Triumphs and Wonders of the 19th Century: The True Mirror of a Phenomenal Era

By James P. Boyd

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• Language: English
• Publisher: DigiCat
• Release date: Aug 15, 2022
• ISBN: 8596547178866

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James P. Boyd

Triumphs and Wonders of the 19th Century: The True Mirror of a Phenomenal Era

EAN 8596547178866

DigiCat, 2022

Contact: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTORY

AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS

ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS

WONDERS OF ELECTRICITY By JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.

I. AT THE DAWN OF THE CENTURY.

II. THE NEW NINETEENTH CENTURY ELECTRICITY.

III. THE TELEGRAPH.

IV. HELLO! HELLO!

V. DYNAMO AND MOTOR.

VI. AND THERE WAS LIGHT.

VII. ELECTRIC LOCOMOTION.

VIII. THE X RAY.

IX. OTHER ELECTRICAL WONDERS.

X. ELECTRICAL LANGUAGE.

THE CENTURY’S NAVAL PROGRESS By REAR ADMIRAL GEORGE WALLACE MELVILLE, U.S.N.

I. INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER.

II. THE CENTURY’S GROWTH IN NAVAL STRENGTH.

III. THE BATTLESHIP,—PAST AND PRESENT.

IV. THE PROGRESS OF NAVAL ENGINEERING.

V. THE GROWTH OF ORDNANCE.

VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARMOR.

VII. THE RAM AND THE TORPEDO.

VIII. THE UNITED STATES FLEET.

ASTRONOMY DURING THE CENTURY By SELDEN J. COFFIN, A.M., Professor of Astronomy, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. ITS PROGRESS, ACHIEVEMENTS, AND NOTABLE RESULTS

I. ASTRONOMY A CENTURY AGO.

II. HOW BODE’S LAW PROMOTED RESEARCH.

III. HOW NEPTUNE WAS FOUND.

IV. METEORITES.

V. DO METEORS OFTEN STRIKE THE EARTH?

VI. ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES.

VII. IMPROVED INSTRUMENTS; THEIR EFFECT ON THE SCIENCE.

VIII. THE SPECTROSCOPE AND ITS TRIUMPHS.

IX. WHAT IS DONE IN A LARGE OBSERVATORY; ITS WORK.

X. THE NATIONAL OBSERVATORY AT WASHINGTON.

XI. STAR MAPS AND CATALOGUES.

XII. ASTRONOMICAL BOOKS AND THEIR WRITERS.

XIII. THE PRACTICAL USES OF ASTRONOMY AS AN AID TO NAVIGATION AND GEODESY.

XIV. NOTABLE EPOCHS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

XV. DISCARDED DOCTRINES AND ABANDONED IDEAS.

XVI. PROBLEMS FOR FUTURE STUDY.

STORY OF PLANT AND FLOWER By THOMAS MEEHAN, Vice President Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia .

PROGRESS OF WOMEN WITHIN THE CENTURY By MARY ELIZABETH LEASE, Ex-President Kansas State Board of Charities .

THE CENTURY’S TEXTILE PROGRESS By ROBERT P. HAINS, Examiner of Textiles, U.S. Patent Office .

THE CENTURY’S RELIGIOUS PROGRESS By GEORGE EDWARD REED, S.T.D., LL.D., President Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.

GREAT GROWTH OF LIBRARIES By JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.

PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY IN ARCHITECTURE By WILLIAM MARTIN AIKEN, F.A.I.A., Former U.S. Supervising Architect .

THE CENTURY’S PROGRESS IN CHEMISTRY By HARVEY W. WILEY, M.D., PH.D., LL.D., Chief Chemist Agricultural Department, Washington, D.C.

I. INORGANIC AND PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.

II. PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.

III. ORGANIC CHEMISTRY.

IV. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY.

V. SYNTHETICAL CHEMISTRY.

VI. METALLURGICAL CHEMISTRY.

VII. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

VIII. GRAPHIC CHEMISTRY.

IX. DIDACTIC CHEMISTRY.

X. CHEMISTRY OF FERMENTATION.

XI. ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY.

CONCLUSION.

THE CENTURY’S MUSIC AND DRAMA By RITER FITZGERALD, A.M., Dramatic Critic City Item, Philadelphia .

I. MUSIC.

II. DRAMA.

THE CENTURY’S LITERATURE By JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.

