electric 
means of obtaining powerful currents of electricity, when 
it is to be used for producing the electric light, for electro- 
plating, for the transmission of power or energy, and so 
on. In the transmission of energy by electricity, the 
current produced by the machine is made to pass through 
a second machine (called an electric motor, generally simi- 
lar to and often identical with the dynamo in form and con- 
struction, the order of working being reversed), distant a 
number of miles, perhaps, from the first, and there it causes 
the armature to revolve, and this revolution may be em- 
ployed to do any kind of mechanical work. Dynamos have 
a high degree of efficiency, many transforming over 90 per 
cent, of the mechanical energy used in revolving the arma- 
ture into the energy of the electric current. They furnish 
the electric current much more economically, as well as 
more regularly, than a voltaic battery, since the zinc, the 
fuel of the latter, is an expensive and a poor fuel, as com- 
pared with the coal used for the engine which drives the 
dynamo. Electric meter, an instrument designed to 
measure the quantity of electricity supplied to consum- 
ers for the production of light or heat, or to be used as a 
motive power. Electric motor. See electric machine. 
Electric organ. See organ. Electric pendulum, a 
form of electroscope consisting of a pith-ball suspended by 
a non-conducting thread. Electric piano. See piano. 
Electric railway, a railway on which electricity is the mo- 
tive power. The wheels of each car may be set in motion 
by an electric motor to which they are geared, or a motor- 
car may draw one or more cars. There are two distinct 
systems of electric railway. In one the electric motor 
is actuated by a current of electricity drawn from a sec- 
ondary or " storage" battery carried with the car, gener- 
ally underneath the floor ; in the other the current is con- 
veyed from a dynamo at some point on the line by means 
of conductors, which may be supported upon poles or 
placed in an underground conduit. Electric storm, 
a violent disturbance of the electrical condition of the 
earth, resulting in strong earth-currents through long 
lines of telegraph, often interfering with the ordinary 
working of the line. These storms are sometimes wide- 
spread, and are thought by some physicists to be re- 
lated to contemporaneous disturbances of the atmosphere 
of the sun. The phrase is also applied to unusually vio- 
lent displays of atmospheric electricity. Electric-tele- 
graph cable. See cable. Electric tension, difference 
of electric potential : often used as equivalent to electro- 
motive force. (See also battery, cell, circuit, condenser, 
electricity, fluid, potential, telegram, telephone, tension, 
spark, unit.) 
II. n. A body or substance capable of exhib- 
iting electricity by means of friction or other- 
wise, and of resisting the passage of it from 
one body to another. See electricity. TO excite 
an electric. See excite. 
electrical (e-lek'tri-kal), a. [< electric + -al.~\ 
Same as electric. 
We believe that the time has arrived when the scientific 
world no longer looks upon electrical phenomena as iso- 
lated and separate from the phenomena of heat and light, 
or chemical reactions. Science, IV. 164. 
Electrical burglar-alarm, endosmosis, etc. See the 
nouns. Electrical diapason, an instrument consisting 
of a tuning-fork or -reed, the vibration of which is main- 
tained by means of electricity. Electrical engineering, 
the science and art of utilizing electricity, especially in the 
production of light, heat, and motive power, in the trans- 
mission and distribution of energy, and in its application 
to a great variety of metallurgical and other processes. 
It also includes the science and art of the erection and 
maintenance of telegraph- and cable-lines, of electric rail- 
way-signals, and other forms of electric signaling. Elec- 
trical mortar, a small mortar within which a discharge 
is made to take place between two bodies charged with 
contrary electricities. This disruptive discharge causes 
so violent a disturbance of the air-particles as to expel a 
light ball placed in the mouth of the mortar. See Volta's 
pistol, under pistol. 
electrically (e-lek'tri-kal-i), adv. In the man- 
ner of electricity, or by means of it ; as regards 
electricity. 
electricalness (e-lek'tri-kal-nes), n. The state 
or quality of being electrical. [Rare.] 
electrician (e-lek-trish'an), n. [= F. electricien ; 
as electric + -.] l."One who studies elec- 
tricity, and investigates its properties by ob- 
servation and experiments ; one versed in the 
science of electricity. 2. One engaged in the 
business of making or supplying electric ap- 
paratus or appliances. 
electricity (e-lek-tris'i-ti), n. [= D. elektriciteit 
= Q. eleKtricitat = D'an. Sw. elektricitet = F. 
