296 The Jablochkoff Candle . [April, 
of the readers, and there appears to be a general agreement 
that at the four desks each lighted with a candle it was 
perfectly possible to read, write, trace, draw, and even 
colour, with the greatest ease and comfort. The source of 
electricity on this occasion was a 20-light Robey portable 
engine of 16-horse power nominal. Four circuits of four 
lamps each were used, — that is to say, twelve in the 
reading-room, one in the entrance-hall, one in the portico, 
and two in the machine and engine shed. This experiment 
was remarkable for being the first occasion of the intro- 
duction of an improved jablochkoff candle, in which the 
kaolin seam is replaced by a composition which is a feeble 
conductor. One of the great defects of the eleCtric light, 
re-lighting by hand after sudden extinction from accidental 
causes, is thus entirely done away with. The use of carbon 
priming for lighting or re-lighting is no longer necessary, 
and one, two, three, or the whole of the four candles may 
be lighted or extinguished by turning the handle of a suit- 
able commutator, or if one goes out it lights itself auto- 
matically without extinguishing its neighbours. 
The Societe Generale d’Ele&ricite deserves great credit 
for the public spirit they have shown in gratuitously sup- 
plying everything necessary for making this interesting 
experiment, which will be carried into practice as soon as 
the consent of Parliament has been obtained. 
The experiments at Billingsgate were a complete failure, 
from a somewhat ludicrous cause — the Jablochkoff candle 
was literally too good for the work it had to do. Business 
at Billingsgate, as most people know, begins between 3 and 
4 in the morning, most of the bargains between the 
salesmen and their customers being struck by gaslight. If 
the beautiful goddesses and fairies of the stage that used to 
enthral our hearts in the days of our youth had been sud- 
denly transferred from the yellow glow of the footlights 
into the open daylight the disenchantment would have been 
painful — Titania would have become converted into a 
Hecate, and Venus into a Megsera. The Billingsgate fish 
suffered a similar transformation under the searching rays 
of the eleCtric light : soles that would have fetched a 
shilling a pair by gaslight looked dear at sixpence, while 
turbot fresh from the sea looked a week old. The result 
was a general outcry. The copious and ornate dialed of 
the locality was enriched by a number of notable additions 
during the few days that the eleCtric light had sway ; so, for 
fear of a revolt among the “ bummarees,” as the fish 
salesmen are called, the Corporation was obliged to restore 
