The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-12-18
ELEC11RlCITY'S NAME.
FOR MORE THAN 1000 YEARS
1T WAS NAMELESS.
First Discovered In Pieces Of Amber-The Scien-
tiitc World Of the Time was Puzzled
And the Full Mystery is
Still Unexplained.

20
noticed that when q piece Of amber
was rubbed it would attract to itself
the floating dust in the air, or in fact
any light bodies, writes Parke Ben
jamin. What did tho rubbing have to
do with this singular property? The
amber looked just the same after rub
bling as it did before. No one could
see that it was different in any respect
at one time than at another; and yet
something had most certainly happen
ed to it. The rubbing surely gave it
this mysterious power; but how?
Meanwhile; and perhaps even long
before these puzzling questions were
asked, there existed Il tradition that
once on the slope Of Mount Ida a
black rock had torn the iron crook
from the hand Of the shepherd
Magnes, and had held it despite all
his efforts to pull it away; and later
travellers from the far Lydian Terri
tory, Magnesia, had brought back to
Greece bits OF stone which gathered
to themselves particles of iron. These
stones, some Say from the shepherd Of
Mount Ida, others from the Lydian
country, were called 'magnes. nova
days changed to magnets"
"Ah"' said the wise men, foreseeing
at last relief from centuries of head
aches over wearing problem and a
chance to prove their superior knowl-
edge, ''now we have got it. OF course
amber is not u magnet, and a magnet,
you know, attracts things because Of
its Inherent mag netism." They might
just as we'll have said, ''because it
does;' but the longer words have a
more scientific and abstruse appear
ance, and, after all, fail to explain the
matter just as clearly as the shorter
ones.
But there were skeptical people who
laughed at this and who pointed out
some very marked differences between
the behavior Of the amber and that Of
the magnet; such, for instance, as that
the amber would not attract anything
unless it were rubbed, while the mag
net needed no rubbing; and that the
amber would draw to itself any light
body, while no amount of rubbing
could pers uade the magnet to attract
anything but iron.
SO the wise men proceeded to re-
consider the matter The years rolled
along. More wise men were born and
lived and died, and their wise sons and
grandsons after them, and the years
grew into centuries; and still the
amber kept gathering its dust and no.
body could give any reason. and so
far as we know, nobody even tried to
do so. At last there came a time,
about 600 years before Christ, when
an exceedingly wise man, one of the
seven wise men of all Greece, Thales
by name, announced that ne had solv-
the puzzle. The amber, he said, was
alive, and it had a soul, and the rub
bing woke it up. Thales never ex-
planned why he thought all this. He
just thought it, made it up" as the
children say, "out of his own head"
and having thought it, told other peo-
pie.
Somehow the world liked the ex-
PLANTATION, which seemed reasonable
or rather sounded so-very much like
some other later explanations to be
found in "Alice in Wonderland, u
and it never troubled itself about any
other for 1900 years. Probably nc
other explanation of the many which
scientific persons have produced ever
had such fine wearing quality.
The times were changing then and
mems minds with them. People were
growing disconnected with what the
philosophers thought ught to be true
and were gradually awaking to the
idea Of asking nature herself what
was true. The great awakening oil
literature, art and science which glo-
rifed the reign of Elizabeth of Eng
land came at last. There in her court,
her own body-physician, far better
known in these days than he was then,
was the man who, striving to draw
from nature the secrets of the magnet.
found himself face to face with the
problem of the amber. For twenty
two centuries the world had never
thought to ask of nature herself the
obvious question which William Gil
bert propounded to her. Is there any.
thing else other than amber which.
when rubbed. will attract light bodies?
Having asked that he proceeded to ex.
periment-a remarkable performance
in world where everybody regarded
guessing as much higher use of the
human mind. And then he found tina,
the amber had many rival-for glass
and sulphur and tho diamond
and resin would all act in just
the same way and so would some six
teen other su bsta noes. And when the
air was dry this curious attractive
power best showed itself; but on mois
days it was weakest. And then he
found he could move light pivoted