THE RECORDS OF THE PAST By MORRIS JASTROW, JR., PH.D., Professor of Semitic Languages, University of Pennsylvania .

PROGRESS IN DAIRY FARMING By MAJOR HENRY E. ALVORD, C.E., LL.D., Chief of Dairy Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture .

THE CENTURY’S MORAL PROGRESS By SARA Y. STEVENSON, Sc. D., Secretary Department of Archæology, University of Pennsylvania .

PROGRESS OF SANITARY SCIENCE By CHARLES McINTIRE, A.M., M.D., Lecturer on Sanitary Science, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.

THE CENTURY’S ARMIES AND ARMS By LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ARTHUR L. WAGNER, Assistant Adjutant General, U.S. Army .

THE CENTURY’S PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE By WALDO F. BROWN, Agricultural Editor Cincinnati Gazette.

I. VICISSITUDES OF EARLY FARMING.

II. IMPROVEMENTS IN FARM IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY.

III. IMPROVEMENT OF STOCK.

IV. IMPROVEMENT IN FARMING METHODS.

V. IMPROVEMENT IN AND AROUND THE HOME.

VI. IMPROVEMENT IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

A SUMMING UP.

PROGRESS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING By WALTER LORING WEBB, C.E., Assistant Prof. of Civil Engineering, University of Pennsylvania .

I. AN INTRODUCTORY VIEW.

II. BRIDGES.

III. CAISSONS.

IV. CANALS.

V. GEODESY.

VI. RAILROADS.

VII. TUNNELS.

THE CENTURY’S PROGRESS IN THE ANIMAL WORLD By D.E. SALMON, M.D., Chief of Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Agricultural Department .

I. OF ANIMAL DISEASES.

II. INCREASE IN NUMBERS.

III. IMPROVEMENT OF BREEDS OF ANIMALS.

LEADING WARS OF THE CENTURY By MAJOR GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER, U.S. ARMY.

I. WARS OF THE UNITED STATES.

II. FOREIGN WARS.

THE CENTURY’S FAIRS AND EXPOSITIONS By GEORGE J. HAGAR, Editor of Appendix to Encyclopædia Britannica .

THE CENTURY’S PROGRESS IN COINAGE, CURRENCY, AND BANKING By HON. BRADFORD RHODES, Editor of Banker’s Magazine.

I. BANKS AND BANKING RESOURCES.

II. COINAGE AND PRODUCTION OF PRECIOUS METALS.

III. EARLY BANKING IN THE UNITED STATES.

V. THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM.

VI. FOREIGN BANKING AND FINANCE.

VII. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DEBT SINCE 1857.

VIII. POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.

IX. SAVINGS BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES.

X. THE CLEARING-HOUSE.

XI. PANICS AND THEIR CAUSES.

THE CENTURY’S PROGRESS IN FRUIT CULTURE By H.E. VAN DEMAN, Late Prof. of Horticulture, Kansas State Agricultural College .

THE CENTURY’S COMMERCIAL PROGRESS By EMORY R. JOHNSON, A.M., Asst. Prof. of Transportation and Commerce, University of Pennsylvania .

I. MAIN FEATURES OF THE WORLD’S COMMERCE AT THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

II. THE CENTURY’S TECHNICAL REVOLUTION IN COMMERCE.

III. IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMERCIAL AUXILIARIES.

IV. EXPANSION OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE DURING THE CENTURY.

V. THE TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE CENTURY.

VI. THE AMERICAN MARINE IN FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE.

VII. AMERICAN SHIPBUILDING.

VIII. CAUSES ACCOUNTING FOR THE CENTURY’S COMMERCIAL PROGRESS.

IX. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PROSPECT.

EDUCATION DURING THE CENTURY By FRANKLIN S. EDMONDS, A.M., Asst. Prof. of Political Science, Central High School, Philadelphia .

THE ART PRESERVATIVE By THOMAS J. LINDSEY, Editorial Staff Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

I. THE PRINTING PRESS.

II. THE SETTING OF TYPE.

III. EVENTS AS THEY OCCUR.

IV. TYPE-MAKING, STEREOTYPING, PICTURE-MAKING.

THE CENTURY’S PROGRESS IN MINES AND MINING By GEO. A. PACKARD, Metallurgist and Mining Engineer .

ART PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY By JOHN V. SEARS, Art Critic Philadelphia Evening Telegraph.

