790 KEPORT— 1888. 



miniature sun wliicli enables liim to pursue his lucrative business at night, or during^ 

 the dark and dismal hours of a black November fog of London. 



We learn from the instructive and interesting advertising columns of our news- 

 papers that ' electricity is life,' and we may perhaps read in the more historical 

 portion of the same paper that by a recent decision of the New York Parliament, 

 ' electricity is death.' It is proposed to replace hanging by the more painless and 

 sudden application of a powerful electrical charge ; but those who have assisted at 

 this hasty legislation would have done well to have assured themselves of the 

 practical efficacy of the proposed process. I have seen the difficulty of killing even 

 a rabbit with the most powerful induction coil ever made, and 1 know those who 

 escaped and recovered from the stroke of a lightning discharge. 



The fact that the energy of a current of electricity, either when it flashes across 

 an air space, or when it is forced through high resistance, assumes the form of heat of 

 very high temperature led early to its employment for firing charges of gunpowder ; 

 and for many civil, military, and naval purposes it has become an invaluable and 

 essential agent. Wrecks like that of the ' lloyal George ' at Spithead were blown 

 up and destroyed ; the faces of clifls and quarries are thrown down ; the galleries of 

 mines and tunnels are excavated ; obstructions to navigation like the famous Hell 

 Gate, near New York, have been removed ; time guns to distribute correct time are 

 fired by currents from Greenwich at 1 P.M. In the operations of war, both for attack 

 and defence, submarine mining has become the most important branch of the pro- 

 fession of a soldier and a sailor. Big guns, whether singly or in broadside, are fired, 

 and torpedoes, when an enemy's ship unwittingly is placed over them, are exploded 

 by currents of electricity. 



An immense amount of research has been devoted to design the best form of 

 fuse, and the best form of generator of electricity to use to explode them. Gun- 

 tubes for firing consist of a short piece of very tine wire embedded in some easily 

 fusible compound, while the best form of fuse is that known as the Abel fuse, 

 which is composed of a small, compact mass of copper phosphide, copper sulphide, 

 and potassium chlorate. The practice in the use of generators is very various. 

 Some, like the Austrians, lean to the high tension eiiects of static electricity; 

 others prefer magneto machines ; others use the dynamo ; while we in England cling 

 with much fondness to the trustworthy battery. Since the electric light has also 

 become such a valuable adjunct to war purposes, it is probable that secondary bat- 

 teries will become of immense service. The strong inductive effects of atmospheric 

 electricity are a source of great danger. Many accidental explosions of fuses have 

 occurred. An experimental cable with a fuse at one end was laid below low- 

 water mark along the banks of the Thames at AVoolwich. The fuse was exploded 

 during a heavy thunderstorm. The knowledge of the causes of a danger is a sure 

 means for the production of its removal, or of its reduction to a minimum. Low 

 tension fuses and metallic circuits reduce the evils of lightning, but have not 

 removed them. Should war unhappily break out again in Europe, submarine 

 mining will play a very serious part, and, paradoxical as it may appear — as has 

 been suggested by the French ambassador, M. Waddington — its very destructive- 

 ness may ultimately prove it to be a powerful element of peace. 



It seems incredible that, having utilised this great power of nature to such a 

 wide and general extent, we should be still in a state of mental fog as to the answer 

 to be given to the simple question — What is Electricity ? The engineer and the 

 physicist are completely at variance on this point. The engineer regards electri- 

 city, like heat, light, and sound, as a definite form of energy, something that he 

 can generate and destroy, something that he can play with and utilise, something 

 that he can measure and apply. The physicist — at least some physicists, for it is 

 difficult to find any two physicists that completely agree with each other — regard 

 electricity as a peculiar form of matter pervading all space as well as all sub- 

 stances together with the luminiferous ether which it permeates hke a jelly or a 

 sponge. Conductors, according to this theory, are holes or pipes in this jelly, and 

 electrical generators are pumps that transfer this hypothetical matter from one place 

 to another. Other physicists, following Edlund, regard the ether and electricity 

 as identical, and some, the disciples of Helmholtz, consider it as an integral 