Electricity = Sp. electricidad = Pg. electricidade 
= It. elettricita, < ML. electricita(t-)s, < electri- 
cus, electric : see electric.'] In physics, a name 
denoting the cause of an important class of 
phenomena of attraction and repulsion, chem- 
ical decomposition, etc., or, collectively, these 
phenomena themselves. The true nature of elec- 
tricity is as yet not at all understood ; but it is probable 
that it is not, as was formerly assumed, of the nature of 
a fluid either a single fluid, as was supposed by Frank- 
lin, or two fluids (positive and negative), as was supposed 
hy Symmer. The word was first used by Gilbert, the cre- 
ator of the science of electricity, and by him was applied 
to the phenomena of attraction and repulsion as exhibited 
when amber (electrum) and some other substances of a 
similar character were briskly rubbed. Its meaning has 
been gradually extended to include a large variety of phe- 
nomena, among which may be named heating, luminous 
and magnetic effects, chemical decomposition etc to"e- 
ther with numerous apparent attractions and repulsions 
of matter widely differing from those originally noted 
but all of which are attributed to a common cause The 
subject is usually divided into the two parts of statical 
1868 
or frictional electricity, including the electricity pro- 
duced by friction and analogous means, the phenomena 
of which are chiefly statical, ami cm-rent rLcctricity (also 
called voltaic electricity), including that produced by the 
chemical or voltaic battery and electromagnetic ma- 
chines, the phenomena of which are mostly dynamical. 
The form of electricity first discovered was the frictional. 
The discovery is generally attributed to Tliales (sixth cen- 
tury B. c.), who observed that umber, after being rubbed 
by silk, had the property of attracting light bodies, like 
bits of paper, bran, etc. It was subsequently discovered 
that glass, sulphur, resin, and many other bodies gained 
by friction this same property to a greater or less extent. 
When electricity is produced by the friction of silk on 
glass, that of the glass is called vitreous or positive elec- 
tricity, while that of the silk rubber is called resinous or 
negative electricity. When produced by the friction of 
flannel or silk on sealing-wax, that of the wax is negative, 
and that of the flannel or silk rubber is positive. This dis- 
tinction, which, however, is properly explained as due to 
a difference of electrical potential (see potential), extends 
through the whole subject, by whatever means the elec- 
tricity is produced. It is found universally true that the 
two kinds of electricity are produced in equal amounts. 
Besides friction, there are other means of exciting elec- 
tricity, as pressure between two bodies or sudden frac- 
ture (by which means sugar becomes faintly luminous 
when broken in the dark). If a piece of sealing-wax is 
broken, the opposite ends will be found to be dissimilar- 
ly electrified. This is especially true of the fracture of 
cleavable minerals, like mica, calcite, etc. Some crystal- 
lized bodies become electrified by change of temperature : 
for example, a crystal of tourmalin, on being slightly 
warmed, becomes positively electrified at one extremity, 
and negatively at the other ; if cooled, the poles are re- 
versed. (Seepyro-electricity.) For the chief meansof obtain- 
ing a supply of frictional electricity, see electric machine, 
under electric, and electrophorus. The principal subjects 
considered under the head of statical electricity are the 
distribution of electricity over the surface of a conductor, 
as determined by its shape or the proximity of other elec- 
trified bodies (see density) ; the effect of induction or the 
production of an electrified state in a neutral body by ap- 
proaching it to one already electrified, but without con- 
tact ; the degree of induction, as determined by the nature 
of the non-conductorordielectric(seeindwc(iow, conductor, 
dielectric) ; the accumulation of electricity in a condenser, 
as a Leyden jar (see condenser, and Leyden jar, under 
jar); the measurement of capacity, potential, quantity, etc. 
