Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-16

sured. The cheap companies usually get the
Job"
'Do you think that lighting by cleo
tricity is becoming more POPULAR"
Certainly; because it is getting cheaper
every day and gives a better light than gas.
I do not mean to say that gas will be driven
out of use, for it will not. 1t will certainly
be done away with as lighting material, and
will be used chiefly to heat-nothing more.
Already many gas companies have turned
their attention toward heating and sue
ceeded admirably. As a lighting material
gas smokes, but used in heating it does not
The smoke from gas stove naturally goes
up the chimney, and gas as a fuel is much
cheaper and cleaner than coal. There are
no ashes, no trouble, and none of the annoy
ances that come with handling coal.
ARTIFICIAL HEATING GAS.
'This is beginning to be the era of gas
heating. Look at the gas used in many
towns where natural gas has been discov-
cred. Why cannot gas be made for heating
purposes Just as reasonable in price as for
lighting? The cost is much smaller than
coal or wood heat and infinitely preferable.
Electricity is essentially adapted for light
ing purposes and is superior in many re-
spects. 1t is becoming cheaper every day.
Only 2 per cent of the coal is turned into
&
heat. and within the past two years it has
become very popular as heating medium"
"Have YOU ever thought of inventing
flying machine, the motor force of which
would be electricity?"
"Yes, / have given some study to the
question and, of course, made some expert
ments in that direction. The bumblebee is
a fine model to study for flying machine,
and the more study that species OF high
order of birds the more complex does the
flying machine problem appear. The bum
blebee flies by the aid of motor power alone.
1t has no natural aid, but must depend upon
the rapid working of its wings to fly. There
is no wind and no feathers to assist the bee;
it has small wings, entirely out of proper
tion to its large, robust body, and when it
flies, the wings, as any observer can see, are
worked so rapidly it is impossible to calcu-
late the number of flops to the minute.
THE MODEL FLYING MACHINE.
But the little bird must, periorce. be the
model to solve the flying machine puzzle,
motive power. Could this bumblebee carry
the weight of another bee on its back is a
question often asked. Well, it cannot. and
even If flying machine were invented on
its model it would not be capable of carry
ing any weight save its own. Nature has
done so much and failed to go any further.
"You see, if wings were applied to man
they would have to be quite small in order
to be worked rapidly. Large wings could
not be moved rapidly enough, so the ques-
tion of flying would never be settled by
large wings, even if the motive propelling
power were a thousand times greater than
any vet conceived Of A man might have
wings constructed to carry his weight, but
that would be all. Like the bumblebee, he
would be unable to do anything save carry
his own weight, and that by sheer force of
great power. Now, sea gulls have large
wings, entirely out of proportion with their
small bodies. But they have little motive
power, and are simply kept up like kite
by the winds. If you will notice gull you
will rarely see it work its wings, but it keeps
them outstretched and sails around the air
in beautiful style. No flying machine
could skim about on the bosom of the wind
like the sea gull. All birds propel themselves
by flying and sailing. 1t is natural action,
but man cannot acquire it, at least not now
in this day and generation, when SO many
secrets OF nature slumber before the savant's
eyes for years. We can only go back to
nature and pause and wait for years to un-
derstand the phenomena that now seem q
mystery to our very finite minds.
DOESN'T HOPE TO FLY.
81 am not SO sanguine about dying
machine, because nature has her imita-
tions. Anyway many of hey secrets lie
hidden from us and remain to enricfand
glorify some bright and wonderful era in the
future. Perhaps a century or SO from now
the flying principle in man will be invented
or discovered. Things unheard and un-
dreamed of may come to light in the future
and place US in thi category of being too
stupid to imagine ans much less to invent
them. But 1 have nothing to do with the
future. If there ever will be q hving
machine capable of carrying not only one
man but other weight with it, /, at present,
cannot conceive it. There are certain fixed
principles in nature we cannot ignore. We
cannot pull ourselves through space by our
own boot straps, and we cannot leap from
the top of house witohut climbing on top
first"
Why not take the bumblebee model and
try it?''
Mature made the bumblebee with motive
power enough to carry its own weight and
no more. Why it did not give the humble
bee more power I cannot explain; it is be-
yond the comprehension of my very finite
mind. Man was not constructed with
wings, and so he has to wait and solve the
problem which nature gave to the bumblebee
and BIRDS"
"Do you think the phonogrsph will ever
be universally used?"
FUTURE OF THE PHoNoGRAPH.
at is already becoming indispensable to
hundreds of great business houses. I know
that many men, as soon as they use it, de-
clare they had rather talk to their stem
ographers, but if any man will give the
phonograph three days trial, he will not
part with it. 1 know a number of men who
at first did not like it, but now they con-
stantIv use it and save three or four hours of
valuable time each day. The business man
can get down to his Office and talk off enough
in half or one hour to his monographs to
keep t1Ve or six typewriters busy three or
four hours. If that is not a wonderful time
saver, 1 wocld like to see it beaten. 1t is all
well and good for MAJ to say that he can
dictate rapidly tc a stenographer, but no
matter how fast he talks to photograph. it
is all there, and any one can hear and write
it out afterward.
II predict that Photographs will entirely
change the present system of answering
business letters and writing communica-
tions. 1t is one of those inevitable things
that prejudice and a lingering desire not to
adopt a new method cannot affect Look
how the telephone is used now, and how it
facilitates business. Well, the photograph
will soon be in vogue, and people will won
der why they had never used them before
1t is one of the greatest labor-saving ma
chimes"
"Do you believe that the present style of
telegfaphy will soon be done away with?"
NEW ORDER IN TELEGRAPHY.
Eyes, but not until the old timers have
disappeared. The operators now have a
al,