Anthem Chapter 3 Summary

  • Equality 7-2521 announces that he has discovered a new power of nature. He has done it, alone. No one else knows about it. (Technically he doesn't have the word "he" in his vocabulary, but we're helping him out a bit).
  • He first discovered this power when he cut open a dead frog a long time ago and saw its leg jerking even though it was dead. Then he noticed the frog had received this power from the copper wire on which it had been hanging.
  • Equality 7-2521 had then put together a piece of zinc and a piece of copper in a jar of brine, joined them with a wire, and discovered something miraculous.
  • Since then, Equality 7-2521 has been experimenting with this new power constantly. He now knows that it causes lightning, and that it moves the needle on his compass (which he stole from the House of the Scholars). He's also determined that the "globes" (um, light bulbs?) in the tunnel must have something to do with this new power.
  • Equality 7-2521 is astonished. Nobody is supposed to know more than the Scholars, but it seems like he does.