little finer. Men were weighing zephyrs and measuring the infinitesimal, and needed tools of increasing delicacy. Wire was the answer.

DREDGING

Electricity, so long hidden from understanding, was led captive by a wire, not by a chain—and with its development wire has found a new and increasingly important role. The ductility of metals was at last being tested to the full. Seven one-thousandths, three one-thousandths, one one-thousandth—one record after another was passed. At last, by way of curiosity, a wire was drawn that measured one four-thousandth of an inch in diameter—twelve times finer than the hair on your head. The spider, so long counted a master workman, had been undone.

The wire age was arriving—big wires to carry the world’s heavy loads; fine wire to solve its molecular problems. The day of the hammer was done.