3-077-645 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Electric lighting of the British Museum, London, 1890. 'The introduction of the electric light in the galleries...was pronounced a complete success by the large and distinguished company admitted to the private view on Tuesday, Jan. 28. Both arc and glow lamps are employed, the former in the galleries on the ground floor, containing Greek and Roman sculpture, the Elgin marbles, and Assyrian and other antiquities, as well as in some of the galleries on the upper floor. The glow lamps have been fixed in the long suite of bronze and vase rooms on the west, and in the ethnographical gallery on the east of the upper floor...The current is generated by four Siemens dynamo machines, which are connected to a general switchboard in the engine-room...The four dynamos are driven in pairs, each pair by a separate engine, with a separate countershaft. Each engine has a separate steam-pipe in direct communication with the boilers, and there is an ample reserve of boiler power...The engines have been supplied and erected by Messrs. Marshall, Sons, and Co.; and the electrical work executed by Messrs. Siemens Brothers and Co.' From "Illustrated London News", 1890.