L’aigulette pas force de vertu
A ma dame tot le mont (monde) retennue
Qui sa beauté connoit et aperçoit.”
And when one passes to more recent years, there is not a name one knows omitted from the list. There are also many included who all contributed in some way to the growth of natural knowledge, but who can only be known to the few, the very few, who have burrowed in past records scattered far and wide with the perseverance, the patience, and the skill of Dr. Mottelay.
And he has discovered interesting facts without number, and at the same time has supported his case with full references to original works. To the question, How can I find out what—some unknown writer—has written about Electricity? there can in future be but one answer: Look him up in Dr. Mottelay’s Bibliographical History. Our debt to the author is no small one; our regrets that he is not here to be gratified by the reception his book must meet with are deep and sincere.
The Great War delayed the issue of the book. The public are indebted to Messrs. C. Griffin & Co., Ltd., for bringing out a work of the kind under the difficulties which all scientific publications have met with since 1918, and Dr. Mottelay realized to the full the value of the assistance they gave him. I trust with confidence that electricians throughout the world (for the interest of the book is world-wide) will not be slow to show their appreciation of the work of all those who have combined to render them so marked a service.
R. T. Glazebrook.
TO
THE REVERED MEMORY
OF
LORD KELVIN
PREFACE
The present work is the definitive edition of my “Chronological History of Magnetism, Electricity and the Telegraph,” which had tentative publication (1891–1892) serially in four leading technological Journals, viz. “Engineering” of London, “The Electrical World” of New York, “La Lumière Electrique” of Paris, and “L’Industrie Moderne” of Brussels.