It had been discovered and applied to intellectual ends, its
application to practical ends being still unrealised. The Drummond
light had raised thoughts and hopes of vast improvements in public
illumination. Many inventors tried to obtain it cheaply; and in 1853
an attempt was made to organise a company in Paris for the purpose of
procuring, through the decomposition of water by a powerful
magneto-electric machine constructed by M. Nollet, the oxygen and
hydrogen necessary for the lime light. The experiment failed, but the
apparatus by which it was attempted suggested to Mr. Holmes other and
more hopeful applications. Abandoning the attempt to produce the lime
light, with persevering skill Holmes continued to improve the
apparatus and to augment its power, until it was finally able to yield
a magneto-electric light comparable to that of the voltaic battery.
Judged by later knowledge, this first machine would be considered
cumbrous and defective in the extreme; but judged by the light of
antecedent events, it marked a great step forward.

Faraday was profoundly interested in the growth of his own discovery.
The Elder Brethren of the Trinity House had had the wisdom to make him
their 'Scientific Adviser;' and it is interesting to notice in his
reports regarding the light, the mixture of enthusiasm and caution
which characterised him. Enthusiasm was with him a motive power,
guided and controlled by a disciplined judgment. He rode it as a
charger, holding it in by a strong rein. While dealing with Holmes,
he states the case of the light pro and con. He checks the ardour of
the inventor, and, as regards cost, rejecting sanguine estimates, he
insists over and over again on the necessity of continued experiment
for the solution of this important question. His matured opinion was,
however, strongly in favour of the light. With reference to an
experiment made at the South Foreland on the 20th of April, 1859, he
thus expresses himself: 'The beauty of the light was wonderful. At
a mile off, the Apparent streams of light issuing from the lantern
were twice as long as those from the lower lighthouse, and apparently
three or four times as bright. The horizontal plane in which they
chiefly took their way made all above or below it black. The tops of
the bills, the churches, and the houses illuminated by it were
striking in their effect upon the eye.' Further on in his report he
expresses himself thus: 'In fulfilment of