greatest dignitaries hobnob with youth. When a group of 
Oxford undergraduates heard that Rudyard Kipling received ten 
shillings for every word he wrote, they sent him ten shillings by 
telegram during their meeting: “Please send us one of your very 
best words.” Back came the word a few minutes later: 
“Thanks.”

     The hybrids of electricity and the older mechanics have 
been numerous. Some of them, such as the phonograph and 
the movie, are discussed elsewhere in this volume. Today the 
wedding of mechanical and electric technology draws to a 
close, with TV replacing the movie and Telstar threatening the 
wheel. A century ago the effect of the telegraph was to send 
the presses racing faster, just as the application of the electric 
spark was to make possible the internal-combustion engine 
with its instant precision. Pushed further, however, the electric