Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-13
WORLDS PROGRESS IN Is YEARS.
Arts and Industries That Did Not Ex-
fst q Decade and q Half Ago.

Fright here in the patent office you may
watch the forward rush Of civilization
and realize how rapid 1t is" said Chief
Examiner Greedy to a writer for The Star.
Probably 1t has never occurred to you to
consider how many arts and industries
that are of Importance today were I'M
known in 1880. Their creation has given
employment to tens of thousands of peo-
pie and to billions of dollars OF capital.
II we were thrown back only so far as
decade and a half we should find our
selves deprived of numerous comforts, and
even necessaries, as We now regard them.
which were not obtainable at all fifteen
years ago.
'iThe self-binding harvester Is new since
1880, commercially speaking. 1t renders
possible the gathering of certain cereal
crops with q raDidity unapproachable by
hand labor. Hundreds of thousands OF
men would be required to reap the har-
vests of the great northwest without the
aid Of this machine. 1t has made practi-
cable the raising OF crops far larger than
could be produced and garnered other
wise. Incidentally, food has been cheap
ened
"The typewriter vas not put on the
market until 1883. 1t seems wonderful
that we could have got along at all with
out II. In eleven years from s25,00O,O0o to
$50 10000 worth Of typewriters have been
sold This machine has opened new field
for womens work. 1t has increased the
demand for writers Of shorthand very
greatly. The quantity of matter actually
written has been enormously Increased by
this invention. 1t has rendered letter
writing so easy that many people now
maintain a large correspondence who
would write very few letters by longhand.
Merchants write more than twice many
letters as they used to, and the volume of
the mails has been proportionately aug
mented.
Cable and Electric Roads.
who, in 1880. had ever heard of grip
man CT 'motorman? The cable and cleo
trio roads are new since then. The cost
Of constructing and equipping them is
mainly for labor, and In this way employ
nent has been given to great numbers of
men. These novel systems of traction
have given work to regiments of honest
fellows who now wear uniforms. When
horse cars are superseded by electricity
or the cable, the number Of passengers
carried Is always greatly increased and
more cars are run, requiring a larger
number of employees. The labor at the
power houses is better paid than at the
stables.
the creation of the electric light the cleo
trio railway, the telephone and a large
variety of industries depending on cleo
trtcity The inventions on which they are
based have deprived nobody of employ
ment. On the contrary. they have opened
entirely new fields and fresh demands for
labor. Without the aid of our patent sys-
ten, which holds out to the inventor the
prospect of reward. how many of these
new ideas, which represent the forward
steps of civilization. would remain with
out fruit. If not unthought of?
Tho two most important of very re-
cent inventions are the typemaking ma
chine and the cash register The latter
has already put on the market SIS OOOOO0
OF S20000,0o0 worth of material the cost
OF which is mainly labor. Let me not for
get to mention In the list of novel indus
tries the manufacture of the bicycle which
Is new, commercially, since $780,