The White House, Washington, D. C. _Full page_ 180
Library Building, University of Virginia 181
Trinity Church, New York. _Full page_ 183
St. George’s Hall, Philadelphia 185
Trinity Church, Boston 187
American Surety Company’s Building, New York 188
Sir Humphrey Davy 192
Michael Faraday 197
William Crookes, F. R. S. 200
Sir Henry Bessemer 202
Louis Jacques Daguerre 203
Louis Pasteur 205
Beethoven in His Study. _Full page_ 208
Giuseppe Verdi 208
Grand Opera House, Paris 209
Metropolitan Opera House, New York 210
William Richard Wagner 211
Edwin Forrest 211
Charlotte Saunders Cushman 212
Scenes from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. _Full page_ 213
George Bancroft 216
John G. Whittier 217
Alfred Tennyson 218
Henry W. Longfellow 219
Benjamin Franklin 223
Horace Greeley 224
John W. Forney 225
Joseph Medill 226
Record Building, Philadelphia. _Full page_ 227
The “Black Obelisk” of Shalmaneser II 232
The Moabite Stone. _Full page_ 232
Ruins of Philæ, Egypt. _Full page_ 235
So-called Sarcophagus of Alexander the Great 239
Cuneiform Letters from Lachish 241
Arch of Titus, Rome 242
Hittite Inscription from Jerabis. _Full page_ 243
A Typical Dairy Farm. _Full page_ 247
Modern Creamery and Cheese Factory 249
A Typical Dairy Cow—Ayrshire 251
Centrifugal Cream Separator in Operation. _Full page_ 253
Milk Tester (Open) 254
Butter-making on Farm—The Old Way. _Full page_ 255
Butter-making—The New Way 257
The Dairy Maid. _Full page_ 259
Czar Alexander II., of Russia 265
Sir Edward Bulwer 266
Captain Alfred Dreyfus 269
Mortality Chart 273
Map Showing “Registration States” 275
Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania. _Full page_ 277
Sand Filter Bed 279
A Quarantine Station 281
Old Style Shrapnel 284
Congreve Rocket 285
Minié Ball 286
United States Rifle Musket, 1855 286
General Winfield Scott. _Full page_ 286
Armstrong Field Gun 287
Rodman Gun 288
Old Smooth-bore Mortar 289
Spencer Carbine 291
Metallic Cartridge of 1864–65 292
Prismatic Powder 298
Mortar on Revolving Hoist. _Full page_ 299
Modern Shrapnel 301
Krag-Jorgensen Rifle 302
Penetrating Power of Guns and Bullets. _Full page_ 303
Gatling Gun 304
Nordenfeldt Rapid Fire Gun 305
Soil Pulverizer. Furnished by author 309
Columbia Harvester and Binder. Furnished by author 311
Improved Thresher, with Blower and Self-feeder. Furnished by
author 312
Automatic Stacker with Folding Attachment. Furnished by author 313
Disc Harrow. H. P. Denocher & Co., Hamilton, Ont. 314
Acme Harrow. Furnished by author 315
Double Corn Cultivator. Long-Alstatten Co., Hamilton, Ont. 317
Modern Clover Huller. Gaar, Scoot & Co., Richmond, Ind. 319
Hereford Cow, “Lady Laurel.” Furnished by author 320
Group of Aberdeen-Angus Cattle. Courtesy of D. Bradford & Son,
Aberdeen, O. 321
Jersey Cow, “Ida,” of St. Lambert. Miller & Sibley, Franklin, Pa. 322
Poland-China Hog. Furnished by author 323
Merino Sheep. John Pow & Son, Salem, O. 325
Double Corn Planter. H. P. Denocher & Co., Hamilton, Ont. 326
Hand Garden Plow. H. P. Denocher & Co., Hamilton, Ont. 327
Success Anti-Clog Weeder. D. Y. Hallock & Co., York, Pa. 331
Aspinwall Potato Planter. Furnished by author 335
Brooklyn Suspension Bridge. _Full page_ 341
The Niagara Railway Arch. Courtesy of Grand Trunk R. R.
