Abstract :
IT is fitting that in Philadelphia we should celebrate the centenary of the great, discoveries in electromagnetism. It was here that Franklin´s investigations in electricity were made, culminating in the kite experiment. It was here that he and a few confreres founded the American Philosophical Society which became a national institution for the spread of that spirit of science and philosophy characteristic of Franklin. It was here not many years ago that under its auspices a very notable commemoration of the centenary of Franklin´s work was held. Not far from here in Princeton the pioneer work of Henry in electromagnetism, induction of currents, and oscillations was done nearly a century ago. Not far to the south from here the first Morse telegraph line was established in 1844. In Philadelphia, Robert Hare in the early years of last century did his work with voltaic batteries. Here Bell first exhibited his speaking telephone at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, calling such witnesses as Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) to hear it speak. Not far from here, in the Laboratory of Edison in Menlo Park, the incandescent lamp was born in 1879. Here again in commemoration of Franklin was established the Franklin Institute, the influence of which has been so marked a factor in science and the mechanic arts everywhere. Under its auspices the first investigation of the electrical properties of the dynamo was made in 1877, and the first Electrical Exhibition held in America in 1884, the Paris Exposition of 1881 being the only forerunner. It is a pleasure to note at this time the possibility of great and increasing lustre to its future in the electrical field has come by a large bequest from one whom the present speaker knew well in his old Philadelphia days, Mr. Henry Bartol. I am reminded that the first meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers was held at Philadelphia. And now, to speak very briefly of more intimate but infinitely less important matters,- may the speaker modestly add that here over fifty-five years ago he built his first electrical machine, voltaic piles, batteries, electromagnets and telegraph, acquiring through them in his early years an insight into the science of electricity as it then existed. It was here that he taught science for ten years in the old Central High School at Broad & Green streets and that during this period in 1875 there was made, incidentally, the first wireless transmission, using induction coil, spark gap, ground and radiating conductor, briefly described in the Franklin Institute Journal of the time, and recently related more in detail by Professor M. B. Snyder of the school. It was here in Philadelphia that the speaker did his first electrical engineering, and definitely chose that professional career which has kept him alive and busy ever since.
