GORDON'S INVENTIONS. 507 



trical theories. He imagined a subtle electric matter forc- 

 ing its way through bodies to which it is u proper, " and in 

 which it is inherent, and evaporating to form an atmo- 

 sphere around them. This matter moving in right lines 

 is not subject to central forces, runs like a fluid, and con- 

 tains particles of fire. He speculated also concerning the 

 elasticity of electricity, but settled nothing; and in fact 

 the more he theorizes the less profitable becomes the task 

 of summarizing his numerous treatises so that it need not 

 be further pursued. 1 



The popular demand for practical utilizations of electric- 

 ity was growing more peremptory. The first to respond 

 to it was the monk Gordon. It was Gordon who invented 

 the electric bell not the contrivance now known by that 

 name, but two gongs and a metal ball suspended by silk 

 lines in proximity to one another. The ball, on being 

 electrified, moved to one gong, struck it, was repelled to 

 strike the other, which again repelled it, and so on. 

 Likewise it was Gordon who invented, the first electric 

 motor curiously enough on exactly the same principle as 

 the first steam motor the aelopile of Hero of Alexandria. 

 It was a metal star pivoted at its center, and having the 

 ends of its rays slightly turned to one side, all in the same 

 direction. The reaction of the electric discharge at the 

 points whirled the star around on its pivot, just as the steam 

 turns the aelopile of Hero, or the escaping water rotates a 

 modern* outflow turbine wheel. And Gordon also first used 

 electricity for deadly purposes for he killed many a chaf- 

 finch to show the power of the sparks from his machine. 

 Nor did he disdain to compete in wonders with the wizard 

 Bose, for when the latter conveyed electricity from one 

 man to another over a distance of six feet by means of a 

 jet of water, Gordon ignited spirits by a similar electrified 

 stream, and left people lost in astonishment over the para- 

 dox of water setting things on fire. 



1 Winkler: Gedanken von den Eigenschaften, Wirkungen und Ur- 

 sachen der Elektricitat, !,eipsic, 1745; Die Eigenschafteu der Elektrischeii 

 Materie, Leipsic, 1745. 



