ANOTHER ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Patea Mail, 22 September 1882, Page 3

ANOTHER ELECTRIC LIGHT.

NO MOTIVE POWER. The Melbourne Age mentions that an electric light has been displayed for several evenings in a window in Bourkestreet, generated from a new electric battery perfected by Messrs Louis Mallac and J. Dronhet. The light is of a very luminous arid steady character, and one flame is said to be equal to about 18 or 20 gas jets. The appliance for producing the light is contained on the premises. Steam or other motive power is dispensed with, and the inventors have succeeded in producing electricity for illumination by a combined system of batteries. In a word, the product is the effect- of chemical, instead of mechanical agencies. The invention or discovery is, so far, a secret, _bnt'steps are being taken to patent it throughout the world. For the lighting of a large establishment the apparatus can be obtained in a box about the size of a cottage piano, so that very little inconvenience would result to any household adopting it as a means of tion. The light, which is a pure white one, is estimated to cost a little less than per hour, and the battery, without replenishment, can generate a supply sufficient to last three months. It also has the advantage that, when the light is not bnrning, there is no waste. The Universal Electric Light Company have purchased the invention, and are arranging further tests and exhibitions of its value.

A new lamp in which gas and electricity are combined is talked about, says the scientific correspondent of the Australasian, It is a new application of an old principle in vogue some years ago, when gas-burners were provided with small pieces of platinum foil, arranged so as to be heated in the gas flame. When this was heated by the gas, by a regenerative action, it heated the gas coming from the burner, and so caused an improvement in the light. In the new lamp aforesaid the burner is arranged so that a small current of electricity is passed through the platinum, arranged as above-mentioned. The gas is first lighted, this heats the platinum, the resistance of which is then increased, so that a current of electricity, which would be freely transmitted when the platinum was cold, will now heat the platinum to incandescence. This in turn heats the issuing gas to a very high temperature, so that a light equal to 30 candles can be obtained from the consumption of two cubic feet per hour, aided by a small electric current. By this means we may be able to combine the old with the new systems of illumination, and to utilise all our existing gas fittings.