The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-11-30


imposing arched and pillared walls, its
cleaning towers that pierced the sky
with their masterpieces of art, it's domes
and minarets were a source Of unending
delight. And the thought of the wheels
within wheels that flashed on their swift
errands behind those walls was an ever
welcome challenge to achievement for
tho future.
Seventeen years ago we had fast
trains, we thought. The fastest of these
trains would be sneered at today by the
thousands who rode with the wind on
the exposition hiers and ate and slept
in luxury, speeding over the earth 60
miles an hour. Our first locomotives
crawled laboriously over the rough rails
and by mighty exertion made 10 miles
an hour. And there were wise men who
sought to check this terrific speed by
law, saying that it was impossible for
the human body to maintain its life,
being hurled at this fearful rate of speed
through the air.
What would our ancestors say if they
could see Archie Buchanan drive the
steel monster that draws the Empire
State express on its run from New York
to Albany, and as he drops from the cab
at the end of his run say with pride;
''She's beauty, isn't shep You see,
she has always been true to me, $40
has, and I've run her ever since she
was built. She'snever cranky or sick,
and she makes her 800 miles day al
most every day in the year and does
her duty every time. That's more THAI
you can say Of many men, or women
either, isn't it2"
Mr.. Cleveland Moffet, describing q
trip in one OF these engines, says that
the pounding Of tho great engine was
80 violent that all three men--freman,
engineer and visitor-were obliged to
hold on tightly. Showers of cinders
blew in upon them, but the engineer
faced them, scarcely winking as he
stared before him. Indeed he hardly
changed his position during the whole
run and never once turned his head.
The fireman for tho first half hour
was feeding his fire at the rate Of two
shovelfuls a minute. Before the trip
ended he had shoveled in more than
three tons of coal.
Blasts of hot air came from the white
hot firebox. Smoke, cinders, oil, smut,
speed, roar, the swaying, pounding mo-
tions of tho engine and the dizzying
procession of whirling objects along the
way, which seemed to rise and charge
upon the rushing machine, made dan
ger seem imminent, but the effect upon
the mind was most exhilarating.
The visitor found himself wishing to
go even faster, to put the mighty en-
gine to its utmostspeed. That was not
done, however, for the proud engineer
told him that "she" had several times
reached a speed of 80 miles an hour,
while on this trip at no time had it
been faster than 10.
This is but typical illustration Of
the advance along the whole line of ma
terial progress. Even as we gaze upon
the old locomotive and the new we can
but feel that our children will come in
the not distant future and look at the
Empire State express as a curiosity from
the machinery junkshops of the twen-
tieth century. To annihilate distance
| is to make man so far omnipresent and
make conscious human brotherhood the
necessary postulate of human life.
oBEDrENT ARMIES OF STEEL.
Who can compute the power Of these
iron wheels and levers in doing the
work of the world in the coming CEN
tury? Those swiftly whirling shafts
| and hurrying levers have incrusted in
| steel the nerve and muscle of millions
on millions of workingmen. In that
Yankee thread exhibit there they show
you a machine whose work is enumer-
ated as follows: Itreels thread onto lit
tie wooden spools at the rate of $50 doz-
en- in day of 10 hours, each spool be-
ing wrapped with 200 yards of thread.
1t moves and acts like sentient being.
Eight hoppers are filled with little
wooden spools, and the machine starts.
1t picks spool out of a hopper, adjusts
it ON SPINDLE reels out 900 yards Of
thread, cuts it, inserts the end in q
nick in the spool that it makes, dumps
| the finished spool and takes q new one
and repeats this performance all day,
| in less time than 1t takes to write
about it. The spools are then taken to
another little machine that rushes them
| through a contrivance which pastes q
! label on them that it chops out. pitches
! the spool into a box and hurrles along
in mad race with the machine reeling
the thread.
Who can estimate the producing pow
| er of these obedient armies of steel
Who can compass the future they will
create?
At the Centennial of 1875 there was
no electrical display. The telephone
was toy, the electric light a dream,
| the dynamo as remote thought as
aerial navigation to this generation.
But here, after the lapse of only II years,
we find an Electrical building 345 by
900 feet, covering az acres, devoted
exclusively to tho industries of harness
/ ed lightning. 1t may be said that with
In the brief space Of these II years q
new power has been born into the mo-
chanical world that bids fair to sup
plant steam as completely as steam sup
planted horse power and create new
civilization in the next century.
In 1877 there were s, 1877 telephones
| in use. Now there are 652, 720 in use
IN spite of the exorbitant price exacted
for their use. ....
We are even told that for the first
time In the history of the world the
count Of the population of a great ma
tion has been made by electricity. This
honor belongs to the United States, the
eleventh census being taken by what is