On Recent Improvements in Electric Lighting. 61 



At Blackpool, a small watering-place of the north, the 

 corporation decided on lighting up the promenade and piers 

 for a certain number of weeks each season. The system 

 adopted is Siemens'. There are eight lights of COOO-candle 

 power, all direct lights. Six of these lamps are suspended from 

 poles 60 feet from the ground ; the other two lamps are on the 

 Prince of Wales Theatre, midway between the two piers. 

 The eight Dynamo machines are driven by two Robey engines 

 of sixteen horse-power each; the total length lighted is 1800 

 yards, and it is spoken of as being perfectly successful. 



At the Victoria Station of the Metropolitan District Rail- 

 way the JablochkofF system is in use. The space illuminated 

 is 300 feet x 50 feet, and 40 feet high; there are two platforms, 

 with spaces 20 feet between. Ten lights are used — five on the 

 down, dividing the space equally ; four on the up, in alter- 

 nate spaces; and one central, over the bridge. The lights are 

 enclosed in 16-inch opal globes. The Gramme machine 

 is 2373 yards distant, and forms part of a circuit of the same 

 machine that supplies ten lights on Waterloo Bridge. The 

 steam engine that maintains it is now driving several 

 machines, supplying altogether eighty lights. At Ludgate 

 Hill a large establishment has just been lighted by thirteen 

 JablochkofT's candles, supplied by a Gramme machine, driven 

 by a twelve horse-power gas engine. 



The Brush machine supplies from one to sixteen lamps in 

 one circuit. At a cotton factory on Rhode Island machines 

 have been in use some time, supplying eighty lamps; and on 

 the introduction of this system of lighting in London lately 

 it appears to have met with marked success. According, 

 however, to trials made with various machines, the Brush 

 did not give as great an efficiency per horse-power as the 

 Gramme; on the other hand, the continuous current Gramme 

 will only supply one light. 



At the Hippodrome, Paris, the electric light apparatus is 

 of the most perfect kind ; the Gramme system is used, both 

 continuous and alternate current machines, the lamps being 

 the Serrin and JablochkofF. The motor power consists of 

 two engines of one hundred and twenty horse-power each. 



The different systems enumerated possess certain advant- 

 ages for each purpose ; the knowledge acquired as to the 

 best system for any particular purpose must, I think, be 

 considered an important advancement in electric lighting. 



Where large open spaces or rooms require lighting, the 

 direct system, as before stated, appears to be the best, and 