_Full page_ 343
The Firth of Forth Bridge, General View. Credit “Bridges,”
Chicago. _Full page_ 344
Pecos River Viaduct 345
Formal Opening of Suez Canal 347
Manchester Ship Canal 349
Complete Rock Cut Chicago Drainage Canal. Courtesy of Lidgerwood
Man. Co. _Full page_ 351
An “Atlas” Powder Blast under Cableway. Copyright by Charles
Stadler, Chicago. _Full page_ 353
American Portal of St. Clair Tunnel. Courtesy of Grand
Trunk R. R. 358
Interior of St. Clair Tunnel. Courtesy of Grand Trunk R. R. 359
Thoroughbred. _Full page_ 363
Watering the Cows 365
A Temperance Society. (Herring) 367
Art Critics. (Gebler) 368
French Coach-Horse “Gladiator” 369
Pacing Horse “Star Pointer.” Time 1m. 59 1-4s 371
Automobile or Horseless Carriage. Courtesy of Electric
Automobile Co. 373
Commodore Stephen Decatur 376
Commodore Perry at Battle of Lake Erie 377
Schoolship Saratoga. Courtesy of Philadelphia Bourse Book 379
Robert E. Lee at Battle of Chapultepec. _Full page_ 381
Castle William. Military Prison, New York Harbor 383
Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson 385
General Ulysses S. Grant. _Full page_ 387
Sherman’s March to the Sea. _Full page_ 389
Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox 391
Morro Castle, Santiago Harbor 392
Admiral George Dewey. _Full page_ 393
Main Deck of Cruiser Chicago 394
Dewey’s Guns at Manila. _Full page_ 395
General Joseph Wheeler 397
The Truce before Santiago 398
Aguinaldo, the Tagal Leader 399
Napoleon, 1814. (Meissonier.) _Full page_ 401
Admiral Horatio Nelson 403
Napoleon’s Retreat from Waterloo. _Full page_ 405
Capture of the Malakoff. _Full page_ 409
Battle of Magenta. _Full page_ 411
Louis Adolphe Theirs 415
Cavalry Charge at Gravelotte. _Full page_ 416
Battle of Yalu River. _Full page_ 417
Munich Exposition, 1854 423
New Orleans Exposition, 1884. _Full page_ 425
Eiffel Tower, Paris Exposition, 1888 427
Court of Honor, Chicago Exposition, 1893 429
Women’s Building, Chicago Exposition, 1893 431
Agricultural Building, Atlanta Exposition, 1895 433
Machinery Hall, Atlanta Exposition, 1895 434
Women’s Building, Nashville Exposition, 1897 435
Art Building, Nashville Exposition, 1897 437
Grand Court, Omaha Exposition, 1898. Photograph by H. C. Hersey 439
National Export Exposition, Philadelphia, Sept. 14 to Nov. 30,
1899. Electro supplied by Commercial Museum. _Full page_ 441
Old United States Mint, Philadelphia 447
New United States Mint, Philadelphia. Courtesy of Philadelphia
Bourse Book. _Full page_ 451
Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia, First Site of First United States
Bank. _Full page_ 453
Girard Bank, Philadelphia, Second Site of First United States
Bank 455
Second United States Bank, Philadelphia, now Custom House 457
Bank of England, London 463
German Bank, Bremen 464
The Bourse, Paris. _Full page_ 464
New York Clearing House 468
Cocoanut Tree, Palm Beach, Fla. Photograph by author.
_Full page_ 473
Packing Apples for Export, St. Catherines, Ont. _Full page_ 477
Lady de Coverly Grapes, Maryville, Cal. Photograph by author.
