CHAPTER XXXV
SOME ELECTRICAL EFFECTS
The Magic of Mystery
A phenomenon is always mysterious, so long as its origin remains hidden. That is to say that any event, the causes of whose manifestation are obscure, will be found to prompt some feeling of wonderment.
For this reason then—just as an automobile in motion will bewilder a savage, because he has at no time seen any but living creatures moving, and does not understand the new mechanism—so for us an electrical effect mostly presents something of a miraculous nature. To take a concrete example. Whereas the ringing of a church bell by the sexton engenders no feeling of wonderment in the average listener’s breast, the buzzing of an electric bell, which ensues upon connecting with a battery, does have this influence to a greater or less extent, because the electricity’s behavior is by no means so obvious as that of the sexton pulling the rope.
Let this character of the miraculous then, which pertains with scarcely an exception to every electrical phenomenon, stand as an excuse for the experiments to be detailed hereafter.
Electricity may be produced by a variety of methods. For commercial purposes, where unstinted supplies are necessary, mechanical energy is converted into the subtle force by means of dynamos. Exceptional sources of mechanical energy are now frequently used, as witness the Niagara Falls, where electric current is produced on the site, and whence it is conducted by cables to places of utility; and also the case of Nansen’s “Farthest North” Expedition (before Cook found the Pole!), which utilized a deck windmill for installation of electric light aboard.
Electricity is also produced when any two substances are brought into contact, and more especially if they are placed near one another, but not touching, in certain liquids, thereby forming “cells.” With these arrangements, electricity finds its source in chemical action; and, although not powerful, such cells are extensively employed, on account of reliability, in telephone and telegraph systems. No more convenient source of galvanic energy has yet been devised than a battery of “cells”—i.e. a number of cells connected together—and the type which we intend to use, and of whose construction the following is a description, is among the cheapest possible to make and maintain.
The battery is to consist of eight cells, connected together, in a manner hereafter described. For each cell procure a 1 lb. stone jar (A), and line it inside with a sheet of tin (B), which may be cut from a condensed milk can, and should be curved so as to press outwards against the jar’s inner surface ([Fig. 1]). A 2-inch length of copper wire (C) is soldered to its upper edge.
Fig. 1.—Making a cell.