Mr J. D. F. Andrews, Woodside Electric Works, Glasgow, has lighted with
electricity, after a new fashion, the North German Lloyd S.S. _Ems_.
The system, which includes over three hundred and twenty incandescent
lamps and a masthead arc lamp, presents some features of a novel and
important character. In the case of the small lights, Swan’s lamps and
Siemen’s machines are employed. The wires are all completely hidden,
but they are nevertheless arranged in such a way that they can be
easily reached when necessary. For these lamps there is provided a
new style of holder, which is at once simple and efficient. Each lamp
has its own switch, which is entirely of metal; and it is provided
with a lead-wire, which fuses in the event of the current being too
strong. In the case of every set of about twenty lamps there is another
switch, so that the lights can be turned on and off in groups as well
as individually; and another lead-wire, so that the leading wires may
be protected from too strong a current. The whole system is such as
to preclude the possibility of fire. Duplicate machines are fitted
up to guard against any breakdown, and either of them can be started
or stopped without interfering with the engine which drives them.
The masthead arc lamp, of which Mr Andrews is the inventor, is here
brought into requisition for the first time. It has about five thousand
candle-power concentrated in a single beam of light, that can be moved
in any direction forward of the ship. In construction it is extremely
simple, consisting merely of a cylinder and piston, the former being
an electrical coil of wire. The illuminating power of the lamp is so
great that by means of it an object half a mile away can be clearly
distinguished by the naked eye on a dark night.