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PREFACE v^j&J^ 



IT was interesting to talk to Kings of Commerce 

 and to learn how they rose to fame and fortune; 

 before writing Heroes of Modern Adventure and 

 More Heroes of Modern Adventure we were privileged to 

 hear intrepid explorers relate their stories of endurance 

 and heroism in quest of the unknown that have thrilled 

 the world. But when gathering material for the present 

 volume we found even greater romance — the romance 

 of knowledge that little by little is solving the secrets of 

 nature and revolutionizing the world in which we live. 



Not much more than a century ago people laughed at 

 Galvani for making a frog's leg twitch by the application 

 of an electric current, and less than a hundred years have 

 passed since Faraday was tinkering with magnets and 

 wire. Those people who asked " What's the use? " did 

 not dream that these men, with Volta, Humphry Davy, 

 and a few others, were initiating the mighty changes in 

 the conditions in which we live brought about by the 

 development of electric light, electric power, the tele- 

 phone, and wireless. 



Barely fifty years ago even the schoolmaster thought 

 little of Science. The average schoolboy got an hour 

 weekly of what he called " stinks" and regarded it as 

 a splendid opportunity for taking it easy and sucking 

 sweets. Science was looked upon as something apart 

 from ordinary life, and many, especially religious people, 

 hated and feared it. George Gissing wrote : " I see it 

 restoring barbarism under the mask of civilization. I see 

 it darkening men's minds and hardening their hearts." 



If Gissing had lived to see the Great War he might have 



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