1884.] On Electricity and its Present Applications. 401 
Electron they make a reverential sign of obeisance to him, 
which he (doubtless in some way to us invisible) acknow- 
ledges). If he approach them in front, they turn to him by 
a movement to the right ; if he approach them from behind, 
they face round to him by the left ; always retaining their 
position across, or at right angles to, his path, during the 
presence of their great chief. 
Little did Oersted foresee the important uses afterwards 
to be made of the little odd peculiarity he had discovered ; 
but succeeding wise men who have given themselves to the 
service of Electron, by taking advantage of this devoted at- 
tachment to their chief of these small magnets, have 
devised a way by which persons living at the greatest dis- 
tance from each other may hold almost immediate corre- 
spondence. And this is the way in which this Godlike 
achievement can be accomplished : — A copper or iron wire 
is laid either above or below the ground, or along the bottom 
of the sea, of any length, from a few yards to thousands of 
miles, and the Genie being exorcised, secundem artern, from 
his place of concealment, can be sent by qualified attendants 
or operators, along this favourite pathway, to the place 
intended, where he is made to pass across one or more of 
the magnetic imps, who instantly give him the quasi military 
salute just described. These transmissions and salaams 
can be repeated so rapidly, and timed and grouped together 
in such a way, that a code of signals can be formed by them 
that shall be equivalent to ordinary language, and be easily 
transferred into it by those in charge at either end of the 
wire of communication ; and so rapidly can he do his work 
that three or four clerks, at either end, can be sending and 
receiving messages, and nearly as quickly as they could be 
spoken. At the same time, by the same wire, Electron can 
even write out the intelligence he conveys as fast as it is 
sent, provided he is supplied with the necessary materials 
and suitable apparatus for the purpose. 
But what is still more wonderful, and demonstrative of 
the power and wisdom of the Master whom he serves, this 
Genie can in an instant send his voice, in an audible and 
intelligible form, to a distance of hundreds, or even thousands, 
of miles. And this is the way in which this lately disco- 
vered power of his can be applied to the service of mankind : 
— An imp belonging to the ferric, or some of the other tribes 
for which Electron has a partiality, is selected, — of a thin, 
expanded, delicate, and highly sensitive structure, and is 
placed in a position where the Genie can have free access 
and contact with it. A person wishing to speak with another 
