The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1851-05-21

Discoveries during the last Half
Century.

1t IS related that one Of party Of
travellers, while standing on one ol the
mountains Of Switzerland, was so trans
ported with the beauties Of the scenery
spread before him. that in burst of en-
thusasm he declared I" he had never
seen the equal of such scenery, and he
was sure there was nothing like it in Eu-
rope. for he had travelled through every
country in it," A German at his side
said, " he had never seen its like with
but one exception" and he named a
certain mountain in the Highlands ol
Scotland. which he had visited a few
weeks before. The former gentleman
hung down his head, merely remarking
that, A" although he had been on that
mountain often. he never thought much
about il. That mountain was on his
own estate"
There are no common sayings which
contain more truth shan Familiarity be-
gets Indifference" "'tis distance lends
enchantment to the view" We live in
an age Of wonders, an | the last hall
century has witnessed succession OF
the most mighty events and the most
astounding discoveries which have ever
been made. at least during any other
such period of the worlds history, and
vet living as we do in the midst Of such
developments, with new leaves of the
book of invention still turning over, we
do not wonder-for it is just like human
nature, that the majority of mankind
are Gallons tn the merits and importance
Of the discoveries made in their own
day. even although they are renping un.
told benefits from them.
Let us look back to the beginning oI
this century, and see wha; mighty works
have been done by inventors since that
time. In 1900 there was not single
steamboat in the world. Our inland
seas and noble rivers were ly ing in grand
silent primevdl loneliness. except when
enlivened by the clumsy ba,teau, or the
rude fiat boat In 1907. Fulton launched
the Clermont, which made passage to
Albany in 80 hours. AT that time the
mode of travel was by schooners and
sloops, which were frequently six days
on the passage. The improvement was
certainly great; but what would Fulton
now say TO see steamboats, running the
same distance in eight hours-and some
of them large enough TO stow the Cler-
mont on their forward decks No
steamboat had broken the waters Of the
Mississippi previous 10 1915; the voy>
age from Cincinnati to New Orleans was
a tremendous undertaking, and occupied
more time than steamboat would now
take to circumnavigate the globe AT
present, il is calculated there are no less
than 5000 steamboats,, Of all sizes, in
America, and the time saved to travel
ers by the invention Of the steamboat
is at leas, 20 per cent; that is, person
can travel a greater distance in 80 days
now, by steamboat, than he could in 100
days in 1900. Jus, fancy Benjamin
Franklin beng almost wrecked in going
from New York TO Amboy, and the ves-
sci which he was in occupying 81 hours
on the passage-a distance which is ac>
complshed every day by our steamboats
in oue-and-a half hours-a grea, change,
truly
in Europe, steamboats, were unknown
until 1911, aud no sea was regularly
uavigated by steamboats, until 1918. The
progress Of marine navigation is re-
markabe. In 1888 no steamship had
venlured across the stormy Atlantic to
establish ocean navigation. Now we
have communication every week with
Europe by regular steam mails and ic
show the advantage Of steam over mere
sailing vessels, within few days from
the present date, some Of our finest sail
ing packets have come in after passage
of fifty days, while our steamships have
not been out more than sixteen Gays
} II the last half century mad given us nc
! other invention than the steamboat, tha
alone, considering its importance, is
enough to immorlalize it. If, in 1900
there was no steamship in the wide world
where is the country now where thel
are not seen, aud where they are not ex
> ercising a most important inference
l No country in the world on the Hud
sou, Mississippi, ON all our lakes, river
and seas, and on all the oceans of ih'
worlond that sea where the wafer
rolled up into walls 10 allow Moses AM
Hebrews lopass dry shod on tho an
cient Nile, where Cleopalra's gale
, spread its silken sails To the breeze OF
o the Ganges and Indus in the East, AM
. the Sacramento in the West, there ma
e he seen numerous monuments TO the in
yentor of the sleamboat-the STEAMSHIP
"rues the waves"
. The steamboat is not the only impor