The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-08
THE EI,ECrR1C CURRENT.

What is electrictity?" That is a question no man can yet fully answer Tn a great electric station you may see huge engine turning over" two big copper wheels. They are doing no work, and require little steam. The day darkens; lights are turned on through the city. A man at the switch board throws in'' the switches, bring ing the two dynamos into circuit, and connecteing them with the copper con- ductors through the streets and pres entity the two wheels require all the power the 2500 horse power engine can supply, and are lighting 25,0oO electric Lamps But the wheels turn at the same speed; you cannot see or feel any difference. The men who make the dynamos and the men who operate them know not how to produce elec- tricity but MT, Edison himself, stand | ing by an Edison dynamo, could only | tell you how the "how and not the | why" Yet for thousands of years this great power has been in tho universe, | waiting for nineteenth-century man literally to find it out. The discoverer, | the inventor, only uncovers or comes to | the lOTCG dlISduy III LiiC uiliNcAtoCt ioi the service of man. The nineteenth century, in the person of Kelvin, an Edison, Tesla, or a man yet un- known, may answer the question, or 1t may be left unanswered to the twenti- | eth
 We know electricity from its effects and through its relations with other forces It is a force, having an effect 1 on matter. No force can be made. We do not make electricity; we only con- vert other force into it Electricity l is produced and is produced by heat mechanical force, chemical force.
 | When thus produced, an insulated body can be charged" with 1t, or elec- trif1ed. The force is then in suspended I animation as static (stand-still or pass ive) electricity. When a less electric body is brought near, the force leaps free, and the electrified body is dis charged with shock or spark. Or, thus produced, the force can be trans mitted, as dynamic force-full or ac- tive) electricity, along the lines of con- ductors. This is the electric current.
 When a man is packed in a crowd, if he moves or is moved he must push his next neighbor, and he will push that particular next neighbor who moves easiest or makes least resistance. All forces act in this line of least resist ance' to the electric force" Silver, copper etc., are of flow resistance" to electric force, and are good conduct ors'' of electricity; parafine, rubber glass, mica, are of high resistance,
 will not conduct, and are .'insulators. '
 Yet every conductor resists somewhat
 there is some Toss" or drop" the electricity turning into heat; every in- sulator conducts somewhat-there is some leakage of current.
 Force must always do work; no force can be lost. If the man in the crowd
 as he is pushed and pulled, puts his hands on the man in front of him, an6
 he on the next, to the edge of the crowd, and the last man grips a pumr handle, the push and pull at the center
 thus passed on, will work the pump
 This is how work is done at d distanct
 by the force of electricity. If the mer
 are close together in a ring, and one
 shoves forward, the shove will be pass
 CT all around the ring till the firs
 mans shove hits himself in the back