The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1877-03-14
ELECTRIC CANDLES.
New and Brilliant Light Tor cities

A new invention. OF simple an,
practical nature, has OF late been success.
fully applied in several places in Ger.
many and France. The system consists
of electric candles, or sticks OF charcoal,
surrounded by isolating matter, which
gradually consumes, leaving the char
coal fire like wick, which slowly melts
away under the brilliant glow of cleo
triclty. With two such candles, a light
equal to that Of one hundred gas Jets
may be thrown on a street. An electro.
magnetic machine can keep burning
twenty OF these electric candles. The
cost is abont half that of gas, and the
light is of the brightest ami purest kind.
The Erielder ZietIni9 gives the following
account. by an eyewitness, of the wo. h
ing OF this mode of lighting In the ma
chine factory of the brothers Nicer. at
Gladbach
The great building was enyeloped in
total darkness when we entered. Soon
after one Of the proprietors lighted the
small developing apparatus, IN size not
longer than thirty inches, and in height
not more than sixteen inches. As soon
as It was set in operation by small
| steam power with which it was con.
nected by belt, the immense machine
room was in simultaneously lit up as
bright as day. AT the entrance Of the
same there was to be seen only one lamp,
at height OF fifteen or sixteen feet,
which gave 1t most brilliant and steady
light. Ii was so clear that the finest
shades of indgo-iyed silks could be
easily distinguished. The electric light
was distributed In sach manner,
through the agency of mirror, that
q long stay in the room in nowise
iniuriously affected the eyes. On 90
ing into the garden an electrio Ian
tern, suddenly lighted, Illuminated the
whole neighborhood to such degree
that at hundred feet very fine print
| could be read, and at two hundred fifty
feet larger and ordinary characters were
| plainly legible. OF the wonderful pro-
pertes of this electric light we had the
clearest proof. and we were further
pleased TO learn that in this establish
ment the cost is estimated at a fourth to a
sixth of gas-light. In large rooms. hal
public squares and streets, the electric
light before long is sure TO take The
place OF gas as an Illuminating agent. In
France it is rapidly growing in favor,
and is in operation in forty establish
ments. The immense depot OF the Che
min de Fer du Nord at Paris is about,
also, to be lighted by this same cleo
tric system. There is no danger what
ever of fire from ii, which gives it
an Unreasonable advantage over all
other means OF illumination. The Paris
engineer. Grammc, and the Chief EDgi-
neer Won Hefener Alteneek, of the firm
OF Siemens llalske, in Berlin, were the
first who constructed the electrO-mag-
netic machines, by means OF which a
pleasing mechanical power is converted,
in simple and practical manner, into
electric light. This invention is one of the
most remarkable of modern times.
Outdoor work can be carried on by
night as well as by day with this light,
as it eXpels the darkness and fills the at
mosphere with an almost sunlight luster.
In the lighting OF cities by this new
process, the economy, as compared with
gas, will be at least 90 per cent. We are
evidently on the eve OF as great a reyolu-
ton in lighting as when gas superseded
oil lamps and tallow candles.