THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



evolve electricity. 27. Common plate battery of zinc and copper. 

 28. Why zinc and copper are preferred. 29. Charcoal substituted 

 for copper. 30. Elements not essential. 31. Various chemical 

 solutions used. 32. Daniel's constant battery. 33. Same modified by 

 Pouillet. 34. Grove's and Bunsen's batteries. 35. Necessary to 

 combine many elements. 



1. EACH succeeding age and generation leaves behind it a peculiar 

 character, which stands out in relief upon its annals, and is 

 associated with it for ever in the memory of posterity. One is 

 signalised for the invention of gunpowder, another for that of 

 printing ; one is rendered memorable by the revival of letters, 

 another by the reformation of religion ; one is marked in history 

 by the conquests of Napoleon, another is rendered illustrious by 

 the discoveries of Newton. 



If we are asked by what characteristic the present age will be 

 marked in future records, we answer, by the miracles which 

 have been wrought in the subjugation of the powers of the material 

 world to the uses of the human race. In this respect no former 

 epoch can approach to competition with it. 



The author of some of the most popular fictions of the day 

 has affirmed, that in adapting to his purpose the results of his 

 personal observation on men and manners, he has not unfre- 

 quently found himself compelled to mitigate the real in order to 

 bring it within the limits of the probable. No observer of the 

 progress of the arts of life, at the present time, can fail to be struck 

 with the prevalence of the same character in their results as that 

 which compelled this writer to suppress the most wonderful of 

 what had fallen under his eye, in order to bring his descriptions 

 within the bounds of credibility. 



2. Many are old enough to remember the time when persons, 

 correspondence, and merchandise were transported from place to 

 place in this country by stage-coaches, vans, and waggons. In 

 those days the fast-coach, with its team of spanking blood-horses, 

 and its bluff driver, with broad-brimmed hat and drab box-coat, 

 from which a dozen capes were pendant, who "handled the rib- 

 bons " with such consummate art, could pick a fly from the ear of 

 the off-leader, and turn into the gateway at Charing Cross with the 

 precision of a geometrician, were the topics of the unbounded 

 admiration of the traveller. Certain coaches obtained a special 

 celebrity and favour with the public. We cannot forget how the 

 eye of the traveller glistened when he mentioned the Brighton 

 "Age," the Glasgow " Mail," the Shrewsbury " Wonder," or the 

 Exeter " Defiance," the "Age," which made its trip in five- 

 hours, and the " Defiance," which acquired its fame by completing 

 the journey between London and Exeter in less than thirtv hours. 

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