Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-06-23
PROGRESS.



New Inventions and Discoveries.
The present age may properly Be
characterized as the golden age of IN
Yentors and discoverers. So fully con-
WINGED is the commercial world Of the
utility and value of scientific research,
that the investigator or inventor has not
long to wait for q golden harvest If be
has anything TO offer which is new and
adapted To supply . want. The yapidi-
ty with which new devices are adopted
In business and domestic life is wonder
full. Five years ago not single tele-
phonic circuit existed In the world
which could be used for practical on
business purposes now there are 156,
900 instruments In use IN the United
States alone, and there ara only SIX Or
eight cities Of 10000 inhabitants which
are without a telephone exchange. Prob
ably more than five millions of people
IN this country make daily use of the
telephone for business or other purposes.
Thousands are hourly holding conversa-
tions between distant points, over single
wires, and by means and appliances
wholly unknown to science at the close
Of General Grants last term of Office.
Up to the date above indicated kl676)
not single investigator in the depart
ment Of electric lighting had carried its
results beyond the stage Of experiment.
No actual practical business test had
been made, no effective dynamo machine
had been constructed, or form of lamp
devised. Now. one inventor has In
practical use over c, 900 lamps, distribu-
ted in part as follows 500 lights in
rolling mills ], $40 in cotton and other
factories; 430 lights in stores, hotels,
etc; 800 lights in parks, docks, etc. /;
300 in railroad depots; 200 lights in
mines !, 800 in stations for city light
ing. There are other devices, of per-
haps equal utility, at work in all parts
of the country, and the call for the ap-
pliances for this method of lighting is
far beyond the ability Of manufacturers
to supply.
Twenty years ago the only available
agent for the supply Of explosive force
was gunpowder. The army Of miners
and excavators, employed In digging for
the precious metals or in cutting through
mountains for railroad transit, felt the
need of some more effective and power
ful agents to tear the rock masses asun-
der but it was not until someaecidents
on shipboard startled the world by the
terrific nature Of the explosions that it
was known that chemists had discovered
nitro-qlycerihe, an agent possessing q
force ten times greater than gunpowder.
This substance has now almost entirely
displaced gunpowder in all great min
ing and engineering works the world
over, and it would be difficult to dis
pense with it as an article of everyday
use for many purposes
Nickel is metal long known to chenl-
lists and metallurgists, bat 1t was re-
garded as exceedingly unpromising In
It's industrial applications, and treated
with neglect. 1t is less than score of
years since one Of its salts. the double
sulphate, as prepared, and from its
solution the bath which made possible
the deposition Of the metal by the cleo
tric battery. This despised metal Is
now ofinestimable value, as it aft ards a
surface more beautiful and enduring
than silver on implements and utensils
of the widest range.
The discovery by Bessemer OF a cheap,
quick method Of making steel is quite
recent, and yet we know that it has re-
volutionized track construction on rail-
roads. No road with any considerable
amount of traffic can afford to use iron
rails; and, indeed, 80 important is this
discovery that it would be impossible to
pay dividends ON most roads without an
increase Of traffic rates, if iron alone was
used. Steel, BY the Bessemer method,
can be made as cheap as iron, and the
difference in price is now inconsiderable.
In agriculture the discovery Of the
mineral food of plants led to the dis
coyery Of vast beds Of phosphate rocks
in the ancient sea basins Of Charles
ton. s. O., and an industry was de-
yeloped which is of great magnitude
and Importance. We could greatly ex-
tend the list of important discoveries
and inventions which have been made
within the memory of most persons Of
adult age, all of which have given for
tunes to the parties interested In orig
mating and developing them. The
slow appreciation of new discoveries in
a former age has passed away, and no
longer do the many decades Of years
elapse before they are turned to practi-
cal account.
Henry discovered the electro-magnet
in 1919, and it was not until 1874 that
it was utilized in the construction of the
telegraph. Faraday discovered electro
magnetic induction in 1881, but it was
not until 1851 that practical dynamo
machine was made Of small dimensions.
Since 1850 the world has progressed
with giaut strides in the practical appli-
cation OF the results Of scientific dis
covery, and it is probable that no di-
munition OF interest will be experienced
in the course Of the centuries which are
to come Boston Journal Of Chemistry.