All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

CHAPTER X The Coming of Electric Lighting The wonderful and far-reaching applications of elec- tric lighting which have been carried out during the past few years somewhat prevent us realising the fact that the possibility of utilising electricity in such a manner as to produce illumination was determined over a century ago. Indeed this discovery, if such it may be called, was made about the same time as coal- gas was being forced to the front as a lighting medium. It was the eminent British scientist, Sir Hum- phry Davy, who first demonstrated the feasibility of electric lighting. But it was essentially a lab- oratory experiment, and was carried out for the enlightenment of his scientific colleagues at the Royal Institution about 1809. The apparatus employed by Davy, while of simple design, was most elaborate. He took 2,000 primary batteries and coupled them together. The mammoth battery was necessary to supply the sufficiently powerful current which was required for the experi- ment. The negative and positive waves were led from the battery to two charcoal rods. Davy demon- strated that when these two electrically charged rods were brought together and then moved a little distance apart the current continued to jump across the gap, and in so doing gave a brilliant light, which was described as the electric arc. 216