Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-11-27

claim they have done the same thing, or have
Just carried their experiments to the very
verge of doing it. A man in London lights
up blazing meteor of lamp with a stream
of electricity; then he lights two, six, and
finally ten house-lamps FROM the same stream;
then he puts them out, one by one, like so
many gas-lamps. That looks as if the want
ed illumination had come. Detroit has man,
Of Belgian birth and French bringing up,
who is 'backed" to the amount of thirty
thousand dollars By Detroit capitalist. This
inventor declares he has the best light in the
world, one that viii cost one dollar where
gas costs FIVE dollars, and he can light every
residence and street in Detroit, while every
light can be made to blaze with overwhelm-
ing effulgence, or be turned down to a mere
dim button of blaze. Can all this end
without giving to every house, mandatory,
edifce and street all the light that can he
wanted, and on the cheapest terms, and so
under control that each consumer can be &C
commodated with just as much or as little
light as he requires? If this is
done, what hope is there for coal
gas, what chance for even water-gas, should
electricity prove available? Also, how will
gas stocks quote in the markets? This ques-
ton many citizens in the States, and subjects
in Europe, are answering by seeking to sell
out their gas shares. Those shares have felt
the effects, and even in Memphis, as men
look upon the brilliant glare that lights up
the thick atmosphere of the gloomy Novem-
Der nights, men picture to themselves the
powerful beaming of the coming electric, and
down drops the price of gas stock; so far down
that 1T is hard for a sixteen. candle power
bat wing burner to show light enough to
distinguish where buyer of gas stock is to
be found. With all ths-in the midst of this
burst of light, this glow of carbon, this army
of lamps-rivals of the Alladin specimen
there are doubling Thomases, who say the
thing cannot be done, and that fortunes can
be made by investing-not in electricity-but
in just the same coal-gas light we have be-
come so accustomed to. The Gas light
Journal, paper that is managed by head
that has brains in it, shows that even
with final success there must be many
failures in the early trials. Further
experimenting will show the need of new
notifications in implements and lamps, and
the public will wait until something that can
be relied upon gains confidence. While the
public is waiting, the gas will be wanted
nearly as much as ever, and If it has event
ually to disappear, it will be gradually and
not until more profits have been made and
more dividends pocketed. Prof. Youmens,
undazzled by the electric light we are to have,
declares, by the light of science, that house
hold lighting is no nearer being secured
than it was twenty years ago. Electricity is
a big thing. and it will make a big light, but
it cannot be driven or coaxed to give a sue
cessful little one. 1t will produce giants but
no pigmies, as the internal heat will give us
volcano, but will not boil our kettle as
kitchen fire. Thus we still want eight,
more light, If it is only light enough to en-
allie US to see whether we ought to sell all
our gas stock, or buy all that other people are
willing to sell.