88
ns.
As far back as 1846 I was engaged in making apparatus and experiments for the purpose of turning to practical account "King's patent electric light," the actual inventor of which was a young American, named Starr, who died in 1847, when about 25 years of age, a victim of overwork and disappointment in his efforts to perfect this invention and a magneto-electric machine, intended to supply the power in accordance with some of the "latest improvements" of 1881 and 1882.
I had a share in this venture, and was very enthusiastic until after I had become practically acquainted with the subject. We had no difficulty in obtaining a splendid and perfectly steady light, better than any that are shown at the Crystal Palace.
We used platinum, and alloys of platinum and iridium, abandoned them as Edison did more than thirty years later, and then tried a multitude of forms of carbon, including that which constitutes the last "discovery" of Mr. Edison, viz., burnt cane. Starr tried this on theoretical grounds, because cane being coated with silica, he predicted that by charring it we should obtain a more compact stick or thread, as the fusion of the silica would hold the carbon particles together. He finally abandoned this and all the rest in favor of the hard deposit of carbon which lines the inside of gas-retorts, some specimens of which we found to be so hard that we required a lapidary's wheel to cut them into the thin sticks.
Our final wick was a piece of this of square section, and about 1/8 of an inch across each way. It was mounted between two forceps--one holding each end, and thus leaving a clear half-inch between. The forceps were soldered to platinum wires, one of which passed upward through the top of the barometer tube, expanded into a lamp glass at its upper part. This wire was sealed to the glass as it passed through. The lower wire passed down the middle of the tube.
The tube was filled with mercury and inverted over a cup of mercury. Being 30 inches long up to the bottom
Scientific American Supplement, No. 344 (Aug 5, 1882), page 87
by Various