The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1889-05-04
text Righteousness exalteth ma
SCIENCE.

StlENN W.
IT. As it refers to Science, and here
/ we stand bewildered, for America is
! prominently q nation OF scientists.
I we can simply name some OF the great
i inventors that have reyolutiOniZed
. commerce and naval and military war
/ fare: lthe laboratory being yet the bat
+ tle-grGund Of new discoveries tOgeth-
! er with the names Of those who have
done 50 much service TO differ ent
/ branches Of service. Benjamin Frank
lin was the first to discover the iden-
titv of electricity and lightning, as
with kites flying in thunderstOrmS he
brought electricity from the Clouds
many times to his own personal peril.
1t was left for Prof. Samuel L. b.
Morse, after repeated disc0uTagemontS,
to manipulate the magnetic currents
and construct the first Geographic lines
in The lr0lId, and this between Balti-
more and Washington. Over this line
on May 9th, 1914, from the room of
the t. ;. Supreme COurt-a fitting
place indeed-Was sent the following
message to Baltimore, inStantan2ouSly
received and Immediately returned:
What hath God WrOught2" How
| true the statement OF our text. Cyrus
1 ". Field saw Geographic messages 90
ing round the continent, and wondered
/ why seas could not be bridged by cleo
tricity, or the world gIrdled by light
ming, and on the 5th Of August, 1858,
was completed the laying of the first
Geographic cable across the Atlantic
ocean, and on this cable came the dis
patch from Queen u President
Praise God from whom all blessings
flow, and thus mother and daughter
were united by magnetic ties. After
few weeks successful operation, the
cable refused to Work,-and, strange
f&ct,-SeYCred connection between the
mother and child during the war, as if
To prove that there could be no allilia-
ton, while the mother was trying to
crush her own offspring. Mr. Field
however perseyered, and when in 1865,
the steamer Great Eastern good for
nothing else than TO lay cables, Ga prov
Idential event, forsOothO proceeded
more than 1850 miles on her way to
this country, the cable parted and was
lost. Now surely the enterprise would
be given Up, after six millions Of money
had been spent, but no, the indOmita
bic originator Of the scheme would not
give in. In July 1868 a third cable >
600 miles III length, was cOiled in the
Great Eastern, and was this time sue
cessfully laid, with the additional en-
cOuragemCnt Of finding the lost cable.
and so American pluck and skill pre-
vailed ard submarine telegraph became
an accomplished fact. But the powers
of electricity did not end here 1t was
left for America in the persons Of Ed
ison and Brush to perfect the electric
Light, and now our streets and church
IS are illuminated with manipulated
lightning. Stiu achievements Of elec-
tricity did not end here, and the tele-
phone WAS invented, and although the
first attempts to transmit vocal sounds
by electricity was made by German
III 1sG0-U1 Johann Phillip Refs. Of
FricdrichsdOTfl who gave the name Of
''TelephOnG' to the invention, it was
left for an adopted American citizen Of
Scotch birth Alex. Graham BelD, to
perfect the system i'll 1876, and thus
its success is now established through
out the civilized world 1t is worthy
of note III this connection that in 1856,
ten years earlier, Elisha Gray, of Chi
cagO, then student at Oberlin college,
constructed an instrument for trans
hitting tones, and called it a Music
al Telegraph The Phonograph is the
production Of an American, ThOs. \.
Edison. The first steamboat was con
strUctcd by an American, Robert Full
ton. This same inventor, bent upon
producing some kind OF an engine SO
destructive TO ships rs TO Danish naval
warfare by making it possible for any
one to destroy the most formidable YES
sells which could be constructed sue
ceeded in myenting the submarine
bomb, known todaya the torpedo, and
it was LETT for that woTld-renowned
mechanician, John Ericsson, to build
the first torpedo boat, The Destroyer,
capable OF blowing a whole feet Of
tUrret ships out OF the water. This
remarkable boat moves with great
speed, shows but a few inches above
the water and carries only enc gun,
but that gun, we are told, 9 is capable
of planting with scientific precision,
dozen or a score of volcanoes under
hostile fleet in the shape Of dynamite
tOrpedOeS. and that too, very quickly,
and with very little danger to ITSELF
This Identical genius was Il SWede Icy
birth, and an American BY adoption,
but il seemed that American soil was
the only place where he could thrive.
lie first successfully applied the screw
to the propulsion Of steam vessels, and
introduced his invention in England.
1t was laughed at, and John Ericsson
in disgust quilted her shores, and in
1899 arrived at New York Here the
L. :. Steamer Princeton ," was built
under his dircction-the first steam
ship ever built having its rrOpelling
machinery under the water line, and
consequently out Of the reach OF shot.
His ironclad vessel the Monitor, "a
new departure in the art Of naval war
fare-proyed successful IN its attack on
: IL. 1
ginia, formerly the I. :. steamer
marvel Il ingenuity and skill But
where shall we stop? We could go on
TO speak of the Panama ship canal and
railway; the Corlis Engine, the cable
cars, the pneumatic tubes for stores,
and 4 thousand and enc inventions
which place America at the head of the
scientific world in geology she has
her AIassiZ and GuyOt in astronomy
her NeWCOmb and Draper; in me deal
science Ter AgueW ard " lizard Parker
hut enough-We must pass on to the
next to. ic, and we group two of them
together.
LITERATURE AND ART.
III. Let me SIMPLY hint at the in
tlucnce OF American litterateurs and
I'll ltNt9 "a r.bal INC WI lAl- tki nave al
chance 10 study their characteristics
and you know their value. The past
hundred years has produced some re-
markabIe IitteTateurs and artists
y aohington Irving, the Wizard of the
New York Highlands, the American
Sir VI alter Scott, aman who can fairly
be called the prince Of American Let
tiers, for he was the first to claim the
notice of British Reviews. Says a his
torian, - lie il was, first OF ali, who
vrung from the reluctant and proscrip-
tive reviews of England and Scotland,
an acknowledgment of the power of
originality of American genius" The
literature Of the new world was no
longer 4 scoH and a by-Word when
Murray, the bookseller OF London, was
obliged To pay for the Mss OF Brace
bridge Hall, which he had not yet
seen-the sum of a thousand guineas.
Except Sir Walter Scott and Lord BY
ron, no other author of Irving's times