NATURE SERIES. A CENTURY OF ELECTRICITY BY T. C. MENDENHALL (Thomas Corwin) London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1887. All rights reserved. TN 25572 PREFACE. A519911 A HUNDRED years have elapsed since the experiment of an Italian philosopher inaugurated a new era in physical science. The industrious cultivation of the new electricity from that day to the present has been so fruitful of results, that even the specialist has found difficulty in keeping pace with its development. Within a few years it has found its way into the household, and hundreds of thousands of intelligent people have come to have some personal familiarity with its use. It is believed that this familiarity has not "bred contempt," but rather that it has excited a desire, on the part of many, to know something of the fundamental principles which underlie its numerous applications, and to learn something of the evolution of these principles. In this belief, the author has endeavored to sketch the growth of the science of electricity, and its principal applications. The book is not a history of the science, nor is it a scientific |