[47] “The meetings, from which the Royal Society originated, commenced about the year 1645, a number of persons having then begun to assemble for the consideration of all subjects connected with experimental inquiries; all questions of theology and policy being expressly precluded” (Dr. Geo. Miller, from Harris’s “Life of Charles II,” Vol. I. p. 7, London, 1766).
[48] In the entry at p. 223, Part I of Libri’s “Catal.” for 1861 it is said that, in the first volume of the works of A. S. Conti, who was the intimate friend of Sir Isaac Newton, we find for the first time mention of the fact that the aurora is supposed to be an electrical phenomenon.
[49] “La perte de l’illustre M. Huygens est inestimable, peu de gens le savent autant que moi; il a égalé, à mon avis, la réputation de Galilée et de Descartes, et, aidé par ce qu’ils avaient fait, il a surpassé leurs découvertes.” (Extracted from a letter written by Leibnitz to Bosange, July 26, 1695—“Journal des Savants,” for Nov. 1905, “Oeuvres complètes de Christian Huygens,” La Haye, 1905.)
[50] Just here we may refer to the fact—for it is a fact—that the electrical energy transmitted over a line, which may be many miles in length, really does not travel by the wire connecting the two points. It travels in the ether surrounding the wire. The wire itself is, in fact, the guiding core of the disturbances in the ether which proceed outward in all directions to unlimited distances. The guiding core or conducting wire is needed to focalize or direct the delivery of the energy. This curious conclusion of science, then, that the power from the power-station wire travels in the space around the wires led from the station, is one of the results of recent electrical studies, just as with light those studies begun by Maxwell and Hertz have led to the inevitable conclusion that the light of the candle, the light of a kerosene lamp, and the light of a gas burner are all in essence electrical phenomena, as are all forms of radiation in the ether (“Electricity During the Nineteenth Century,” Prof. Elihu Thomson, Washington, 1901).
[51] Mr. Andrew Crosse (1784–1855) was a distinguished English scientist, author of “Experiments in Voltaic Electricity,” 1815, alluded to in Phil. Magazine, Vol. XLVI. p. 421 and in Gilb. “Ann.,” Bd. XLI. s. 60. See “Dict. of Nat. Biog.,” Vol. XIII. p. 223, and the many references thereto annexed.
[52] “The first sound theory of chemistry was denominated the antiphlogistic, in contradistinction to that of phlogiston, or the principle of inflammability, which was first proposed by Beccher (born at Spires in Germany in the year 1635) and then improved by Stahl, a native of Anspach, in honour of whom it has been commonly denominated the Stahlian theory. The difference between the two theories is briefly this, that according to the earlier a body is conceived to be deprived in combustion of a component principle, whereas according to the later a component part of the atmosphere is conceived to be combined with it” (Dr. Geo. Miller, from Thomson’s “History of Chemistry,” London, 1830, Vol. I. pp. 246, 250, and Vol. II. pp. 99–100).
[53] Ueber die Ursache und die Gesetze der atmosphärischen Elektricität. Von Prof. Franz Exner. Repertorium der Physik. Band XXII. Heft 7.
[54] Ueber Atmosphärischen und Gewitter Elektricität. Meteor. Zeits. 1, 2, 3 and 4, 1885.
[55] Memoir of National Academy of Sciences.
[56] (a) Report of Chicago Meteorological Congress. Part II. August 1893. (b) Zusammenstellung der Ergebnisse neuerer der Arbeiten über atmosphärische Elektricität. Von J. Elster und H. Geitel. Wissen. Beilage zum Jahresbericht des Herzoglichen Gymnasiums zu Wolfenbuttel, 1897.