the spirit of the time and sends her
wasting energy thrilling through the electric wires to turn the wheels
of many busy factories. It is perhaps not the least remarkable fact in
connection with this work that it is largely the product of the last
thirty years, and that it had its very beginning less than seventy
years since. Edison and Thompson and Brush are honorable household
names; yet they are still living to produce even greater electric
marvels. In fact, so rapid and brilliant has been the development that
in the brilliancy some of the pioneers in the work have been almost
forgotten, except by the specialist and the student, and it is no
small part of this sketch to do them honor. The tiny spark of Faraday
may be lost in the brilliancy of the million-candle-power
search-light, yet the brilliancy of the search-light but enhances the
wonder of the discovery of the spark.

The discovery of electro-magnetic induction marked the beginning of a
new era; for in it lay all the possibilities of the future of
electrical science. Michael Faraday, the third son of a poor English
blacksmith, was born at Newington, Surrey, England, September 3, 1791.
His father's health was never the best, and due to the resulting
straitened circumstances his early education consisted of the merest
rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic. His early life was, no
doubt, largely spent in the street; but at thirteen he became errand
boy to a book-seller of London. About a year later he was apprenticed
to a book binder, with whom he served seven years, learning the trade.

It was while an apprentice that Faraday began reading scientific
articles on chemistry and physics in the books he was set to bind. He
also tried to repeat the experiments of which he read. And more, he
pondered over them long and earnestly, until he saw clearly the
principles involved in them. It was in these early days of
experimenting and self-education that the desire to become a
philosopher was implanted in his mind. He embraced every chance for
scientific study and caught every opportunity for intellectual
self-improvement. In the last year of his apprenticeship he was
enabled through the kindness of a customer at his master's shop, to
attend a course of four lectures on chemistry, given by Sir Humphry
Davy at the Royal Institution. This marked the turning point in his
life. He made careful notes of the lecture, and afterward transcribed
them neatly into a book and i