REMINISCENCES OF AN EXPERIMENTER. 



TN examining recently the contents of certain dark 

 attics and closets in some of our buildings, we 

 came upon confused heaps of wheels, magnets, coils, 

 batteries, retorts, alembics, beakers, pyrometers, 

 galvanometers, etc., etc., encumbering the shelves 

 and floor ; many of which were curious enough in 

 the rudeness of their form and construction, and 

 aptly illustrative of the science of a former period. 



In these piles of rubbish, the cast-off debris of 

 many years of study and toil, is written the his- 

 tory of the progress of discoveiy for more than 

 three decades. Here is an electro-magnet, with 

 lever-attached armature, and an arrangement of 

 wheels, the remains of rude telegraphic appara- 

 tus which we had in operation in 1845, about the 

 time Morse's experiment began to attract atten- 

 tion ; here are iron cups, connected with copper 

 and platinum conductors, designed to illustrate the 

 practicability of exploding magazines under water 

 by electricity ; here are galvanic batteries of every 

 conceivable form and size, most of which are now 

 cast aside as practically useless ; and also discs and 

 cylinders, of glass and rubber and gutta-percha, for 



