The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1909-01-09
THE ELECTRIC CURRENT AND SOME Ut
ITS HOUSEHOLD APPLICATIONS
BY Prof. B. A. Perkins, A. B. (Stanford.)
Chapter Fundamental Principles

The electric current is proving to b.
a very tractable and efficient servant
Every day we are learning of new
ways in which it can be useful to us.
As we learn more clearly the nature of
the electric current itself and become
better acquainted with the many elec.
tro-receptive appliances, we become
more and more pleased with u new
servant. There is just enough of the
mysterious about electricity to excite
an interest in it. Although it is Itself
quite invisible, it can produce the
most powerful artificial light known,
and although noiseless, it produces the
loudest noise, the thunder, or operates
the most Understanding apparatus,
the telephone. 1t can be used to drive
motors as powerful as the strongest
steam engine, or. more delicate thar a
watch. We cannot handle it or weigh
it. and yet we can measure it with the
greatest accuracy. The laws which
2ONtTu Ill dIe hHOWh Ntly PSAAOttiy
but the nature of electricity itself is
more obscure.
Many ingenious explanations Of the
nature of electricity have been given.
During the past few years a vast
amount of experimental work has
greatly extended our real knowledge
of it. We now nave a fairly definite
idea of what electricity really is. The
extremely small discrete negatively
charged particles that constitute the
cathode stream in high vacua as well
as the beta rays emitted by radium are
believed to be atoms of negative cleo
tricity. These atoms of negative
electricity are called electrons. We
have no definite experimental know
ledge of positive electricity. To ac-
count for positive electrifcation, it is
supposed that the nucleus of every
neutral atom of ordinary matter is
positive electricity with a group of the
negative electrons about it. The posi-
tive charge of the nucleus and the
several negative charges of the cleo
irons gruped about it exactly neutral
iZe each other.
Though it is believed that there are
two kinds of electrieity-positive and
n~egative-only the negative electric
ity is movable, In solids, at any rate,
the positive nuclei or atoms are not
supposed to be free to move appre-
ciably from their positions, but the
very much smaller electrons or mega
tive atoms may and sometimes do be-
come detached from the nuclei and
then move freely among the molecules
of the body.
Electricity exhibits markedly differ
ent properties depending on its condi-
ton. When it is in 3 condition of
strain or tension, it is called static
electricity, or electricity at rest.
An assemblage of electrons constr
tutes a charge of negative electricity.
A group of atoms from which the
electrons constitutes a charge of posi-
tive electricity.
Static electricity exerts a stress
through the surrounding ether and
consequently gives rise to what is
called a field of force-in this case, an
electric field force.
niraofiop IN a fo11 90 forno 20 -
sented by lines called lines of force.
Any number of lines could represent
direction but by convention we let one
unit of force in the field of force be
represented by one line of force. Then
when we speak of the lines of force in
creasing or decreasing we mean the
field of intensity is increasing or de-
creasing.
A stream of electrons, that is, a
number of negative charges in motion,
constitutes an electric current. n
property possessed by an electric eur
rent but not possessed by a Static
charge is the ability to induce mag.
netic influence.
A ~magnetized needle is strongly de-
Elected when a wire carrying a current
is held near it. To the Danish physi.
cist, Oersted, is due the honor Of first
performing this experiment. This ex.
pertinent established for the first time
a connection of some sort between
electricity and magnetism and paved
the way for the wonderful electrical
developments of our own time. Ger
sted's great experiment was made
under most dramatic circumstances.
He had previously made many unsuc-
eessful experiments along the same
line. Under the inspiration of a lee
ture which he was delivering before
his university students, he announced
to his hearers a new experiment he
was about to try. Selling the two
wires from a battery and closing the
circuit, he placed it over a magnetic