The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1908-07-09
ROMANCE OF ELECTRICITY,
Reads More Like Fiction Than Fact-ItS
Wonderful Growth.
DISCOVERED MANY CENTURIES Ago.
Electric News.)

lies MD the romance OF Electricity
1t is story so old as to be lost in tht
obscurity of the mystic East and Sc
interesting as to read more like fic
ton than fact.
From the electric light in the
library reading rcom and the elec.
trio cars rumbling past the building
the story Of electricity can be traced
back through the centuries until the
tiny thread is lost in the great En-.
plre Of China Thousands of years ago
| Long before any records in books
the superstitious people Of the East
bowed down to the magical powers
OF the lode-stone. The name "Elec-
tricity' goes back twenty-five CEN
turies and is derived from the Greek
word "electron," meaning amber.
This amber came from the north
Baltic countries and was extensively
used in the arts and for ornamental
purposes. 1t was one of the old
Greek philosophers, Thales, who dis
covered in polishing his amber stylus
that the fossilized resin possessed
the mysterious power Of attracting
light bodies when rubbed. Thales
argued that the amber possessed the
,secret Of life but he failed to explain
the magnetic attraction.
The learning of the Greeks was
adopted by the Romans and Pliny,
the elder, wrote considerable of this
strange property of amber. He
said the stone was rubbed into life
by his fingers. The Romans con-
tented themselves with this knowl-
edge and arrived 10 further towards
a solution Of the problem. While
they believed Jove hurled his i'm
mortal thunderbolts in just anger
over some fancied wrong they little
knew that their amber ornaments
contained the secret of the light
ming. The great Caesar was awed
and astounded at the strange lights
which on certain nights played ghost
like about the spiked helmets and
spear points of the Roman legions.
Those ancient minds believed more
in ghosts aud immortals than in
science. They little understood na-
ture and attributed all such phe-
nomena to the actions Of the gods.
The static electricity shining in "St.
Elmo's light upon the steel spear
points of the army and the masts of
each trireme in the Roman navy was
translated as a message from. the
gods in assurance of victory.
Fortunately electricity was neither
forgotten or neglected when the
great Roman civilization passed away
and the Dark Ages succeeded. The
next record of electrical experiments
is recorded in the seventeenth CEN
tury when Gilbert, the Englishman,
studied the electron and the mag
net and wrote his famous book, "De
Magnetic" which was the beginning
of a new era in electric science.
Gilbert told little that Thales had
not known but he paved the way for
a new scientific development. Guer-
icke, Prussian, invented the first
crude electric machine. His simple
device was a cylinder of sulphur
mounted on an axle and turned with
crank. By whirling this cylinder
and pressing a silk cloth against it
frictional or static electricity was
produced. This machine gave con-
siderable quantity of electricity and
stimulated further experiments.
Though many properties Of the mys-
tic force were discovered little other
progress was made during that
century.
The next century brought discov-
cries which filled all Europe with
excitement and nearly every book
printed during that time contains
articles on electricity. The glass
electrical machine invented at this
time consisted Of a large glass cylin-
dar or disk revolved on an axle and
rubbed with leather This machine
produced a large, brilliant spark.
DeFaye, Frenchman, sent spark
through a cord 1900 feet long and
suspending himself from silk cord
was charged with electricity. When
his friends approached him they
were astonished to see large spark
leap from his body to theirs. Mus
schenbrock tried to store electricity
and produced the Leyden jar, named
after the city where it was first used
and received shock which nearly
knocked him to the floor. The Ley
den jar brought alarm and terror to
all who saw for the first time the
great power of electricity. The
| books say that Louis XIV held an au
dience with this jar of stored elec
L.