(as with an electrometer) ; and the phenomena of dis- 
charge, as the spark-discharge, which takes place between 
oppositely electrified boilks when they are brought near 
together, the brush-discharge, etc. The electricity gen- 
erated by friction and analogous means is in a state of 
high potential (see potential), but the quantity, and there- 
fore the amount of electrical energy, is generally small ; 
it has the power of overcoming great resistances and pro- 
ducing violent mechanical effects, as seen in the discharge 
of a Holtz machine, and still more strikingly in the case 
of lightning. Frictional electricity has found but few 
useful applications in the arts. The common means of 
producing current electricity is the voltaic battery. (See 
battery and cell.) Electrical currents may also be ob- 
tained by revolving a coil of wire in the space (magnetic 
field) between the poles of a steel magnet or electromag- 
net, so as to cut the lines of force between these poles. 
This principle is made use of in magneto-electric and dy- 
namo-electric machines (see electric) to obtain powerful 
currents of electricity for practical use. A current may 
also be produced by soldering together two ends of two 
bars of different metals, connecting the other ends with 
a copper wire, and then heating (or cooling) the first 
point of union. This is called thermo-electricity, and 
the pair of metals is called a thermo-electrical couple ; it 
is analogous to the voltaic couple, only here the electri- 
cal current is obtained at the expense of the heat sup- 
plied. (See thermo-electricity.) The principal subjects 
considered under the head of current electricity are the 
effects of the current in causing chemical decomposition 
(see electrolysis, electrometallurgy), in producing heat 
and light through the resistance of the medium, Including 
the voltaic arc, and in the production of induced currents 
in a coil of wire, under certain conditions, by the action 
of another current or a magnet (see induction) ; the mea- 
surement of strength of current (as with a galvanometer 
or ampere-meter, which see), of electromotive force (as 
with a volt-meter), and of resistance (as with the electric 
bridge or ohm-meter), etc. The current electricity pro- 
duced by the chemical battery or ordinary dynamo-ma- 
chine differs from the statical electricity of the frictional 
or induction machine, in that the difference of potentials 
of the poles, or, in other words, the electromotive force 
of the current when the poles are connected, is relatively 
small, while the quantity of electricity is relatively enor- 
mously large. Correspondingly, ordinary current elec- 
tricity has relatively very little power of overcoming a 
high resistance ; no spark is obtained, even from a pow- 
erful battery, when the poles are separated by so much 
as a small fraction of an inch ; but the current can do a 
lai'ge amount of work in producing chemical decompo- 
sition (as in the electrolysis of water), or mechanically, 
when transformed by an electric motor. Induced cur- 
rents, however, as those produced by an induction-coil 
(which see), may have a very high electromotive force and 
consequent power of overcoming resistance. Animal 
electricity. See animal. Contact theory of elec- 
tricity, a theory which assumes that the electromotive 
force of a voltaic cell, and perhaps the electricity produced 
by friction, is due to the difference of potential assumed 
by two dissimilar substances when placed in contact 
Diffusion of electricity. See diffusion. Distribution 
of electricity. See distribution. Electrostatic units 
of electricity. See electrostatic. Excitation of elec- 
tricity. See excitation. Free and bound electricity 
By a "free" charge of electricity is generally meant one 
which is borne by an insulated body independently of 
surrounding objects, while a "bound" charge is one held 
in position by the presence and attraction of a charge of 
the opposite character or sign upon a neighboring body. 
As a matter of fact all charges are " bound," the produc- 
tion of a given quantity of one kind of electricity being 
always accompanied by the production of the same quan- 
tity of the opposite kind. When this complementary 
electroballistic 
charge is very distant and widely distributed, as on the 
walls of a room, the first may be said to be "free" elec- 
tricity. 
electriferous (e-lek-trif'e-rus), a. [< LL. elec- 
trifer, producing amber (bearing electricity) (< 
L. electrum, amber (repr. electricity), + ferre = 
E. bear 1 ), + -ous.] Bearing or transmitting 
electricity. Also electropliorous. 
A distinct, all-pervading electriferous cether must be as- 
sumed. Littell's Living Age, March 1, 1884, p. 522. 
electriflable (e-lek'tri-fi-a-bl), a. [<. electrify 
+ -able.] 1. Capable of receiving electricity, 
or of being charged with it ; that may be elec- 
trified or become electric. 2. Capable of re- 
ceiving and transmitting the electric fluid. 
electrification (e-lek"tri-fi-ka'shon), n. [< elec- 
trify + -atiou.] ' The act of electrifying, or the 
state of being charged with electricity. This 
may be positive (+) or negative ( ), according as the body 
is charged with positive or negative electricity that is, 
according as its potential is higher or lower than the as- 
sumed zero. See potential. 