I. PAINTING

II. SCULPTURE.

III. CERAMICS AND GLASS WORK.

IV. INDUSTRIAL ARTS.

THE CENTURY’S ADVANCE IN SURGERY By J. MADISON TAYLOR, M.D., and J.H. GIBBON, M.D., Surgeon in Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospitals .

PROGRESS OF MEDICINE By FRANK C. HAMMOND, M.D., Instructor in Gynecology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia .

EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY By E.E. RUSSELL TRATMAN, C.E., Assistant Editor of Engineering News, Chicago .

ADVANCE IN LAW AND JUSTICE By LUTHER E. HEWITT, L.B., Librarian of Philadelphia Law Association .

EVOLUTION OF BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS By MICHAEL J. BROWN, Secretary of Building Association League of Penna.

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

II. THE SYSTEM.

III. THEIR EARLY HISTORY.

IV. AMERICAN ASSOCIATIONS.

V. THE BANQUET.

EPOCH-MAKERS OF THE CENTURY By REV. A. LEFFINGWELL, Rector of Trinity Church, Toledo, Ohio .

INTRODUCTORY

Table of Contents

Measuring epochs, or eras, by spaces of a hundred years each, that which embraces the nineteenth century stands out in sublime and encouraging contrast with any that has preceded it. As the legatee of all prior centuries, it has enlarged and ennobled its bequest to an extent unparalleled in history; while it has at the same time, through a genius and energy peculiar to itself, created an original endowment for its own enjoyment and for the future richer by far than any heretofore recorded. Indeed, without permitting existing and pardonable pride to endanger rigid truth, it may be said that along many of the lines of invention and progress which have most intimately affected the life and civilization of the world, the nineteenth century has achieved triumphs and accomplished wonders equal, if not superior, to all other centuries combined.

Therefore, what more fitting time than at its close to pass in pleasing and instructive review the numerous material and intellectual achievements that have so distinguished it, and have contributed in so many and such marvelous ways to the great advance and genuine comfort of the human race! Or, what could prove a greater source of pride and profit than to compare its glorious works with those of the past, the better to understand and measure the actual steps and real extent of the progress of mankind! Or, what more delightful and inspiring than to realize that the sum of those wonderful activities, of which each reader is, or has been, a part, has gone to increase the grandeur of a world era whose rays will penetrate and brighten the coming centuries!

Amid so many and such strong reasons this volume finds excellent cause for its being. Its aims are to mirror a wonderful century from the vantage ground of its closing year; to faithfully trace the lines which mark its almost magical advance; to give it that high and true historic place whence its contrasts with the past can be best noted, and its light upon the future most directly thrown.

This task would be clearly beyond the power of a single mind. So rapid has progress been during some parts of the century, so amazing have been results along the lines of discovery and invention, so various have been the fields of action, that only those of special knowledge and training could be expected to do full justice to the many subjects to be treated.

Hence, the work has been planned so as to give it a value far beyond what could be imparted by a single mind. Each of the themes chosen to type the century’s grand march has been treated by an author of special fitness, and high up in his or her profession or calling, with a view to securing for readers the best thoughts and facts relating to the remarkable events of an hundred years. In this respect the volume is unique and original. Its authorship is not of one mind, but of a corps of minds, whose union assures what the occasion demands.

The scope, character, and value of the volume further appear in its very large number and practical feature of subjects selected to show the active forces, the upward and onward movements, and the grand results that have operated within, and triumphantly crowned, an era without parallel. These subjects embrace the sciences of the century in their numerous divisions and conquests; its arts and literature; industrial, commercial, and financial progress; land and sea prowess; educational, social, moral, and religious growth; in fact, every field of enterprise and achievement within the space of time covered by the work.

A volume of such variety of subject and great extent affords fine opportunity for illustration. The publishers have taken full advantage of this, and have beautified it in a manner which commends itself to every eye and taste. Rarely has a volume been so highly and elegantly embellished. Each subject is illuminated so as to increase the pleasure of reading and make an impression which will prove lasting.

As to its aim and scope, its number of specially qualified authors, its vigor and variety of style and thought, its historic comprehensiveness and exactness, its great wealth of illustration, its superb mechanism, its various other striking features, the volume may readily rank as one of the century’s triumphs, a wonder of industrious preparation, and acceptable to all. At any rate, no such volume has ever mirrored any previous century, and none will come to reflect the nineteenth century with truer line and color.

