Excerpt from Historical Sketch of the Electric Telegraph: Including Its Rise and Progress in the United States
Electricity is the poetry of science; no romance - no tales of fiction excel in wonder its history and achievements. Viewed in its terrible atmospheric manifestations, no element would seem less likely to be brought under the control of man, and, in feebler currents, made to do his bidding, than it: yet, such is the result.
We find it, in one instance, like a skilful chemist, elaborately analyzing bodies supposed to be simple alkalies, and showing them to be compounds of metals and oxygen. Again, we find it at work in attempts to manufacture diamonds. Anon, it turns physician, and endeavors not only to heal the sick, but to bring the dead to life. In another case, we find it employed in the plastic art, and, like an expert operator, making beautiful and delicate copies of works of sculpture, and engraving in masses of solid metal. Again, we find it working in the sun's rays, and on the surface of Daguerreotype plates, delineating the human features. It is, again, engaged in dissolving gold and silver, and applying them to the gilding and plating of other metals.
We find it, at another time, employed in blasting rocks from the mountain side, or in removing them from the channels of rivers and harbors.
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