The Student's Text-Book of Electricity [ILLUSTRATED]

In the following pages it has been my endeavor to present a faithful reflex of the present state of Electrical Science. The work being specially intended for the use of students, much condensation was necessary in order to bring it within the limits of a moderate-sized volume. It will, nevertheless, I hope, be found to include the latest important discoveries, and the chief practical applications of the science. In carrying out the design of the book, I have availed myself freely both of the matter (in a condensed form) and of the illustrations of my ' Manual of Electricity ;' but the present volume will be found to contain much additional and important information, which has become available since the publication of that work. In the composition of the chapters on Electric Telegraphy, I desire to acknowledge, with thanks, the assistance which I have received from the valuable ' Cantor Lectures,' delivered at the Society of Arts by that eminent electrical engineer Mr. Fleeming Jenkin, F.E..S. I am indebted to the same gentleman for the elaborate description of that beautiful electrical instrument invented by Professor William Thomson, F.R.S., viz. his

Portable Electrometer. The report of the joint committee ' On the Construction of Submarine Telegraph Cables' has supplied me with much information, that part detailing the investigations of Mr. Latimer Clark having been especially valuable. My thanks are also due to my friend Mr. Gassiot, F.R.S., who, with his well-known courtesy and kindness, has allowed me access to his Electrical Laboratory, and has given me an opportunity of witnessing there those marvelous phenomena connected with electrical discharge through different vacua, to the development of which he has devoted so many years of laborious research. It is almost needless to say that throughout the whole work Faraday's ' Experimental Researches' have been constantly consulted.