The Library of Work and Play: Electricity and Its Everyday UsesWoodhull, John F. (John Francis)
Science
The Library of Work and Play: Electricity and Its Everyday Uses
Woodhull, John F. (John Francis)
Electricity -- Juvenile literature
Harold was to have a birthday party, to which many of his school
friends were invited. For this occasion he prepared, with my help,
to perform for the girls and boys some electrical experiments, and
particularly to give all who chose to try it an electric shock. For
this purpose he had them all join hands, and the electric charge was
sent through the whole line at once. One thing he did shocked his
mother more than anything else. He instituted a mock court, at which
one of the boys was tried, convicted and condemned to be executed by
electricity. The whole affair was enacted with no great solemnity, but
the electrical experiment was voted a great success by the executed
"criminal." The following group of experiments, however, seemed to give
the most satisfaction: On a table was placed the coherer connected to
the relay, and in another room was placed the spark coil for sending
ether waves. He had this operated by a confederate whom he chose for
the purpose. He then connected two wires to the relay, one at _d_ and
the other at _e_ (Fig. 189). These ran to a battery cell and a bell in
a far corner of the room. At a given signal (a cough) the confederate
made a spark at the spark coil in the other room; this sent ether
waves through the partition between the rooms; the ether waves caused
the coherer to pass electricity from the dry cell No. 1, to close the
relay spring _R_. This acted like a switch to close the second circuit
through the dry cell No. 2 and the bell, which rang out to the surprise
of all. It continued to ring until he tapped the coherer tube and broke
apart the filings. When this had been tried to the satisfaction of all,
the company was invited to another room. Here they found an electric
train with tracks, train sheds, stations, tunnels, bridges, switches,
signals, etc., arranged upon a centre table. The electric train was to
be started by ether waves. A wire from the railroad track was connected
with _e_ of the relay (See Fig. 190). A wire from _d_ of the relay was
connected to the third rail through a battery of sufficient strength
(Battery 2). The electric train completed the circuit by connecting
the tracks with the third rail. All heard the crack of the spark coil
in the adjoining room, and saw the train start immediately. Ether
waves had caused battery 1 to close the relay _R_. This had closed the
circuit so that battery 2 might run the train, of course by means of a
motor in the train. He tapped the coherer. The relay spring _R_ flew
open and the train stopped. Presently another crack from the adjoining
room, and the train instantly started again. When all the details of
the electric train had been examined the company was invited to go to
the dining room, which was dimly lighted by candles. All were seated
and busily conversing when the crackling noise of the spark coil was
again heard, and a group of little electric lights flashed forth upon a
birthday cake. The wires from the lamps and a battery to run them had
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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