_Full page_ 483
Orange Orchard, Sanford, Fla. Photograph by author 487
Olive Orchard, San José, Cal. Photograph by author 488
Pineapple Field, Palm Beach, Fla. Photograph by author 489
A Clipper Ship. Permission of Whittaker & Co. 493
Robert Fulton 494
The Clermont, Fulton’s First Steamboat 495
S. Cunard, Founder of First Ocean Packet Line. Courtesy of
Cunard S. S. Co. 497
The Oceanic, 1899—Largest Ship Afloat. Courtesy of White Star
Line. _Full page_ 499
Steamer Campania, of Cunard Line. Courtesy of Cunard S. S. Co.
_Full page_ 509
Cramps’ Shipyard on the Delaware. _Full page_ 512
Pestalozzi, of Yverdun 517
Froebel, Founder of Kindergartens 519
Dr. Thomas Arnold, Rugby, England 520
An Old Log Schoolhouse 521
Schoolhouse at Sleepy Hollow 524
Interior of Sleepy Hollow Schoolhouse 525
Child’s Guide. _Full page_ 527
Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University 531
William T. Harris 533
Ideal Schoolhouse and Grounds 534
Suggestions for planting a Schoolground 535
New High School, Philadelphia. _Full page_ 537
Dr. William H. Maxwell, Superintendent “Greater New York”
Schools 538
Booker T. Washington, Principal Tuskegee Institute 539
Dr. E. Benj. Andrews, Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, Ill. 541
Early Hand Printing Press 543
The Columbian Press 545
Washington Hand Press 546
Old Wooden Frame Adams Press 547
Double Cylinder Press 549
First Perfecting Press 551
Four-roller Two-Revolution Press 553
Lithographic Press 555
Numbering Card Press 557
Linotype (Type-setting) Machine—Front View 559
Octuple Stereotype Perfecting Press and Folder. _Full page_ 560
Outline of Type-setting Machine 561
Sinking, Drifting, and Stoping in Mining 573
Air Compressor 574
The “Sergeant” Rock Drill 575
Steam-Driven Air Compressor 576
Driving a Railway Tunnel. _Full page_ 577
Straight Line Air Compressor 578
Duplex Air Compressor 579
Electric Coal-Mining Machine. _Full page_ 581
Gold Dredging on Swan River, Colorado. _Full page_ 583
Power Plant at Jerome Park 585
The Holy Women at the Tomb 589
Christmas Chimes. (Blashfield.) _Full page_ 591
Whispers of Love. (Bouguereau.) _Full page_ 592
Greek Girls playing at Ball. (Leighton) 593
Landseer and his Favorites. (By himself.) _Full page_ 595
The Horse Fair. (Rosa Bonheur.) _Full page_ 597
At the Shrine of Venus. (Alma Tadema) 601
Napoleon I. (Canova) 603
Statue of Benjamin Franklin. (Boyle) 605
The Washington Monument, Fairmount Park 607
Photographic View of New York City 611
Surgical Operating Room, Howard Hospital, Philadelphia 617
Clinical Amphitheatre, Pennsylvania Hospital. _Full page_ 621
Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia. From its “History.”
_Full page_ 624
X-Ray Photograph of a Compound Fracture of Forearm 628
X-Ray Picture of a Dislocated Elbow. _Full page_ 629
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 637
Dr. Nathan Smith Davis, of Chicago. Courtesy of Dr. Davis 639
Starling Medical College and St. Francis Hospital, Columbus,
Ohio. Courtesy of Spahr & Glenn. _Full page_ 640
J. Marion Sims, A. B., M. D., New York. Courtesy of Wm. Wood
& Co. 641
The Old Stage Coach 644
First Train of Steam Cars 645
A Railway Train in Belgium 647
Loop in the Selkirks, showing Four Tracks. _Full page_ 649
Entrance to St. Gothard Tunnel, Switzerland 651
Railway Signals 652
An American Express Locomotive 653
An American Freight Locomotive 655
Exterior of Latest Sleeping Car 656
Interior of Pullman Sleeping Car 657
Railway Suspension Bridge, Niagara Falls. From American Society
of Civil Engineers. _Full page_ 659
Hagerman Pass on Colorado Midland R. R. 661
View near Verrugas, on line of Oroya Railway, Peru 663
Independence Hall and Square—Winter Scene 666
Hon. Melville Fuller, Chief Justice U. S. Supreme Court 669
State, War, and Navy Building, Washington, D. C. 673
Portia and Bassanio. Trial Scene from “Merchant of Venice.”