Not only is the work a rare and costly picture, filled in with inspiring details by master hands, but it is equally a monument, whose solid base, grand proportions, and elegant finish are in keeping with the spirit of the era it marks and the results it honors. Its every inscription is a glowing tribute to human achievement of whatever kind and wherever the field of action may lie, and therefore a happy means of conveying to twentieth century actors the story of a time whose glories they will find it hard to excel. May this picture and monument be viewed, studied, and admired by all, so that the momentous chapters which round the history of a closing century shall avail in shaping the beginnings of a succeeding one.

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AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS

Table of Contents

JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.,

Wonders of Electricity.

REAR-ADMIRAL GEORGE WALLACE MELVILLE,

Chief of Bureau of Steam Engineering, Navy Department, Washington, D.C.

The Century’s Naval Progress.

SELDEN J. COFFIN, A.M.,

Professor of Astronomy, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.

Astronomy during the Century.

THOMAS MEEHAN,

Vice-President Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

Story of Plant and Flower.

MARY ELIZABETH LEASE,

First Woman President of Kansas State Board of Charities.

Progress of Women within the Century.

ROBERT P. HAINS,

Principal Examiner of Textiles, United States Patent Office, Washington, D.C.

The Century’s Textile Progress.

GEORGE EDWARD REED, S.T.D., LL.D.,

President of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.

The Century’s Religious Progress.

JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.,

Great Growth of Libraries.

WILLIAM MARTIN AIKEN, F.A.I.A.,

Former United States Supervising Architect, Treasury Department, Washington, D.C.

Progress of the Century in Architecture.

HARVEY W. WILEY, M.D., PH. D., LL.D.,

Chief Chemist of Division of Chemistry, Agricultural Department, Washington, D.C.

The Century’s Progress in Chemistry.

RITER FITZGERALD, A.M.,

Dramatic Critic City Item, Philadelphia.

The Century’s Music and Drama.

JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.,

The Century’s Literature.

MORRIS JASTROW, JR., PH. D.,

Professor of Semitic Languages, University of Pennsylvania.

The Records of the Past.

MAJOR HENRY E. ALVORD, C.E., LL.D.,

Chief of Dairy Division, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

Progress in Dairy Farming.

SARA Y. STEVENSON, Sc. D.,

Secretary of Department of Archæology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania.

The Century’s Moral Progress.

CHARLES McINTIRE, A.M., M.D.,

Lecturer on Sanitary Science, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.

Progress of Sanitary Science.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ARTHUR L. WAGNER,

Assistant Adjutant General United States Army.

The Century’s Armies and Arms.

WALDO F. BROWN,

Agricultural Editor Cincinnati Gazette.

The Century’s Progress in Agriculture.

WALTER LORING WEBB, C.E.,

Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.

Progress in Civil Engineering.

D.E. SALMON, M.D.,

Chief of Bureau of Animal Industry, Agricultural Department, Washington, D.C.

The Century’s Progress in the Animal World.

MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER,

United States Army, and Member of Congress from Eighth Alabama District.

Leading Wars of the Century.

GEORGE J. HAGAR,

Editor of Appendix to Encyclopædia Britannica.

The Century’s Fairs and Expositions.

HON. BRADFORD RHODES,

Editor of Banker’s Magazine.

The Century’s Progress in Coinage, Currency, and Banking.

H.E. VAN DEMAN,

Late Professor of Botany and Practical Horticulture, Kansas State Agricultural College.

The Century’s Progress in Fruit Culture.

EMORY R. JOHNSON, A.M.,

Assistant Professor of Transportation and Commerce, University of Pennsylvania.

The Century’s Commercial Progress.

FRANKLIN S. EDMONDS, A.M.,

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Central High School, Philadelphia.

The Century’s Advances in Education.

THOMAS J. LINDSEY,

Editorial Staff Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

The Art Preservative.

GEORGE A. PACKARD,

Metallurgist and Mining Engineer.

Progress in Mines and Mining.

JOHN V. SEARS,

Art Critic Philadelphia Evening Telegraph.

Art Progress of the Century.

J. MADISON TAYLOR, M.D., and

JOHN H. GIBBON, M.D.,

Surgeons Out-Patients Departments of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospitals.

The Century’s Advance in Surgery.

FRANK C. HAMMOND, M.D.,

Instructor in Gynæcology, Jefferson Medical College.

