It is now
known to us as benzine, which is so largely employed in the industrial
arts. Treated by nitric acid, that has produced a substance largely used
by the perfumer and the confectioner. From that came the wonderful base
aniline, which was not only useful in the study of chemistry, as
throwing light on the internal structure of organic compounds, but has
come also into commerce, creating a great branch of industry, by giving
strong and high colors which can be fixed on cotton, woolen, and silken
fabrics. It may be worth while to notice what gratifying beauty was
provided for the eye, while profitable work was afforded to the
industrious.

It is not to be forgotten that, whatever we have of magneto-electric
light, in all its various applications, is due to Faraday's discoveries.

Faraday's distinguished successor, Professor Tyndall, in his admirable
and generous tribute to his famous predecessor, says: "As far as
electricity has been applied _for medical purposes_, it is almost
exclusively Faraday's." How much of addition to human comfort that one
sentence includes, who can estimate? And who can calculate the
money-value to commerce in the production of instruments used in the
application of electricity to medicine? Professor Tyndall continues:
"You have noticed those lines of wire which cross the streets of London.
It is Faraday's currents that speed from place to place through these
wires. Approaching the point of Dungeness, the mariner sees an unusually
brilliant light, and from the noble Pharos of La Heve the same light
flashes across the sea. These are Faraday's sparks, exalted by suitable
machinery to sunlight splendor. At the present moment (1868), the Board
of Trade and the Brethren of the Trinity House, as well as the
Commissioners of Northern Lights, are contemplating the introduction of
the magneto-electric light at numerous points upon our coast; and future
generations will be able to point to those guiding stars in answer to
the question, what has been the practical use of the labors of Faraday?"

SIEMENS

One of the most useful of modern men was Sir William Siemens, who was
born in 1823 and died in 1883. The year before his death he was
president of the British Association, and was introduced by his
predecessor, Sir J. Lubbock, with the statement that "the leading idea
of Dr. Siemens's life had been to economize and utilize the force of
Nature for the benefit of man." It is not our purpose to g