Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1878-11-19
ELECTRIC LIGHT.

1t does not need a very far-seeing
prophet to predict that we are on the
eve OF a great revolution in our methods
of artificial Illumination. This by no
means implies that the days of gas are
numbered; for, as gas has not super
seded oil, as railways have not super
seded canals, nor roads, nor other
methods of carnage, SO there is no rea-
son to suppose that electricity can
entirely supersede the myriad uses of
gas. AT any rate, We cannot cook by
electricity, and, even if we have to give
up gas as bottled light, it will still re-
main to us as bottled fuel and stored up
force. On the other hand, it is per
fectly clear that we have only now
begun to develop the resources with
which electricity furnishes us. The
telegraph was our first wonder, but it
is now as familiar as the penny post
We have already almost ceased to be
amazed at the telephone and the
phonograph, and now we are promised
light which shall make the night as
bright as the day. We shall still hear,
no doubt, as we have already heard,
good deal to the discredit of the new
illumination. 1t is costly, it is CHASTITY,
it is intermittent. it is excessive-in
fact, it is not wanted at all. The only
effective answer to all these objections,
some of which, at least, for all we know
at present, may be well-founded, is the
experimental one. Let us try the light
for ourselves, and see how we like it,
and whether it suits our purposes. If
1t fails, we shall be none the worse for
the experiment which satisfies us of its
failure; but if it meets our wants, we
shall not be deferred from adopting it
by objections expermentally proved to
be groundless. We certainly shall not
be content to stand still because a large
amount of capital has been invested in
a mode of illumination, excellent in its
way, and greatly in advance of its pre-
decessors, but still leaving much to be
desired Our forefathers had to be
content with the tinder-box, the rush
light, and the dip, and it is not so very
long since fire was sacred possession
Which, if the tinder was damp or other
wise failed of its function, had often to
be fetched from afar. Even in much
later times men fumbled for a light
with the clumsy and sulphurous lucifer,
and frequently had to lay aside their
work at night until the snuffers could
be found. Gas itself was Justly re-
garded as a triumph of civilization
when it was first introduced, and we
can still easily measure It's value by
considering how helpless we should be
ii the supply were suddenly to fail
But if, as a method of illumination, it
is destined to go the way of the rush
light and the tallow candle, we shall
hardly regret it any more than we re-
grettedits rude and clumsy predecessors.
1t has done us good service in its time,
but its days are evidently numbered, for
some purposes at least, and we shall
soon turn our backs on it's feeble and
muddy illumination to worship the
rising sun of electricity. If IA visit to
the lamps now in use in the Strand
does not suffice to convince US that the
future of street lighting now belongs to
electricity, we must wait until twenty
lamps of the Metropolitan Board of
Works diffuse mild and colorless day
light along the Victoria Embankment.
There can be little doubt, we appre-
hend, as to the result of the experiment,
and, in any case, the Metropolitan
Board of Works deserves every credit
for having determined to try it on so
conclusive scale. sset -
There are three main objections to
the electric light in its present form
namely, its cost, its excessive brilliancy
and the difficulty involved in its indefi-
mite subdivision. With the latter we
are assured that Mr.. Edison has already
successfully dealt; and, even if his dis
covery should prove to be exaggerated,
we cannot doubt that sooner or later
science will show its capacity to deal
with it. AS to the excessive brilliancy
Of the light and its alleged CHASTITY effect
on the human countenanee, precisely