The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

In one of the last numbers of the Journal des Debats, we find an account of a discovery equally new and extraordinary. Citizen Lebon, a very ingenious chemist, has contrived a method of producing from hydrogen gas, not merely a very clear light, but a very strong heat.

"Judging both from the simplicity and the extraordinary effects of this experiment, says the French writer, it seems to be an application of the powers of chemistry to the combustion of wood, and aerial substances. Under a globe of glass is placed a light, at once of the brightest and most steady kind, which at the same time supplies the place of an active and warm fire. An apartment of considerable extent is illuminated by it in the most splendid manner, and the light which it reflects is extremely vivid and pure. It has no tendency to spoil the appearance of the apartment, or to expose it to danger, it never emitting any sparks from it. Though in proceeding along the tube it is cool, yet it contracts a proper degree of heat in mixing with the atmospheric air; the colours of the illumination are beautiful & variegated, but it is remarked that they lose their brightness on being exposed to the external air, and then assume a fainter and less striking appearance. In bringing the hydrogen gas into contact with the atmospheric air, the artist has made provision either for augmenting or moderating its activity. The importance of this discovery is obvious. It may be turned to a variety of purposes, promoting at once the ends of convenience & economy. It is calculated to extend to an almost inconceivable degree, the properties and powers of light, and to employ in the most important uses, those substances which in common cases pass off under the form of smoke, without accomplishing any object of utility."

This discovery, thus advantageously mentioned, is now much talked of and visited at Paris. The engine is called a Thermolampe, from a composition of the Greek words denoting heat and light.