Public-domain ebook
Electricity
Language: en1,258 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: History - Other·Science - Physics
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #72062.
About this book
The work is a comprehensive survey of electrical science as it stood in the early twentieth century, written by William Henry McCormick and published in 1915. It opens with an extensive list of industrial sponsors and illustrators, underscoring the author’s reliance on contemporary companies and experts for diagrams and practical insight. The opening chapter, “The Birth of the Science of Electricity,” traces the subject from mythic thunder‑storms and the amber experiments of Thales through the systematic investigations of Dr. Gilbert, before moving on to detailed laboratory demonstrations of static charge, conductors, and insulators. The text proceeds chapter by chapter through topics such as generators, motors, telegraphy, wireless communication, medical applications, and even wartime uses, each accompanied by colour plates of real installations and apparatus.
McCormick’s voice is that of a technically informed educator of the Edwardian era, blending historical narrative with meticulous experimental description. The prose is formal yet accessible, peppered with classical references and precise terminology, reflecting the pedagogical style of early‑1900s scientific manuals. Readers who enjoy a methodical, historically grounded exposition of electricity, engineers, historians of technology, or anyone fascinated by the evolution of electrical engineering and its practical applications, will find this volume both informative and evocative of its time.
The opening · free to read
I am indebted to the following firms for much useful information regarding their various specialities:--
Chloride Electrical Storage Co. Ltd.; General Electric Co. Ltd.; Union Electric Co. Ltd.; Automatic Electric Co., Chicago; Westinghouse Cooper-Hewitt Co. Ltd.; Creed, Bille & Co. Ltd.; India Rubber, Gutta Percha, and Telegraph Works Co. Ltd.; W. Canning & Co.; C. H. F. Muller; Ozonair Ltd.; Universal Electric Supply Co., Manchester; and the Agricultural Electric Discharge Co. Ltd.
For illustrations my thanks are due to:--
Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd.; Chloride Electrical Storage Co. Ltd.; Harry W. Cox & Co. Ltd.; C. H. F. Muller; W. Canning & Co.; Union Electric Co. Ltd.; Creed, Bille & Co. Ltd.; Ozonair Ltd.; Kodak Ltd.; C. A. Parsons & Co.; Lancashire Dynamo and Motor Co. Ltd.; Dick, Kerr & Co. Ltd.; Siemens Brothers Dynamo Works Ltd.; Vickers Ltd.; and Craven Brothers Ltd.
Mr. Edward Maude and Mr. J. A. Robson have most kindly prepared for me a number of the diagrams, and I am indebted to Dr. Myer Coplans for particulars and a diagram of the heat-compensated salinometer.
I acknowledge also many important suggestions from Miss E. C. Dudgeon on Electro-Culture, and from Mr. R. Baxter and Mr. G. Clark on Telegraphy and Telephony.
Amongst the many books I have consulted I am indebted specially to Electricity in Modern Medicine, by Alfred C. Norman, M.D.; Growing Crops and Plants by Electricity, by Miss E. C. Dudgeon; and Wireless Telegraphy (Cambridge Manuals), by Prof. C. L. Fortescue. I have derived great assistance also from the Wireless World.
Finally, I have to thank Mr. Albert Innes, A.I.E.E., of Leeds, for a number of most valuable suggestions, and for his kindness in reading through the proofs.
W. H. McC.
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