An interesting experiment was commenced just after Christmas last by
the District Railway Company, on the short branch line which connects
Kensington and Fulham, passing through Earl’s Court and Walham Green.
On the 2d of January last, the carriages running on this short line
were lighted for the first time, each with a small Swan burner,
inclosed in a little glass globe; and although only a very small coil
of fine wire, thin as a hair, shaped something like a letter U, was
employed, the light was so brilliant and steady that the smallest print
could be read by it easily. The experiment lasted about a fortnight
or three weeks, and was worked from a luggage van attached to the
rear of the train, and fitted up for the purpose. This experiment is
interesting, and the result has been most successful, not a slip, nor a
hitch of any kind, having occurred; while the reports as to cost are,
it is understood, perfectly satisfactory.
Let us hope that this beautiful system of lighting may speedily be
introduced on the different railways throughout the country; and
especially on the District line of the Metropolitan Railway, where the
bad blinking gas is so terribly trying to those who have to make two
journeys a day by it, and who desire to employ the time of transit with
their book or their paper, which becomes a work of difficulty under the
present gas arrangements, but which may possibly be explained by one
word, ‘economy;’ for it is a well-established fact, patent to all, that
gas is light and brilliant enough for most purposes, provided a proper
and sufficient _quantity_ is used.