If an electrified body be made to touch one not pre- 
viously electrified, it is found that the one loses a part of 
its electrification and the other gains electrification. 
J. E. H. Gordon, Elect, and Mag., I. 4. 
electrifier (e-lek'tri-fi-er), n. One who or that 
which electrifies. 
electrify (e-lek'tri-fi), v. t. ; pret. and pp. elec- 
trified, ppr. electrifying. [< L. electrum, amber 
(repr. electricity), + -ficare, make : see -/#.] 1. 
To communicate electricity to ; charge with 
electricity ; make electric : as, to electrify a jar. 
2. To cause electricity to pass through ; af- 
fect by electricity ; give an electric shock to : 
as, to electrify a limb. 3. To excite suddenly; 
give a sudden shock to; surprise with some 
sudden and startling effect, of a brilliant or 
shocking nature ; startle greatly ; thrill : as, 
the whole assembly was electrified. 
He [Milton] electrifies the mind. Macaulay, Milton. 
If the sovereign were now to immure a subject in defi- 
ance of the writ of Habeas Corpus, or to put a conspirator 
to the torture, the whole nation would be instantly elec- 
trified by the news. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. 
electrine 1 (e-lek'trin) , a. [< LL. electrinus. < Gr. 
qMnTpivof, made of amber or electrum, < (Jfc/t- 
rpov, amber, electrum : see electrum."] 1 . Be- 
longing to or made of amber. 2. Composed 
of the alloy called electrum (which see). 
electrine 2 (e-lek'trin), n. [< electrum (electric) 
+ -ine 2 .] The (supposed) principle of electri- 
city ; a (supposed) kind of matter which mani- 
fests electrical phenomena. 
A hitherto undescribed ponderable chemical element, 
which he terms electrine, and which he assumes to be an 
essential constituent of oxygen. 
Aifhbumer, in Reichenbach's Dynamics, Pref., p. xiv. 
electrization (e-lek-tri-za'shon), n. [= F. 
electrisation = Sp. electrization = Pg. electriza- 
cao ; as electrise + -ation.] The act of electri- 
fying. Also spelled electrisation. 
It is not electricity which cures, but Electrizations, a 
process requiring far more technical skill than the unini- 
tiated generally believe. Alien, and Neural., VI. 153. 
electrize (e-lek'triz), r. t. ; pret. and pp. elec- 
trized, ppr. electrizing. [= D. elektriseren = G. 
elektrisiren = Dan. elektrisere = Sw. elektrisera 
= F. electriser = Sp. Pg. electrizar = It. elettriz- 
zare, < NL. "electrieare, electrify, < L. electrum, 
amber (repr. electricity).] To make electric ; 
electrify. Also spelled electrise. 
electrizer (e-lek'tri-zer), n. One who or that 
which electrifies ; specifically, an apparatus for 
the application of electricity for medical pur- 
poses. Also spelled electriser. 
electro (e-lek'tro), n. [Abbreviation of electro- 
type.'] An electrotype. 
For these reasons the Act Is objectionable in prohibit- 
ing the importation of stereos and electros. 
Amer, Publishers' Circular. 
electro-. [NL., etc., electro-, formally repr. Gr. 
ffXeKrpo-, combining form of ifanrpov, amber, 
electrum (see electrum), but practically a con- 
traction of electrico-, combining form of electri- 
cus, E. electric: see electric.] The combining 
form, in many modern compounds, of electric, 
often representing also electricity. [In the fol- 
lowing compounds containing electro-, where the second 
element exists independently in English, or is otherwise 
perfectly obvious, and where no parallel forms are cited, 
no etymology is given.] 
electroballistic (e-lek"tro-ba-lis'tik), a. Con- 
cerned with electricity as used to determine 
the velocity of a projectile at any part of its 
flight : an epithet applied to various instruments 
invented by Nauvez. The projectile passes in suc- 
cession through two or more screens, the distances between 
which are known ; and, the exact time of passage through 
each screen being electrically recorded, a simple calcula- 
tion gives the velocity at that part of the flight. 