Progress of Medicine.

E.E. RUSSELL TRATMAN, C.E.,

Assistant Editor of Engineering News, Chicago, Ill.

Evolution of the Railroad.

LUTHER E. HEWITT, L.B.,

Librarian of Philadelphia Law Association.

Advance in Law and Justice.

MICHAEL J. BROWN,

Secretary of Building Association League of Pennsylvania.

Progress of Building and Loan Associations.

REV. A. LEFFINGWELL,

Rector Trinity Church, Toledo, O.

Epoch Makers of the Century.

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ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

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PUCK.

WONDERS OF ELECTRICITY

By JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.

Table of Contents

I. AT THE DAWN OF THE CENTURY.

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When, in his Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare placed in the mouth of Puck, prince of fairies, the playful speech,—

"I’ll put a girdle round about the earth

In forty minutes,"

he had no thought that the undertaking of a boastful and prankish sprite could ever be outdone by human agency. Could the immortal bard have lived to witness the time when the girdling of the earth by means of the electric current became easier and swifter than elfin promise or possibility, he must have speedily remodeled his splendid comedy and denied to the world its delightful, fairy-like features.

An old and charming story runs, that Aladdin, son of a widow of Bagdad, became owner of a magic lamp, by means of whose remarkable powers he could bring to his instant aid the services of an all-helpful genie. When Aladdin wished for aid of any kind, he had but to rub the lamp. At once the genie appeared to gratify his desires. By means of the lamp Aladdin could hear the faintest whisper thousands of miles away. He could annihilate both time and space, and in a twinkling could transfer himself to the tops of the highest mountains. How the charm of this ancient story is lost in the presence of that marvelous realism which marks the achievements of modern electrical science!

The earliest known observations on that subtle mystery which pervades all nature, that silent energy whose phenomena and possibilities are limitless, and before which even the wisest must stand in awe, are attributed to Thales, a scholar of Miletus, in Greece, some 600 years B.C. On rubbing a piece of amber against his clothing, he observed that it gained the strange property of at first attracting and then repelling light objects brought near to it. His observations led to nothing practical, and no historic mention of electrical phenomena is found till the time of Theophrastus (B.C. 341), who wrote that amber, when rubbed, attracted straws, small sticks, and even thin pieces of copper and iron. Both Aristotle and Pliny speak of the electric eel as having power to benumb animals with which it comes in contact.

Thus far these simple phenomena only had been mentioned. There was no study of electric force, no recognition of it as such, or as we know it and turn it to practical account to-day. This seems quite strange when we consider the culture and power to investigate of the Egyptians, Phœnicians, Greeks, and Romans. True, a few fairy-like stories of how certain persons emitted sparks from their bodies, or were cured of diseases by shocks from electric eels, are found scattered through their literatures, but they failed to follow the way to electrical science pointed out to them by Thales. Even in the Middle Ages, when a few scientists and writers saw fit to speak of electrical phenomena as observed by the ancients, and even ventured to speculate upon them in their crude way, there were no practical additions made to the science, and the ground laid as fallow as it had done since the creation.

OLD FRANKLIN ELECTRICAL MACHINE.

(By permission of Franklin Institute.)

After a lapse of more than two thousand years from the experiment of Thales, Dr. Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth (A.D. 1533–1603), took up the study of amber and various other substances which, when subjected to friction, acquired the property of first, attracting and then repelling light bodies brought near them. He published his observations in a little book called De Magnete, in the year A.D. 1600, and thus became the first author of a work upon electricity. In this unique and initial work upon simple electrical effects, the author added greatly to the number of substances that could be electrified by friction, and succeeded in establishing the different degrees of force with which they could be made to attract or repel light bodies brought near them.

Fortunately for electrical science, and for that matter all sciences, about this time the influence of Lord Bacon’s Inductive Philosophy began to be felt by investigators and scientific men. Before that, the causes of natural phenomena had not been backed up by repeated experiments amounting to practical proofs, but had been accounted for, if at all, by sheer guesses or whimsical reasons. Bacon’s method introduced hard, cold, constant experiment as the only sure means of finding out exactly the causes of natural phenomena; and not only this, but the necessity of series upon series of experiments, each based upon the results of the former, and so continuing, link by link, till, from a comparison of the whole, some general principle or truth could be drawn that applied to all. This inductive method of scientific research gave great impetus to the study of every branch of science, and especially to the unfolding of infallible and practical laws governing the phenomena of nature.

