592 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



single atom of steam by itself, we would find its electricity sensi- 

 ble to a correspondingly delicate electrometer. 



That immense quantities of electricity are developed from steam, 

 whatever be the source of that electricity, is already well known, 

 and lias been for several years past, and a boiler specially adapt- 

 ed to that purpose is referred to by Noad of about four horse power, 

 which gave flashes of lightning over twenty inches in length, and 

 at the rate of about 200 per minute, the steam issuing from it at a 

 pressure of about sixty pounds per square inch. 



Faraday tried a series of experiments on a very small scale 

 that, superficially examined, would indicate that the electricity 

 developed from the steam was due to friction upon the nozzles 

 from which it issued, and he so decided, which dictum having 

 gone forth to the world, the world is satisfied. 



I believe it will yet prove to be but one of the many instances' 

 where erroneous opinion has been taken for granted as fact, and 

 shows how prone the human mind is to believe by habit and from 

 hearsay. If each thinker should ask himself, do I know this? he 

 would be startled to see how little he knew of his own positive 

 knowledge, however much from authorities; and high authorities 

 having promulgated error, more than any others dislike to 

 recant. 



Unbiassed ignorance is respect-worthy compared to this, for it 

 stands upon neutral ground and is open to conviction, while ac- 

 cepted and maintained error is the most fatal of barriers to the 

 approach of truth, putting a throttle on the independent investi- 

 gator, under penalty of being considered a conceited innovator 

 because a rebel against those czars of science, the men of r( jaita- 

 tion. 



The supposition that the intense flashes of lightning developed 

 from effluent steam are produced by its friction upon a few little 

 issue nozzles, is most improbable. It is evident that we cannot 

 manufacture electricity, therefore it must be developed from some- 

 where, that we may accumulate it at particular points, and no 

 power is adequate to compel this accumulation of a fluid whose 

 pre-eminent property is repulsion but the power of electricity 

 itself. Whether we are a wake to it or not, just as fire is necessary 

 to kindle fire, so it is only by electrical agency that we ever do 

 or can develop and accumulate it, and I believe it to have been 

 specific or combined somewhere or it could not have been devel- 

 oped . 



I would suggest here as a prol'iable law, that in every method 

 of developing electricity not induced by the presence of other 



