FROM THE ARCHIVES:Gas companies were sceptical, even derisive, of Thomas Edison's new lighting system in the early 1880s, though a demonstration in London may have given them pause for thought, as this editorial described. – JOE JOYCE
THE GAS companies who have been felicitating themselves upon the supposed impracticability of distributing the electric light over a large area, and grinding it out from a central station to the complete satisfaction of consumers, may yet have cause gravely to ponder the latest development of Mr Edison’s ingenuity. The American inventor has set up a bureau upon Holborn Viaduct, and it is intended to be the centre of the future illumination. From the outset he has declared war against gas, and now claims to have devised a rival illuminant perfect in every point, which the course of time will demonstrate to be superior to anything known or likely to become known.
The glove is now fairly thrown down to the gas companies, and it remains to be seen in what temper the battle between gasometer and dynamo-machine will be fought out. The principle is the same as that upon which the ordinary gas supply is based. The lighting agent is produced at a central station, and distributed by means of wires, complete control being given over each separate lamp without effect upon the others, and the measurement of the electricity being given. The peculiar merit of the system is stated to be that at any point upon the circuit of wires a lamp may be attached which shall be of the same illuminating power as any other. Opinions differ as to the value of the lighting, but there can be no doubt that the American illuminator has solved a most intricate problem. The light is white, and produced by an incandescent carbon filament of elongated horse-shoe shape, and enclosed in a pear-shaped vessel of glass from which the air had been exhausted. Each lamp is of sixteen candle-power.
Mr Edison based his calculation [of cost], not upon the price at which gas was sold, but upon that at which it [electricity] could be made. If the promise thus held out to the public has anything of substantiality we may look for a reduction of the bill for domestic and street lighting to a figure astonishingly modest. It is evident that the struggle of gas versus electricity will receive a stimulus, and the result is most doubtful. It is questionable even whether in this case the principle of the survival of the fittest will be exemplified.
Electricity brightens our thoroughfares and places of assembly, and still the gas-flame burns undimmed in its warmer lustre. Mr Edison finds no discouragement in the circumstances, and is undeterred by the threats of law-courts and the thousand possibilities of infringing innumerable patents. He is confident that his idea will win favour. The public will watch the development of his system with interest. It is a daring speculation that domestic lighting by electricity can be popularised in a generation.
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