Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-05
INVENTORS TALK.
Probable and improbable Won
ders Yet to be Invented.
MARVELS OF THE FUTURE.
How the Cable System of Street Cars Might
be Applied to Private Conveyances.
Some of the Lost Arts that
Might be Recovered.

Copyright, 1891. for the Gazette and all
rights reserved
When that great philosopher, DR.. Samuel
Johnson, making long journey i'll post
chaise-then the quickest and pleasantest
means Of travelIng-sad TO his companion
and future biographer, Roswell, Life has
few things better than this he had no
idea and would not have believed the state
ment if any one had told him, that in less
than a century later travellers would a
most fly from place to-place, at the rate Of
nearly mile minute, seated in complete
houses with drawing rooms, bedrooms.
dining rooms, libraries, lavatories, and
every convenience of the most luxurious
home, that those same travellers would
sleep soundly, dine luXuriously. be shaved
easily, attend to their correspondence, read
and study during the continuance of long
Journey over barren mountains and track
less wastes.
If any one had predicted, forty years
ago, the triumphs OF the telegraph over
time and space, he would have been laughed
at as d mailman, as would also he who
twenty years ago had foretold the wonders
of the telephone and the electric light.
Since then science has conpaSsed these
marvels that would once have been thought
so miraculous but are now so familiar to Us
that they have lost all flavor OF the strange
or remarkable. What may we not look for
ward to in the future! May there not come
a time when men will fly, not fguratlvely,
on wheels, but literally, with wings, when
Ill time and space snail be practically ami
hilated by the hghtning-lilse CELEBRITY with
which we shall travel, and when the hand
of man shall no longer find anything TO do
with all its might as enjoined by the Scrip
ture, but shall forever resign all its labors
to the patient, never-tiring machinery.
IN the belief that the old Latin proverb
"omaes res sunt POSSIBILITIES cumde is might
truthfully be changed to tonnes res stunt
poSsibiles cum scientaS," 4. number OF
famous inventors We're asked, some years
ago, to iot down some of their ideas with
regard to the inventions OF the future, and
the following communications, evidently
half in jest and half in earnest, were the re-
suit. GEoFFREY WILLISToN CHRISTINE.
A TELEPHONE IMPROVEMENT.
It is not necessary to prefix any words of
introduction to what Thomas a. Edison has
written.
zone of The most important inventions of
the future, if it can ever be invented, is an
improvement to the telephone which will
enable those using it to not only hear but
see each other. As the instrument is at
present, it is an easy matter for unscrupul-
Gus persons to impose upon others by false
representations, which would DE impossible
if they could be seen by the person TO whom
they are talking. A seeing as well as 4
hearing telephone IS therefore great
desderatum.
Everybody remembers how when the
telephone was first invented it was used
to transmit to large audiences concerts
given in another city This was notably
the case in Philadelphia, where, at the
then permanent exhibition solos played
and sung in New York were distinctly
heard. If the seeing telephone should ever
be invented the man in Oshkosh or Podunk
might enjoy the performance at the New
York theaters without leaving his native
village. Probably many city habitues OF
the theaters would make arrangements
with the managers to supply them regu-
larly with the performances by telephone,
and would THUS enjoy Booth in Hamlet
or Sarah Bernhart in Cleopatra while
sitting in dressing gowns and slippers by
the family fireside. and though the audi
forums of the play houses might conse-
quently be comparatively deserted, yet the
boy-office receipts would be larger than
ever, for the services of actors, like those
of BARRIERS. would doubtless come higher
when rendered at ones own domicile.
THOMAS a. EDISON.