Preface 



laying the first Atlantic cables, a task long 

 scouted as impossible: it is a story which proves 

 how much science may be indebted to unfaltering 

 courage, to faith in ultimate triumph. 



To give speech the wings of electricity, to 

 enable friends in Denver and New York to con- 

 verse with one another, is a marvel which only 

 familiarity places beyond the pale of miracle. 

 Shortly after he perfected the telephone Pro- 

 fessor Bell described the steps which led to its 

 construction That recital is here reprinted. 



A recent wonder of electric art is its penetration 

 by a photographic ray of substances until now 

 called opaque. Professor Ront gen's account of 

 how he wrought this feat forms one of the 

 most stirring chapters in the history of science. 

 Next follows an account of the telegraph as it 

 dispenses with metallic conductors altogether, 

 and trusts itself to that weightless ether which 

 brings to the eye the luminous wave. To this 

 succeeds a chapter which considers what elec- 

 tricity stands for as one of the supreme resources 

 of human wit, a resource transcending even flame 

 itself, bringing articulate speech and writing to 

 new planes of facility and usefulness. . It 

 is shown that the rapidity with which during 

 a single century electricity has been subdued for 

 human service, illustrates that progress has leaps 

 as well as deliberate steps, so that at last a gulf, 

 all but infinite, divides man from his next of kin. 

 At this point we pause to recall our debt to the 

 physical philosophy which underlies the calcula- 

 vi 



