A clear, accessible introduction to electric lighting from the inventor’s lectures at the Royal Institution.
This edition compiles Fleming's four lectures on electric illumination, presenting the basic physics, practical challenges, and early development of electric lighting. It aims to explain how electricity produces light, what limits efficiency, and how early devices like glow and arc lamps worked, using simple demonstrations and diagrams.
Designed for a general audience, it emphasizes core concepts, historical milestones, and the problems engineers faced as electric lighting moved from theory to widespread use.
- Foundational ideas about electric pressure, current, and resistance as they relate to lighting.
- Plain explanations of glow and arc lamps, sparks, discharges, and related phenomena.
- Historical context for the emergence of public electric supply and standard units of light.
Ideal for readers curious about how modern electric lighting began and for students seeking a non-technical entry to the subject.