Figure 29. — The first magneto generator 

 designed bv Woolrich. It was constructed 

 in 1844. Photos courtesy of Department of 

 Science and Industry, City Museum and 

 Art Gallery, Birmingham, England. 



Tyndall, Faraday's associate, could proudly write to 

 the editor of the French scientific publication Cosmos 

 that he was the first person to be informed by Faraday 

 of a new application of electricity that "consists of 

 an electric light which is truly splendid and which 

 can be immediately employed for illuminating light- 

 houses." ^= 



Faraday's approval was the result of some demon- 

 strations that Holmes made for Faraday and the 

 Trininty House Light Committee in March 1857 in 

 the latter's experimental "lantern" at Blackwall, 

 near London (fig. 34). It was agreed that a more 

 extensive trial was to be made in a lighthouse, but 

 that Holmes would have to redesign his equipment in 

 order to meet the strict conditions imposed by the 

 Elder Brethren. 



The machine used at Blackwall was based on 

 Holmes' patent of the previous year. It had five 



banks of stationary electromagnets and six rotating 

 disks mounted on a common arbor driven by a 

 2)^-hp. steam engine at 600 r.p.m. There were 6 

 compound inagnets per disk and 24 electromagnets 

 per bank, and the generator was provided with a 

 commutator. The machine was quite large, meas- 

 uring 5 feet square and A)i feet high and weighing 

 2 tons.^'' As a result of the conditions imposed, it 

 now had to be directly coupled to the steam engine, 

 to run at a much lower speed, and to have a sufficiently 

 low electrical output so that it would not be dangerous 

 to the personnel using the equipment. It seeins quite 



^^ Cosmos, 1857, vol. 10, pp. 535-536. 

 Magazine, 1849, vol. 51, pp. 271-272. 



also Mechanics 



3« F. H. Holmes, "On Magneto-Electricity, and its Applica- 

 tion to Lighthouse Purposes," Journal of the Society of Arts, 

 1863, vol. 12, pp. 39-43; James N. Douglass, "The Electric 

 Light Applied to Lighthouse Illumination," Minutes of Pro- 

 ceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1879, vol. 57, pp. 

 77-165; Gustave Richard, "L'Eclairage electrique des cotes 

 d'Angleterre et d'Australie," La Lum'ere electrique, 1882, vol. 

 7, pp. 294-300, 327-329, 341-345, 410-414, 460-464, 480-484. 



PAPER 30: DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICAL TECHNOLOGY IN THE 19TH CENTURY 



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