Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-06-22
ELECTRICITY DEFINED.
It Is Simply Motion of the Molecules Of
Different Substances.

It Is Simply Motion of the Molecules Of
Different Substances.
The rapid advances that have been made
during the past 10 years, both in the prac-
teal application of electricity to the serv-
ice of man and in the knowledge of the
principles OF the science, have brought us,
in the writer's opinion, to the point at
which we are obliged to ask ourselves,
What is electricity? if the advance is to
continue. Up till very recently, notwith-
standing the wonderful guesses that have
been made by those not actually engaged
either in the study or the practice of cleo
tricity, and the closer and closer approx
nations that have been made by those
mathematicians who have given atten-
ton to the subject, it may fairly be said
that we knew absolutely nothing as to
what the mighty force we dealt with was.
And in addition to this it has not been
necessary that we should know what cleo
tricity was 50 long as we were thoroughly
cognizant with what it could be made to do.
Professor Oliver Lodge first aroused us
from this peaceful state when he com
menced his crusade against lightning con-
ductors. Those of us who bad studied the
subject closely felt that Professor Lodge
was wrong, and we believe that in the bat
tie at Bath we successfully defended our
position, but 1t was only by making use of
an argument that it Is always in the mouth
of the old type of practical men, and which
was dangerously close to the feminine ar
gument-it is because it is. We could not
go farther because we were lost, literally
and metaphorically, Immediately we got
up in the clouds. What is q charged clouds
occurred to one again and again, and one
was not satisfied with the old stereotyped
answer that the cloud formed one plate of
a condenser.
Since the battle at Bath the writer of
this article has been closely observing every
circumstance that appeared to bear upon
the question, and he has devoted n consid-
cradle amount of time to the purpose of
thinking the matter out step by step, but it
was not until listening to the lecture deliv-
cred by Professor Rucker before the Brit
ish association ON Electrical Stress ~ and
after careful thought had enabled him to
realize the full force of the experiments SO
ably conducted on that occasion that the
result, which he now ventures to state.
dawned upon him.
As far rs the writer is able to understand
the matter now, electricity is simply motion
of the molecules of the different substances
which are the subjects of electrical action,
just as heat, light, and sound are, and the
only difference between these forces is the
rate of the motion The motion of sound,
as we all know, is comparatively slow;
that of heat and light, very rapid. That OF
electricity would appear TO he somewhat
between the slow motion of sound and the
rapid motion of the heat waves whose mo
ton is slO,veSt
And it would appear that the wonderful
adaptability which electricity shows for
every kind of work Is due entirely to the
position which its rate of motion occupies
IN the scale of the energies. 1t would also
appear that the reason this wonderful agent
laid dormant for so many ages and is even
now only partially developed ia very large
1y, at any rate because we have no sense
which responds to the particular periods of
vibration comprised within the electrical
range.-Electrical Engineer.