r had begun to prevail, when the fact was ascertained, in so
clear a manner, that even the most incredulous could no longer withhold
their assent. Repeated sparks were drawn from the key, a phial was
charged, a shock given, and all the experiments made which are usually
performed with electricity."

FARADAY'S DISCOVERIES LEADING UP TO THE ELECTRIC DYNAMO AND MOTOR

[Michael Faraday was for many years Professor of Natural Philosophy
at the Royal Institution, London, where his researches did more to
subdue electricity to the service of man than those of any other
physicist who ever lived. "Faraday as a Discoverer," by Professor
John Tyndall (his successor) depicts a mind of the rarest ability
and a character of the utmost charm. This biography is published by
D. Appleton & Co., New York: the extracts which follow are from the
third chapter.]

In 1831 we have Faraday at the climax of his intellectual strength,
forty years of age, stored with knowledge and full of original power.
Through reading, lecturing, and experimenting, he had become thoroughly
familiar with electrical science: he saw where light was needed and
expansion possible. The phenomena of ordinary electric induction
belonged, as it were, to the alphabet of his knowledge: he knew that
under ordinary circumstances the presence of an electrified body was
sufficient to excite, by induction, an unelectrified body. He knew that
the wire which carried an electric current was an electrified body, and
still that all attempts had failed to make it excite in other wires a
state similar to its own.

What was the reason of this failure? Faraday never could work from the
experiments of others, however clearly described. He knew well that from
every experiment issues a kind of radiation, luminous, in different
degrees to different minds, and he hardly trusted himself to reason upon
an experiment that he had not seen. In the autumn of 1831 he began to
repeat the experiments with electric currents, which, up to that time,
had produced no positive result. And here, for the sake of younger
inquirers, if not for the sake of us all, it is worth while to dwell for
a moment on a power which Faraday possessed in an extraordinary degree.
He united vast strength with perfect flexibility. His momentum was that
of a river, which combines weight and directness with the ability to
yield to the flexures of its bed. The intentness of his vi