Wicuam—Application of the Kitson Light to Lighthouses. 473 
The little apparatus by which the light is produced consists of 
a cylindrical receiver and pump, the connecting tube, the heating 
tube, and the burner, and is well adapted for lighthouse purposes, 
and also for general illumination, not only of large rooms, but of 
streets, wharves, open spaces, courtyards, public buildings, &e. 
It is also capable of fulfilling a function which many shipmasters 
have anxiously desired that lighthouses should perform, namely, 
the illumination of clouds by what is termed “sky-flashing.” 
The best examples of this kind of illumination are afforded by 
the search-lights used in the Navy. They are of vastly greater 
power than any ordinary lighthouse lights, having powerful 
reflectors projecting the beams in any direction in which the 
lights may be turned ; but if this light, with its great intensity, 
were placed in the focus of revolving annular lenses there might 
be a constant upward and downward illumination without 
depriving the mariner of any of the light transmitted hori- 
zontally by the lighthouse. The dioptric apparatus in which 
the rays of the illuminant are only parallelized vertically, has 
but a feeble beam compared with that shown through the annular 
lenses by which the light is parallelized not only vertically but 
horizontally. 
Some years ago I had the honour of reading a paper to this 
Society on a method of increasing the efficiency of the lighthouse 
service, by giving to the sailor a perfectly new continuous light of 
great power and distinctive individuality. This method of light- 
house illumination was tested by Sir Robert Ball, F.R.s., the 
_ eminent scientific adviser to the Commissioners of Irish Lights, in 
the presence of Sir Howard Grubb, F.r.s., and others. Sir Robert 
reported very favourably concerning it, saying, in effect, that it 
was a powerful lighthouse light, a novelty in lighthouse illumi- 
nation of great promise, which provided a means of adding much 
variety to the existing system of lights. 
Since that time I have made much improvement in that 
system of continuous light, and have applied to it the burner 
which I have described in this paper. Not only is the general 
effect better and the light more powerful and more lightning-like 
in its appearance, but the cost is much less than the cost of the 
1 Scient. Proc. Roy. Dublin Soe., vol. viii., p. 347. 
