Word: electrophorus
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...thousands of different types of fish, only five can produce electricity. Best known of these is the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), a brownish-grey, snake-like creature that is not an eel at all but belongs to the carp and catfish family. Especially abundant in the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers in South America, electric eels have six electricity-generating organs extending lengthwise through their tails, which make up four-fifths of the eel's body. If a man or animal touches an electric eel, he will be mildly shocked. But if he were brash enough to grab both...
...only animal which can produce electricity. No insect, no bird, no other mammal can, but five fishes are living dynamos. Of these the biggest and most potent is the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), a wormish monster which lives in the freshwater marshes of northern South America, grows over 8 ft. long and thick as a man's thigh, can send a shock through 28 ft. of water and stun the largest animal, including...
...volts. Local Indians long ago recognized the nature of the eel's shocking power, naming the creature puraque, derived from their word for lightning bolt. But civilized man, in the Age of Electricity, though he understands the source of the firefly's light does not know how Electrophorus becomes electric. Two years ago Christopher Coates, the New York Aquarium's inquisitive tropical fishman, slipped an electric eel into a hard-rubber trough with metallic contacts an inch apart, discovered that it could light a neon lamp. That stunt became the Aquarium's No. 1 attraction, with...
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