Of the multifarious ways in which modern invention and skill are laid under contribution to the end that voyagers shall have the maximum of safety and comfort on board ship, the system of electric lighting now so extensively adopted is not the least noteworthy. It is only about three years ago since the application of the incandescent form of electric lamp on board ship was first tried. The success of the system and its rapid extension during the subsequent period has been remarkable, and is a matter upon which electricians, shipowners, and sea voyagers are alike to be congratulated. In every well-appointed passenger ship for ocean service, the electric light has already supplanted the former method of lighting the saloons, state-rooms, and machinery spaces, by means of oil lamps, which has so often proved a fruitful source of annoyance to passengers and crew, if not, indeed, of positive danger to the vessel herself. The advantages of the change are such as constitute the electric light an invaluable acquisition on board every modern passenger steamship. The light gives off very little heat, there is no smell, no products of combustion to produce headaches and sickness. No matches are required, and the danger from fire is absolutely reduced to a minimum. The light requires little or no attention on the part of stewards, for it is only requisite that a man be sent round once a day to see whether any of the lamps require renewal, and the renewal of a lamp is performed as simply as trimming the wick of an oil lamp or placing a fresh candle into a candlestick. The danger, annoyance and time, formerly spent in storing up and dealing out large quantities of paraffin or other oils, are completely obviated. The lamps are as easily subject to the control of the passenger as ordinary gas jets. Instead of the flickering and somewhat clumsy oil lamps, the electric system presents, encased in neat, tiny, glass globes, a steady, mellow white light, the adaptability of which to any conceivable position or design is one of its most beautiful properties. The artistic grouping of the electric incandescent lamps, and their combination with the architectural features of saloons, are matters to which the forms adopted for the best known lamps—the Edison & Swan types—specially lend themselves. A single Edison lamp is shown by Fig. 11.