"Madame Lebon, _nee_ De Brambille."

In 1801, Lebon was called to Paris, as _attache_ in the service of
Blin, engineer in chief of pavements. He took a second patent--a true
scientific memoir full of facts and ideas. It speaks of the numerous
applications of illuminating gas and its mode of production, lays down
the basis of the entire manufacture--furnaces, condensers, purifiers,
gas burners. Nothing is forgotten, not even the steam engine and
balloon. Lebon proposed to the government to construct an apparatus
for heating and lighting the public buildings, but the offer was
rejected. It was then that the unfortunate inventor, wearied by all
his tentatives, fatigued by his thousands of vexations, made up his
mind to have recourse to the public in order to convince it of the
utility of his invention. He rented the hotel Seignelay, St.
Dominique-St. Germain St., and invited the public thither. Here he
arranged a gas apparatus, which distributed light and heat to all the
rooms. He lighted the gardens with thousands of gas jets in the form
of rosettes and flowers. A fountain was illuminated with the new gas,
and the water that flowed from it seemed to be luminous. The crowd
hastened from all parts and came to salute the new invention. Lebon,
excited by this success, published a prospectus, a sort of profession
of faith, a model of grandeur and sincerity, a true monument of
astonishing foresight. He followed his gas into the future and saw it
circulating through pipes, whence it threw light into all the streets
of future capitals. We reproduce a few passages from this remarkable
production:

"It is painful," says he, "and I experience the fact at this moment,
to have extraordinary effects to announce. Those who have not seen cry
out against the possibility, and those who have seen often judge of