The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-28
STUDY IN ELECTRICITY.
-. ~ DOES NOT KILL, THE WON
DER Is VERY GREAT.


IN, Human BODY ms IL Flashes
,.rough-Human Nerves Not Quick
r,ouEh 10 Respond to Electric
vibrations.
~-. word electricity is derived from the
ok word "elektron," meaning amber.
-rVas invested by DR.. William Gilbert.
--.- physician to Queen Elizabeth. He
-..I that when amber was rubbed, It
-..aiteI phenomena Of attraction and re-
.-.on. Thales Of Aiiletus, Theophrastus
I'll pliny make mention of the property
.s,rber TO attract certain bodies.
WHAT is electricity? And after all, is
.-.-s any such thing as electricity? There
something; an energy, wonderful
-,uer which is called electricity; but.
r,i.h may be, not an entity, not a thing
e+fself. but only the state of energy un-
s.-csrtain conditions of change. stress and
vbraticn. What is energy? 1t is Ca
-.-tv for doing work" Electricity may
r. transformed into all known phases of
.1-rgy: heat, light, power, sound, mag
-.-ism and chemical decomposition, so
these also may be. transformed into an
d.c,ric current. If we only know how to
4, It. A goblet may be shattered into
fragments, by simply singing into it the
r-outr pitch or rate of vibration. The
electric dynamo is. in simple constitution
q machine for Transforming the heat en-
ergy of coal. or hydro carbon, or the energy
Of the wind or falling water, or
the tides, or other source in
70 electricity. 1t is changed by
the revolution of a piece of iron
wrapped in certain ways with
Insulated wire conductors, between
,go or more filled magnets, which may be
permanent magnets, or electromagnetic.
Which latter is only a magnet when a
current Of electricity is passing around it.
The overcoming of this magnetic attrac-
ton for the armature causes energy to
BE- expended in one form, which energy, in
The same amount Qess friction), by the
cutting OF the lines of magnetic force,
leappears as electricity
Maxwell has shown that luminous vibra-
lions are no more than periodic varia>
ton OF electromagnetic forces. Herty
has demonstrated that magnetic oscilla-
tons are propagated like light" This
gave the idea of the hypothetical luminif-
5-ous ether, and that electric and mag
n4cc forces are one and the same. SO.
when Prof Calico Ferraris was asked to
write in a young lady's album. What is
eec,ricity?" here is what he wrote: ''It
is not only the formidable agent which
now and then skaters and tears the at
mosphere, terrifying you with the crash
Of its thunder but it is also the life-giving
agent which sends from heaven to earth
with the light and the heat, the magic
of color and the breath of life It is that
which makes your heart beat to the palpi-
tation Of the outside world: II is that
which has the power TO transmit to your
soul the enchantment of look and the
grace of a smile"
The laws Of the correlation and conserv-
alton Of energy, and that to every action
there is an equal and contrary reaction,
prove TO rs that energy, like all other
earthly things, is indestructible. When
II disappears in one form, il reappears in
another. Death of matter is fortunately
Physically impossible, and change of state
is what occurs; transmigration of atoms.
II death OF matter We're possible the world
would long ago have been cold and Iifeless.
As it is, lend and beginning are Dreams
and infinite wisdom has made all atoms
70 yibrate; or, in other words, not to die
Coal is burned to produce heat; combus>
ton is simply chemical change of state
Heat utilized is energy; the ashes and
gases results of combustion or chemical
change, if caught and weighed together,
give exactly the same measure of crawl
tation or weight, as the coal in the orig
NAL state. The heat energy liberates the
CompOnentS. as a bird is liberated from its
cage. The life, the energy, the bird has
flown, on it's delicate pinions, TO its former
home, and the ashes, the body, the cage
remains to undergo in time their
transformation. The ashes go to
the earth to enter again the body of
growing vegetation and animal matter; the
gases to the air, and by absorption and
respiration they enter again the living
thing and the sunlight, furnishing the
heat energy, to recombne them all and
n plant life. If atmospheric and sun con-
ouons were favorable, coal would he
sgain formed. Johann Rudolph Glauber
ong ago, in the age of alchemy said
and believed that the rays of the sun
and stars shoot themselves into the earth
ana finally become silver and gold"
though he did not find the "alkaheat"
or the philosopher stone" his words
are more than wise, for now il is well
Known how all life and the science of
'''io uNlCHQ Oll lnG rays OL the sum-
lor, without them, steel, more valuable
really than gold. could not be made, as
they enter into its composition. Science
mas begun to "open wide her everlasting
gates on golden hinges turning" and
teaches us that in the aeons of the past
the sunlight was not wasted or disspated,
OUT was, by the magic key of the maker,
locked in chambers of cellulose. How lit
We DO we recognize now, in the energy,
hSnt, electricity and heat of coal and Pc
uoleum the resurrection of the body
% the fern tree and lycopods and the
tuhlSht of the past; of the carboniferous
period when man was not.
II mas been computed from deductions
made at the Academy of Science of Berlin
ana from other sources that the electro
molive force of bolt of lightning is about
.o1NO volts; the current strength about
H"VNO amperes," and as electricity is
'aled to travel about 2SS, 900 miles in a
second, If the cloud from which the dis
charge comes is one mile distant, it oc-
e0ples In the flash and descent about one
Nv % hundred and lightweight thousandth
Part OF a second. In such a bolt" there
ls an energy of 2,45O, 100000 watts. AS TAG
%atIs (abouD equal one horse power, or
.ne energy required to raise 81, 600 pounds,
g--9 loot, in one minute, or about $50 pounds
W VI loot in one second; so, then, this power
tApressed in way more easily compre-
o. !, iuteu' Is equal to the power exerted by