A fair understanding of present-day elec tricity, but who finds the statements of the text books and manuals more detailed than he needs and a bit too dry to hold his interest. By considering the main events in the development of electrical applications it seemed possible to preserve some of the romance of the work of the pioneers, past and present, and at the same time to give clear con ceptions of the fundamentals. This has been at tempted in the following pages; and if the work serves to lighten the mystery of electricity for a few, or to show the charm and adventure which still await those who choose electrical work as their vocation, it will, perhaps, have justified publication.