Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1910-04-22

Electricity.
Man has reached out with fingers Of
copper and seized upon the very power
that holds the stars in place.
This mighty energy, pelept electrici-
ty, unknown, uninterrupted, unseen,
has been set thousand tasks in home
and office, factory and mill, mine and
railroad-tasks which are nothing to
Its giant strength. Fire and water,
mind and wave, all have been harness-
ed and their energy changed into cleo
tricity. When this great planet daily
spins, carrying us into grim darkness
away from the sun, electricity is sum-
mened to give US light. When yearly
the earth tips us into the frigld ether
out of line with our solar system cleo
tricity awaits but the pressure of a
finger to give us heat
Mythology, the very poetry of i'm
agination, pales into insignificance be-
fore the marvels which electricity has
wrought. A flash aud our messages
crost the seas with the speed of the
very lightning our voices span toe con-
tinents: great trains appear and dis
appear like meteors through the night,
bringing together the east and the
west, the north and the south; mighty
ships defy the wide, wind-tossed waters
and broad pinions OF canvas conquer
the very air which shreuds the spinning
earth.
Weak, puny, ephemeral, compared
with the life of the planet, man comes
studies, labors, goes, but ever leaves be-
| hindin books the shell-Iike record of
his knowledge upon the coral bank Of
time until, some day, far in the future
scientists shall reach with knowledge
swift and sure into the great universe
far beyond our ken and read there the
secret of electricity.
Coal burns ard IS gone, steam con-
denses and is once more water gas
dissipates and is lost forever; water
flows back to the sea and mast be rais-
ed particle by particle if it would tnrn
a wheel again, but the power which
whirls the giant electric motor rushes
out aud away on its circular path,
nothing lost, nothing consumed-come
out of nothing, gone back to naught.
1t flows into the mills and does the
work of millions of horses and rushes
out none the loser for all this energy
ex pended. Thousands of miles a Sec
ord it pours from the powerful gener-
ators and equally as fast it returns
when its task is done.
Faster than the very planets whirl,
more powerful than all the forces Of
wind and water ombined, large az the
very universe, still it halts at the mere
reckoning Of finger 10 please lady's
whim. Great enough to combine its
forces and destroy the very earth, still
it obeys the commands of a tiny hui
man and PERFORMS tasks far beyond
the scop OF any other force or power.
Now it drapes in banners Of Sloriou 5,
raGiaut, chormatic light, the gliste n :
| ing fields of Attic ice and snow, aud
even while these magnificent aurora s
play about the polar cap. the same
force is busy lighting the humblest
hamlet and The homes of millions Of
men who do not understand.
In Its great nebula furnace in the
| heavens stars are made anew-bor n
amid dazzling light and terrific heat.
In the tiny electric laboratory furnace
of the scientist it unravels the secrets
of the earth's early life and history.
From sun to sun, in Hertzian waves
that speed nearly two hundred thous g.
and miles second, 1t whispers the
gossip of the heavens. From land to
land, through the mysterious ether, il
waves the messages Of man freighted
with the sadness of death, the mystsr
les of birth or the thousand earthly
cares which make our lives importa nj
responsible and worth while. =