Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1874-11-05
The Acquisitions of Science.
From the New York Herald

when we might communicate instant
" with San Francisco without wires
or operator. The audience laughed
at him. Perhaps this statement is
not as eXtravagant as it seems. Had
the ordinary work now done by the
magnetic telegraph been predicted
forty years ago. it would have been
received with the same incredulitv.
The truth is that science, like politics
and love, always develops in unex-
pected directions. No sooner are
men fixed in their scientific opinions
than some startling discovery reveals
their ignorance and shows the world
that all things are possible under the
sun. Ever since the invention of the
use of steam men have agreed that
only hot vapor had the greatest pow
er; hut quite recently q Philadelphia
machinist exhibited an iron globe,
no larger than gallon jug, full of
cold vapor, showing pressure of
10000 pounds to the square inch,
and neither time nor temperature
could diminish its tremendous pow
er. The discovery is said to have
been accidental. The inventor was
experimenting with an engine run by
compressed air and a vacuum, when |
to his profound astonishment he
stumbled on the cold vapor secret;
and it was some time before he could !
make Il guage strong enough to test
its power Until then he had not
imagined such discovery possible. !
Nature seems to cOquct with the
inquiring intellect of man until he is
sure of some great secret, when she
confOunds him with disappointment;
but in his less inquisitive moments |
she reveals what he never dreamed !
of. Modern science is paradox. |
Water. which was always considered |
the most incombustible matter in ma
ture, produces the greatest. heat
known. Watch springs burn like
pitch. The chemist prepares delicate
muslin so that it can he cleansed with
fire. Arsenic is prescribed for dan
gerouS diseases. Frozen feet are
saved by plunging them into snow.
Children are told to keep away from
iron during a thunderstorm, yet hard
ware stores are never struck by light
ming. Parsons suffering with hydro
phobia go into commissions at the
sight of water. A French physician,
however, has cured fifty cases of this
awful malada with hot baths. An
editor of New York newspaper lost
his sight until surgeon put knife
into his eyehalls, whereupon the man
recovered and went about his work.
The widest imagination is unable
to predict the discoveries of the fu-
ture. For all we know families in the
next century may pump fuel from the
river, and illuminate their houses ::
with ice and electricity. Iron YES
sells, properly magnetized, may sail
the air like balloons, and n .
trip to the Rocky Mountains may be
made in an hour. Perhaps within
fifty years American grain may be
shot into Liverpool and Calcutta
through iron pipes laid under the
sea. BY means of condensed air and
.Old vapOr engines excursion parties
nay travel along the floor of the
ocean, sailing past ancient wrecks =
md mountains of coral. On land the =
intelligent farmer may turn the soil h
If 1000 acres in day, while hi8sOn .
.uts wood with platinum wire, and q !.
shells corn by electricity. The mat :.
er now contained in a New York ..
laily may he produced 10000 times h
IL minute, on little scraps of paste !,
BOARD, by improved photography; +
md boys may sell the news of the 4
world printed on visiting cards, which =
heir customers will read through ar ;,
iticial eyes. Five hundred years /
renee a musician may play piano in h
lew York connected with instru- =
nents in San Francisco, Chicago, 9
New Orleans and other :,
tiles, and when fashionable audi /
noes in San Francisco 90 to hear .
ONE renowned singer, she will be ;.
reforming in New York or Philadel !.
,hia. j.,
In 1900 man may put on his in .
lated coat, with pair of steel wings =
to his arms, and go to New y ;,
Lrk and back in an hour. All the I
,reat battles will he fought in the air.
Patent thunderbOlts will be used in $
tead of cannon. A boy in HobOken i.
will 90 to Canada in the family air n
arriagesto see his sweetheart, and j,
he next day his father will chasten h
i'm with a magnetic rebuker be- h
ause he did not return before mid "
light. The time is coming when the y
TeroH will send reporter to see II
nan reduce one of the Rocky Noun q
aims to powder in half a day.
killful miners will extract gold from
uartz as easily as cider is squeezed Al
rom apples. A compound telescope O.
Till be invented on entirely new e,
so that one may see the o
lanets as distinctly as we now see ii
taten Island. Microscopes will be W
lade so powerful that particles Of in
ust on gnat's back will appear
lrger than Pixies Peak. And mar oc
elOus progress will be made in psy- W "
biological and mental science. Two ye
nen will sit in baths filled with al
hemical liquids. One of them may I"
e in Denver and the other in Mon
real. A pipe filed with the same
ouid will connect the two vessels,
nd the fluid will be so sensitive that IN
ach man will know the others ru
loughts. In these coming days our A. ~,
resent mode of telegraphy will be u
assed with the wooden plows of
gypt, and the people will look back oil
, steamships and locomotives as we M
ow look back to sailboats and stage br
1aches.. en-
br
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