Electricity for Boys

Practical electricity for boys: cells, magnets, bells, motors, telegraph keys and a wireless set, with the theory attached to each thing as it is built. Zerbe wrote for a household in which a boy could get wire, zinc and a knife without asking permission. It is a period portrait of the moment when electricity was still something an amateur could take apart and understand. Thirty-eight plates from Menzel to Bierstadt trace the same century of discovery the boy's own experiments belong to, from sea messages to children at play.