National Republican., 1888-06-05

WutLE the great steamship builders are
busily engaged in dcylsing means by which
the passage from New York TO Queenstown
can be made In five days instead Of six, and
while an inventor Is courageously and conf.
IDENTIFY at work on locomotive that will pull
a train from Washington to New York In four
hours instead Of six the pneumatic tube heo'
pie are promising 20 obliterate distance al.
most wholly declaring they can construct a
tube around the earth through which man
can he shot at the rate Of q cable or tcle.
graphic message. The air ship people have
also taken new lease of life. Perhaps they
haze been encouraged by the report of a con.
rresslonal committee in favorof apprOpriating
$4,000 toward the building of an air ship in
'hc Washington navy yard, Anyhow, there.
are In Brooklyn two fully equipped companies,
one 20 build an air ship that will cross the
ocean In eight hours, the other TO build
pneumatic tube that will whisk man
over In less than eight minutes.
All this Is evidence of the restless spirit of
progress. Space and time have already been
Obiterated In the matter of communication,
as the telegraph and cable extend everywhere.
And here comes Mr. Edison with his perfected
phonograph, and our own Washington people
with their graphophone the same instrument
except in points of minor detail. Edison has
an article in the June North imeIicdR Rerie,o,
in which he pictures the possibilities of his
phonograph. He thnksit will he of quite as
much practical use as the telephone, and pro.
poses to establish stations in every city where
plonograms can be read and received after
the fashion of telephone stations. The phono-
graph will come nearer bringing all the ages
Of the.world together than all other time and
space obliterating agencies combined
1t gives an exact reproduction Of
human speech or song, or any
sound, tones and all. II is to sound what the
photograph would be to nature could II repro
duce colors. If Cicero had had a perfected
phOnograph he could have spoken into II and
the wax cylinder bearing the Grafton had been
preserved, we, of to-day. could hear him speak
exactly as he spoke to the Roman senate.
| If the celebrated words of Gen. Grant, "Let
us have peace, had been spoken into a
| phonograph they could be reproduced in the
| ages to come. one of PATHS songs could thus
| be preserved. The words and tones of father,
mother, or child could be kept long after they
are dead. All the great. who are living to-
| day, can thus be made to speak to generations
| yet unborn. This is but the most imperfect
statement of the possibilities of the phono.
graph. The question Is, what kind of world
are W. soon to live in: What Is
| the end of mechanical contrivance;
| What new conditions will arise under these
mighty changesS win human existence be
made more perfect and more delightful, or
| will 1t not be like the constantly increasing
movement of piece of machinery-will II
| not get TO so high pitch that the nerves will
be exhausted and the whole fabric Of exist
ence fly into countless atoms and wreck
come TO the whole thing. We will reserve
our judgment till we see what becomes of the
pneumatic tube that is going to take peopl,
from New York to London in the time that II
takes TO press your finger on small button.