Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-10
FOOTSTEPS OF SCIENCE.
What it Has Done During the Past
Year.
Wonderful Strides in Electric Scienee-Im-
provements in Telephony, Telegraphy and
acknowledgement and its Advances.
Boston Advertiser.

As year after year takes II round
science, in all its branches, is taking
greater and greater strides. Within the
memory of many children now living,
discoveries have been made stupendons
IN their results. So wonderful, indeed
has been some of the results that, even in
later years, they would have been pro-
nounced impossible had some prophet
presaged them. In Puritan days, cer-
tainly, an Edison or Bell would have
yielded up his life as a sorcerer.
OF the advances which have been made
in science during the past year the most
notable, as well as those of the greatest
practical utility, have been made by
those who delve in the realm of electric
ity. The most important advance in
electrical science or perhaps should be
said in the practical utility, have been
made by those who delve in the realm of
electricity The most important advance
in electrical science or perhaps should be
said, in the practical adaptation of dis
coveries already made, has been with the
long distance telephone. II has long
been known and demonstrated that two
persons, hundreds of miles apart, may
conduct, over complete circuit of wire,
conversation perfectly audible to both
parties.
During the past year this idea has been.
so thoroughly developed that to-day
Boston is within easy speaking distance
of New York, Philadelphia Buffalo and
Portland, and audible conversations with
those distant points are carried on every
day and hour in the practical business
affairs of life.
The electrical world has also been
moving in the way of new inventions in
that subtle science. Professor Elisha
Gray of Chicago, of telephone fame, has
invented what is known as the 'telau-
tOgraph. - By means of this ingenious
invention the sender of a dispatch may,
if he like, have it transmitted and re-
corded at the other end Of the line in an
exact fac simile of his chirography. This
invention is regarded as valuable by bust
ness men as affording a guarantee to the
recipient of the authenticity of the mes
sage received.
Through another ingenious invention
the telephone girl at the central station is
TO be henceforth deprived of one of her
most potent weapons. When the record
ing telephone becomes an applf-
ance of actual daily use, she
can no longer reply, ''They don It
aHSNC4 LCn YOU are dHAlOuSfS
endeavoring to "get a connection -
She simply switches you on to your
friend s telephone, whether he answers
or not, and you talk away If the man
at the other end of the line is absent, the
sound waves record your message upon q
sensitive plate. When he returns he
places his ear to the instrument, opens
the switch and listens, while the stored
up message Is repeated to him by the
skillfully concealed apparatus.
Electricians, in the belief that the
telegraph as now used is but in its in
fancy, are constantly at work endeavor-
ing TO devise means by which the ex-
penSe of Geographic communication may
be lessened. DR.. J H. Rogers of Wash
lngton, d. c.. has perfected a system by
which, for the purposes of telegraphy,
the sounds of the English language are
compressed into ten elementary charac-
tiers. By means of this system, when it |
shall have been put into practical opera
tons, the work now requiring ten wires |
may be performed by single wire.
The question of multipleX telegraphy, |
also, has been so far solved that, through |
the medium of the Delaney patents, six |
teen messages may be sent each way over !
the same wire at the same time By this |
the expense of telegraphing
by the method now in use will be reduced |
fully one-half.
The perils of submarine diving are to |
be greatly lessened by means of an En-
glish invention, made public during the |
last year. This is nothing less than an
for telephone communica-
lion with the diver when at the bottom
The instrument is ingeniously fitted 10
his helmet, and he is thus enabled to
converse readily with those in the outer
world.
South America even is interested in de-
7ising new appliances in electricity It
5 said that Senior Pidrahial, OF Bogota,
has invented a telegraph instrument, BY
means of which messages may be sent
without the aid of batteries and even
without the usual insulators upon the
nosts, which have heretofore been re-
yarded as Indispensable.
Beside these, there have been many
in the manufacture of
lynamos, motors, accumulators and Sec
'ndary generators, thus simplifying cleo
ric lighting and electric railways and
putting into them a commercial and use
III stage. Professor Edison's phono-
,raph has also been greatly improved and
promises TO be of commercial utility. At
present scientists in New York are con-
ldering the best methods of carrying into
fleet the law establishing a death penalty
y electricity in place of hanging 1t is
ifficult to understand, however, why one
method of taking human life is regarded
s less barbarOus than another.
In photography the past year has seen
% great discoveries or improvements, but
rapid advance in methods of detail.
larly in the year the public heard much
onceruing composite photography A
opular magazine contained lengthy IL
lstrated article upon the subject, and a
iell known scientific publication con-
aimed an interesting account of some
uccessful experiments of G.
hoffman, the Boston pho
ographer, in his line of work. Mr..
however, is convinced that COM
osite photography, from scientific as
ell as a practical point of view, is VAL
eless. While it is entirely possible to
rocure photograph in which several
erSons shall unite as the subject the
lst impression upon the plate will be the 1
ne whose characteristics will the most
rongly predominant in the result. s
therefore, Mr.. hoffman argues compos-
e cannot be of value as combining the
of all the subjects.