THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1226, 6 November 1874, Page 4

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

The probability that in another war torpedo boats will be employed by belligerents, and the almost certainty that darkness will be taken advantage of by the attacking party to bring these formidable vessels in contact with the foe, has led the English Government to fit at least one of their gun boats, the Comet, with the electric light. The power ol this light is said to be such that no boat could approach it within a mile without being-discovered. The electric power is not generated in this instance by an ordinary battery, but by the employment of one of one of the electro magnetic induction machines of Mr Wilde. The machine on board the Comet is twenty-eight, inches high, twenty-four inches in length, and twenty-one inches in diameter. Its weight is about 11 cwt., and about four-horse power is ren"ired to drive the revolving- armatures with a velocity of 000 revolutions per minute. At this velocity the current will fuse an iron wire six feet long 0.00 inch in diameter and will burn carbon points half an inch square. The cost of working- the apparatus independent of the motive power, which is obtained from the donkey engines of the vessels is sai ito be four pence per hour. The efficiency and cheapness of the plan ought to recommend it to the owners and insurers of steam vessels. Not only would the presence of a ship be intimated, but an approaching- vessel would be seen at a sufficient distance to avoid collision. The four-horse power required to drive the machinery would not be missed in a large steamer; sailing; vessels when under way might ensily give motion to the snmo by a screw towed in the ship's wake and by means of a universal joint causing- a shaft to revolve on board.