The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-10-02
The Growth Of Electricity
---Its Beginning
BY F. TRACY NELSON.

More than once the tasks, the ho-
rizons, the hopes of men have been
forever transformed by discovery
of an invention which seemed at its
birth very small matter. Thus was
it when an iron needle, aloat in a
cocoanut, first safely guided ship
out of sight of land and sky. Thus,
| again, was it when charcoal, salt
petre and sulphur were first combined
and fired in gun to leave thereafter
] the stoutest soldier weak indeed who
| should be shorn of his powder fash,
| and when Gutenberg divided the sol
| i'd 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 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 contriyance was new
| and excellent means of obtaining
flow of electricity.
Previously in pile" as this in
| genious man, its inventor, called it, a
| current had been derived from a Sc
ries of pieces Of zinc and copper,
each bit of metal separated from its
neighbor by cloth moistened in acid.
Volta had now much improved this
pile" by putting each zinc and cop
| per pan by itself in cup filled with
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 bettered since
| 1t 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 cell
which has taught the electrician his
business, with result that steam finds
itself in large measures supplanted; (;
where once it reigned monarch II
is now merely partner possessed OF
small and diminishing interest. The
actual test of really great inven-
tion Is its fruitfulness. The voltaic
/ cell was no mere addition to the arm
ory of exploration and conquest; II
entered the field with all the futility
| of a multiplier; it endowed old re-
sources with the issue of powers be.
| fore unimaginable; it gave familiar
weapons 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 thus
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 as
the voltaic cell has been in the past
and valuable as 1t 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 reason.
able level payable in coal. The dy.
namo which enables this to be done,
hinges upon fact observed by Ger
sted sixty years ago-namely, that il
magnet be moved near piece OF
metal, a current of electricity is pro-
duced.-New Orleans Picayune's II
Illustrated Sunday Magazine.