Mr. G. Lane-Fox, an electrical engineer, for whose competence Mr.
Spottiswoode vouches, stated in a lecture to the Royal United Service Institution on Wednesday that the incande- scent system of lighting would completely prevail over the arc system, and that he believed, from experiments made, that it -would be found much cheaper than gas. The little globes used have hitherto been excessively brittle, but this has been over- -come, and the light will shortly be about one-twelfth the cost of -gas. That is to say, a light of 150-candle power will cost about as much as a gaslight of 12-candle power. This is most promis- ing, provided we can have a smaller power proportionally cheap; but this has hitherto been the difficulty. Nobody wants a light .of 150-candle power in an ordinary room. The time has almost arrived when some city should contract with a company to supply its streets and houses at a fixed, low rate, the city and the company dividing the cost of the fixtures. Private persons will not put them up merely for a six months' experiment, though they would pay a fair price for the light.
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