The Progress., 1893-12-02

'
the growth of our manufacturing inter
ests was greater than the growth from
the settlement of America mp to 1870.
In these 10 years we have built -. 600
miles of railroad, almost as much as our
total mileage in 1880.
And we are but ono nation in the
galaxy of the civilization whose tri-
umphs wero celebrated in these white
palaces.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WHITE PALACE.
To me the palace of Mechanic Arts
was the most beautiful of all the nohlo
creations of genius displayed in the ar
Chitecture of the fair. To my eve its
imposing arChed and pillarod walls, its
cleaning towers that pierced the sky
with their masterpieces of art, its domCs
and minarcts wcro a source of uncnding
delight. And the thought of the wheels
within wheels that flashed on their swift
errands behind those walls was an ever
welcome challenge 40 achievement for
the future.
Seventeen years ago we had fast
trains, we thought. The fastest of thc0e
trains would he sneered at today by tho
thousands who rode with the wind on
the exposition fliers and ate and slept
in luxury, speeding over the earth 60
miles nn hour. Our first locomotives
crawled laboriously over the rough rails
and by mighty exertion made IL miles
an hour. And there We're wise men who
sought to check this terrific .'rcd by
law, saying that it was impossible for
being hurled at this fearful rate OK speed
through the air
What would our ancestors say if they
could see Archie Buchanan drive the
steel monster that draws tho Empire
State express on its run from New York
to Albany. and as he drops from tho cab
at the end of his run say with pride:
shes beauty, isn't she2 You see,
she has always been true to me, $40
has. and Two run her ever since she
was built. She e'snever cranky or sick,
and she makes her 300 miles n day al
most every. day in the year and does
her duty every time. That 8 more than
you can say of many men, or women
either, isn't it?"
Mr.. Cleveland Moffet, describing
trip in one of these engines, says that
tho pounding of the great engine was
so violent that all three fireman,
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.
Tho 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. S.ie'-,. ci~d,rs, oil. smut, /
speed, roar, the swaying, pounding mo- /
procession of whirling objects along the .
way, which "' .. - Ilse and charge
upon the r,iling machine. made dan /
ger seem imminent, but the effect upon |
the mind was most exhilarating.
The visitor found himself wishing to 1
90 even faster, to put the mighty en-
yine to its utmost speed. That was not .
done, however, for the proud engineer /
told him that "she" had several times .
reached a speed of so miles an hour,
while on this trip at no time had it |
been faster than 20.
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.
oBEDIENT 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 machine whose work is enumer-
ated as follows: 1t reels thread onto lit
tie wooden spools at the rate of $50 doz-
en- in a day of 10 hours, each spool be-
ing wrapped with 200 yards of thread.
It moves and acts like a sentient being.
Eight hoppers are filled with little
wooden spools, and the machine starts.
It picks a spool out of hopper, adjusts
It on a spindle, reels out 200 yards of
thread, cuts it, inserts the end in a
nick in the spool that it makes, dumps
the finished spool and takes a new one
and repeats this performance all day,
in less time than it takes to write
about 1T. The spools are then taken to
another little machine that rushes them
through a contrivance which pastes a
label on them that it chops out, pitches
the spool into box and hurries along
in mad race with the machine reeling