If a piece of hard steel is used in place of soft iron, then we find that the atoms are not so easily disturbed, but when they are once brought into line with one another, they will remain in their new condition after the æther disturbance has been withdrawn. It may seem strange to you that quite a small percentage of carbon atoms added to the pure soft iron should cause such a marked difference, but the matter seems plain enough to us. Man was so impressed with the manner in which the atoms were evidently fixed in their new condition that he spoke of _permanent magnets_. It is especially fortunate for man that these pieces of steel do retain their magnetism, and give us a reliable mariner's compass. But I shall tell you how you may disturb even these sedate atoms. If you hammer the metal very vigorously, or if you heat it to redness, you will find that the atoms have been freed from what appeared to be their permanent position, and they are back to their old higgledy-piggledy condition, so that we electrons are all opposing one another. Remember we are hard at work all the time although we may be giving no outward sign of our activity. While we render an important aid to man by providing this permanent magnet for his compass, you will find that a very great deal of our assistance to man in his everyday life depends upon our behaviour in soft iron electro-magnets. It is in these that man can control our behaviour at will. It is through this simple piece of apparatus--the electro-magnet--that man has been able to accomplish so much in signalling to his friends at a distance. It is also by means of these electro-magnets that man can get us to turn an electric motor, and so on. But I must tell you, first of all, how we enable man to signal to a distance, or, in other words, how we carry man's news. CHAPTER IX HOW WE CARRY MAN'S NEWS _THE SCRIBE'S NOTE ON CHAPTER NINE_ The electron explains wherein its method differs from all other methods. It is well known that within recent years the old iron telegraph wires have been replaced by much lighter copper wires; the electron explains the reason for this change. It describes how the electrons manage to work the most widely used form of telegraph instrument, which is called the "Morse," after its inventor. Here we find one of the practical applications of the electro-magnet described in the preceding chapter. CHAPTER IX HOW WE CARRY MAN'S NEWS It is we electrons who have so very far outdistanced all material carriers of news. You must acknowledge that the best runner, the swiftest horse, the fastest express train, and the prize carrier pigeon, are all nowhere when compared with us electrons.