ike ordinary spirits, and
called his prison a _Leyden Jar_.

From that date our Spark became the useful and obedient slave of man.
Yet is he ever ready, when the smallest conceivable door, hole, or chink
is left open, to dash out of the prison-house man has made for him, and
escape into his native earth.

He has no hope now, however, of escaping altogether, for he cannot
resist the allurement of rubbing, by which, as well as by chemical
action and other means, we can summon him, like the genii of Aladdin's
lamp, at any moment, from the "vasty deep," and compel him to do our
work.

And what sort of work, it may be asked, can this volatile fellow
perform? We cannot tell all--the list is too long. Let us consider a
few of them. If we fabricate tea-pots, sugar-basins, spoons, or
anything else of base metal, he can and will, at our bidding, cover the
same with silver or yellow gold. If we grow dissatisfied with our
candles and gas, he will, on being summoned, and properly directed by
the master minds to whom he owns allegiance, kindle our lamps and fill
our streets and mansions with a blaze of noonday splendour. If we grow
weary of steam, and give him orders, he will drive our tram-cars and
locomotives with railway speed, _minus_ railway smoke and fuss. He is a
very giant in the chemist's laboratory, and, above all, a swift
messenger to carry the world's news. Even when out and raging to and
fro in a wild state, more than half-disposed to rend our mansions, and
split our steeples, and wreck our ships, we have only to provide him
with a tiny metal stair-case, down which he will instantly glide from
the upper regions to the earth without noise or damage. Shakespeare
never imagined, and Mercury never accomplished, the speed at which he
travels; and he will not only carry our news, or express our sentiments
and wishes far and wide over the land, but he will rush with them, over
rock, sand, mud, and ooze, along the bottom of the deep deep sea!

And this brings us to a point. Some of the master minds before
mentioned, having conceived the idea that telegraphic communication
might be carried on under water, set about experimenting. Between the
years 1839 and 1851 enterprising men in the Old World and the New
suggested, pondered, planned, and placed wires under water, along which
our Spark ran more or less successfully.

One of the difficulties of these experiments consisted in this, that,
while the Spark runs readil