PROGRESS IN ELECTRICITY 



tcrval of time that elapsed between the starting of the 

 current along the cord and its attracting the gold-leaf. 

 The length of the cord used in this experiment was only 

 a little over a hundred feet, and this was, of course, 

 entirely inadequate, the current travelling that space 

 apparently instantaneously. 



The improved method of generating electricity 

 that had come into general use made several of the 

 scientists again turn their attention more particular- 

 ly to attempt putting it to some practical account. 

 They were stimulated to these efforts by the constant 

 reproaches that were beginning to be heard on all sides 

 that electricity was merely a "philosopher's play- 

 thing." One of the first to succeed in inventing some- 

 thing that approached a practical mechanical con- 

 trivance was Andrew Gordon, a Scotch Benedictine 

 monk. He invented an electric bell which would ring 

 automatically, and a little "motor," if it may be so 

 called. And while neither of these inventions were of 

 any practical importance in themselves, they were at- 

 tempts in the right direction, and were the first an- 

 cestors of modern electric bells and motors, although 

 the principle upon which they worked was entirely 

 different from modern electrical machines. The mo- 

 tor was simply a wheel with several protruding 

 metal points around its rim. These points were ar- 

 ranged to receive an electrical discharge from a fric- 

 tional machine, the discharge causing the wheel to 

 rotate. There was very little force given to this ro- 

 tation, however, not enough, in fact, to make it possi- 

 ble to more than barely turn the wheel itself. Two 

 more great discoveries, galvanism and electro-magnetic 



279 



