, 1876-11-01
THE NEXT CENTURY.
from the Weekly Sun

will be when the second Centennial is celebrated.
What are the opportunities and means Of
progress during the next hundred years ?
We fancy that the people who look for great
advances in the application Of science to the
wants Of man will, in many respects, be
disappointed by the events of the future. The
last hundred years have been a sort of
Elizabetban era of practical accomplishment in
applied science. The use of steam as a motor
is the great mechanical event of the century.
1t has had more to do with the progress Of
society than any other material force. The
locomotive, the steamship, the power press and
the power loom have revOlutionized human
activity. The question now is, how far the
present means of utilizing steam are susceptible
of Improvement. The steam engine has
practically reached IFS highest development.
1t is like poetry and the drama in the age of
ELIZABETH. Take the locomotive, for Instance.
1t has been brought up to about as perfect a
standard as it probably will ever reach. 1t Is
one Of the most magnificent manifestations OF
the capacity of human skill which the history
Of the world furnishes. An enormous power is
got out of a relatively small machine, and 1t
serves its purpose exactly and successfully. 1t
is possible that in the progress of a century
there may be notifications introduced IN the
locomotive, but they will be slight and not
affect its main construction. There Is, III fact,
very little to improve in the locomotive. So,
too. as a means of transportation, the railroad
is practically a fnaIity. A hundred years ago
cities could not be built except on the sea
coast or on the shores of n~avigable rivers. The
railroad makex possible a great metropolis in
the midst of a prairie. During the next centu-
~ the power Of the railroad will probably be
further developed, but the thing is likely to be
lift substantially Unchanged.
As to the steam engine generally, however
applied, whether to ships or to looms, there IS
not much left to conquer in that direction
Since the time of WATT, near a hundred years
aro, IT'S improvement has been merely in the
mechanical details Of better workmanship. No
new principle has been applied TO it. II We ask
what il the difference between the steam engine
Of she time of WATT and that of to-day, we are
answered that now We use higher preSsures,
and, in some cases, employ the expansive
principle to a greater extent,
Next to the application of the steam engine
to navigation, the great achievement in that
line has been the screw propeller. That, also,
has probably reached its highest practical
development. The people of the twentieth
century, if they continue the use of steam as q
motor, may save a few hours in crossing the
Atlantic, but they viii be only holrs, and they
will have to 90 across in the way we do now, in
steam propeIlers. The notion that balloons or
some other fantastic means of conveyance will
succeed the steamer has nothing on which to
base itself The trouble about the balloon is,
that man can't control it. 1t is IN the power
of the winds, while the steamship is almost
wholly Independent of them.
In engineering we have got near the bottom
Of possibilities. What has created its marvel
Gus Development within the last thirty or
forty yearsis not any new principle, but the
circumstance that wealth has increased and
capital has organized itself in corporations with
comparatively limitless power. Hence such
feats as the Mount GEMS tunnel, the Suez
Canal, the Liverpool docks, the Pacific Railway
the Hoosac tunnel, the Atlantic cable, the
numerous bridges spanning the largest rivers
and all shose great engineering works which
suggest Titanic energy.
The application of electricity to the uses OF
men is also practically complete in its success.
Our descendants of the twentieth century may
be very wise and skilful men, but they will
hardly be able to improve on the telegraph as
such, except in matters of detail. 10 be able
not only to lay telegraphic cables for i~nstanta.
neous communication with lands thousands of
miles away, but also to tell exactly the spot
where q break in one occurs, is . triumph
of human skill approaching the sublime.
In fact. this century's achievements IN
the application of science to the uses of man
hova hoao an GRAND on IN make IL forever memO-