For very many years electrical experiments followed the lines laid down by Dr. Gilbert; that is, the finding of substances that could be excited or electrified by friction. By and by such substances came to be called electrics, and it became a part of the crude electrical science of the time to compute the force with which these electrics, when excited, attracted or repelled other substances near them. Among the ablest of these investigators were Robert Boyle, author of Experiments on the Origin of Electricity, Sir Isaac Newton, Otto von Guericke, and Francis Hawksbee, the last of whom communicated his experiments to the English Royal Society in 1705. Otto von Guericke used a hard roll of sulphur as an electric. He caused it to revolve rapidly while he rubbed or excited it with his hand. Newton and Hawksbee used a revolving glass globe in the same way, and thus became the parents of the modern and better equipped electrical machine used for school purposes.

The next step in electrical discovery, and one which marks an epoch in the history of the science, was made by Stephen Gray, of England, in 1729. To him is due the credit of finding out that electricity from an excited glass cylinder could be conducted away from it to objects at a remote distance. Though he used only a packthread as a conductor, he thus carried electricity to a distance of several hundred feet, and his novel discovery opened up what, for the time, was a brilliant series of experiments in England and throughout France and Germany. Out of these experiments came the knowledge that some substances were natural conductors of electricity, while others were non-conductors; and that the non-conductors were the very substances—glass, resin, sulphur, etc.—which were then in popular use as electrics. Here was laid the foundation of those after-discoveries which led to the selection of copper, iron, and other metals as the natural and therefore best conductors of electricity, and glass, etc., as the best insulators or non-conductors.

Up to this time an excited electric, such as a glass cylinder or wheel, had furnished the only source whence electricity had been drawn for purposes of experiment. But now another great step forward was taken by the momentous discovery that electricity, as furnished by the excited but quickly exhausted electric, could be bottled up, as it were, and so accumulated and preserved in large quantities, to be drawn upon when needed for experiment. It is not known who made this important discovery; but by common consent the storage apparatus, which was to play so conspicuous a part in after-investigations, was named the Leyden Jar or Phial, from the city of Leyden in Holland. It consisted of a simple glass jar lined inside and out with tinfoil to within an inch or two of the top, the tinfoil of the inside being connected by a conductor passing up through the stopper of the jar to a metallic knob on top. This jar could be charged or filled with electricity from a common electric, and it had the power of retaining the charge till the knob on top was touched by the knuckle, or some unelectrified substance, when a spark ensued, and the jar was said to be discharged. By conductors attached to the knob, guns were fired off at a distance by means of the spark, and it is said that Dr. Benjamin Franklin ignited a glass of brandy at the house of a friend by means of a wire attached to a Leyden jar and stretched the full width of the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia.

LEYDEN JAR.

At this stage in the history of eighteenth century electricity there enters a character whose experiments in electricity, and whose writings upon the subject, not only brought him great renown at home and abroad, but perhaps did more to systematize the science and turn it to practical account than those of any contemporary. This was the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, Pa. He showed to the world that electricity was not created by friction upon an electric, but that it was merely gathered there, when friction was applied, from surrounding nature; and in proof of his theory he invaded the clouds with a kite during a thunder-storm, and brought down electricity therefrom by means of the kite-string as a conductor. The key he hung on the string became charged with the electric fluid, and on being touched by an unelectrified body, emitted sparks and produced all the effects commonly witnessed in the discharge of the Leyden jar.

Franklin further established the difference between positive and negative electricity, and showed that the spark phenomenon on the discharge of the Leyden jar was due to the fact that the inside tinfoil was positively electrified and the outside tinfoil negatively. When the inside tinfoil was suddenly drawn upon by a conductor, the spark was simply the result of an effort upon the part of the two kinds of electricity to maintain an equilibrium. By similar reasoning he accounted for the phenomenon of lightning in the clouds, and by easy steps invented the lightning-rod, as a means of breaking the force of the descending bolt, and carrying the dangerous fluid safely to the ground. Here we have not only a practical result growing out of electrical experiments, but we witness the dawn of an era when electricity was to be turned to profitable commercial account. The lightning-rod man has been abroad in the world ever since the days of Franklin.

