The Rational Optimist (P.S.)

by Matt Ridley

at the Vienna exhibition of 1873. There is a stand exhibiting the work of the splendidly named semi-literate Belgian inventor Zénobe Théophile Gramme, and it is manned by his business partner, the equally euphonious French engineer Hippolyte Fontaine. They are showing off the Gramme dynamo, the first electricity generator that can produce a smooth current, and a steady light, when set spinning by hand or by a steam engine. Over the next five years, their dynamos will power hundreds of new industrial lighting installations all over Paris. In the Vienna exhibition, one of the workmen makes a careless mistake. He connects the wires from the spinning dynamo accidentally to the spare dynamo that is there to provide a backup in case the first one fails. The reserve dynamo immediately begins to spin all by itself, in effect it becomes a motor. Fontaine’s mind starts spinning too. He calls for the longest wire that can be found and connects the two dynamos by a wire that is 250 metres long. The reserve dynamo springs to life as soon as it is connected. Suddenly it became clear that electricity can transmit power over a distance far greater than belts, chains or cogs could.