404 0n Electricity and its Present Applications. [July, 
domestic machines ; to ring bells of warning at any distance 
that mav be required ; to transmit messages to any distance 
with Accuracy? and with a promptitude that no human 
messenger could equal ; to aft the part of a watchman, and 
give fns g tant warning of the approach o burg or thieves. 
He can send warning to a distance of the escape, and anti 
cipa^e the movements, of criminals, so as to lead to their 
apprehension, and thus prove a powerful aid to law and 
good government. He will even detect the outbreak of fire, 
ane gfve timely warning of it. He transmits true time, and 
keeps our clocks in harmony with each other in all parts of 
the kingdom. He gilds and plates our spoons and metallic 
goods %e reproduces to any extent our medals and works 
of art including the most valuable engraving plates. He 
can at a safe § distance, detonate the charges used in 
quarrying and mining, and can explode torpedoes and other 
explosive contrivances, whether used for warlike or peaceful 
PU Dr°Bain suggests that he should be employed by school- 
masters for inflifting the various degrees of punishment 
required in public schools ; and it has been proposed that he 
might with advantage be made to perform the office of public 
executioner, and by an instantaneous and certain death to 
do away wiih the hateful and sometimes bungling services 
of that functionary. He affords to scientists the means of 
collecting from and transmitting to all paits of the woild 
invaluable and timely information and warning m regard to 
passing events, and notably to the state of the weather and 
the approach and the direction of storms, so as, in many 
cases, to give time and opportunity for the avoidance of the 
da There TsT |e f nt”man“Mr- Robert Davidson) still living 
in Aberdeen, and whom I have the pleasure of calling my 
friend, who, forty years ago, constructed an electromotive 
machine which was tried on the Edinburgh and Glasgow 
Railway, being the first attempt of the kind ; but the speed 
attained was so far below that of the steam locomotive that 
the undertaking had to be abandoned, and it had no practi- 
cal results at the time. And even yet, though there are one 
or two eleCtric railways in operation on the Continent, there 
is no indication shown that the present arrangement will be 
superseded for many years to come. , • u 
These are only a few of the numberless benefits foi which 
we are indebted to Electron. But there is one department 
of public and domestic importance where his services ar 
available, and where they are destined— possibly at no distan 
