X.—A New Method of Starting Mercury Vapour Apparatus

The mercury vapour lamp, although very economical in its use of electrical energy, is not employed very extensively at the present day for illuminating purposes, chiefly because the light it emits is not white, but of a greenish hue. Many attempts have been made to produce the deficient red radiation, but these have so far not met with any great success. The lamp, however, is useful as an illuminant where the colour of the light is of no great importance, such as in public works, etc. Further, it is very much used, in the form of rectifiers, for changing alternating to direct electrical current. During the past few years there has been an increasing demand for lamps which are rich in ultra-violet radiation, which is useful for photographic and medical purposes, as, for example, the sterilisation of water, milk, etc. This requirement is met by the mercury vapour lamp, for the ultra-violet spectrum of mercury is particularly intense; lamps used for this purpose must be made of quartz, since ordinary glass absorbs ultra-violet radiation. Then, again, the mercury spectrum is extremely useful in spectroscopic work as a reference spectrum.