_Full page_ 675
Paying their Dues. _Full page_ 679
First Building and Loan Association Advertisement 681
Row of $1400 Houses 686
Plan of $1400 Houses 687
Building Association Banquet. _Full page_ 689
Abraham Lincoln 691
Jefferson Davis 692
William E. Gladstone 693
Thomas Jefferson 695
Otto E. L. Von Bismarck 697
William McKinley 698
Grant’s Tomb, Riverside Drive, New York City 699
Duke of Wellington 700
Count Von Moltke 701
General Giuseppe Garibaldi 703
Charles H. Spurgeon 705
William Wilberforce 706
Thomas B. Macaulay 707
Florence Nightingale 712
Clara Barton 713
Sir Walter Scott 715
Charles Dickens 716
Lord Byron 717
Queen Victoria 723
[Illustration: PUCK.]
WONDERS OF ELECTRICITY
BY JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.
I. AT THE DAWN OF THE CENTURY.
When, in his “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Shakespeare placed in the mouth
of Puck, prince of fairies, the playful speech,—
“I’ll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes,”
he had no thought that the undertaking of a boastful and prankish
sprite could ever be outdone by human agency. Could the immortal bard
have lived to witness the time when the girdling of the earth by means
of the electric current became easier and swifter than elfin promise or
possibility, he must have speedily remodeled his splendid comedy and
denied to the world its delightful, fairy-like features.
An old and charming story runs, that Aladdin, son of a widow of Bagdad,
became owner of a magic lamp, by means of whose remarkable powers he
could bring to his instant aid the services of an all-helpful genie.
When Aladdin wished for aid of any kind, he had but to rub the lamp. At
once the genie appeared to gratify his desires. By means of the lamp
Aladdin could hear the faintest whisper thousands of miles away. He
could annihilate both time and space, and in a twinkling could transfer
himself to the tops of the highest mountains. How the charm of this
ancient story is lost in the presence of that marvelous realism which
marks the achievements of modern electrical science!
The earliest known observations on that subtle mystery which pervades
all nature, that silent energy whose phenomena and possibilities are
limitless, and before which even the wisest must stand in awe, are
attributed to Thales, a scholar of Miletus, in Greece, some 600 years
B. C. On rubbing a piece of amber against his clothing, he observed
that it gained the strange property of at first attracting and then
repelling light objects brought near to it. His observations led to
nothing practical, and no historic mention of electrical phenomena is
found till the time of Theophrastus (B. C. 341), who wrote that amber,
when rubbed, attracted “straws, small sticks, and even thin pieces of
copper and iron.” Both Aristotle and Pliny speak of the electric eel as
having power to benumb animals with which it comes in contact.
Thus far these simple phenomena only had been mentioned. There was no
study of electric force, no recognition of it as such, or as we know
it and turn it to practical account to-day. This seems quite strange
when we consider the culture and power to investigate of the Egyptians,
Phœnicians, Greeks, and Romans. True, a few fairy-like stories of how
certain persons emitted sparks from their bodies, or were cured of
diseases by shocks from electric eels, are found scattered through
their literatures, but they failed to follow the way to electrical
science pointed out to them by Thales. Even in the Middle Ages, when a
few scientists and writers saw fit to speak of electrical phenomena as
observed by the ancients, and even ventured to speculate upon them in
their crude way, there were no practical additions made to the science,
and the ground laid as fallow as it had done since the creation.
[Illustration: OLD FRANKLIN ELECTRICAL MACHINE.
(By permission of Franklin Institute.)]
