Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 1879-1881, Vol. 9: With Abstracts of the Discourses Delivered at the Evening Meetings
For more than twenty years magneto-electricity had subserved its first and noblest purpose of augmenting our knowledge of the powers of nature. It had been discovered and applied to intellectual ends, its application to practical ends being still to be realized. The Drummond light had raised thoughts and hopes of vast improvements in public illumination. Many inventors tried to Obtain it cheaply; and in 1853 an attempt was made to organize a company in Paris for the purpose of procuring, through the decomposition of water by a powerful magneto electric machine constructed by M. Nollet, the oxygen and hydrogen necessary for the lime light. The experiment failed, but the apparatus by which it was attempted suggested to Mr. Holmes other and more hopeful applications. Abandoning the attempt to produce the lime light, with persevering skill Holmes continued to improve the appa ratus and to augment its power, until it was finally able to yield a magneto-electric light comparable to that of the voltaic battery. Judged by later knowledge, this first machine would be considered cumbrous and defective in the extreme; but judged by the light Of antecedent events, it marked a great step forward.
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