An account of the Electro- Magnetic Engine. 1 17 



On the Laws of Electro -Magnetism, and its application as a 

 moving power. 



If you immerse two pieces of metal of different kinds — for instance, a 

 piece of copper and a piece of zinc — in an acid diluted with water, or 

 in a weak solution of an alkali or salt, in such a manner that the 

 metals shall not touch when in the fluid, but be connected externally 

 by means of a metallic rod, or wdre, an electric current will thereby be 

 produced; which will pass from one piece of metal to the other, by 

 means of the connecting rod, and be conveyed to the former through 

 the agency of the intervening fluid : this electrical current will continue 

 to circulate in this manner, as long as no insuperable obstacle be inter- 

 posed by the metals or fluid themselves. This electricity is identical 

 with that developed by an electrifying machine, and that with which 

 the thunder-cloud is charged; the only difference being, that the electri- 



varied elements of its power, and by annihilating space and time, brought the 

 geographical parts of the gigantic empire of Britain into such immediate proxi- 

 mity, that it may he said to have diffused new life and vigour throughout all the 

 veins of its giant members, and given a nervous strength to its arm, which must 

 long perpetuate its sway. 



Great, however, as have been the benefits which we have thus recorded, we 

 cannot disguise from ourselves the many unavoidable dangers and imperfections 

 with which Steam, as a moving power, has been, and must ever he, attended, 

 arising from the nature of the agent employed, and the extreme costliness and ex- 

 pense attending the consumption of fuel, without taking into consideration the utter 

 impossibility of procuring the necessary supply exactly where it is most needed. 



That Steam is about to be superseded, through the manifold advantages of the 

 invention or series of discoveries which will be found detailed in the following 

 pages, can hardly admit of question. 



The chief inducement which has led the translator to undertake the rendering 

 of these few pages, was the desire to attract the more general attention of the 

 practical mechanic of England to the consideration of so engrossing a subject ; 

 to effect which every effort has been made to divest the translation of technicali- 

 ties, and render it as universally intelligibly as the subject would admit: to the 

 scientific scholar, it may not he uninteresting to be informed of what is being 

 done in other countries in relation to this important subject. 



We think it hardly necessary to allude more particularly to the advantages 

 which Electro-magnetism offers, and content ourselves with referring to the 

 results which have been deduced from experiment and practice. — Translator's 

 Preface. 



