76 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



Mr. King was not the inventor, but he and Mr. Dorr 

 supplied capital, and Mr. Snyder also held a share, which 

 was afterwards transferred to myself. The inventor was 

 Mr. Starr, a young man about twenty-five years of age, and 

 one of the ablest experimental investigators with whom I 

 have ever had the privilege of near acquaintance. 



He had been working for some years on the subject, 

 commencing with the ordinary arc between charcoal points. 

 His first efforts were directed to maintaining constancy, and 

 he showed me, in January of 1846, an arrangement by 

 which he succeeded in effecting an automatic renewal of 

 contact by means of an electro-magnet, the armature of 

 which received the electric flow, ^when the arc was broken, 

 and which thus magnetized brought the carbons together 

 and then allowed them to be withdrawn to their required 

 separation, when the flow returned. This device was almost 

 identical with that subsequently re-invented and patented 

 by Mr. Staite (quite independently, I believe), and which, 

 with modifications, has since been rather extensively 

 used. 



Although successful so far, he was not satisfied. He 

 reasoned out the subject, and concluded that the electric 

 spark between metals, the electric arc between the carbons, 

 and other luminous electric phenomena are secondary effects 

 due to the heating and illumination of electric carriers ; that 

 the electric spark of the conductors of ordinary electrical 

 machines is simply a transfer of incandescent particles of 

 metal, which effect a kind of electric convection, known as 

 the disruptive discharge ; and that the more brilliant arc 

 between the carbon points is simply due to the use of a sub- 

 stance which breaks up more readily, and gives a longer, 

 broader, and more continuous stream of incandescent con- 

 vection particles. 



This is now readily accepted, but at that time was only 

 dawning upon the understanding of electricians. I am sat- 

 isfied that Mr. Starr worked out the principle quite origin- 

 ally. He therefore concluded that, the light being due to 

 solid particles heated by electric disturbance, it would be 

 more advantageous as regards steadiness, economy, and 

 simplicity to place in the current a continuous solid bax- 



