of Electrical Science. 15 



\\iro around a piece of soft iron and bringing 

 the two ends (of the wire) very close together, 

 and then placing the iron across the poles of 

 a permanent magnet and suddenly jerking it 

 ' away, a spark would pass between the two ends 

 of the wire that was wound around the piece 

 of soft iron. Here was an incipient dynamo- 

 el, c-tric machine the germ of that which 

 plays such an important part in our modern 

 civilization. 



Having brought our history down to the 

 present day, it would seem scarcely necessary 

 to recite that which everybody knows. It is 

 well, however, to call a halt once in a while 

 and compare our present conditions of civil- 

 ization with those of the past. Our world is 

 filled with croakers who are always sighing 

 f>r the good old days. But we can easily imag- 

 ine that if they could go back to those days 

 their croaking wouM he still louder than it is. 



Before the advent of electricity many things 

 were impossible that are easy now. In the old 

 days the world was very, very large; now, 

 thanks to electricity, it H knocking at the door 

 of every man's house. The lumbering stage- 

 fi.Mch that was formerly our limited express 

 limited to thirty or forty miles a day has 

 been supplanted by one that rovers 1000 miles 

 in the same lime, am] this hiirh rate of speed 

 de possible only hy the use of the electric 



telegraph. 



