The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-12-17 00:00:00

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

The D• a y Sew telegraphing on Wednesday says :—Mr.
Edison author.' • the it stement that his light his pro-
duced by the incandescence of an alloy of platinum and
iridium. The conductor is not an ordinary cod, but
peculiar arrangement of the metal, whereby, in saw-
dance with a new discovery of all in connection with
radiant energy, • much weaker cdrrent is made to
gene-ate a given light that if • single spiral were used.
By alight modidcations in the shape of the conductor ha
hag obtain id from one cell of • Daniell battery a light
strong rodosigh to read by. A simple adjustable apparatus
attached to • sch lamp regulates the am Jura of electric tr
It shall draw from the main current, sad make. it entirely
indep,ndent of any changes in the strength of the current
as welt., of all other bumps in the circuit That portion
of the current which is used for the regulator Is also made
to serve in the production ef the light. A part of Mr.
Eiison's device for compensating for loss in subdivision
consists apparently in the utilisation for illuminating
purposes of the routine* of the regulator, and of all
other resistance outside of the main conductor, Lett part
in the peculiar form of the conductor. The details are
still • secret Mr. Edison bee Jost obtained two patents
here, and bee applications for nine others, pending
specifications for a third English patent Just forwarded.

TES FARMER'S CHANCES IN AFRICA.
" If English *migrante choose to select Central South
Africa as a field for their labours. they mum, to • very
great extent, begin under similar cmditios. to three iet
which the Ei3Of exist . . . African fanning does not
promise large fortune.; and enterprise will and in At riot
few opportunities for extensive and readily reneunierstive
itoproverometn Progress for years to come most be slow.
Somme is not to be achieved by rashes; and I feel myself
bound, as • public writer, to warn people not to be led
away by the glowing amount' of interested land-jobbers
or of enthusiastic travellers into dreams of high farming,
wonderful improvements, sad immense return' in con-
nection with any part of the Transvaal. It is a Sias
country to settle in. for a man of moderate expectations,
who hopes bey the exercise of thrift and energy to leave to
his family the mesas of cord irtable subsistence, as rich
peamate or weed-clam crazier.. The emigraat moat,
from the first, look upon himself entirely us settler sad
• colonist, and on South Africa, not only as his owe home,
but as the birth and abiding-place M any descendanta he
may be blared with. No ides of the 'moody acquisition
of wealth, with • subsequent returo to England amid all
the glory and Vim of sercessful *dreamers, must be
indulged in. . . . • man may have • comfortable
home, twenty or thirty arras of plough-lands, a derma.
house, and be able to Day £lOO or perhaps ARM per annum
for • schoolmaster and a governess; and all this may be
obtained from small beginning. by • very small capitalist
indeed; but the seasible emigrant must not hope for
better or greater things than their. If he dose Iv will
certainly be dlaappotntecL"—The /Veevessf of to-day, by
Mired Aylward.

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY&
It has been a subject of complaint at holiday times in
recent years, and especially at Christmas, that the
facilities afforded by the Railwat Companies for obtaaing
tickets are of too limited • cOaracter. The travelling
public will, therefore, be gratified to learn that as regards
one Railway at least, arrangements hare been made for
the forthcoming holiday season, whereby easy
obtain tickets at their leisure, and those
and confusion inseparable from • booking-office at •
metropolitan terminus on • day like Christmas Ere.
Ticket offices have been opened by the Great Western
Railway Company at no leo than seven places in the
metropolis, viz :-351, Oxford-street ; 4EG, New Oxford.
street; 35. Charing-cross; 5. Arthur-street, London
Bridge 111 Ours*. ‘'ictoria-streve ; 43 and 44, Crotched
Friar. ; end 4, Cheapaide—at either of which places tickets
can be obtained on and after Friday, December s,oth, for
use on either day up to and including Christmas Eve, as
also at the booking•otßee at Paddington Station, which will
be open for the issue of such tickets the whole of the day
on pday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday before Christ-
mas Day.
By permission of the Postmaster-General, the limited
mail train from Paddington to the West of England and
goath Wales on the evening. of Saturday, December UM,
and Tuesday, December
E 24th, carry second-class
; and on Christmas Eve, in neequence of the irculngtrwhich the Poet-office authorities?* in former years
have experieneed in getting the mails off to time, the train
will leave at 945 p.m., instead of 9 o'clock, and will be
correspondingly later at all placer to which it carries the
mails, and on thM evening a special feet train to the West
of England will follow the mall, lzriowt 10 o'clock, and
carrying third-dun Pnrcenierc at • low fare.
The newspaper train leering dington at 510 ant
will run on Christina' Dar the some as other days to
Bristol, Gloucester, and New Milford, and the usual
Intermediate stations- so that residents in those districts
will be able to obtain User pipers on that day, as usual.