THE STORY OF ELECTRICITY 



For a much longer time than they had seen 

 steam, people had seen lightning, but they did not 

 know what it was or how it came to be. They 

 thought that it was sent to the earth by an angry 

 god, who used it to show his displeasure. Even such 

 civilized nations as the Greeks and Romans be- 

 lieved that, and they represented their principal god, 

 Zeus or Jupiter, as holding the thunderbolts. The 

 Hebrews thought thunder was the voice of Jehovah. 

 Later on, when people became Christians, they 

 still looked upon the lightning as something mys- 

 terious and not at all to be explained or understood. 



None of these people ever dreamed what the 

 lightning really was. Little did they think that 

 the peculiar power which they had noticed in amber 

 when it was rubbed was the same power that made 

 the flashes of hghtning. Most of the ancient peo- 

 ples were acquainted with amber and they had 

 noticed its peculiar qualities. As early as the be- 

 ginning of their trade, the Phoenician merchants 

 used to carry amber to the different cities around 

 the Mediterranean. The Greeks named it ''elec- 

 tron," or, ''the shining thing," and they made 

 up a beautiful story about the pieces of bright 

 amber. They said that they were the tears of 

 the sisters of Phaethon. Have you ever heard the 



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