156 The Evolution of Electric and Magnetic Physics. 



thus appears to have been the first to apply electrical science 

 to utilitarian purposes; for up to this time there was no 

 electric art. In every other branch of study, even astrono- 

 my not excepted, as evidenced in astrology, art had long 

 preceded science, that vainly toiled to keep pace in theory 

 with the steps of practice. To this day the race is still all 

 uneven; for the capabilities of skill and mechanism often 

 transcend calculation and set analytical pursuit at defiance; 

 but here a new order was celebrated ; for perhaps the first 

 time in the history of the world Science preceded and cre- 

 ated an art. 



To Franklin and Canton jointly we owe the discovery, 

 dimly foreshadowed by Stephen Gray, that electrical force 

 develops electrification in surrounding bodies, at a distance, 

 or by induction. This made another example of forces act- 

 ing at a distance, such as gravitation and radiant energy. 

 This then was a great mystery. Later investigations have 

 partly explained these phenomena, though the matter is still 

 only dimly understood. Newton had always confessed him- 

 self unable to comprehend the modus operandi of definite 

 forces acting through indefinitely extended vacancy. He 

 suggested as an explanation the corpuscular theory of light 

 that light consisted of solid particles of matter emanating 

 from a luminous body. This theory has since given way to 

 the undulatory theory of vibratory and progressive disturb- 

 ances in an elastic ether. The electrical phenomena of ac- 

 tion at a distance have also been proved to be produced by 

 elastic stress, and possibly even deformation of the same in- 

 visible but ubiquitous element. We know now what Frank- 

 lin and Canton did not that induction is due to pushing the 

 electric force through the surrounding air or ether. It is 

 not improbable that similar solutions may ultimately be 

 found for the other problems of radiant energy. Gravita- 

 tion yet remains unexplained, but remains, it is believed, 

 only to succumb to a similar and equally simple hypothesis. 

 We seem to know for a certainty, at least, that so-called ac- 

 tion at a distance is caused by stress through the intervening 

 medium. 



Now that sufficient facts had been collected, generaliza- 

 tion became possible, and the first mathematical theory of 

 electricity was propounded by ^Epinus in 1759. This, how- 

 ever, was succeeded and eclipsed by the researches and re- 

 sults of Coulomb and Cavendish, who first applied definite 

 measurements to the study of the science. It has been aptly 



