The above is the substance of what I have more than once related to
other persons. I hope you will persist in your design of putting on
paper your own very interesting recollections in this connection, and
if what I have contributed of mine is of service to you, I shall be
much pleased.
Most truly yours,
JOHN H.B. LATROBE.
March 3, 1881.
* * * * *
THE KRAVOGL ELECTRIC MOTOR.
At the origin of every science, of whatever nature it may be, there is
always a fruitless period, of greater or less length, characterized by
the warfare of a few superior minds against general apathy. The finest
discoveries pass unperceived, so to speak, since they cannot cross the
limits of a narrow circle; and it often happens that they fall into
oblivion before they have been seriously judged. Meanwhile, a slow
progress is imperceptibly made, and, in measure as theoretical
principles more clearly disengage themselves, a few industrial
applications spring up and have the effect of awakening curiosity. An
impulse is thus given, and from this moment a movement in advance goes
on increasing at a headlong pace from day to day.
With electricity this period has been of comparatively short duration,
since scarcely a century and a half separate us from the first
experiments made in this line of research.
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