ELECTORAL COMMISSION 



2841 



ELECTRIC CHARGE 





Electoral Commission. Name 

 given to the body of men created 

 by an act of Congress in the U.S.A., 

 Jan. 29, 1877, to settle certain dis- 

 puted questions in connexion with 

 the electoral votes of four states in 

 the presidential election of 1876. 

 It was the only disputed election 

 in American history. It was de- 

 cided to create a commission to 

 determine which of two or more 

 conflicting certificates received 

 from any state of the votes cast by 

 the electoral college of such state 

 for president and vice-president in 

 the 1876 election was the certificate 

 provided for in the constitution. 

 The judgement in each case was that 

 the certificate of the votes cast for 

 Rutherford B. Hayes and William 

 A. Wheeler, the republican candi- 

 dates for president and vice-presi- 

 dent respectively, was the certifi- 

 cate containing the lawful electoral 

 vote of the said state. The other 

 certificates were declared void. 

 The electoral votes were then 

 counted, and Hayes and Wheeler 

 were declared duly elected. 



Electorate (Lat. eligere, to 

 select). Name given to the whole 

 body of electors or voters in a con- 

 stituency or country. See Election. 



Electors. In general, persons 

 who have the right of voting at 

 elections. In a special sense, how- 

 ever, the name was applied to the 

 German princes who in the Holy 

 Roman Empire voted at the elec- 

 tion of the king. 



Like many other early peoples, 

 the Germans elected their kings; 

 but, unlike them, they retained 

 this practice at least, in theory 

 until modern times. These elec- 

 tions may be said to have begun 

 with the choice of Conrad I as king 

 in 911, but it was often merely a 

 form, the eldest son of the late king 

 being confirmed as ruler, as was 

 Otto the Great. The electors were 

 powerful when there was no obvious 

 successor to the throne, two or 

 more candidates claiming it, as in 

 1198, and more so after the death 

 of Frederick II in 1250. At first 

 all the princes took part, or were 

 entitled to take part, in the elec- 

 tions, but soon many of them 

 ceased to attend. In 1257 the 

 number taking part was seven. 

 This number became fixed, was 

 recognized by the pope, and at 

 Aix-la-Chapelle statues of the 

 seven were erected. 



Trouble then arose as to who 

 were the favoured seven. Certain 

 princes, e.g. the archbishop of 

 Mainz and the elector palatine of 

 the Rhine, were acknowledged to 

 be electors, but in other cases there 

 were difficulties, especially when 

 two men divided a duchy between 

 them. The matter was settled in 



the Golden Bull issued by Charles 

 IV in 1356, which fixed the number 

 at seven, who were named. Three 

 were archbishops Mainz, Cologne, 

 and Treves and the other four 

 were the elector palatine, the duke 

 of Saxony, the margrave of Bran- 

 denburg, and the king of Bohemia. 

 Each held an office at the em- 

 peror's court. The clerics were 

 archchancellors for his three king- 

 doms, Germany, Italy, and Bur- 

 gundy ; the elector palatine was 

 his steward, Saxony his marshal, 

 Brandenburg his chamberlain, and 

 Bohemia his cupbearer. The arch- 

 bishop of Mainz was president of 

 the electoral college, and on the 

 death of a king summoned the 

 electors to Frankfort. 



The power of the seven electors 

 was greatly increased by the 

 Golden Bull. They were made 

 almost sovereign rulers, with privi- 

 leges not enjoyed by the other 

 princes of Germany. They formed 

 a college, one of the three sections 

 of the imperial diet. The com- 

 position of the college remained 

 unchanged until 1623, when the 

 elector palatine lost his vote, which 

 was given to the duke of Bavaria. 

 In 1648 he was restored as an 

 eighth elector. A ninth electorate 

 was created in 1708 for the ruler 

 of Hanover, and this was held by 

 George I and other English kings. 

 To keep up old theory these new 

 electors also held offices, the elector 

 palatine being treasurer and Han- 

 over standard-bearer. In 1778 the 

 ruling family of Bavaria became 

 extinct, and the elector palatine 

 secured their lands, thus uniting 

 two votes. In 1806, with the dis- 

 solution of the empire, the electors 

 ceased to exist. See Empire ; Ger- 

 many ; Golden Bull. 



Electra. In Greek mythology, 

 daughter of Agamemnon and Cly- 

 taemnestra. She incited her brother 

 Orestes, when he grew up to man- 

 hood, to murder his mother, Cly- 

 taemnestra, in revenge for the 

 latter' s murder of his father on his 

 return from Troy. The tragic life 

 of Electra forms the subject of 

 tragedies by Sophocles and by 

 Euripides. See Agamemnon ; Cly- 

 taemnestra ; Orestes. 



Electric (Gr. elektrvn, amber). 

 Term referring to anything with 

 which electricity is associated. In 

 addition to the articles in this En- 

 cyclopedia which appear under 

 compounds and variants of the 

 word, e.g. Electricity ; Electro- 

 statics ; Electro-metallurgy, etc., 

 there are numerous other articles 

 on electrical matters, but for 

 greater convenience these are 

 placed under the main word. The 

 advantage of this system is that it 

 enables the electrical aspect of a 



given subject to be placed with the 

 non-electrical branch of the same 

 subject. Thus Electric Clock is a 

 section of the article Clock and 

 Electric Bells of the article Bells. 

 The chief of these articles are : 

 Arc Fuse Radiator 



Battery Generator Railways 

 Bells Heater Resistance 



Cable Lamp Sign 



Clock Lift Symbol 



Coil Lighting Telegraphy 



Condenser Locomotive Testing 

 Conductor Machines Traction 

 Current Meter Unit 



Fire Alarm Motor Welding 



Furnace Potential Wiring 



Electrical Engineers, INSTI- 

 TUTION OF. British organization 

 founded as The Society of Tele- 

 graph Engineers in 1871. Its name 

 was afterwards changed to The So- 

 ciety of Telegraph Engineers and 

 Electricians, and finally, in 1889, 

 to its present designation. It was 

 incorporated under the Board of 

 Trade in 1883. The institution has 

 local centres in Great Britain and 

 at Calcutta, Cape Town, and Hong 

 Kong. Its London address is 1, 

 Albemarle Street, W. 



Electric Charge. Term used 

 for certain states of electrification 

 of a body. When two substances 

 are pressed hard or rubbed together 

 and then drawn apart they are 

 found to have developed properties 

 which they did not apparently pos- 

 sess before, the most striking being 

 the power of attracting each other 

 and light particles of other sub- 

 stances. They have developed or 

 acquired an electric charge and are 

 said to be electrified. 



All bodies seem able to develop or 

 acquire such a charge more or less, 

 but if different substances so 

 charged be examined the remark- 

 able fact emerges that, while the 

 charges have certain properties in 

 common and act in accordance 

 with the same laws, there are two 

 different kinds, one kind being de- 

 veloped by certain classes of sub- 

 stances and the other by other 

 classes, with this qualification, that 

 either kind may be developed on 

 some substances according to the 

 material with which they are 

 rubbed. The two kinds of charge 

 are represented by that developed 

 on a glass rod when rubbed with 

 silk, and by that produced on a 

 stick of resin when rubbed with fur 

 or wool ; the former has received 

 the name of positive electricity and 

 the latter that of negative elec- 

 tricity. Another remarkable char- 

 acteristic of these charges is that 

 one is never developed by itself but 

 both are always produced at the 

 same time, one kind being found on 

 one of the bodies rubbed and the 

 other kind on the other body. 



No adequate explanation has yet 

 been found for these phenomena. 



