ON THE PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC LIGHTING. l9 



and are always in a condition of potential danger. 2,041 persons in England 

 alone, in 1881, met with violent deaths from burns, scalds, and explosions (not 

 in mines). In one week, not long ago, six deaths from explosions of gas were 

 recorded in the Times. Hence, while electricity is certainly accompanied I)y 

 its own dangers, these dangers can be neutralized, and other infinitely more se- 

 rious ones can be completely expelled from our houses. 



Mr. Killingworth Hedges has devoted a great deal of attention to safety 

 catches, and he certainly has produced the most efficient that are in the market. 

 No electric light lead should be without its safety plug or cut-out. It is a pre- 

 caution of a cheap and simple character, efficient, and reliable in action. A bar 

 or sheet of lead, or alloy, is inserted in the circuit, which is instantly fused when 

 from any cause the current exceeds its proper amount. It is a nuisance to be 

 left in the dark, which must happen when the safety catch is fused, for the circuit 

 is broken; but one can submit to this when the result is safety gained, or some 

 source of danger eliminated. The remedy is a little barbarous, but it is efficient. 

 A less crude contrivance was shown in Vienna — the invention of Mr. Anderson 

 — but I have not seen it in practice. 



It is most desirable that we should have, in every electric light installation, 

 instruments to measure the current flowing and the electric pressure present. 

 Ammeters, or current measures, and voltmeters, or pressure indicators, are very 

 numerous. 



Another important economical feature is the proper distribution of light, and 

 Trotter's dioptric system is very ingenious and useful. 



I scarcely think that the true solution of isolated house lighting will be secured 

 until we can obtain reliable, effective, and economical secondary batteries, 

 Plante's original accumulator, as improved by Faure, Sellon, and Volckmar, has 

 not yet reached that stage of perfection that one would wish to see, but the pro- 

 gress towards this desideratum is steady and promising. Plante has himself made 

 a decided improvement by preparing his lead plates in nitric acid, and the exper- 

 iments that I have made with his cells, as supplied by Elwell and Parker, of 

 Wolverhampton, are so encouraging that I am about to use a set of them in my 

 own house. A secondary battery has this advantage, that your electricity is 

 stored up to be used when you want it, by day or night, without the constant use 

 of machinery. In ordinary houses, such as mine, there ought not to be required 

 more than one day a week for charging — a day set apart for the purpose like 

 washing-day — when sufficient electricity should be stored up for a week's work. 

 I scarcely hope to do this yet, but it is well within the bounds of possibility. 



I have indicated to you the direction in which progress has been made. The 

 output of the apparatus has been greatly increased, and, therefore, the capital 

 required for installation reduced, the expenditure on conductors has been consid- 

 erably diminished, the efficiency of the lamps — especially in their durability — has 

 been improved, and all these steps in advance have the tendency to economize 

 the production of the electric light. But the progress is being continued, and 



