Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-09-19
Tbs Growth Of Electricity
---ItS BeSinnin9
Ey #. TRACY NELSON.

More than once the tasks, the he
rizons, the hopes of men have beef
forever transformed by discover!
of an invention which seemed at iti
birth a very small matter. Thus wa.
it when an iron needle, afloat in
cOcoanut, first safely guided a ship
out Of sight of land and sky. Thus,
again, was it when charcoal, salt
pctrc and sulphur were first combined
and fired in a gun to leave thereafter
the stoutest soldier weak indeed who
should be shorn of his powder flash,
and when Gutenberg divided the SOL
id lines of engraved metal into sep
arate letters or movable types, as we
SAY, did he suspect, do you suppose,
that he was ushering in the democ-
racy of learning? AS big a factor as
the types of Gutenberg, was the de-
vice made public by Alexander Volta
in Paris, in the very first year of this
century. This contriyancc was new
and excellent means of obtaining a
flow of electricity.
Previously in pile" as this in
genious man, its inventor, called it, a
rlcs of pieces of zinc and copper,
each bit of metal separated from its
neighbor by cloth moistcned in acid.
Volta had now much improved this
pile by putting each zinc and cop.
per pan by itself in a cup filled wits
acid. From this Grown of cups" he
produced a strong and fairly steady
stream of electricity, with the advan.
tage that it lasted for a considerable
time. Much as the cup or cell of Vol
ia has been varied and bettercd since
it left his hands, it yet remains es-
sentially the device he created and
to him, therefore, is due the honor Of
reducing to vassalage the gentlest
and mightiest the most versatile and
the most terrible force in the strong
hold of nature. 1t is the voltaic ca.
which has taught the electrician lis
business, with result that steam finds
itself in large measures supplanted;
where once it reigned monarch it
is now merely partner possessed OF
a small and diminishing interest. The
actual test of a really great inven.
tion is its fruitfulness. The voltait
cell was no mere addition to the arm.
ory of exploration and conquest; II
entered the field with all the futilit'
of multiplier; it endowed old re
sources with the issue of powers be
fore unimaginable; it gave familiar
weapons a new edge and pointed them
to triumphs not only easier than The
old, but vastly richer in spirit
If science in the nineteenth CEN
tury has won victories more decisive
than those of the eighteen centuries
before, it is largely because electric
ity has been captured and impressed
for thousand new services, and thug
it comes about as inventions of prime
dignity now make their appearance
at more frequent intervals. The pace
of scientific progress is quickened pro-
digiously and the history Of indus.
trial art becomes little else than
the story of revolution. Priceless az
the voltaic cell has been in the past
and valuable as it continues to be, its
field is narrowly limited in that ii
feeds ON costly zinc.
Electricity has come to its king
dom by reducing its tax to a reason
able level payable in coal. The dy.
namo which enables this to be done,
hinges upon a fact observed by Oer-
sted sixty years ago-namely, that If
q magnet be moved near piece of
metal, a current of electricity is pro-
duced.-New Orleans Picayune's IL.
lustrated Sunday Magazine.