THE EVOLUTION OF THE DYNAMO.

BY PROFESSOR JOSEPH P. NAYLOR, A.M.

It is difficult to estimate the influence in modifying and shaping the nineteenth century civilization that has resulted from the discovery of the dynamo and the production of heavy currents of electricity.  That it has had great influence is evident without question.  The arc light for out-of-doors lighting and the incandescent lamp for inside has modified all our previous ideas of illumination.  Effects in light are now produced daily that were beyond imagination twenty years since.  The trolley and the electromoter have largely solved the problem of rapid transit through our crowded cities.  Thus larger business facilities, suburban homes and cheaper living, cleanliness and better sanitary conditions are electrical results.

The transmission of energy by the electric current from a central plant makes possible many small industries that could not exist without it, and gives employment and happiness to hundreds.  The art of Electro-metallurgy seems but the development of months:  yet it already employs millions of capital and is adding thousands daily to the world’s wealth.  Steam and wind and tide contribute to the work.  Even Niagara is being touched by the spirit of the time and sends her wasting energy thrilling through the electric wires to turn the wheels of many busy factories.  It is perhaps not the least remarkable fact in connection with this work that it is largely the product of the last thirty years, and that it had its very beginning less than seventy years since.  Edison and Thompson and Brush are honorable household names; yet they are still living to produce even greater electric marvels.  In fact, so rapid and brilliant has been the development that in the brilliancy some of the pioneers in the work have been almost forgotten, except by the specialist and the student, and it is no small part of this sketch to do them honor.  The tiny spark of Faraday may be lost in the brilliancy of the million-candle-power search-light, yet the brilliancy of the search-light but enhances the wonder of the discovery of the spark.

The discovery of electro-magnetic induction marked the beginning of a new era; for in it lay all the possibilities of the future of electrical science.  Michael Faraday, the third son of a poor English blacksmith, was born at Newington, Surrey, England, September 3, 1791.  His father’s health was never the best, and due to the resulting straitened circumstances his early education consisted of the merest rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic.  His early life was, no doubt, largely spent in the street; but at thirteen he became errand boy to a book-seller of London.  About a year later he was apprenticed to a book binder, with whom he served seven years, learning the trade.