An international system of electro-therapeutics : for students, general practitioners, and specialists . A-204 BLEYER. extend over jvU European civilization when tlie two Italian philosopherswere marshaling their disciples in a vigorous intellectual combat. Yoltawas victorious, and his peaceful triumphs will outweigh a thousandfold,in its beneficial consequences, the disastrous successes of Napoleon. In the year 1800, a memorable epoch in the history of electricity,Yolta announced to the world, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, his in-vention of a wonderful machine. It was composed of alternate
An international system of electro-therapeutics : for students, general practitioners, and specialists . A-204 BLEYER. extend over jvU European civilization when tlie two Italian philosopherswere marshaling their disciples in a vigorous intellectual combat. Yoltawas victorious, and his peaceful triumphs will outweigh a thousandfold,in its beneficial consequences, the disastrous successes of Napoleon. In the year 1800, a memorable epoch in the history of electricity,Yolta announced to the world, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, his in-vention of a wonderful machine. It was composed of alternate sheetsor la3^ers of zinc and copper, separated from each other by discs of wetcloth. Two streams of electricity, one negative and the other positive,were found to flow from either pole of the instrument, and its intensitycould be increased apparently- without limit bj enlarging the number oflayers. He had invented a voltaic pile. Its form was afterward changedby substituting cups of zinc instead of layers, and Yolta formed a beau-tiful apparatus called La Couronne de Tasses, the model of all those. Fig. 10.—Couronne de Tasses. powerful instruments by which the electric current is dispatched on itsuseful mission from New York to San Francisco, or taught to fathomthe once impassable Atlantic. The wonderful vigor of the new agentbecame at once apparent. Tlie sharp sparks of Franklins electricalmachine, and even the condensed shock of the Leyden jar, so long theterror of philosophers, were found to be faint and inefficient comparedwith the mighty electric current that flowed with silent strength fromone wire to tlie other of the voltaic pile. Its effect on the human framerevived Galvanis notion of the principle of life. When the hands of theoperator were applied to the opposite poles, instead of a sudden shock hefound himself held in the grasp of an invisible power. A series of strongconvulsions ran through his arms and shoulders. Scarcely could hewithdraw his hands and free him
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectuterus, bookyear1894
