Page:On the various forces of nature and their relations to each other.djvu/186

182 points which make them valuable in their application.

There are various orders and sizes of lights in light-houses, to shine for twenty or thirty miles over the sea, and to give indications according to the purposes for which they are required; but suppose we want more effect than is produced by these means, how are we to get more light? Here comes the difficulty. We cannot get more light, because we are limited by the condition of the burner. In any of these cases, if the spreading of the ray, or divergence, as it is called, is not restrained, it soon fails from weakness; and if it does not diverge at all, it makes the light so small, that perhaps only one in a hundred can see it at the same time. The South Foreland light-house is, I think, 300 or 400 feet above the level of the sea; and therefore it is necessary to have a certain divergence of the beam of light, in order that it may shine along the sea to the horizon. I have drawn here two wedges—one has an angle of 15°, and shews you the manner in which the light opens out from this reflector, seen at the