After a lapse of more than two thousand years from the experiment of
Thales, Dr. Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth (A. D. 1533–1603),
took up the study of amber and various other substances which, when
subjected to friction, acquired the property of first, attracting
and then repelling light bodies brought near them. He published his
observations in a little book called “De Magnete,” in the year A. D.
1600, and thus became the first author of a work upon electricity. In
this unique and initial work upon simple electrical effects, the author
added greatly to the number of substances that could be electrified by
friction, and succeeded in establishing the different degrees of force
with which they could be made to attract or repel light bodies brought
near them.
Fortunately for electrical science, and for that matter all sciences,
about this time the influence of Lord Bacon’s Inductive Philosophy
began to be felt by investigators and scientific men. Before that,
the causes of natural phenomena had not been backed up by repeated
experiments amounting to practical proofs, but had been accounted
for, if at all, by sheer guesses or whimsical reasons. Bacon’s method
introduced hard, cold, constant experiment as the only sure means of
finding out exactly the causes of natural phenomena; and not only this,
but the necessity of series upon series of experiments, each based
upon the results of the former, and so continuing, link by link, till,
from a comparison of the whole, some general principle or truth could
be drawn that applied to all. This _inductive_ method of scientific
research gave great impetus to the study of every branch of science,
and especially to the unfolding of infallible and practical laws
governing the phenomena of nature.
For very many years electrical experiments followed the lines laid
down by Dr. Gilbert; that is, the finding of substances that could be
excited or electrified by friction. By and by such substances came to
be called _electrics_, and it became a part of the crude electrical
science of the time to compute the force with which these electrics,
when excited, attracted or repelled other substances near them.
Among the ablest of these investigators were Robert Boyle, author of
“Experiments on the Origin of Electricity,” Sir Isaac Newton, Otto
von Guericke, and Francis Hawksbee, the last of whom communicated his
experiments to the English Royal Society in 1705. Otto von Guericke
used a hard roll of sulphur as an electric. He caused it to revolve
rapidly while he rubbed or excited it with his hand. Newton and
Hawksbee used a revolving glass globe in the same way, and thus became
the parents of the modern and better equipped electrical machine used
for school purposes.
The next step in electrical discovery, and one which marks an epoch in
the history of the science, was made by Stephen Gray, of England, in
1729. To him is due the credit of finding out that electricity from an
excited glass cylinder could be conducted away from it to objects at a
remote distance. Though he used only a packthread as a conductor, he
thus carried electricity to a distance of several hundred feet, and his
novel discovery opened up what, for the time, was a brilliant series
of experiments in England and throughout France and Germany. Out of
these experiments came the knowledge that some substances were natural
conductors of electricity, while others were non-conductors; and that
the non-conductors were the very substances—glass, resin, sulphur,
etc.—which were then in popular use as electrics. Here was laid the
foundation of those after-discoveries which led to the selection of
copper, iron, and other metals as the natural and therefore best
conductors of electricity, and glass, etc., as the best insulators or
non-conductors.
Up to this time an excited electric, such as a glass cylinder or
wheel, had furnished the only source whence electricity had been drawn
for purposes of experiment. But now another great step forward was
taken by the momentous discovery that electricity, as furnished by
the excited but quickly exhausted electric, could be bottled up, as
it were, and so accumulated and preserved in large quantities, to be
drawn upon when needed for experiment. It is not known who made this
important discovery; but by common consent the storage apparatus,
which was to play so conspicuous a part in after-investigations, was
named the _Leyden Jar_ or _Phial_, from the city of Leyden in Holland.
It consisted of a simple glass jar lined inside and out with tinfoil
to within an inch or two of the top, the tinfoil of the inside being
connected by a conductor passing up through the stopper of the jar
to a metallic knob on top. This jar could be charged or filled with
electricity from a common electric, and it had the power of retaining
the charge till the knob on top was touched by the knuckle, or some
unelectrified substance, when a spark ensued, and the jar was said to
be discharged. By conductors attached to the knob, guns were fired off
at a distance by means of the spark, and it is said that Dr. Benjamin
Franklin ignited a glass of brandy at the house of a friend by means
of a wire attached to a Leyden jar and stretched the full width of the
Schuylkill River at Philadelphia.
