53 



[The Engineering Magazine, VIII, 589-596, January, 1895] 



It is not uncommon for electricians to be asked whether modern 

 science has yet determined the nature of electricity, and we often find 

 difficulty in answering the question. When the latter comes from a 

 person of small knowledge which we know to be of a vague and general 

 nature, we naturally answer it in an equally vague and general manner; 

 but when it comes from a student of science anxious and able to bear 

 the truth, we can now answer with certainty that electricity no longer 

 exists. Electrical phenomena, electrostatic actions, electromagnetic 

 action, electrical waves, these still exist and require explanation; but 

 electricity, which, according to the old theory, is a viscous fluid throw- 

 ing out little amoeba-like arms that stick to neighboring light sub- 

 stances and, contracting, draw them to the electrified body, electricity 

 as a self-repellent fluid or as two kinds of fluid, positive and negative, 

 attracting each other and repelling themselves, this electricity no 

 longer exists. For the name electricity, as used up to the present time, 

 signifies at once that a substance is meant, and there is nothing more 

 certain to-day than that electricity is not a fluid. 



This makes the task of one who attempts to explain modern elec- 

 trical theory a very difficult one, for the idea of electricity as a fluid 

 pervades the whole language of electrical science, and even the defini- 

 tions of electrical units as adopted by all scientists suggest a fluid theory. 

 No wonder, then, that some practical men have given up in despair 

 and finally concluded that the easiest way to understand a telegraph 

 line is to consider that the earth is a vast reservoir of electrical fluid, 

 which is pumped up to the line wire by the battery and finally descends 

 to its proper level at the distant end. Is not this the proper conclusion 

 to draw from that unfortunate term ' electric current ' ? Kemember- 

 ing this fact, that we cannot yet free ourselves from these old theories, 

 and exactly suit our words to our meaning, we shall now try to under- 

 stand the modern progress in electrical theory. 



This whole progress is based upon something in the human mind 

 which warns us against the possibility of attraction at a distance 



