y. He says: "My brother had
long been trying to bring his lamp to perfection. The neck of a broken
flask was lying on the chimney-piece. I happened to reach across the
table, and to place it over the circular flame of the lamp. Immediately
it rose with brilliancy. My brother started from his seat in ecstasy,
rushed upon me in a transport of joy, and embraced me with rapture."
Thus was the new form of lamp discovered.

Various forms of cylindrical wick lamps are employed for illuminating
lighthouses. For reflectors the wick is nearly an inch in diameter.
For the lens-light a more powerful and complicated lamp is used. The
oil is made to flow into the burners by various means. The most simple
is by placing the reservoir higher than the lamp, the oil thus flowing
by its own gravity to the level required. Mineral oil is now generally
used, as being superior to rape-seed or sperm oil. Olive oil is used in
some foreign lighthouses; and at the Cape of Good Hope oil produced from
the tails of Cape sheep is employed. It is said to be far superior to
all other oils for its brilliancy in burning.

Attempts have been made to introduce the limelight, that being of far
greater brilliancy than any other. We read of a curious experiment
connected with it. A limelight was placed on the summit of a hill,
called Slievesnaught, in Ireland, which was always enveloped in haze by
day. Between it and the observing station was a church tower, twelve
miles distant, and on this station an ordinary reflector was fixed,
while the hill itself was seventy miles distant. Notwithstanding the
great difference in the distances, the limelight was apparently much
nearer and brighter than the light twelve miles off.

Great as are the difficulties of keeping up a continuous flame, they
have been almost overcome by an arrangement introduced by Mr Renton,
which preserves the cylinder of lime from cracking. Gas has lately been
introduced in the lighthouse at Hartlepool. Hopes were entertained that
electric lights might be introduced, but the great difficulty is to
maintain an equable force, as the battery gradually declines in power.
There are also other difficulties to be mastered. The most successful
experiments have been carried on in the South Foreland lighthouse, by an
arrangement of powerful magnets. The current thus produced passing
through the carbon pillars, produces a splendid light, entirely
eclipsing all other modes of illuminat