110 HOME AND GARDEN 



tlioiight that in this encounter the honours of war 

 remained with Smith. 



One of three streams that flowed through the pro- 

 perty had a good fall, and this was soon made use of 

 to work a waterwheel and pump, to force up water for 

 the house-supply ; indeed, I do not know which my 

 father liked best, playing with water in every shape — 

 he was also a good practical sailor — or experimenting 

 with electricity. The days I am thinking of were 

 five-and-forty years ago, when the science was then 

 comparatively in its babyhood, and I have often 

 thought how unbounded would have been his interest 

 in its immense later growth, for his eager mind and 

 strong intelligence were always on the bright lookout 

 for every new development of practical science. 



However, such as electrical knowledge was in those 

 days, he followed it closely, making fresh sets of 

 apparatus as improved methods came into use. I 

 remember how the earlier electrical generators were 

 large glass barrel-shaped things, mounted horizontally, 

 and scraped, as they were turned by a handle at the 

 end, by a flap of black silk coated with a mercurial 

 amalgam. Then there came a better machine in the 

 form of a thick glass disc, but how the friction was 

 obtained I now forget. My small fingers were often 

 called in for the preparing of some of the humbler 

 appliances ; for pasting zigzags of tinfoil upon sheets 

 of glass, and painting sundry portions with the non- 

 conducting sealing-wax varnish. Indeed, had I been 