[Illustration: LEYDEN JAR.]
At this stage in the history of eighteenth century electricity there
enters a character whose experiments in electricity, and whose
writings upon the subject, not only brought him great renown at home
and abroad, but perhaps did more to systematize the science and turn
it to practical account than those of any contemporary. This was the
celebrated Dr. Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, Pa. He showed to the
world that electricity was not created by friction upon an electric,
but that it was merely gathered there, when friction was applied, from
surrounding nature; and in proof of his theory he invaded the clouds
with a kite during a thunder-storm, and brought down electricity
therefrom by means of the kite-string as a conductor. The key he hung
on the string became charged with the electric fluid, and on being
touched by an unelectrified body, emitted sparks and produced all the
effects commonly witnessed in the discharge of the Leyden jar.
Franklin further established the difference between positive and
negative electricity, and showed that the spark phenomenon on the
discharge of the Leyden jar was due to the fact that the inside tinfoil
was positively electrified and the outside tinfoil negatively. When
the inside tinfoil was suddenly drawn upon by a conductor, the spark
was simply the result of an effort upon the part of the two kinds
of electricity to maintain an equilibrium. By similar reasoning he
accounted for the phenomenon of lightning in the clouds, and by easy
steps invented the lightning-rod, as a means of breaking the force
of the descending bolt, and carrying the dangerous fluid safely to
the ground. Here we have not only a practical result growing out
of electrical experiments, but we witness the dawn of an era when
electricity was to be turned to profitable commercial account. The
lightning-rod man has been abroad in the world ever since the days of
Franklin.
Thus far, then, electrical science, if science it could yet be called,
had gotten on at the dawn of the nineteenth century. No electricity
was really known but that produced by friction upon glass, or some
other convenient electric. Hence it was called _frictional_ electricity
by some, and _static_ electricity by others, because it was regarded
as electricity in a state of rest. Though a thing fitted for curious
experiment, and a constant invitation to scientific research, it had
no use whatever in the arts. An excited electric could furnish but a
trivial and temporary supply of electricity. It exhausted itself in the
exhibition of a single spark.
II. THE NEW NINETEENTH CENTURY ELECTRICITY.
By a happy accident in 1790, Galvani, of Bologna, Italy, while
experimenting upon a frog, discovered that he could produce alternate
motion between its nerves and muscles through the agency of a fluid
generated by certain dissimilar metals when brought close together.
Though this mysterious fluid came to be known as the galvanic fluid,
and though galvanism was made to perpetuate his name, it was not until
1800 that Volta, another Italian, showed to the scientific world that
really a new electricity had been found.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA.
(From photo furnished by Institute.)]
Volta constructed what became known as the galvanic pile, but more
largely since as the voltaic pile, which he found would generate
electricity strongly and continuously. He used in its construction
the dissimilar metals silver and zinc, cut into disks, and piled
alternately one upon the other, but separated by pieces of cloth
moistened with salt water. This simple generator of electricity was the
forerunner of the more powerful batteries of the present day, and which
are still popularly known as voltaic cells or batteries.
But the importance of Volta’s discovery did not lay more in the
construction of his electrical generator than in the great scientific
fact that chemistry now became linked indissolubly with electricity
and electrical effects. The two novel and charming sciences, hitherto
separate, were henceforth to coöperate in those majestic revelations
and magnificent possibilities which so signally distinguish the
nineteenth century. By means of greatly improved voltaic cells or
batteries, that is, by jars containing acid in which were suspended
dissimilar metals, electricity could be produced readily and in
somewhat continuous current. By increasing the number of these cells
or jars or batteries, and connecting them with conductors, the current
could be made stronger and more effective. In contradistinction to the
old frictional or static electricity, the new became known as chemical
or current electricity.