Excerpt from Ignition

Before entering upon the study of electric ignition, it will be well to mention a few facts concerning electricity itself. What is this wonderful agent which can be sent through a small wire many miles long, then made to run our heaviest machinery or to do almost anything from carrying the delicate vibrations of the human voice from one city to another, to the more difficult task of rendering visible to the physician the broken bones of his patient, and last, but by no means least, to enter the cylinders of our engines and ignite the charge at the proper instant? To this, science as yet has no definite answer. However, enough is known regarding its action to enable it to be handled with at least some degree of certainty.

There are two principal forms of electricity: Electricity at rest, known as "Static Electricity" and electricity in motion, or "Current Electricity." Matter may be divided into two classes with respect to electricity - insulators through which it cannot pass, and, therefore, must remain where it is placed, and conductors through which it can pass or flow.

Static electricity can be produced by friction; for instance, by rubbing some good insulator, such as a glass or hard rubber rod, with a piece of dry silk or woolen cloth. Its presence on the rod can be shown by the latter's power of attracting small bits of paper, wood, etc.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Ignition (Classic Reprint) (Carl A. Pfanstiehl)