Electricity for Boys | Page 5

of all who have gone before; and now the pertinent thing is
to acquire that knowledge.
THE MEANS EMPLOYED.--This brings us definitely down to an

examination of the means that we shall employ to instil this knowledge,
so that it may become a permanent asset to the student's store of
information.
The most significant thing in the history of electrical development is
the knowledge that of all the great scientists not one of them ever added
any knowledge to the science on purely speculative reasoning. All of
them were experimenters. They practically applied and developed their
theories in the laboratory or the workshop. The natural inference is,
therefore, that the boy who starts out to acquire a knowledge of
electricity, must not only theorize, but that he shall, primarily, conduct
the experiments, and thereby acquire the information in a practical way,
one example of which will make a more lasting impression than pages
of dry text.
Throughout these pages, therefore, I shall, as briefly as possible, point
out the theories involved, as a foundation for the work, and then
illustrate the structural types or samples; and the work is so arranged
that what is done to-day is merely a prelude or stepping-stone to the
next phase of the art. In reality, we shall travel, to a considerable extent,
the course which the great investigators followed when they were
groping for the facts and discovering the great manifestations in nature.
CHAPTER II
WHAT TOOLS AND APPARATUS ARE NEEDED
PREPARING THE WORKSHOP.--Before commencing actual
experiments we should prepare the workshop and tools. Since we are
going into this work as pioneers, we shall have to be dependent upon
our own efforts for the production of the electrical apparatus, so as to
be able, with our home-made factory, to provide the power, the heat
and the electricity. Then, finding we are successful in these enterprises,
we may look forward for "more worlds to conquer."
By this time our neighbors will become interested in and solicit work
from us.

USES OF OUR WORKSHOPS.--They may want us to test batteries,
and it then becomes necessary to construct mechanism to detect and
measure electricity; to install new and improved apparatus; and to put
in and connect up electric bells in their houses, as well as burglar
alarms. To meet the requirements, we put in a telegraph line, having
learned, as well as we are able, how they are made and operated. But
we find the telegraph too slow and altogether unsuited for our purposes,
as well as for the uses of the neighborhood, so we conclude to put in a
telephone system.
WHAT TO BUILD.--It is necessary, therefore, to commence right at
the bottom to build a telephone, a transmitter, a receiver and a
switch-board for our system. From the telephone we soon see the
desirability of getting into touch with the great outside world, and
wireless telegraphy absorbs our time and energies.
But as we learn more and more of the wonderful things electricity will
do, we are brought into contact with problems which directly interest
the home. Sanitation attracts our attention. Why cannot electricity act
as an agent to purify our drinking water, to sterilize sewage and to
arrest offensive odors? We must, therefore, learn something about the
subject of electrolysis.
WHAT TO LEARN.--The decomposition of water is not the only thing
that we shall describe pertaining to this subject. We go a step further,
and find that we can decompose metals as well as liquids, and that we
can make a pure metal out of an impure one, as well as make the
foulest water pure. But we shall also, in the course of our experiments,
find that a cheap metal can be coated with a costly one by means of
electricity--that we can electroplate by electrolysis.
USES OF THE ELECTRICAL DEVICES.--While all this is
progressing and our factory is turning out an amazing variety of useful
articles, we are led to inquire into the uses to which we may devote our
surplus electricity. The current may be diverted for boiling water; for
welding metals; for heating sad-irons, as well as for other purposes
which are daily required.

TOOLS.--To do these things tools are necessary, and for the present
they should not be expensive. A small, rigidly built bench is the first
requirement. This may be made, as shown in Fig. 1, of three 2-inch
planks, each 10 inches wide and 6 feet long, mounted on legs 36 inches
in height. In the front part are three drawers for your material, or the
small odds and ends, as well as for such little tools as you may
accumulate. Then you will need a small vise, say, with a 2-inch jaw,
and you will also require a hand reel for winding magnets. This will be
fully described