56 



moisture it needs, and the nitrogen, sustained by the mo- 

 tion of the air, nourishes and gives strength to the vege- 

 table organism. And all this is effected by the elec- 

 trifying power of our moon. 



Experiments testing the influence of electricity on ve- 

 getation have been begun but recently. Until the disco- 

 veries of Yablochkoff and Edison, though there was the 

 Drummond light and, incandescence of platinum wire had 

 been produced by galvanism, experiment had only pro- 

 ved the latent presence of a power in nature which 

 without fire could generate both light and heat. The 

 inconvenience of the Drummond light lay in the circum- 

 stance that it demanded special technical apparatus for 

 the adjustment of the burning charcoal points, and more- 

 over the light itself burned fitfully; whilst experiments 

 with incandescent wires went no further than the proof 

 of the extraordinary heat of electricity which could fuse 

 platinum, a substance which up to the application of 

 this force had defied all attempts to melt it. As to the 

 general application of electricity as a source of agreeable 

 light nobody in those times ever dreamt of it. 



But as in human lives an accident will change the 

 whole current of a man's ideas and even the course of 

 life itself, so also in science one successful experiment 

 will sometimes lead to a succession of discoveries of 

 highest importance and utility. Yablochkoff's system of 

 electric lighting is in reality a simplification of Drum- 

 mond's. Before its introduction the charcoal points were 

 always directed perpendicularly towards one another. 

 To this inventor the idea occured to place the charcoals 

 parallel to one another. The result proved in every 

 sense of the word brilliant, and at once the system of 

 "Yablochkoff lighting" sprang into existence. 



When the manager of the Hermitage Garden in Mos- 

 cow, Lentovsky succeeded in arranging an artificial elec- 

 tric moon on the stage, the impression made on the pub- 

 lic at the time was tremendous. The public went into 

 raptures over this novel effect; found that Lentowsky's 



