CHAPTER XXIX. 



THE NEW ERA. 



When we consider the number of new prod- 

 ucts for whose existence we are indebted to 

 electricity, and the number of old products 

 that have heretofore existed experimentally, 

 in the laboratory of the chemist only, that 

 have now been brought into play as useful 

 agents in the various arts and industries, we 

 begin to realize that this is truly an electrical 

 age and the dawning of a new era. How 

 many, many things there are, familiar to the 

 children of to-day, that were not even imag- 

 ined by the children of twenty-five to fifty 

 years ago. Fifty years ago the only useful 

 purpose to which electricity was put was that 

 of transmitting news from city to city by the 

 Morse telegraphic code. It will be fifty-seven 

 years the first of April, 1901, since the first 

 telegraph-line was thrown open to the public. 

 Less than thirty years ago but little advance 

 had been made in the use of electrical appli- 

 ances beyond the perfection of certain private- 

 line instruments, and a means for multiple 

 transmission. About twenty years ago there 

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