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Electricity for Boys
Electricity for Boys
Electricity for Boys
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Electricity for Boys

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Release dateNov 26, 2013
Electricity for Boys

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    Book preview

    Electricity for Boys - James Slough Zerbe

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Electricity for Boys, by J. S. Zerbe

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: Electricity for Boys

    Author: J. S. Zerbe

    Release Date: September 25, 2007 [EBook #22766]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELECTRICITY FOR BOYS ***

    Produced by Joe Longo and the Online Distributed

    Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

    WARNING: This book of one hundred years ago describes

    experiments which are too dangerous to attempt by either

    adults or children. It is published for historical

    interest only.

    The How-to-do-it Books


    ELECTRICITY FOR BOYS

    Fig. 1. WORK BENCH

    Copyright, 1914, by

    THE NEW YORK BOOK COMPANY


    CONTENTS


    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


    INTRODUCTORY

    Electricity, like every science, presents two phases to the student, one belonging to a theoretical knowledge, and the other which pertains to the practical application of that knowledge. The boy is directly interested in the practical use which he can make of this wonderful phenomenon in nature.

    It is, in reality, the most successful avenue by which he may obtain the theory, for he learns the abstract more readily from concrete examples.

    It is an art in which shop practice is a greater educator than can be possible with books. Boys are not, generally, inclined to speculate or theorize on phenomena apart from the work itself; but once put them into contact with the mechanism itself, let them become a living part of it, and they will commence to reason and think for themselves.

    It would be a dry, dull and uninteresting thing to tell a boy that electricity can be generated by riveting together two pieces of dissimilar metals, and applying heat to the juncture. But put into his hands the metals, and set him to perform the actual work of riveting the metals together, then wiring up the ends of the metals, heating them, and, with a galvanometer, watching for results, it will at once make him see something in the experiment which never occurred when the abstract theory was propounded.

    He will inquire first what metals should be used to get the best results, and finally, he will speculate as to the reasons for the phenomena. When he learns that all metals are positive-negative or negative-positive to each other, he has grasped a new idea in the realm of knowledge, which he unconsciously traces back still further, only to learn that he has entered a field which relates to the constitution of matter itself. As he follows the subject through its various channels he will learn that there is a common source of all things; a manifestation common to all matter, and that all substances in nature are linked together in a most wonderful way.

    An impulse must be given to a boy's training. The time is past for the rule-and-rote method. The rule can be learned better by a manual application than by committing a sentence to

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