Abstract
IN NATURE, vol. xx. p. 110, an account is given of Sir William Thomson's evidence on the electric light. It is stated “that one horse-power had produced 1,200 candles of actual visible electric light, whereas one horse-power of energy would only produce 12-candle gas-light.” In the report of Sir J. W. Bazalgette and Mr. Keates to the Board of Works, which is probably the best report we have yet had on the subject, as to the actual cost of the electric light on the Thames Embankment, it is stated that-the cost of the electric light was 5.75d. per hour, whereas the cost of the gas required to produce a light equal to the electric light as regards illuminating power, in an opal globe, was 2.00d., and in a frosted globe 3.50d. per hour. Would any of your numerous readers be kind enough to give me some idea of the qualifications to be appended to the above statements, which will reduce the long odds calculated by Thomson of 100 to 1 in favour of the electric light, to the odds of 2 to 1 against it as found in actual practice? In conclusion may I venture humbly to suggest that such conflicting statements as the above, if unexplained, are apt to bring the dicta of scientific men into disrepute with the thinking portion of the general public.
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P., F. Electric Light. Nature 20, 169 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/020169c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/020169c0
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