Charles Grafton Page. 9 
The greatest enterprise of Prof. Page’s life was his effort to 
introduce electro-magnetism as a substitute, to a greater or 
less extent, for steam power. He was an original, though not 
the first projector of electro-magnetism as a motive power, and 
his first Ceres on that subject were made in the latter 
part of 1836. 1839 he published in this Journal, vol. xxxv, 
. 106, a very ae uctive paper on the conditions of action in 
electro-magnetic engines composed of electro-magnets. The 
peculiar difficulties of this class of engines led him to rely 
more on the force with which the pole of an electro-magnet 
is drawn into its magnetizing helix. The availability of this 
force for electro-magnetic motors, as we learn from his own 
account, suggested itself to him on seeing an electro-magnet 
f Mr. Vail, in which the minute force exhibited by an iron 
needle drawn into a small helix, was augmented to half or 
three quarters of a pound, though the electro-magnet and he- 
lix were still of quite small size. Our friend was quick 
ormed. of one-inch roun oe iron, and these were formed 
with brass connecting pieces, into one moving piece, in such a 
way as to come into action alternately with each other. The 
writer was present at a trial of this engine in July, 1848. The 
Grove’s battery used contained fifty platinum plates, each four 
inches square. The same reciprocating engine with, we be- 
lieve, the same battery, was also exhibited in a short course of 
public lectures on electricity and electro-magnetism which he 
ielivvenaat in Washington in the month of February, 1849. 
On that occasion, in presence of a committee of the U. 8. 
Senate headed by Mr. Benton, the engine was used to drive a 
small planing machine, and pieces of board a few feet long 
and three or four inches wide or planed. On the same oc- 
casion a bar of iron weighing y pounds was lifted by its 
magnetizing helix, It is ects feat 20 as illustrative of jee 
