Electric Light in the Library.

"Harvard, the first university in the land, with a library shrouded in Egyptian darkness in the hours when men's brains are liable to be most active, is the disgusted cry we have heard about us for months. Every earnest student feels the painful and unwarranted deeds that is put to his reading hours by the shrill cry, "library closed" at sunset every day.

It is now possible to state with a great degree of certainty that this drawback will be removed and that the College Library will be lighted with incandescent electric light. For some months past the authorities have been investigating the feasibility of such a plan and have now determined upon adopting it. The one great difficulty in their way was the absence of any available funds for putting light of any kind into the library. But Harvard never lacks friends in need, and a number of gentlemen were found who were willing to contribute for so worthy a purpose. It is but two or three weeks ago that the fund which amounts to $2000 was assured. It was collected in sums varying very much in size, but all given with the same feeling that Harvard may no longer have a dark library.

The plans of the Edison Company have been approved by the corporation, and the main trouble just now is as to where the dynamo can be placed with most advantage. It is necessary to avoid the noise which it would make, were it placed in the cellar of Gore Hall, and the expense of laying the wires will be increased by just so much for every yard the dynamo is distant from the building it is intended to supply. But this is a question which it will take but a very few days to settle.

It is not possible to give perfectly accurate details about the distribution of the light in Gore Hall, but some of the following facts will be found reliable.

Each table in the reading room will be supplied with two or more movable lamps which can be lighted or turned off at pleasure. At the head of every stack of books in the reserved alcoves will be placed a lamp with reflectors, sufficiently strong to light up all the books under it. It is also possible that some fixtures will be hung from the ceilings for lighting up the hall generally.

The space in which the delivery desk, the catalogues and the general reference-works are, will be copiously lighted with stationery fixtures. The "stack," which is much less apt to be used at night, will be supplied with transferable lamps which will be attached by a long wire to the end of each stack of books and may be carried along in the hand.

No decision has yet come to our ears as to whether books may be called for out of the stack in the evening, just as they are in the daytime. In fact all the alterations in the working system of the library which the introduction of the light is apt to cause must undergo careful deliberations before they can be definitely stated in these columns.

Whatever the details of the plan may be, every earnest worker in college will be glad to learn that there is to be electric light in the library.