All these and many others are examples of electricity at work, for today we live in a world of electrical marvels. All around us are gadgets and appliances that work by electricity. All we do is flick a switch, and there it is-power to serve us. Electricity warms us in winter and cools us in summer. Electricity cooks our food and washes our clothes. Electricity provides light to chase away the gloom of night. Electricity gives us movies and television to entertain in leisure hours. Electricity turns the giant wheels of factories and mills. There is almost no end to what this obedient and faithful servant can do for man.
One can imagine what would happen if suddenly all electric power were to go off. This actually happens. Most of the things we do day in and day out come to a stop. And life was very much like that in the days of the late 19th century, the days before electricity. Light was provided by candles and oil lamps. Transportation was slow, for it depended upon horses to move carriages or coaches, and the wind to move ships. Letters crossed the oceans in sailing ships and moved overland no faster than a horse could run. News was days, weeks and sometimes months old when it arrived. Food was cooled with ice and cooked with fires of coal or wood. Cloth was woven by hand; were made by hand and washed by hand. Radio, television, movies were unheard of.
And then came electricity; its beginnings were very simple, but in time it grew like a snowball that rolls down a hill and grows larger and larger. First a discovery was made. Then certain facts were noted, and finally an idea was formed. With the first discovery serving as inspiration, another discovery was made. As man learned more and more about the strange and wonderful force called electricity, new developments came more rapidly. The more men understood, the more they advanced and the more ways they learned about how to put electricity to work. Electricity is one of those wonderful gifts of nature that has been with us for a long, long while, in fact ever since the beginning of time.