. Bulletin. Science. Figure i.—Deleuil demonstrates his electric light on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, October 20, 1843. ¥vomVIllustration, 1843, vol. 2, p. Although electric illumination could become com- mercially practical only after mechanical energy had been substituted for chemical energy in the trans- formation that produced electrical energy, still, the initial advances in the field of electrical light were made with power from chemical cells. By mid- century there were indications that such an application of electricity might be coiximercially profitable but it was clear t
. Bulletin. Science. Figure i.—Deleuil demonstrates his electric light on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, October 20, 1843. ¥vomVIllustration, 1843, vol. 2, p. Although electric illumination could become com- mercially practical only after mechanical energy had been substituted for chemical energy in the trans- formation that produced electrical energy, still, the initial advances in the field of electrical light were made with power from chemical cells. By mid- century there were indications that such an application of electricity might be coiximercially profitable but it was clear that other sources of power had to be found. Shortly after the voltaic cell was devised, it was found that the current from the cell could produce a number of strange new physical and chemical effects. Attempts to determine the different effects of x'oltaic electricity included studying the sparks obtained between various materials, which, Humphrey Davy found, became much brighter with charcoal than with metals. Using a battery of 500 double plates at the Royal Society, Davy announced in December 1808 that a glowing arc almost an inch long could be obtained in this manner. By using a 2,000-plate battery at the Royal Institution the following year, he obtained an arc three inches long.^ In spite of 1 Humphrey Davy, "An Account of Some Experiments on Galvanic Electricity, Made in the Theater of the Royal Institution," Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 1802, vol. 1, pp. 165-167; "An Account of Some New Analytical Researches on the Nature of Certain Bodies, Particularly the its brilliance, no efforts were made to use the newly found "electric light" because of its impermanence. At the same time, another source of electric light had been suggested in the incandescent glow of fine metallic wires when heavy currents go through them. But the same problems were found to occur with incandescent filaments as with arcs from char- coal. Up to the
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