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Show mtm 1 ELECTRICITY AS ILLUMINANT ' Commercial Value Was Not Developed In This Country Until After the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. , Tho first experimental philosopher to discover that electric light could bo produced by a dry attery was Sir Humphry Davy, who In 1810 exhibited a light threo Inches long, between carbon car-bon points, before tho Royal Socloty of London. But no commercial value ws attached to tho use of electricity as an illumlnant until mora than halt a generation later. Tho Centennial exhibition, ex-hibition, held In Philadelphia in 1876, really marks tho era of our present' form of electric light, though electric lights had beon in use abroad prior to that time. Tho exhibition of models mod-els and practical demonstrations of electric lights at Philadelphia In 1876 attracted tho attention of scientists, and capitalists In this country, and the first Incandescent lamps and tho first arc system were put to practical use In a small way in 1876. Tho Brush arc light gained favor In tho beginning begin-ning as the most adaptablo for street lighting, and Cloveland, O., tho home of Charles Francis Brush, tho inventor, invent-or, was tho initial American city to adopt tho arc system for street lighting. light-ing. Since 1878, both the Brush aro system sys-tem and tho Edison incandescent system sys-tem hnvo developed. Morloy's Magazine. |