THE ELECTROTYPE. 221> 



worship, as well as that of hero worship, has passed 

 from the early ages down to the present ; and under its 

 influence the genii of the East and the demons of the 

 West have preserved their traditionary powers. 



Fiction has employed itself with the utmost license in- 

 giving glowing pictures of treasures hidden in the earth's 

 recesses. The caverns of Chilminar, the cave of Alad- 

 din, the abodes of the spirits of the Hartz, and the 

 dwellings of the fairies of England, are gem-bespangled 

 and gold-glistening vaults, to Avhich man has never 

 reached. The pictures are pleasing ; but although they 

 have the elements of poetry in them, and delight the 

 young mind, they want the sterling character of scien- 

 tific truth ; and the wonderful researches of the plod- 

 ding mineralogist have developed more beauty in the 

 caverns of the dark rock than ever fancy painted iri her 

 happiest moments. 



In all probability the action of the sun's rays upon 

 the earth's surface, producing a constantly varying differ- 

 ence of temperature, and also the temperature which 

 has been observed as existing at great depths, give rise 

 to thermo-electrical currents, which may play an impor- 

 tant part in the results thus briefly described. 



In connection with these great natural operations, ex- 

 plaining them, and being also, to some extent, explained 

 by them, we have the very beautiful application of elec- 

 tricity to the deposition of metals, called the Electrotype. 



Applying the vjews we have adopted to this beautiful 

 disco very^* the whole process by which these metallic 

 deposits are produced will be yet more clearly under- 

 stood. By the agency of the electric fluid, liberated 



* The discovery of the electrotype has been disputed, as all valu- 

 able discoveries are. Without, however, at all disparaging the 

 merits of what had been done by Mr. Jordan, I am satisfied, after 

 the most careful search, that the first person who really employed 

 electro-chemical action for the precipitation of metals in an orna- 

 mental form, was Mr. Spencer, of Liverpool. 



