64 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
near an electric machine. When sparks were drawn from the 
machine it was noticed that the frogs’ legs became distorted and 
assumed the appearance of life. Galvania sprang to the conclusion 
that he had discovered the origin of life, but Volta, Professor of 
Natural Philosophy at Coma, soon showed that two different metals 
would produce the same action, and in 1800 Volta announced to 
the world his invention of the Voltaic pile. It was composed of 
alternate layers of zinc and copper, separated from each other by 
discs of wet cloth. Two currents of electricity, one positive and 
the other negative, were found to flow from respective poles of the 
pile; thus from the merest accident was discovered the foundation 
of our magnetic telegraph and telephone. 
What is electricity? The latest and most plausibie theory re- 
garding this mysterious force is that it is a mode of motion or other 
manifestation of a very exceptional form of matter called the ether. 
The properties of this ether are: 1—It permeates ail bodies and 
pervades all. known space even to the most distant stars; 2—it is 
affected by the matter of bodies in which it is (it appears to be con- 
centrated in it to an extent depending upon the density of the 
matter) ; 3—it is continuous, not granular; 4—its density is to that 
of water as is unity to unity followed by twenty naughts, while its 
rigidity is one billionith that of steel. 
This ether, then, is electricity in a latent or passive state, but 
in order to convert it into energy it is necessary to destroy its 
equilibrium and kinetic energy, and power is generated when it seeks 
to restore that lost equilibrium much the same as water when water 
raised above its level can be made to do work by the pressure it 
exerts. If we take a rubber tube open at both ends and immerse it 
in a lake, the tube will be filled with water, but we can do no work 
with it because the water does not flow; but put a force pump at 
one end of the tube and cause a flow and the work that can be 
done will be in proportion to the pressure exerted by the pump. 
A copper wire is strung along the street on poles, and although the 
wire is immersed, as it were, in ether, and is a good conductor of 
the same, we have no current or flow bécause the electric level is 
not disturbed ; but put a force pump (a dynamo) at one end of the 
line and we can do work in proportion to the work exerted by the 
dynamo. 
