ELECTRO-MOTIVE POWER. 



motive machines. 9. Details of their construction. 10. Regulator 

 applied to them. 11. Their application to divide the limbs of philo- 

 sophical instruments. 12. Their wonderful self-acting power. 13. 

 Application of electro-motive power to the telegraph by Mons. 

 Froment. 14. Microscopic writing. 15. Electric clocks. 



1. AMO:N-G those who have devoted their thoughts to the applica- 

 tion of the principles of physical science to the industrial arts, an 

 anticipation more or Jess sanguine has long been entertained that 

 the day is not far distant when the mighty power of steam, which 

 has exercised, and still continues to exercise, so great an influ- 

 ence upon the well-being of the human race and the progress of 

 civilisation, will be superseded by other far more efficient 

 mechanical agents. Science already directs her finger at sources 

 of inexhaustible power in the phenomena of electricity and mag- 

 netism. The alternate decomposition and recomposition of water, 

 by electric action, has too close an analogy to the alternate pro- 

 cesses of vaporisation and condensation, not to occur at once to 

 every mind : the development of the gases from solid matter by 

 the operation of the chemical affinities, and their subsequent 

 condensation into the liquid form, has already been essayed as a 

 source of power. In a word, the general state of physical science 

 at the present moment, the vigour, activity, and sagacity with 

 which researches in it are prosecuted in every civilised country, 

 the increasing consideration in which scientific men are held, and 

 the personal honours and rewards which begin to be conferred 

 upon them, all justify the expectation that we are on the eve of 

 mechanical discoveries still greater than any which have yet 

 appeared ; that the steam engine itself, with its gigantic powers, 

 will dwindle into insignificance in comparison with the energies 

 of nature which are still to be revealed ; and that the day will 

 come when that machine, which is now extending the blessings 

 of civilisation to the most remote skirts of the globe, will cease to 

 have existence except in the page of history. 



2. It is not, however, generally known, that there exists in Paris 

 an establishment for the fabrication of philosophical instruments, 

 or rather of that class of those instruments which in that country 

 are distinguished as instruments of precision, in which elec- 

 tro-magnetism is and has been for several years back applied 

 with complete success, as a moving power on a considerable 

 scale. 



3. In the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, a small modest-looking 

 stall furnished with theodolites and some models of electro- 

 magnetic apparatus might have been seen, bearing the inscription 

 of Gustave Froment ; and in the Great Illustrated and com- 

 mentated Catalogue there appeared the three following lines : 



