to investigate the properties of electricity, yet, up to within a few years ago, its great power was practically unknown ; and it could be considered as scarcely more than a thing of interest, confined entirely to the college laboratory. Within the last half century electrical science has developed with wonderful rapidity; . and it is with the development of this short period that the electrical engineer of to-day has to deal, Electricity has now found an .application in almost every field where energy in any of its various forms is required. Yet with all this, can we say that electricity has been pushed to its maximum limit and is not susceptible of further development ? I an swer emphatically, no. Electricity is but in its infancy, and the work of the electrical engineer is a field of constant expansion. Much work has been clone, far more remains to be done. It is required of the electrical engineer that he unite with a knowledge of mechanics and general technology the qualities of patience and tenacity of purpose. The field of opera tion is wide, including telegraphy, arc and incandescent lighting, motive-power transmis sion, electrical rail roads, besides a host of other operations in which electricity plays a chief part and now affords scope for the ac tivities of the electrical engineer. Who is to say where the growth and development of electricity will stop ? Shall not the great water-power be turned to account to propel our railway trains, to drive our machine shops and to effect our chemical operations ? Will we ever store up power in substances of high chemical affinities which power may be re covered at any time hereafter for the uses to E IIANCE. THE FRE which electricity is now applied ? Shall we ever be able to communicate by electricity, while on the Atlantic, with our friends and loved ones on shore ? Shall we ever dare to hope that electricity will be taken directly from solar radiation ? Some of the best scientists of the age believe that these things and 'more, lie in the path which the electrical engineer of to-day has scarcely begun to tread. We have at last laid hold of the properties of the universal ether and its universal char acter will no doubt be exemplified in such work as we are considering. We can cer tainly set no limit to achievement in this new field of electrical engineering ; and in my opinion many of the seeming impossibilities will become actual realities within our own life time. An American lady once carne to Ostend, Where she asked a stout porter assistance to lend; But the fellow stood mute, as if fixed to the spot, And showed by his face that he understood not. At first she addressed him in plain parlez-vows, For she thought it quite certain that everyone knew, The language of Fance in the old Flemish towns,— From ladies and lords down to beggars and clowns. But he shook his big head. So she tried him again In German—ltalian—and Spanish—in vain; And being well versed in the various tongues, She Portugese talked at the top of her lungs. When of all spoken tongues she'd exhausted her store, Except the one known on her own native shore, At last in dispair, in a voice faint and small, Quoth she, " Do you know, sir, the English at all ?" • With light and with laughter his visage was spread; lie seemed like one suddenly raised from the dead: " Know English I—speak English I—wal, yes, pooty plain 1 For was'nt I born in old Saccarap,' Maine ? " H. D. L. PARLEZ-VOUS ? E. r. D.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers