Year: 1879

sufnclent to render q room Of ordinary
size cheerful and coy. Gas had been
discovered, and utilized in places of
business long time before it was intro
duced into our better houses: and then
it was that petroleum or kerosene took
the place of candles in poorer localities,
and it is still in universal use.


You may think that there is nothing
better to be desired than gas; but il
the ladies present would consider how
this light changes and injuries many
delicate colors, and how unbecoming it
is, they would rejoice in that restless
spirit of invention that is ever crying
Excelsiorp and is now using all its re-
sources to bring the exquisitely beauti-
full pure white electric light into COM
mon use. Let me show you the effect of
light still more yellow than gaslight on
those colors hanging up. tits sodium
light, and sodium is only common salt
prepared for burning"


Here the Professor applied q match
to one of the things on the table Of
which / told you l did not know the
uses. A dull deep yellow fame sprang
up. ALI the blue, red and green in
what we will call the banner vanished
utterly, nobody knows where, leaving
three ugly gray and leaden-colored
stripes, while the pale yellow border had
an attack of yellow jaundice imme-
diately, and became orange-coler. The
Professor held his hand against the
fame, and it changed to ghastly gray
hand, and as to US, We looked like
dressed-up ghosts.


You see now," said the Professor,
chow great an improvement a white
light ought to be. am told that when
ladies purchase silk for an evening dress
they request to have it shown BY gas
light. Some OF the larger stores have
little room lighted only by gas for
this purpose; and it is surprising to no.
tice how silk, beautiful in daylight,
will alter and become dingy in color the
moment the gaslight flashes upon 1t"
And now the Professor, putting out
the hateful sodium light, touched a
hidden spring. In an instant-like the
winking OF an eye-a tiny but most
glorious star, or, what it was still more
like, or was really, bit of imprisoned
lightning, flashed out of the end of a
coiled copper wire, with thousands of
luminous silver rays emanating from it.


A-h, how beautiful how superbp
exclaimed everybody.


Instantly, all the colors in the banner
on the wall became perfect and true; (;
blue was blue, and green, green, and
you know how these colors are often
mistaken one for the other at night.
The colors of the ladies' dresses, soft
lavender, blue, pink, and gray, we're in
lovely and harmonious contrast, and
diamonds flashed like little electric
points. Why, everybody looked hand
somer than ever they had before. The
fine dark eyes of the Professor were
sparkling, and his face beaming with
pleasure, because he saw that he had
given pleasure to others, which after all
is the best, the purest happiness. Then
he put white porcelain shade over the
electric light, and with the softened
brightness another delighted exclama-
tion passed like wave over the crowd !;
for you know that Light, like sound,
travels in waves, though light beats
sound by an infinite number of times
in speed. / might as well tell you here
that while a sound would be travelling
leisurely about thirteen miles in a
minute, flash of light can go the dis
tance of four hundred and eighty times
round the whole earth!


The porcelain shade over the electric
light made it seem as if moon, brighter
than hundred moons, had foated down
upon US; and yet it was all the time
that mere speck of lightning-chained
up, bound down hand and foot by the
Professor.


Soon, by a mysterious turn of his
hand, the light darted to another
copper WIRE. This other was an English
application of electricity, and has been
used good deal in England-in dock
yards, iron-works, railway stations and
manufactures. Itwas very br ght, but
it fickered little. Then he made the
| light dart to the ecandlestickI mentioned,
| which was invented in Paris by man
whose funny name is Jablochkof. had
to go to the Professors the next morn
ing to get this name, for wrote it first
" Bobbleyjock," then Bumpterhau-
sen," and then Butthurpurttles," and
none of them seemed right. This can.
dlestick made lovely light. A large
number of them were used at the Paris
Elk position, which must have been mag
nifcent at night illuminated by this i'm
prisoned lightning.


The Professor said that he had tried
10 have Mr.. Edison present and tell us
of his amazing inventions; but he was
SO overwhelmed with business connected
with electric light that he could not
come. Let us all hope that Mr.. Edison
will succeed in making electricity the
light that will, like the sun, "shine fol
all" for, besides its being so beautiful
and SO true, it will be far cheaper thar
any light we now have.