The Story of Electricity

John Munro (1849 - 1930)

In the book's preface, the author writes: "Let anyone stop to consider how he individually would be affected if all electrical service were suddenly to cease, and he cannot fail to appreciate the claims of electricity to attentive study."

In these days when we take for granted all kinds of technology - communications, entertainment, medical, military, industrial and domestic - it is interesting to learn what progress had been made in the fields of electricity and technology by the beginning of the 20th century.

Including the dawn of hydro-electric power, the x-ray, the phonograph, the telephone and the wireless telegraph, this book explains the pioneering work of the men who made our modern world possible, and sets us wondering what the next century may bring - providing that we do not manage to destroy our planet in the meantime.

The Gutenberg text of the 1915 edition (as recorded) does not have the benefit of the book's many diagrams. Also available, however, is an online book scan of the 1912 edition which includes the illustrations and coincides largely with the text recorded. (Summary by Ruth Golding)

Genre(s): *Non-fiction, History, Science

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 01 - Preface; Chapter I: The Electricity of Friction Ruth Golding
00:34:04
Play 02 02 - Chapter II: The Electricity of Chemistry Ruth Golding
00:25:17
Play 03 03 - Chapter III: The Electricity of Heat Ruth Golding
00:08:12
Play 04 04 - Chapter IV: The Electricity of Magnetism Ruth Golding
00:46:55
Play 05 05 - Chapter V: Electrolysis Ruth Golding
00:14:20
Play 06 06 - Chapter VI: The Telegraph and Telephone Ruth Golding
00:52:36
Play 07 07 - Chapter VII: Electric Light and Heat Ruth Golding
00:21:42
Play 08 08 - Chapter VIII: Electric Power Ruth Golding
00:33:40
Play 09 09 - Chapter IX: Minor Uses of Electricity Ruth Golding
00:49:42
Play 10 10 - Chapter X: The Wireless Telegraph Ruth Golding
00:27:57
Play 11 11 - Chapter XI: Electro-Chemistry and Electro-Metallurgy Ruth Golding
00:31:35
Play 12 12 - Chapter XII: Electric Trains Ruth Golding
00:23:22
Play 13 13 - Appendix Ruth Golding
00:18:15