THE STORY OF ELECTRICITY 295 



machines that will send and receive messages with- 

 out wire. It is not so long ago that Marconi, then 

 almost a boy, startled the world by sending across 

 the ocean his first message through the air. Now, 

 one ship in trouble can be helped out by the other 

 ships that receive its '^wireless" messages of dis- 

 tress sent through the air. 



A person living in the world to-day can receive in 

 a few moments a message by telegraph from a friend 

 Hving more than a thousand miles away. He can 

 talk by telephone with a friend who lives even three 

 thousand miles away. He can send home a message 

 under the ocean by cable, if he is travehng in Europe; 

 and he can even send word back to his family when 

 he is in mid-ocean, telling them that he is safe and 

 well. 



He can travel on trains that go so swiftly it 

 takes our breath away to watch them; he can 

 travel on electric cars or in an automobile. He 

 can cross the ocean in great safety and comfort in 

 a swiftly moving steamship; he can even travel 

 under the ocean in a submarine, and in the air in 

 an airplane. 



Does it seem as if more than this could be done? 

 Yet nature still beckons to the mind and to the seeing 

 eyes of mankind. She has many more secrets to 

 tell to those who desire to learn them. Many of 

 the boys and girls of to-day will join the ranks of 

 those who, by their thought and devotion, have 

 benefited the lives of all mankind. It was only a 

 short time ago that Marconi was a boy, and think 

 what he has done! 



