Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-05
THE FATHER OF THE HORSE CARS.

machine that Will lay eggs which, ike
wine, will improve with age"
JAMES s. EADs.
THE FATHER OF THE HORSE CARS.
Few names have been more often pre-
sented to greater number of people than
that of John 3. Stephenson, the well-hnown
ear builder of New York, who may not in
aptly be styled the father of the modern
horse car, and consequently the grandfather
OF its direct descendants, the cable and
electric Car. Mr.. Stephenson'S name is to
be seen upon the door of every horse car in
use throughout the republic OF Mexico,
where the name Of such cars is legion, as
well as upon an immense mum Der Of those
in our own country.
Wonderful is are the inventions of our
own time, bygone ages have possessed
some, now lost to US, that because they
seem impossible at the present time are
more remarkable ana curious than any we
possess. The late Wendell Phillips, in his
lecture on The Lost Arts used 10 tell us
Of glass goblet in foreign museum which
can be thrown with violence upon a marble
floor and will not break but merely dent.
showing that at one time inventors had
mastered the art of making malle;Ole glass
He used to tell us also Of an opera glass
of most dinllnutive size, but pOSS 2SSinc I
power infinitely greater than tina. OF any
such glass or of any telescope we can make
now. Perhaps among the inventions Of the
future Will be the recovery of some Of tucse
lost arts. Perhaps some one will invent al
opera glass which will enable Us TO see far
enough into the future to know who viii be
the next president, or whether some OF the
great social and political reforms the times
demand will ever be accomplished. -
JONI G. STEPHENSON.
FRANCES GRtSp Old MAN.
When Ferdinand De Lesseps OF France
completed the Sue canal some twenty
years ago his name was upon every lip and
he gained lame in every civilized country
fame that the now collapsed Panama canal
scheme helped to extend and maintain.
Now, at the age of nearly eighty-siX, after
life spent in diplomatic service in many
quarters OF the globe who so well qualified
as he TO speak OF the inventions of the fu !;
ture!
Numerous as have been the products Of
mans inventive genius, invention may be
regarded rs merely in its infancy, and in at
tempting to predict the inventions of the
future we can scarcely err, no matter what
we may select as the subject OF those inven-
tons nor how seemingly wild and improb-
able our imagination may lead US to conceive
them. -
Food products are undoubtedly destiVfd
to enter largely into the inventions of lEhe
future. Already by means of variou$ cX-
tracts of beef and cereals food haSf been,
presented to us in very concefratef
form, and If invention in this field sh$T
continue in the same ratio TOR few yeAs
longer, man may be able TO carryf in fis'
waistcoat pocket all the food he gill re-
quIre for several days, and teeth AYiLL be
no longer useful. but purely ornamental
FERDINAND DE LEssEPs.
THE FATHER Of THE MONITOR.
Ericsson. the late father of the monitor.
that peculiar style Of vessel which proved
- IL. II, 1,r.~ -
war. nerited special conSideratioa.,Safeu
writing of inventions.
As regards inventions no one can tell
what the future viii bring forth. The in
vention of nan seems limitIesS. The
Almighty has seemingly never set bound
airy tn it as to the sea, saying: Thus far
shalt thou go and no further In pneu-
mates for example, nothing has as yet been.
done compared to what the future is des5
tined to see / believe the time will cong
when there will be q complete system Sf
pneumatic tubes extending its ramiticatiolS
all over this country. and when freight Of
all kinds and even passengers will thus De
trans ported.
ELECTRICITY also is now but very imper-
fectly understood, and very slightly used,
TO what it will be. This agent is ultimately
destined to entirely supplant steam. and Il
hundred new uses will be found for it. As
a remedy for diseases of all kinds, much yet
remains to be discovered concerning it
But not only viii the future bring new
inventions Who knows what undiscovered
elements and principles even now surround
US, Perhaps some new element even more
wonderful and mora powerful than electric
ity may yet be found and utilized
1T is possible that the future may see
perfected an invention of which an enthusi-
astic genius recently told me he had con-
ceived the germinal idea. That invention