THE BORDERLAND OF CHEMISTRY AND ELECTRICITY. 
227 
and mine must be the same, that is to thank Mr. Webster most 
heartily for the lecture he has given us, and I hope it will not be the 
last that we shall hear from him (loud applause). 
Mr. Webster : Ladies and gentlemen. In reference to the question 
asked by your Chairman this evening, I may say that nothing has 
been done of a practical nature. As a matter of fact, it is found that 
any electrical apparatus would be so enormously expensive and so 
large that it would be impossible to do it with any chance of success. 
On this coil you will see a practical demonstration of the collection of 
dust or, for the matter of that, smoke. It is covered entirely with 
dust from the room. The dust itself being negative and the coil 
positive, the particles are attracted to it, and hence the film I now 
wipe away with my hand. I was exhibiting the Rontgen Rays at the 
Royal Institute some little time ago in a room with a moving audience. 
The Jackson Tube I was using was covered, I found, on turning up 
the light after the demonstration, with a thick coat of dust, so thick 
that I could scarcely see the metal anode and cathode in the tube. 
It was the dust from the dresses and floor raised by the moving 
audience. Smoke is attracted in a similar way, and you will find in a 
room which is thick with tobacco smoke, traces of nicotine on the 
glass tube in action. 
Professor Tesla may possibly affect fogs by his wonderful apparatus 
for telegraphing long distances through the atmosphere, if it is true 
he is going to revolutionise telegraphy and everything we know in 
connection with it. The only thing to be feared is that it might 
produce abnormal quantities of rain, a thing we certainly do not require 
in this country. 
I do not believe many things that I cannot see, but personally, at 
iutervals, being gifted with the power of intuition or thought reading, 
I certainly believe in menta 1 telegraphy. 
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