Masterpieces of Science 



It was in pure research, in paths undirected to 

 the market-place, that such theories have been 

 thought out. Let us consider electricity as an 

 aid to investigation conducted for its own sake. 

 The chief physical generalization of our time, 

 and of all time, the persistence of force, emerged 

 to view only with the dawn of electric art. 

 When it was observed that electricity might be- 

 come heat, light, chemical action, or mechanical 

 motion, that in turn any of these might produce 

 electricity, it was at once indicated that all these 

 phases of energy might differ from each other 

 only as the movements in circles, volutes, and 

 spirals of ordinary mechanism. The suggestion 

 was confirmed when electrical measurers were 

 refined to the utmost precision, and a single 

 quantum of energy was revealed a very Proteus 

 in its disguises, yet beneath these disguises noth- 

 ing but constancy itself. 



"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; 

 and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, 

 but it tendeth to poverty. " Because the geom- 

 eters of old patiently explored the properties of 

 the triangle, the circle, and the ellipse, simply 

 for pure love of truth, they laid the corner-stones 

 for the arts of the architect, the engineer, and the 

 navigator. In like manner it was the disinter- 

 ested work of investigation conducted by Am- 

 pere, Faraday, Henry and their compeers, in as- 

 certaining the laws of electricity which made 

 possible the telegraph, the telephone, the dyna- 

 mo, and the electric furnace. The vital relations 

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