After this came the more rational conception that our own earth
is a great magnet, and that the little magnet in the compass
simply obeys in pointing, the greater force of the earth magnet.
----

This editorial generalizing on the magnet is brought about by an
incident telegraphed from Vallejo, California. John Gettegg,
apprentice in the Navy Yard, had imbedded in his cheek a flying
piece of steel. To get it out would apparently have demanded a
painful and difficult surgical operation, as the piece of steel
had entered the bone. But the head electrician, Petrio, simply
placed near the wounded boy's face an electro-magnet capable of
lifting five hundred pounds, and the sharp piece of steel
instantly flew out of the cheek and attached itself to the
magnet.

So much for one proof of the value of developing what may seem at
first to be a foolish set of experiments.

In thousands of ways to-day this magnetic power is utilized.

You can buy strawberries in baskets very cheap, partly because
the baskets cost very little for labor. The man who tacks them
together uses a magnetized tack hammer. This magnetic tack
hammer picks up the tacks of its own accord, and the man drives
them in the basket as fast as he can touch the magnet to the
heads of the tacks and strike the basket.

In the great steel works where armor plate is made powerful
magnets are used to carry the hot plates from one place to