Description

Franklin, Benjamin - Lightning identified with electricity.--Faraday, Michael - Preparing the way for the electric dynamo and motor.--Henry, Joseph - Invention of the electric telegraph.--Iles, G. The first Atlantic cables.--Bell, Alexander Graham - The invention of the telephone.--Dam, H. J. W. Photographing the unseen.--Iles, G. The wireless telegraph.--Iles, G. Electricity, what its mastery means: with a review and a prospect.--Rumford, Count (B. Thompson) Heat and motion identified.--Stephenson, George - The "Rocket" locomotive and its victory

Contents

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN
LIGHTNING IDENTIFIED WITH ELECTRICITY
Franklin explains the action of the Leyden phial or jar. Suggests lightning-rods. Sends a kite into the clouds during a thunderstorm; through the kite-string obtains a spark of lightning which throws into divergence the loose fibres of the string, just as an ordinary electrical discharge would do

FARADAY, MICHAEL
PREPARING THE WAY FOR THE ELECTRIC DYNAMO AND MOTOR
Notices the inductive effect in one coil when the circuit in a concentric coil is completed or broken. Notices similar effects when a wire bearing a current approaches another wire or recedes from it. Rotates a galvanometer needle by an electric pulse. Induces currents in coils when the magnetism is varied in their iron or steel cores. Observes the lines of magnetic force as iron filings are magnetized. A magnetic bar moved in and out of a coil of wire excites electricity therein, mechanical motion is converted into electricity. Generates a current by spinning a copper plate in a horizontal plane

HENRY, JOSEPH
INVENTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
Improves the electro-magnet of Sturgeon by insulating its wire with silk thread, and by disposing the wire in several oils instead of one Experiments with a
large electro-magnet excited by nine distinct coils Uses a battery so powerful that electro-magnets are produced one hundred times more energetic than those of Sturgeon. Arranges a telegraphic circuit more than
a mile long and at that distance sounds a bell by means of an electro-magnet

ILES, GEORGE
THE FIRST ATLANTIC CABLES
Forerunners at New York and Dover. Gutta-percha the indispensable insulator. Wire is used to sheathe the cables. Cyrus W. Field's project for an Atlantic cable. The first cable fails. 1858 so does the second cable 1865. A triumph of courage, 1866. The highway smoothed for successors. Lessons of the
cable

BELL, ALEXANDER GRAHAM
THE INVENTION OF THE TELEPHONE
Indebted to his father's study of the vocal organs as they form sounds. Examines the Helmholtz method for the analysis and synthesis of vocal sounds Suggests the electrical actuation of tuning-forks and the electrical transmission of their tones distinguishes intermittent, pulsatory and undulatory currents. Devises as his first articulating telephone a harp of
steel rods thrown into vibration by electro-magnetism. Exhibits optically the vibrations of sound, using a preparation of a human ear: is struck by the efficiency of a slight aural membrane. Attaches a bit of clock spring to a piece of goldbeater's skin, speaks to it, an audible message is received at a distant and similar device. This contrivance improved is shown at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. At first the same kind of instrument transmitted and delivered a message; soon two distinct instruments were invented for transmitting and for receiving. Extremely small magnets suffice. A single blade of grass forms
a telephonic circuit

DAM, H. J. W.
PHOTOGRAPHING THE UNSEEN
Rontgen indebted to the researches of Faraday, Clerk-Maxwell, Hertz, Lodge and Lenard The human optic nerve is affected by a very small range in the waves that exist in the ether. Beyond the visible spectrum of common light are vibrations which have long been known as heat or as photographically active Crookes in a vacuous bulb produced soft light from high tension electricity Lenard found tha