1879] 
Electric Lighting. 
161 
practically cost nothing, and might be profitably delivered 
to the burners of gas consumers (of far better quality than 
now supplied in London) at one shilling per thousand cubic 
feet, if gas making were conducted on sound commercial 
principles,— that is, if it were not a corporate monopoly, 
and were subject to the wholesome stimulating influence of 
free competition and private enterprise.. As it is, our gas 
and the price we pay for it are absurdities ) and all calcula- 
tions respecting the comparative cost of new methods of illu- 
mination should be based not on what we do pay per 
candle-power of gas-light, but what we ought to pay and 
should pay if the gas companies were subjected to desirable 
competition, or visited with the national confiscation I con- 
sider they deserve. < . 
Having had considerable practical experience in the com- 
mercial distillation of coal for the sake of its liquid and 
solid hydrocarbons, I speak thus plainly and with full 
confidence. . . 
There is yet another consideration, and one ot vital im- 
portance, to be taken into account, viz., that whether we 
use the eledtric light derived from a dynamo-elearic source, 
or coal-gas— our primary source of illuminating power is 
coal, or rather the chemical energy derivable from the com- 
bination of its hydrogen and carbon with oxygen. Now 
this chemical energy is a limited quantity, and the progress 
of Science can no more increase this quantity than it can 
make a ton of coal weigh 21 cwts. by increasing the quan- 
tity of its gravitating energy. . 
The demonstrable limit of scientific possibilities is the 
economical application of this limited store of energy, by 
converting it into the demanded form of force without waste. 
The more indirect and roundabout the method of applica- 
tion, the greater must be the loss of power in the course of 
its transfer and conversion. In heating the boiler that sets 
the dynamo-elearic machine to work, about one-half the 
energy of the coal is wasted, even with the best constructed 
furnaces. This merely as regards the quantity of water 
evaporated. In converting the heat force into mechanical 
power-raising the piston, &c., of the steam-engme-this 
working half is again seriously reduced. In further con- 
verting this residuum of mechanical power into eleftncal 
energy, a further and considerable loss is suffered in ori- 
ginating and sustaining the motion of the dynamo-eleanc 
machine, in the dissipation of the eleftnc energy that the 
armature cannot pick up, and in overcoming the electrical 
resistances to its transfer. 
VOL. IX. (n.s.) M 
