as great a forward stride as the subjugation
of fire. A minor invention or discovery simply adds to human
resources: a supreme conquest as of flame or electricity,
is a multiplier and lifts art and science to a new plane.
Growth is slow, flowering is rapid: progress at times is
so quick of pace as virtually to become a leap. The mastery
of electricity based on that of fire. Electricity vastly
wider of range than heat: it is energy in its most available
and desirable phase. The telegraph and the telephone contrasted
with the signal fire. Electricity as the servant of mechanic
and engineer. Household uses of the current. Electricity
as an agent of research now examines Nature in fresh aspects.
The investigator and the commercial exploiter render aid to
one another. Social benefits of electricity, in telegraphy, in
quick travel. The current should serve every city house. 125

RUMFORD, COUNT (BENJAMIN THOMPSON)

HEAT AND MOTION IDENTIFIED

Observes that in boring a cannon much heat is generated:
the longer the boring lasts, the more heat is produced. He
argues that since heat without limit may be thus produced
by motion, heat must be motion. 155

STEPHENSON, GEORGE

THE "ROCKET" LOCOMOTIVE AND ITS VICTORY

Shall it be a system of stationary engines or locomotives?
The two best practical engineers of the day are in favour
of stationary engines. A test of locomotives is, however,
proffered, and George Stephenson and his son, Robert, discuss
how they may best build an engine to win the first prize.
They adopt a steam blast to stimulate the draft of the furnace,
and raise steam quickly in a boiler having twenty-five small
fire-tubes of copper. The "Rocket" with a maximum speed of
twenty-nine miles an hour distances its rivals. With its
load of water its weight was but four and a quarter tons. 163

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY

FRANKLIN IDENTIFIES LIGHTNING WITH ELECTRICITY

[From Franklin's Works, edited in ten volumes by John Bigelow, Vol.
I, pages 276-281, copyright by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.]

Dr. Stuber, the author of the first continuation of Franklin's life,
gives this account of the electrical experiments of Franklin:--

"His observations he communicated, in a series of letters, to his friend
Collinson, the first of w