Scientific American Supplement, No. 648, June 2, 1888.Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 648, June 2, 1888.
Various
Science -- Periodicals
The glow-lamp in process of manufacture before you is now being unsealed
from the pump; it is now exhausted, and we will pass a current through it
so as to raise it to incandescence. The current is now on, and you see the
lamp burns with full brilliancy. The next experiment is rather a cruel
one, because it is willful destruction. I will not destroy the lamp that
has just been made before us, for I will keep it as a memento of this
evening. I want to show the safety of the electric lamp. Many people
imagine that there is a great deal of danger about it. I will take a
handkerchief, and in it place a lighted lamp, when, on the globe being
broken, the carbon filament instantly goes out, and there is no damage to
the handkerchief, or the slightest appearance of scorching or heating upon
it. On breaking that lamp you heard a report. That is due to the vacuum,
which, on sudden rupture, the air rushes in to fill. These lamps will not
only burn in air, but will actually burn in water. Here I have a lamp
which on placing in a bowl of water continues alight in the water just as
well as in the air. You can imagine what an immense boon that is to our
divers and others who unfortunately have to work under water for our
benefit.
I will not attempt to occupy your time in speaking of the beauties of this
wonderful light, how it removes really poison from our air, how it is very
good for sore eyes, because it burns with such steadiness that those who
work under it really never find, in any shape or form, any inconvenience
or discomfort to the eyes. It is extremely cleanly; it does not fill the
air we breathe with noxious fumes. People are little aware of it, but it
is a very simple calculation to show that thirty gas burners produce a
gallon of water in an hour, so that if you have thirty burners in a shop,
for instance, alight for six hours, six gallons of water are produced and
the water can very often be seen running down the cold windows of shops.
That water absorbs sulphur and sulphuric acid, and when deposited on books
and decorations destroys them. If we could only get the electric light
cheap, delivered at our doors, then everybody who has an idea of luxury
and comfort would at once take it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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