Thus far, then, electrical science, if science it could yet be called, had gotten on at the dawn of the nineteenth century. No electricity was really known but that produced by friction upon glass, or some other convenient electric. Hence it was called frictional electricity by some, and static electricity by others, because it was regarded as electricity in a state of rest. Though a thing fitted for curious experiment, and a constant invitation to scientific research, it had no use whatever in the arts. An excited electric could furnish but a trivial and temporary supply of electricity. It exhausted itself in the exhibition of a single spark.

II. THE NEW NINETEENTH CENTURY ELECTRICITY.

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By a happy accident in 1790, Galvani, of Bologna, Italy, while experimenting upon a frog, discovered that he could produce alternate motion between its nerves and muscles through the agency of a fluid generated by certain dissimilar metals when brought close together. Though this mysterious fluid came to be known as the galvanic fluid, and though galvanism was made to perpetuate his name, it was not until 1800 that Volta, another Italian, showed to the scientific world that really a new electricity had been found.

FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA.

(From photo furnished by Institute.)

Volta constructed what became known as the galvanic pile, but more largely since as the voltaic pile, which he found would generate electricity strongly and continuously. He used in its construction the dissimilar metals silver and zinc, cut into disks, and piled alternately one upon the other, but separated by pieces of cloth moistened with salt water. This simple generator of electricity was the forerunner of the more powerful batteries of the present day, and which are still popularly known as voltaic cells or batteries.

But the importance of Volta’s discovery did not lay more in the construction of his electrical generator than in the great scientific fact that chemistry now became linked indissolubly with electricity and electrical effects. The two novel and charming sciences, hitherto separate, were henceforth to coöperate in those majestic revelations and magnificent possibilities which so signally distinguish the nineteenth century. By means of greatly improved voltaic cells or batteries, that is, by jars containing acid in which were suspended dissimilar metals, electricity could be produced readily and in somewhat continuous current. By increasing the number of these cells or jars or batteries, and connecting them with conductors, the current could be made stronger and more effective. In contradistinction to the old frictional or static electricity, the new became known as chemical or current electricity.

As was to have been expected, Volta’s invention and discovery excited the whole domain of electrical science to new investigation, and brought in their train a host of wonderful results, growing more and more practical each year, and pointing the way more and more clearly to the commercial value of electricity as a familiar, inexhaustible, and irresistible power. Thus, in 1801, Nicholson showed that an electric current from a voltaic pile would, when passed through salt water, decompose the water and resolve it into its two original gases, oxygen and hydrogen. In 1807, Sir Humphrey Davy, carrying electricity further into the domain of chemistry, showed, by means of the electric current, that various metallic substances embraced in the earth’s crust, and before his time supposed to be elementary, were really dissoluble and easily resolved into their component parts, whether solids, or gases, or both. Two years later, in 1809, he made the equally momentous discovery of something which was to prove a veritable sit lux, Let there be light, for the nineteenth century, and illuminate it beyond all others. Though it had been known almost from the date of the first voltaic pile that, when the ends of its two conducting wires were brought close together, a spark was seen to leap in a curved or arc line from one wire to the other, which phenomenon was known as the voltaic arc, it remained for Davy to exhibit this arc in all the beauty of a brilliant light by using two charcoal (carbon) sticks or electrodes, instead of the wires, at the point of close approach. Here was the first principle of the after-evolved arc light to be found by the end of the century in every large city, and to prove such a source of comfort and safety for their millions of inhabitants. This principle was simply that a stream of electricity pouring along a conducting wire will, when interrupted by a substance such as carbon (charcoal), which is a slow conductor, throw off a bright light at the point of interruption. The phenomenon has been very aptly likened to a running stream of water in whose bed a stone has been placed. The stone obstructs the flow of water. The water remonstrates by an angry ripple and excited roar. In Davy’s experiment with the pieces of charcoal, both became intensely hot while the electricity was making its brilliant arc leap from one to the other, and would, of course, soon be consumed. He, therefore, in showing the principle of a permanent luminant, failed to demonstrate its practical possibilities. These last were not to be attained till the nineteenth century was well along, and only after very numerous and very baffling attempts.

Between 1810 and 1830, many important laws governing electrical phenomena were discovered, which tended greatly to render the science more exact, and to give it commercial direction. Oersted, of Denmark, discovered a means of measuring the strength and direction of an electric current. Ampère, of France, discovered the identity of electricity and what had before been called galvanism. Ritchie, of England, made the first machine by which a continuous motion was produced by means of the attractions and repulsions between fixed magnets and electro-magnets. This machine was an early suggestion of the dynamo and motor of the coming years of the century. It meant that electricity was a source of power, as well as of other phenomenal things.

