234 THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. 



are met with astonishing evidence of activity. Only twenty years ago 

 there was comparatively little evidence of the importance of this 

 branch of applied electricity. At the electrical exhibition in London 

 in 1881 electro-chemistry was apparently of comparatively little promi- 

 nence. A factory which could annually produce a few hundreds of 

 tons of copper electrolytically was considered a wonder. The produc- 

 tion of thousands of tons a month is beginning to be looked upon as 

 commonplace. There is scarcely a metal which can not be deposited 

 electrolytically with comparative ease, and the prices of some of the 

 rarer metals is going down rapidly. Zinc used to be considered a 

 difficult metal to deposit successfully. It is now produced in some of 

 the Australian mines in almost a pure state from refractory ores at the 

 rate of thousands of tons per annum. Similarly the old method of 

 galvanizing is rapidly disappearing and electro- deposition is taking its 

 place, and this metal is now so deposited on the hulls of ships, on anchors, 

 and other smaller articles, cheaply and perfectly. A new industry has 

 practically sprung up, and there is every indication that the technical 

 chemist of the near future will have to take an inferior place unless he 

 be also well versed in electricity and electrical appliances. This branch 

 of applied science is revolutionizing many things. It has within a 

 few years produced an enormous improvement in our magazine illustra- 

 tions, and has at the same time reduced the cost of this kind of litera- 

 ture and of atlases and charts enormously. Electro-chemistry is now 

 used on a large scale for the production of chlorate of potash, bleaching 

 materials, alkalies, coloring matters, antiseptics (like iodoform), anaes- 

 thetics (like chloroform), etc. In fact, it is getting to be difficult even 

 to enumerate the manufactures in which it is used. It has revolution- 

 ized the extraction of gold, and plants of enormous capacity are now in 

 use in some of the gold fields, the poorest ores and tailings being made 

 to yield up almost the last trace of the precious metal. The production 

 of ozone by the ton, the purification of sewage, and the sterilization of 

 water are all accomplished facts. 



Some progress has even been made in the introduction of chemicals 

 through animal tissue by electrolysis or cataphoresis, and Kontgen has 

 shown us how to see through the body. 



Then, again, we have got the electric furnace, and with it the power 

 to fuse almost the most refractory substances. In this way aluminum 

 is now produced at a few cents a pound, whereas most of us remember 

 when its price had to be reckoned in hundreds of dollars. In a similar 

 way phosphorus is now produced on a large scale, as are also various 

 carbides, carborundum, acetylene, etc. 



It is impossible to look back over the history of electricity and its 

 applications and notice the apparent geometric ratio in which advances 

 are being made, and not to speculate on what a giant this science is 

 going to become in another quarter of a century. Undoubtedly no one 

 can study this one branch of science without being persuaded of the 

 great value of scientific work for the advancement of human enterprise. 



