89 
1879.] L Schwendler —On Electric Light JSLecisuvemcnts. 
directions, and consequently the working currents can increase to a very 
considerable degree without spoiling the dynamo-electric machine. 
But practically I find the Siemens Lamp somewhat difficult to man¬ 
age, and although, when once well adjusted, it burns as regularly as the 
Serrin Lamp, it is far more difficult to arrive at this adjustment. 
For practical use I prefer, therefore, the Serrin Lamp, with those 
alterations and constructional improvements which my own experiments 
have suggested. X shall not refer to these improvements here. 
A second cause of the irregularity of the electric light is the still 
imperfect state of the carbon points. 
They sometimes split, break off, burst, and crumble. Under these, 
circumstances, not even the most perfect lamp will produce a steady light. 
Of late some great improvements have been made in the manufacture 
of artificial carbons, but much more is required ; and this point deserves 
the closest attention. In my final Report I shall treat this subject in 
detail. With the improvements which I have been able to introduce in 
reference to lamps, position, form, and nature of the carbons, the electric 
light (emanating in a line passing through the centre of the arc, and 
being normal to the axis of the arc) is still exceedingly variable (ranging 
in intensity during short intervals of time between 1 and 3). 
It is true that these variations in the light are flashes lasting for a 
moment only ; but they are nevertheless there, the eye perceives them, and 
they are disagreeable. 
To make the electric light more steady should be considered one of 
the most important questions to be solved. 
HI. —How TO PUT UP T1IE LlGIIT—POSITION AND MECHANICAL 
Details. 
To solve this question is of the greatest practical importance. 
Two essentially different methods are available :— 
Division of the Electric Light, i. e., to produce by the same electro¬ 
motor a number of lights at different points of a given space. 
This method, besides being scarcely solved, appears to be impractica¬ 
ble from an engineering point of view. 
Such divisions of the electric light can only be effected by a large 
sacrifice of total and external light, and moreover this loss increases rapidly 
with the number of lights burned in the same circuit. 
It appears that the electric light can alone compete with light pro¬ 
duced by combustion, when produced of great intensity in one point by one 
dynamo-electric machine. 
