We extend to you the warmest welcome of which the descendants of the pioneers of the Western Reserve are capable. We thank you for your attendance, and I thank you for your attention.

THE PRESIDENT: I now have the pleasure of presenting a gentleman whose name is a household word with every electric lighting man in the United States, Charles F. Brush, of Cleveland.

ADDRESS OF CHARLES F. BRUSH.

A few days ago I was asked to make some remarks on this occasion concerning the early history of electric lighting, strictly from my own standpoint. Now, as most of you are aware, I retired from the electrical business several years ago, to give my competitors a chance in the field. I, therefore, objected that this ancient history was buried and forgotten, and that I could not spare time to dig it up again, and polish up the bones, and arrange them in sequence, and articulate them, and make the whole thing presentable. I really cannot afford, however, to let you go now that you are here, and I will say a few words.

I will begin by calling your attention to the fact that dynamo-electric machines for electro-plating antedated, by a considerable period, the use of such machines for lighting purposes. This is interesting from a historical standpoint, because when I invented compound field winding for constant potential, now so generally used in lighting and power transmission, I applied it first to plating machines. This, I believe, is not generally known, and may, may, therefore, be interesting. Some of you will remember that all of

the early Brush arc lighting machines were singlelighters. Two of these machines were exhibited in the Summer of 1877, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. My two friends at the left (Messrs. Houston and Thomson) will remember all about it. It was soon after that that we sold a single-lighting machine to Dr. Longworth, of Cincinnati. This was one of the very first, if not the first, sale of a Brush arc lighting machine. It was late in 1877, or the very beginning of 1878; and the doctor paid for itpaid cash for it, like a little man. I hear these things are done differently now. At any rate, I went down to Cincinnati to show the doctor how to run that machine; and one evening while I was there he exhibited the light from the balcony of the building in which he lived, on one of the principal streets. It was a 4,000-candle light, and, of course, it attracted a large crowd of the natives; and every man in that crowd was ready and willing and anxious to tell his neighbors all about it. I mingled in the crowd for a time to hear the comments. I found one man who had collected quite an audience about him. He called attention to the solenoid at the top of the lamp. He said: "That is the can that holds the oil;" and speaking of the side rod of the lamp: "That is the tube that conducts the oil from the can to the burner." He did not say anything about electricity at all-a little oversight that was not noticed. by his hearers-and it was all right.

Those early single-light machines were quickly followed by two and four-light machines; that is to say, machines adapted to furnish two or four separate, distinct currents, each adapted to run a single arc light. Several of these machines were sold during the season of 1878 for lighting stores and shops.

Among others, Mr. Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, bought a number to light his store. One of the earliest of these machines was exhibited at the works of the Union Steel Screw Company in this city to a number of invited guests. One gentleman on that occasion looked the the whole apparatus over very carefully, perhaps a half hour, sized it up, and then, pointing to the line wire, he said to me, "How large is the hole in that wire that the electricity flows through?" Another gentleman, one connected with the Screw Company, observed the machine running for perhaps five minutes in complete silence. Then he had fully digested the whole thing, and was ready to tell me all about it. He said, "The electricity in that thing is generated by that revolving business. there rubbing the air up against these iron blades (meaning the magnets), just as you get sparks when you rub a cat's back." I raised the objection that vhile that was a beautiful theory, it did not fully neet the facts; but he would not hear anything from me. He said, "The whole thing is plain. If you should run that machine in a vacuum, where there is no air to get rubbed, you could not get any electricity." His ignorance was so blissful that I thought it would be folly to enlighten him, and did not try to do it.

The year of which I am speaking, 1878, was a memorable one in the history of electrical lighting. It was during that year that I had the great pleasure and good fortune to invent and develop and commercially introduce the modern series arc lamp with the shunt cil. It was this invention-I am sure you will all agree with me that first made arc lighting from central sations commercially possible, and I think it may just be considered as marking the birth of the electric lighting industry of the world to-day.

One of the first instances-I think quite the first instance-of the use of arc lighting for purely commercial purposes was in our little public squarein this city. Twelve lights were carefully installed in the park on high ornamental poles. The lamps used were of the ordinary ordinary so-called 2,000 candlepower. In this connection it will be remembered that a professor in New York once said he imagined the electrical companies arrived at the 2,000 candle-power by measuring it north, south, east and west, giving 500 each way, and adding them all together. That measurement was taken in the interest of the gas company, the gas company, as I have learned. While we were installing this plant in the public square, a great deal of interest was manifested in the installation by the public; and on the occasion of starting the lights, our little park was packed from side to side, and it was evident that many of the people expected a blinding glare of light, as evidenced by the fact that they had provided themselves with colored spectacles or smoked glass. Of course, there was a general feeling of disappointment at first in this respect, although every one was ready to admit that he could read with perfect ease in any part of the square. After a few weeks, however, when the novelty had worn off, and the people had got ired of staring at the arc, and had time to see how ricely the little park was lighted, the general verdic: was that those electric lights in the park were a pretty good thing after all; and that is the general verdict everywhere.

Of course, we had lots of trouble in the early days with carbons. The history of the carbon business is peculiar. Our first carbons were crooked and soft, and had high electrical resistance, and burnt out