In speaking of the electro-magnet in connection with Ritchie’s machine, it is proper to say that the electro-magnet was probably discovered between 1825 and 1830, but precisely by whom is not known. It differs from the natural magnet, or the permanent steel horseshoe magnet, and consists simply of a round piece of soft iron, called a core, around which are wrapped several coils of fine wire. When an electric current is made to pass through this wrapping of wire, called the helix, the iron core becomes magnetized, and has all the power of a permanent magnet. But as soon as the electric current ceases, the magnetic power of the core is lost. Hence it is called an electro-magnet, or a temporary magnet, to distinguish it from a permanent magnet.

INDUCTION COIL.

While the discovery of the electro-magnet was very important in the respect that it afforded great magnetic power by the use of a limited or economic galvanic force, or, in other words, by the use of smaller and fewer Voltaic batteries, it was not until Faraday began his splendid series of electrical discoveries, in 1831, that a new and exhaustless wellspring of electricity was found to lay at the door of science. Faraday’s prime discovery was that of the induction of electric currents, or, in other words, of manufacturing electricity directly from magnetism. He began his experiments with what became known as an induction coil, which, though then crude in his hands, is the same in principle to-day. It consists of an iron core wrapped with two coils of insulated wire. One coil is of very lengthy, thin wire, and is called the secondary coil. The other is of short, thick wire, and is called the primary. When a magnetic current is passed through the primary coil, with frequent makes and breaks, it induces an alternating current of very high tension in the secondary coil, thus powerfully increasing its effects. In Faraday’s further study of electric induction, he showed that when a conductor carrying a current was brought near to a second conductor it induced or set up a current in this second. So magnets were found to have a similar effect upon one another.

MAGNETIC FIELDS OF FORCE.

The secret of these phenomena was found to lie in the fact that a magnet, or a conductor carrying a current, was the centre of a field of force of very considerable extent. Such a field of force can be familiarly shown by placing a piece of glass or white paper sprinkled with fine iron filings upon the poles of a magnet. The filings will be drawn into concentric circles, whose extent measures the magnet’s field of force. So also the extent of the field of force surrounding a conductor carrying a current may be familiarly shown. In these instances the filings brought within the fields of force are magnetized. So would any other conducting substance be, and would become capable of carrying away as an independent current that which had been induced in it. Here we have the essential principle of the modern dynamo-electric machine, commonly called simply dynamo. Faraday actually constructed a dynamo, which answered very well for his experiments, but failed in commercial results because the only source of energy he could draw upon in his time was that supplied by the rather costly voltaic cells.

During Faraday’s time and subsequently, electricians in Europe and the United States were active in formulating further laws relative to the nature, strength, and control of electrical currents, and each year was one of preparation for the coming leap of electrical science into the vast realm of commercial convenience and profit.

III. THE TELEGRAPH.

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From the date of the discovery that electricity could be conducted to a distance, dreams were indulged that it could be made a means of communicating intelligence. In the eighteenth century, many attempts were made to carry intelligent signals over electric wires. Some of these were quite ingenious, but in the end failures, because the old-fashioned frictional electricity was the only kind then known and employed. Even after the discovery of the voltaic cell or battery, which afforded an ample supply of chemical electricity to operate a telegraphic apparatus, the time was not ripe for successful telegraphy, for up till 1830 no battery had been produced that was sufficiently constant in its operation to supply the kind of current required. For feasible telegraphy, two important steps were yet necessary. One was the discovery of the electro-magnet, 1825–30. The other was the discovery of the Daniell’s battery or cell, in 1836, by means of which a constant electric current could be sustained for a long time.

DANIELL’S CELLS.

But even before these two indispensable requisites had been supplied by human genius, much had been done to develop the mechanical methods of conveying intelligence. In 1816, Ronalds, of England, constructed a telegraph by means of which he operated a system of pith-ball signals which could be understood. In 1820, Ampère suggested that the deflection of the magnetic needle by an electric current might be turned to account in imparting intelligence at a distance. In 1828, Dyar, of New York, perfected a telegraph by means of which he made tracings and spaces upon a piece of moving litmus paper, which tracings and spaces could be intelligently interpreted through a prearranged code. A little later, 1830, Baron Schilling constructed a telegraph which imparted motion to