placed. Let us hope this is now about to be removed. I am sure we all
rejoice that such is the case, as all we want is a "fair field and no
favor." We can with confidence await the result.


THE WELSBACH GAS LIGHT.

In the mean time, however, while electricity for lighting purposes has,
to say the least, not made any startling advances, we have, besides the
regenerative lamps before mentioned, the new Welsbach light, which is
exhibited before you to-day, by the kindness of Dr. Wallace; and if the
results said to be obtained by it are at all what they are represented
to be, we certainly have a new departure in gas lighting of no mean
order. Dr. Wallace--a gentleman who is well known to us as one well
qualified to test its merits--has found that the Welsbach burner
produces a light equal to more than 9 candles per cubic foot of gas of
25 candle power, thus nearly doubling the amount of light compared with
gas consumed in the ordinary way.

The construction and manufacture of the burner I have seen described in
these terms: Chemists have been diligently working for many years on the
problem of how to convert into light the highly condensed heat of the
Bunsen burner; and a Vienna chemist now claims to have solved it.

The first condition of the problem was to find a medium on which the
heat could be perfectly concentrated and raised to illuminating power.
Many experiments have been made with platinum in a Bunsen flame, and a
brilliant enough light has been produced, but at a cost altogether
outside commercial use. The Vienna chemist, Dr. Welsbach, has discovered
a composition which is as good a non-conductor--that is to say