Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-07-29
A cENrURY's WONDERS.
remarkable Developments Of science
and Industry In the Last
Hundred ycnrs,

From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
The wonderful progress In Invention and
material improvements OF the past half
century is graphically portrayed In tho
special number OF tho Scientific American,
celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. that
publication having been started Just after
the Dispatch. II comprises a history Of that
period In mechanical progress. Fifty years
ago the railroad wns In Its Infancy. and
operated with locomotives more nearly re-
sembllng the steam road engine OF to-day
that the splendid modern compound en-
gincs that draw heavy trains at higher
speed than the wind blows in n gale. The
sewing machine had Just been invented
and the first telegraph line constructed at
that period.
what a wonderful period this fifty years
has been Steam has been developed from
crude beginnings to highest perfection.
Applied electricity has been carried from
the most primitive state Of the telegraph
to the manipulation OF multiplcx instru-
ments. the telephone. the electric, arc, In
candescent and phosphorcsccnt lights. the
Roentscn rays. the electric motor and the
electric hcatcr-a progress that is most
marvellous. The scythe and sickle have
given away to the power mower and
through successive stages Of Improvement
to the perfccting harvester. The fail has
yielded to the steam thresicr. The hand
printing press that served from the time
OF Gutenberg and Faust 10 the days' OF
Horace Greeley has been superseded by
tho rotary perfccting press. with its null
u?leN attachments. The art Of photog-
raph! has hcen improved. chearened and
simplihed from the wet collodion plate,
that only an expert could handle, TO tho
dry plate and film that any amateur can
secure good results from. The vclocine-ie
that was only known as a sort of amusing
adjunct to aorobatic agility has developed
into the universal bicycle.
1t has been an age OF Invention without
parallel In the history OF the world. a sea-
son of advancement without comparison in
the past. 1t has grown with leaps and
bounds That have fairly stunned cotempo-
rary credulity, but 1t l. only when all these
achievements of science, art.
ingenuity and skill are grouped
that their magnitude is compre-
hcnd"d. 1t is only when the little sllo-
that crossed the ocean in 1850.
nrc contrasted with the triple screw levia-
mans that pillow across the Atlantic in less
man a week that tho idea comes nome
hat distance. time and difficulties have
been annihilatcd by the impetus given to
Enterprise by the birth of freedom on this
great continent.
In contemplating this the thought comes
naturally of the future: Will 1t preserve
his growth and add to 1t? Are the people
this grand republic alive TO the influence
hey have had upon the worlds growth and
'rogress" Are they mindful of their re-
possibility in preserving 1t and forwards
NJ II, or Will they become maddcned by
he!r success and power and destroy 1t all
!: rash Indifference to the unity of civil
.ed fnankind' 1t is something worth
mixing of seriously. Particularly at this
me. when SO many people are avcwing
he ABILITY of the United States to subsist
pom their own internal resources, un-
iindtul of the stimulus to energy of in
communication and competi-
Possibly we might exist alone. hut it
not a safe experiment to make. There
no assurance that seclusion might not
al this greatest of nations into tribal de.
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