[April, 
292 The Jablochkoff Candle : 
bankment, the Holborn Viaduct, the British Museum 
Reading-Room, and the fish-market at Billingsgate, under 
the able direction of M. Berly, the agent of the Paris 
Societe Generate d’EleCtricite. 
The experiment on the Thames Embankment is the most 
extensive and important that has yet been tried in England, 
both with respeCt to the number of lamps used and to the 
elaborate data which are being collected with regard to its 
cost, its virtues, and its defects. The portion of the Em- 
bankment which is lighted is that lying between Westminster 
and Waterloo Bridges, a distance of about three-quarters of 
a mile. The experiments have been carried out by the 
Metropolitan Board of Works under the direction of their 
engineer, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and their consulting che- 
mist, Mr. T. W. Keates, who have both determined that as 
far as in them lies the experiments shall be thoroughly ex- 
haustive and their results conclusive. The engine and 
machinery for generating the currents are placed in a wooden 
shed on the west side of the Charing Cross railway-bridge, 
the conducting-wires being led under the roadway to the 
subway which runs under the footway next the parapet-wall 
of the Embankment, ar.d so up to the lamps, which are 
carried by every alternate gas standard on the wall. The 
engine, which is by Ransome, Sims, and Head, is one of 
20-horse power nominal, working at about 45 lbs. pressure. 
It is provided with a newly-invented governor, aCting on 
the expansive principle, and has worked uninterruptedly 
from the 16th of December until the present time without a 
single hitch. It is to the extreme regularity of this engine 
and to the solid foundation which has been laid for it that 
we must attribute the great superiority in the steadiness of 
the Jablochkoff lights on the Embankment as compared 
with those shown elsewhere. The dynamo-eleCtric appa- 
ratus consists of a Gramme continuous current exciting 
machine and an alternate-current distributing machine of 
20-light power. The number of lamps is twenty, divided 
into four circuits of five. They are, with one exception, 
supported by the gas standards on the river parapet, and, 
roughly speaking, are from 40 to 45 yards apart. From the 
engine-house to the farthest lamp on the Westminster side 
the distance is about 700 yards, and to that on the Waterloo 
side about 450 yards. Each lamp contains four candles, 
which are switched into their places as they are required by 
an automatic commutator, the holders being surrounded, 
with one exception, by opal glass globes 20 inches in 
diameter. Two lamps near the railway bridge are provided 
with flat reflectors, 4 feet in diameter, placed on the top of 
