[Illustration: THE FIRST SELF EXCITING DYNAMO. Made by Mr. S. A. Varley in 1866. The principle of the dynamo was discovered also, and almost simultaneously, by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Dr. Werner Siemens.] [Illustration: _D. Maclise, R.A._} {_From the original sketch in the Dyce and Forster Collection, South Kensington._ MICHAEL FARADAY, 1791-1867. Son of a blacksmith, and apprenticed to a bookseller, he developed a passion for science which ultimately led to most important discoveries in electricity and magnetism. The sketch represents him lecturing as Fullerian professor at the Royal Institution.] [Sidenote: Victorian Architecture.] In one respect the reign of Queen Victoria offers a strange and rather melancholy contrast to all that have preceded it, inasmuch as it is the first during which the architects of this country have been totally destitute of any peculiar style of building. Never were builders more ingenious or more skilful, never was there such vast expenditure in the erection of private or public buildings, but never before were architects so completely reliant on the past for design. Is it proposed to build a church, a public institution, or a dwelling-house? If you have the money you shall have one as well built as human hands can accomplish. But you must name your style--Greek, Palladian, Norman, Early English, Tudor, Jacobean, or Georgian--your architect will carry out a masterpiece in any one of them; but if you say Victorian, or the style of the day, he will give you François Ier to-day, Queen Anne to-morrow, and Pericles the day after. Buildings grow apace, and they are soundly and tastefully constructed, but British architecture is dead. The same may be said of design in general. People of taste look with horror upon the fashions of the early years of the reign; the heavy mahogany furniture, the flowered wall-papers, the tapestry, the plate, the ornaments, are all condemned as barbarous; and the mode consists of Chippendale and Sheraton furniture and so-called "art" fabrics and papers. But how little this depends on more than fleeting fancy may be seen when it is considered how the taste has changed within a few years in the matter of table-glass. Ten years ago nothing would please but blown glass of the thinnest; Mr. Ruskin convinced us that the two qualities of glass which should be emphasised in the design were transparency and ductility. But we have thrown that doctrine to the winds now, and a visit to one of the leading warehouses will show how completely we have reverted to the brilliant, many-facetted bottles and glasses of fifty years ago. [Illustration: _From a Photograph_} {_By Eyre & Spottiswoode._ ELECTRIC LIGHTING STATION, DAVIES STREET, WESTMINSTER.] [Sidenote: Universal Education.]