THE LUCAS LIGHT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9461, 24 June 1902, Page 1

THE LUCAS LIGHT.

A WONDERFUL GAS LAMP

It would seem as if there is to be no end to the achievements of gas lighting, so many and, remarkable have been the improvements effected in the method of illumination within recent years. The old-time gas-burner will soon have become as extinct as the rushlight, and the ordinary mantle with which we have become so familiar, and which has revolutionised the illumination of our cities, homes, and shops, bids fair to be left behind by the improvements that are being effected upom it. And yet, in the latest and best of these improvements, the Lucas light, there is little alteration in the mantle, the wonderful illuminating effects being produced as the result simply of a little adjustment, which any gas man perceiving the advantages will kick himself for not having discovered. The Lucas light is quite a recent invention, having only within the last few months been introduced into England, and it says something for the enterprise of the management of the Gisborne Gas Company that they should have lost so little time in importing several of the lamps into Gisborne. Improved lamps have, been badly wanted for the Gisborne wharf, and it is safe to say that when two of the new importations are placed iji position there will be no more complaints about the darkness of the land-ing-place. The light is remarkable for its purity, its marvellous intensity, and for absolute steadiness. Each lamp has a brilliancy of 700-candle power, which is a remarkable intensity to crowd into one burner, and the mantles truly look as if they were bulging and bursting with effulgence. Moreover, the rays have an extraordinary penetrating power. It is said that iv the Frederichstiuuss, Berlin, where it. was first installed, the Lucas light made the great electric arc globes look quite "sickly," and that its illuminating power in a, London fog was much greater than that of any other light. However, this is a matter that Gisborne people may have- an opportunity of forming their own judgment upon when the light is shown, as we expect it will be on Coronation night. Suffice to say that each lamp has more than three times the brilliancy of the big three-light lamps which have hitherto been tlie most powerful shown here, and its actual gas consumption is very little more, and proportionately to the amount of light supplied, a'great deal less. The device is simplicity itself. There is no mechanism, and nothing to get out of order. The burner is a plain tub« about l\ inches long (sufficiently long to allow of a good admixture of gas and air); above thp burner is a globe, about the same length, iv which a large 5-inch mantle is hung, and above the globe is a long metal chimney. Burner, globe, and chimney form a continuous -slia-ft 39 inches in length, without any inlets fur the admission of air save at the base of the burner. The whole of the air supplied lo the mantle passes (lirough the burner in admixture with the ga.s, and directly the- gas and air become heated and volatile, a. rapid current is set up by and through the chimney, and this induces a. great inflow of air at the base of the burner. The energetic action thus created, the forcible flame exerting all its power on the interior of the mantle, and being fed on a plentiful supply of oxygen from the inrusliing air. produces the intense incandescence, the illuminating power, for a consumption of 17£ feet of gas, being, as stated, 700-candle power. With a few of these lamps scattered about, our streets at night should be as bright as day.