The Story of Electricity

The Story Of Electricity

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Title: The Story Of Electricity
Author: John Munro
Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4710] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 5,
2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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THE STORY OF ELECTRICITY
BY JOHN MUNRO
AUTHOR OF ELECTRICITY AND ITS USES, PIONEERS OF
ELECTRICITY, HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH, ETC., AND
JOINT AUTHOR OF MUNRO AND JAMIESON'S POCKET-BOOK
OF ELECTRICAL RULES AND TABLES

PREFACE.
A work on electricity needs little recommendation to stimulate the
interest of the general reader. Electricity in its manifold applications is
so large a factor in the comfort and convenience of our daily life, so
essential to the industrial organization which embraces every dweller in

a civilized land, so important in the development and extension of
civilization itself, that a knowledge of its principles and the means
through which they are directed to the service of mankind should be a
part of the mental equipment of everyone who pretends to education in
its truest sense. Let anyone stop to consider how he individually would
be affected if all electrical service were suddenly to cease, and he
cannot fail to appreciate the claims of electricity to attentive study.
The purpose of this little book is to present the essential facts of
electrical science in a popular and interesting way, as befits the scheme
of the series to which it belongs. Electrical phenomena have been
observed since the first man viewed one of the most spectacular and
magnificent of them all in the thunderstorm, but the services of
electricity which we enjoy are the product solely of scientific
achievement in the nineteenth century. It is to these services that the
main part of the following discussion is devoted. The introductory
chapters deal with various sources of electrical energy, in friction,
chemical action, heat and magnetism. The rest of the book describes the
applications of electricity in electroplating, communication by
telegraph, telephone, and wireless telegraphy, the production of light
and heat, the transmission of power, transportation over rails and in
vehicles, and the multitude of other uses.
July, 1915.

PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
For our edition of this work the terminology has been altered to
conform with American usage, some new matter has been added, and a
few of the cuts have been changed and some new ones introduced, in
order to adapt the book fully to the practical requirements of American
readers.

CONTENTS.
I. THE ELECTRICITY OF FRICTION II. THE ELECTRICITY OF
CHEMISTRY III. THE ELECTRICITY OF HEAT IV. THE
ELECTRICITY OF MAGNETISM V. ELECTROLYSIS VI. THE
TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE VII. ELECTRIC