Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-02
FOOTSTEPS OF SCIENCE.
What it Has Done During the Past
Year.
WONDERFUL STRIDES IN ELECTRIC scIENCE-IM-
PRovENENTs IN TELEPHONY, TELEGRAPHY, AND
LIGHTING-PHoToGRAPHY AND ITS ADVANCES
THE LICK OBSERVATORY.
From the Boston Advertiser.

LIGHTING-PHoToGRAPHY AND ITS ADVANCES
THE LICK OBSERVATORY.
From the Boston Advertiser.
As year after year takes it round science, in
all its branches, is taking greater and greater
strides. Within the memory of many children
now living, discoveries have been made stu
pendous in their results. So wonderful, in
deed, have been some of these results that,
even in later years. they would have been pro-
nounced impossible had some prophet presaged
| them. In Puritan days. certainly, 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 electricity. The most important ad-
vance 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 prac-
teal adaptation of discoveries already made.
has been with the long-distance telephone. 1t
has long been known and demonstrated that
| two persons, hundreds of miles apart may con-
duct, over a complete circuit of wire, a CONVEX
sation 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 audi
BILE 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 sci
ence. Prof. Elisha Gray. of Chicago, of tele-
| phone fame, has invented what is known as the
| ''telautograph." BY means of this ingenious
| invention the sender of dispatch may, if he
like, have it transmitted and recorded at the
other end of the line in an exact fac simle of
his chirOgraphy. This invention is regarded
as valuable by business men as affording
! guarantee to the recipient of the authenticity
| OF the message 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 recording telephone be-
! comes an appliance of actual daily use, she can
| no longer reply, 'They don't answer" when
you are anxiously endeavoring to get a connec-
| ton" She simply switches you on to your
| friends 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 a 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 it's infancy, are constantly
az work endeavoring to devise means by which
| the expense of Geographic communication may
| be lessened. DIR. j. II. Rogers. of Washington
| u. u. mas perfected q system DIV winch, Tor the
| purposes of telegraphy. the sounds of the En-
| glish language are compressed into ten ele-
| mentary characters. By means of this system,
when it shall have been put into practical ope-
rations, the work now requiring ten wires may
| be performed by a single wire.
The question of muliplex biography also
has been so fer solved that, through the me-
| dunn of the Delaney patents. sixteen messages
may be sent each way over the same wire at
the same time. BY this improvement the ex-
faf %Gln 0Ir1fr nv flr1
use vii! be reduced fully one-half.
| The perils of sub marine diving are to be
| greatly lCssened by means OF an English in
| vention. made public during the past year.
| This is nothing less than an arrangement for
| telephone communication with the diver when
| at tine bottom. The instrument is ingeniousy
/ fitted to his helmit. and he is thus enabled to
| converse readily with those in the outer world.
| South America even is interested in devising
| new Appliances in electricity Ii is said that
| Senior Pldrahial, of Bog0ta. has invented tele-
! graph instrument. by means of which mes
| sages may be sent without the aid of batteries
and even without the usual insulators upon the
posts. which have heretofore been regarded as
| indispensable.
Beside these, there have been many improve
| ments in the manufacture of dynamos, motors
| accumulators and secondary generators thus
| simplifying electric lighting and electric rail-
ways and putting into them a commercial and
| useful stage. Prof. Edison sphonograph has also
| been greatly improved and promises to be of
| commercial utility. Atpresent scientists in New
| York are considering the best methods of car
| rying into effect the law establishing death
! penalty by electricity in place of hanging. II
/ Is difficult to understand, however, why one
method of taking human life is regarded as
| less barbarous than another
! In photography the past year has seen no
| great discoveries or improvements, but rapid
advance In methods of detail. Early in the
/ year the public heard much concerning COM
posite photography. popular magazine con-
| tanned lengthy illustrated article upon the
/ subject, and a well-known scientific publica-
| ton contained an interesting account of some
| successful experiments of g. s. hoffman the
| Boston photographer, in his line of work Mr.
| hoffman, however. is convinced that composite
| photography, from scientific as well as a
| practical point of view, is valueless While it
is entirely possible to procure photograph in
| which several persons snail unite as the SUBJ
| ject, the last impression upon the plate will be
! the one whose characteristics will the most
| strongly predominant in the result There
| fore Mr.. hoffman argues a composite cannot be
of value as combining the characteristics of all
the subjects.
| There has been great advance in the pro-
! ductiOn of artistic effects in portrait photog-
raphy during the past year. The effects of
| light and shade and the varied poses of the
/ body are carefully studied by the photoo-
rapher as by the portrait painter and some
| surprising and gratifying results are attained
The past year. too, has seen considerable adj
vance in rapid photography. The methods.
| long known, of instantaneous photography
have been applied to portrait work. and now
| the sitter finds the ordeal over when he i'm
| AGNES that it is but just begun
| In this connection should be mentioned the
experiments and discoveries concerning the
movements of living beings. by the aid of pbo-
Biography, made by Mr.. Muybridge. These
created profound sensation among the world
! of art and proved to the artist not only that
photography is not to be regarded with scorn,
| but that many of the theories of motion hereto
fore held by them radically wrong.
| Amateur photography has taken immense
! strides within the past year. not only in
methods, but in the extent to which the fashion
has reached. Some interest has also been ex-
c-ted in the of the flash light in instantane-
Gus photography by night, although this
method has not yet attained any practical
| utility. The semi-centennial of the photo
graphic art is to be celebrated next summer.
In astronomical science the most important
circumstance is the completion and erection of
! the great Lick telescope on the Pacific coast
| Cambridge has the honor of having made the
| lens for this magnificent instrument, the
| Ian gest in the world. A large observatory has
also been completed in Vienna.
| The annual report of the Harvard observa-
| tory was published in the Advertiser of Monday
December II. During the year two solar
eclpses occurred. one January Is and the other
July q On the frst-named dates valuable OBJ
servations were made, but on the second clouds
prevented successful observations. During the
year nine asteroids and five comets have been
discovered. Some valuable observations were