430 
Scientific Notes. 
[July, 
been made, by M. Paul Jablochkoff, an officer in the Russian engineer- 
ing service. M. Jablochkoff’s invention is called the Electric Candle, and 
is said to be devoid of all those appliances and restrictions which have ren- 
dered the application of the ordinary eledtric light to general lighting purposes 
an impossibility. The eledtrodes employed are composed of two small slips 
of carbon placed side by side, insulated by a piece of kaolin. Kaolin, in its 
solid state, is an insulator offering high resistance to the eledtric current, but 
which, under the influence of a powerful eledtric current, becomes heated and 
liquefies, in which state it is no longer an insulator, but a conductor offering a 
slight resistance to the current, which, when passed through it in this condi- 
tion, affords a light, soft, steady, and brilliantly white, although it may be 
coloured by mixing with the kaolin the colour required. No mechanism is 
required to regulate this light, which once set up continues to burn during the 
passage of the current until the carbons are consumed, when they are replaced 
by others. The eledtrical arrangement consists of an ordinary magneto 
machine sending positive and negative currents alternately. From this 
machine radiate wires by which the current evolved is conveyed to the build- 
ings, or points, at which it is required for use. The illuminating arrangement 
is put in circuit with these wires, and on the current traversing the carbon 
eledtrodes, it fuses the kaolin and produces the light. Thus, given a means 
of producing the necessary eledtric current, any number of lights may be 
obtained from the same eledtro-motor ; each dependent upon itself and all 
entirely independent of each other. Any one light may be brought into use 
at pleasure, and extinguished when required, by connedting, or disconnedting, 
the wires in connection with them; whilst a light consumed may be replaced 
by another with equal ease. A series of experiments illustrating the lighting 
capabilities of this invention took place on June 15, at the West India Docks. 
The electric power was produced by one of the Paris Alliance Company’s mag- 
neto-electric machines, with thirty-two horse-shoe magnets of seven plates each, 
and worked by a small agricultural engine of about eight horse-power. A yard 
150 feet by 70, and covered with an awning, was well lighted with four lamps, 
mounted on posts about 15 feet high, each of which were said to be equal to 
one hundred gas-lights, but the size of the gas-light was not specified. The 
lights were toned down by opal glass globes. Pearl type was legible at any 
part of the covered area. After burning for about twenty minutes the lights 
were extinguished, and four gas-lamps, with four powerful burners to each, 
were turned on, evidently with the intention of showing the difference between 
the orange colour of the gas-flame and the pure white of the eledtric lamp. 
The company then adjourned to a large warehouse at the top of an adjacent 
building, measuring about 50 yards long by 25 yards wide, which was lighted 
from the outside by three eledtric candles without any intervening globes. 
Two of these candles were placed at the side and one at the end, but being 
only breast high the shadows of persons passing in front of them greatly in- 
terfered with the experiments tried. One of the objedts of this portion of the 
trial was to ascertain whether this light could be used for sampling various 
descriptions of produce and merchandise. Several experts were present, but 
owing to the position of the light being horizontal instead of vertical, there 
semed to be some doubt as to its value in the case of samples of coffee, grain, 
pepper, and similar commodities, inasmuch as the strong shadow cast horizon- 
tally by the individual grains of the produce under examination interfered 
materially with their colour — the particular tint of a coffee berry, for instance, 
being an important fadttor in the estimation of the value of a sample. It was 
far otherwise with a nnmber of samples of coloured alpaca goods. The most 
difficult colours to judge of by gas-light, or during foggy weather, are dark 
olive greens, puces, and blues. Next to these come the lightest shades of 
straw-yellow and cream-colour. In the first case the colours are not to be 
distinguished from black, and in the second from white ; but under the eledtric 
light the darkest Navy blues and the lightest greys came out in their true 
tints, even to the eyes of the uninitiated. The company then adjourned to the 
quay below, alongside which a large barque had been moored. Here the 
practicability of lighting ships’ decks and holds, and the adjoining wharfs, was 
