Electricity 



between pure research and economic gain have 

 at last worked themselves clear. It is perfectly 

 plain that a man who has it in him to discover 

 laws of matter and energy does incomparably 

 more for his kind than if he carried his talents 

 to the mint for conversion into coin. The voy- 

 age of a Columbus may not immediately bear as 

 much fruit as the uncoverings of a mine prospec- 

 tor, but in the long run a Columbus makes possi- 

 ble the finding many mines which without him 

 no prospector would ever see. Therefore let the 

 seed-corn of knowledge be planted rather than 

 eaten. But in choosing between one research 

 and another it is impossible to foretell which may 

 prove the richer in its harvests; for instance, all 

 attempts thus far economically to oxidize carbon 

 for the production of electricity have failed, yet 

 in observations that at first seemed equally 

 barren have lain the hints to which we owe the 

 incandescent lamp and the wireless telegraph. 



Perhaps the most promising field of electrical 

 research is that of discharges at high pressures; 

 here the leading American investigators are 

 Professor John Trowbridge and Professor Elihu 

 Thomson. Employing a tension estimated at one 

 and a half millions volts, Professor Trowbridge 

 has produced flashes of lightning six feet in 

 length in atmospheric air; in a tube exhausted 

 to one-seventh of atmospheric pressure the 

 flashes extended themselves to forty feet. Ac- 

 cording to this inquirer, the familiar rending of 

 trees by lightning is due to the intense heat 

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