The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-06-20
The Development Of Electricity.

To watch the whirring wheels of the
mammoth generators, motors and other
electrical mechanism in the modern
power houes makes it almost impossible
to believe that the history of modern
electrical development is only about rs
years old, although electricity was
known to the ancients many thousands
of years ago.
From authentic record it appears that
the .loadstone was discovered by the
Chinese as long ago as 26OO B. c., al
though they made no practical use of
the discovery. The first electricity in
tentionally generated was produced by
the Greeks about the year 900 B. C. in
polishing amber for ornamental pur-
poses. It was soon noticed that if a
piece of amber was rubbed with silk, it
became possessed of peculiar power
which it did not have before. It was
not until some years later known as
electricity. At first, according to the
ancient superstition, the mysterious
force was looked upon as magic. 1t
was long known that the loadstone
not until 1900 A. d. that man discover.
ed that it would point north and south
if suspended and allowed to swing
freely. Several nations discovered this
phenomena about the same time, but
the first practical use of the compass
was made in 1902, when Columbus dis
covered America-the home of electric
lty. AS there was no other method of
obtaining magnets other than rubbing
the steel on the loadstOne, all the early
cOmpaSSes were made in this way.
1t was in the year 1852 Ben Franklin
sent up his kite and told the world that
electricity generated by rubbing amber,
glass and sulphur%yas the same as the
lightning in the Sky. This discovery
inspired the scientists OF that day to
give great deal of time and attention
to the study of electricity, and Frank
lin has since been called the originator
of the science of electricity.
A new method of generating electric
ity by chemical action was discovered
by Volta in 1893 Tradition has it that
he one day hung some frog legs on an
iron hook in front of his house. The
acids in the flesh acted upon the iron
and, dripping upon copper railing
just underneath, generated chemical
electricity which caused the muscles in
the legs to twitch every time they
Strengthened out and touched the cop
per. Studying this problem, he used
copper and zinc plates separated by
wet cloths for the first chemical bat
terry, and few years later it was dis
covered that a steady current of cleo
tricity could be developed by submerg-
ing the zinc and copper plates in an
acid bath. In 1900 Sir Humphrey
Davy made the largest battery in the
| world, one of 1000 cells, and obtained
a current of sufficient strength to make
! OF yhn,, fhc
the electricity were separated just u
trifle. From this simple experiment
was born the arc light of today. Soon
after this it was found that number
of turns of insulated wire around a
soft iron bar produced magnet when
the current was turned on, and there
after it was 10 longer necessary to
utilize the old loadstones,
In 1882 Faraday discovered that if a
coil OF wire was brought near magnet
a current of electricity was generated.
From this simple experiment the great
| dynamos and generators of today were
evolved. So in 800 g. C. electricity
was generated by friction; in 1893 A. d.
| by chemical action, and in 1882 A. d.
! from magnetism.
Thus i'll brief is the history of cleo
tricity. 1t was long in coming, but the
! progress i'll its development during the
| last few years by the General Electric
| Company and other concerns seems
| little short of the magic first associated
| with the hidden force by the ancient
| Greeks. Little did they dream of the
! force and power within their grasp,
and it is ever hard for us today to as
sociate the little loadstone with the
mammoth $4,000 horse power genera
tors of New York and Chicago power
houses, or the 5000 horse power in
duction motors of the Adirondack pulp
mills, recently installed by the General
Electric Company.