 

 house authorities of the worldng of the Alliance Company's sj'stem at the two 

 lighthouses of Cape La Heve. Complaints were also received from mariners, in 

 the locality of Dungeness, of the dazzling effect on the eyes when navigating, as 

 they are there frequently required to do, close inshore, thus being prevented from 

 rightly judging their distance from this low and dangerous point. Therefore, in 

 1874, the electric light was removed from Dungeness, and a powerful oil light sub- 

 stituted. In 1877 the electric arc light was installed at the Lizard Lighthouses 

 on the south coast of Cornwall, and arrangements are now being made for 

 establishing it at St. Catherine's Lighthouse, Isle of Wight, and at the High Tower, 

 -on the Isle of May, Frith of Forth. I have mentioned that the first machines of 

 Holmes at the South Foreland were direct current, the machines provided by him 

 for Dungeness being also of the same type. The French lighthouse authorities, 

 however, adopted for their lighthouses at Cape La Heve the ' Alliance ' Alternating 

 IJurrent Magneto-Electric Machines, and, in consequence of the less wear and tear 

 of these machines with greater reliabiUty through their having no commutator, 

 Holmes was required to supply alternating current machines for Souter Point and 

 the South Foreland. Those machines have been running at these stations fourteen 

 years and fifteen years respectively. They have during this period required only 

 a very trifling amount of repair, and are still in excellent order, but the time must 

 -soon arrive for replacing them hy more powerful machines. 



In 1876 a series of trials was made by the Ti-inity House at the South Foreland, 

 with various dynamo-electric machines, for the purpose of ascertaining the then 

 most suitable machine for adoption at the Lizard. The results were decidedly in 

 favour of the Siemens direct current machine, and machines of this type were 

 accordingly installed at the Lizard Station in 1878. In consequence of irregularities 

 in their working, and because, at the time, Baron de Meritens, of Paris, had per- 

 fected a very powerfid alternating current machine, it was resolved to send one of 

 the latter machines to the Ijizard for trial, where it has worked most satisfactorily 

 for several years. The experience gained at the Lizard suggested that, for the 



