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in water before he sat down and much deeper afterwards. Soon I saw we'd never make it and I said I thought we ought to turn and run for Ramsgate. I don't know whether they were scared, for if they were they didn't show it. They quietly agreed, feeling, I suppose, that if I didn't know what I was about they didn't either. So I managed to put her about, thanking heaven I did not have to gybe. I allowed for the tidal outrush from Pegwell Bay and we drove into Ramsgate Harbour in great style.
At the big electrical exhibition held at the Crystal Palace in 1892, my father and Professor Ambrose Fleming (Thermionic Fleming — we called him the 'cough-drop') gave several illustrated lectures in the theatre there. I worked the electric lantern for them. It was a beast. The lamp, which was supposed to be automatic, kept going out and had to be started again, in the dark, by twiddling the nearly red-hot knob between finger and thumb. I used to wake up in the night and go blundering around in my dark bedroom, trying to find the lantern which I had dreamed had just gone out again.
This, and the many opportunities of wandering about the show and talking to the exhibitors, had a very important effect upon my career as I will show.
In July, 1893, Birt Acres, who afterwards came into my life quite a lot, told me he had been invited to give a show of some films that he had made, at Marlborough House at the wedding of the Duke of York to Princess Mary of Teck. At that time I had never heard of 'films' and could only guess what he was talking about, but I must have surmised that some kind of lantern was involved and that would have been enough for me. He was very excited, naturally, and admitted that, while he was competent to work the projector, he would be very glad if I would come along and look after the electric lamp. I willingly agreed and we duly arrived at Marlborough House with the gear, projector, lamp, resistance and wire and all the rest of it. The whole place was gaily decorated and there was a considerable air of fuss and tension. Birt Acres was a man who perspired easily. He fully lived up to his reputation in that respect. We didn't have any real difficulty in obtaining the few things we wanted and we set the whole apparatus up in a sort of tent which was an annex to the room where the guests were to assemble for the show.
I remember being mildly surprised when the Prince of Wales
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