Daily Independent

Fireflies From Cuba:
Experimenting with the Light They Give, the Cheapest in the World.

Secretary Langley, of the Smithsonian institution, has been experimenting for some time past with fireflies from Cuba. He says that the light they give is the "cheapest" in the world produced, that is to say, with the least heat and the smallest expenditure of energy; and he believes that a successful imitation of it would prove a most profitable substitute for gas and electricity. The insects are beetles two inches long and belong to the family of "snapping bugs," so called because when one of them is laid on its back it snaps itself into the air with a clicking sound.

The secret of the light this firefly gives is as yet undiscovered, says the Washington Star. Apparently it is connected in some way with the mysterious phenomena of life, and chemists and physicists have sought in vain to explain its origin. On each side of the animal's thorax is a luminous membranous spot, and these flash at intervals, so that the Cubans put a dozen of the insects in a cage together, and so obtain a continuous illumination bright enough to read by. This light is accompanied by no perceptible heat, and is seemingly produced with almost no expenditure of energy. How great an improvement it represents upon all known artificial lights can be imagined when it is stated that in candlelight, lamplight, or gaslight the waste is more than ninety-nine per cent. In other words, if they could be so obtained as not to throw anything away, they would give nearly one hundred times the illumination which they do afford.