THE SMALLEST WORKERS 



the forces of cohesion and gravitation in fact, of all 

 the observed cases of seeming action at a distance. 

 If at first blush the conception of space as filled with an 

 interminable meshwork of lines of force seems to involve 

 us in a hopeless mental tangle, it should be recalled 

 that the existence of an infinity of such magnetic lines 

 joining the poles of the earth may be demonstrated at 

 any time by the observation of a compass, yet that these 

 do not in any way interfere with the play of other 

 familiar forces. There is nothing unthinkable, then, 

 in the supposition that there are myriads of minor 

 magnetic centres exerting lesser degrees of force 

 throughout the same space. 



All that can be suggested as to the actual nature of the 

 Faraday tubes is that they perhaps represent a condi- 

 tion of the ether. This, obviously, is heaping hypothesis 

 upon hypothesis. Yet it should be understood that the 

 hypothesis of the magnetic electron as the basis of 

 matter, has received an amount of experimental sup- 

 port that has raised it at least to the level of a working 

 theory. Should that theory be demonstrated to be 

 true, we shall apparently be forced to conclude not 

 merely that electricity is present everywhere in nature, 

 but that, in the last analysis, there is absolutely no 

 tangible thing other than electricity in all the universe. 



HOW ELECTRICITY IS DEVELOPED 



Turning from this very startling theoretical con- 

 clusion to the practicalities, let us inquire how electricity 

 which apparently exists, as it were, in embryo every- 



