The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-02-07 00:00:00

THE WORKS OF RIIBENS.

The Brussels correspondent of the Pall Mall
Gazette writes :—According to a report laid before the
Communal Administration of Antwerp, Rubens has
left 2,235 pictures, of which 228 are sketches. There
exist besides 484 drawings by him. Of the pictures
and sketches 829 have never been reproduced; 670 of
his works are known only by reproductions, and cf
293 every trace has been lost, As the Artistic Con-
gress of 1877 had expressed the desire that a complete
collection of Rubens's works should be formed by the
town of Antwerp, the committee charged with in-
dicating the means for the realization of this desire
states that the town will be obliged to have repro-
duced 536 pictures and to acquire 921 prints in order to
carry out the desideratum. As reproductions of draw-
ings there are still wanting 126 engravings and 117
lithographs. The whole of the prints to be acquired
amount therefore to i,9'17; to which 653 photographs
have to be added. The cost of each print is estimated
at 10f., and that of the production of each photograph
at 601. admitting the possibility of photographing
only half of the pictures on the list of the committee
and all the 117 drawings, a sum of 30,000 f, will be re-
quired for the realization of the project. The Com-
munal Council of Antwerp has resolved to devote a
sum of 1,500 f. annually to the purchase of prints and
the taking of photographs; and the State makes a
similar grant for the purpose. It is hoped that the
collection of the reproductions will be as complete as
possible in'ten years from this. The photographs will
be taken with carbon, and the whole collection will
finally be deposited in the new museum at Antwerp
of which the construction will be commenced shortly.
EDISON'S ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Writing from Philadelphia, under date January 20th, a
Correspondent of 2he TiM4l says :
"The inventor of the electric light at Menlo-park,
Mr. Thomas A. Edison, has not yet been able to get
his light into practical operation, and the failure to do
so is causing much criticism. At the beginning of the
year he had about sixty lamps in successful opera-
tion, and his little carbon loop or horseshoe was
glowing in them and furnishing a light that
effecti rely replaced both gas and petroleum. He
was run down with visitors and investigators,
and in the rather loose way in which bardnese was conducted in his workshops this seri-
ously interfered with the manufacture of more
lamps. He had the lamps put up in the shops, houses,
and grounds, keeping accurate records of the perform-
ances of each. About ten days ago he found that quite
a large proportion—some 15 or 20 per cent.--of the
lamps were developing leaks, showing the vacuum to
be defective, and he then experimented upon systems
of obtaining a more perfect vaccum by trying different
forms of lamps, Whenever the lamp maintained the
vacuum, its performance continued perfect, and this
was the case with many of the earlier lamps manu-
factured. BLit Mr, Edison is not content with thia,
and he desires to reduce the proportion of defective
lamps to the smallest possible figure, and with this
object his experiments are going on. The point
where the platinum wires pass through the glass
gives trouble on account of differences in expansion
when the lamps are lighted. The tube at the upper
side of the lamp through which the air is exhausted,
and which is afterwards sealed up, also sometimes
developes leaks, so that it seems to be demonstrated
that effective sealing cannot always be secured when
one side is a vacuum. The experiments are directed
to remedying these defects in the construction of the
lamp, When the vacuum is maintained, the lamp
burns as successfully as ever, but as the time test
has developed these difficulties, they must be sur-
mounted before steps can be taken to put the inven-
tion in practical use. Hence nothing has yet been
done to bring the lamp into operation outside
Menlo-park; and there are all sorts of criticisms
and cavils at the delay. There are now about
eighty lamps In operation at Menlo-park, some with
changes of construction designed to obviate tbe
defects that have been *developed, and while Edison's
friends claim that the difficulties are overcome, it does
not yet seem to be practically demonstrated. Mean-
while the delays and adverse rumours are having their
usual effect, and the Edison Light Company's stock,
which had advanced to 3,500 dole, per share, has de-
clined to 1,500 dole. for 100 dol. shares,"