The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-05-07

page we see one improvement after another I'M
til we come to the present time and we find
locomotives with a speed of IS or more miles an
hour and capable of moving stupendous
weights
AS it has been with other things so it has
been with the steam engine, advancing from
its simplest form of valve movement and ball
governor in 1876, through the inventive efforts
of Corliss, Reynolds and host of Others to its
almost perfect action of the present
Man has not relied alone upon steam and
electricity for power. but has turned the power
that nature has provided. into use, for we get a
glimpse of the great Niagara turning massive
machinery and converting its energy into cleo
tricity and sending it to cities hundreds of
mi 'es distant and there lighting the houses and
streets, turning wheels and warming or cooling
the inhabitants as may be desired.
Another branch of science which we see re-
vealed upon this page of progress and one that
has been given probably as much thought as
any other, is the field OF astronomy. and one of
the central figures in this realm is William
Herschel. The persisteney with which he pnr-
sued his study has never been equaled. Not
suited with the instruments in use he made one
himself, then another and another until he was
able to see far beyond any preceding investi
gator.
The lens has not been used TO search the
heavens alone, but has been turned upon the
earth and its elements I he air is found laden
with dust and that dust again laden with mi
crobic lite. Plant life has been examined and
its construction revealed, and so Oh through
the list till we can only wonder what will be
discovered next
Though photography was known many years
before the opening of this leaf of prog ess yet it
made very little advance till the leaf had been
raised for some time. In 1856 it began to take
upon 1t something of its present form, and has
continued to expand at a rapid rate. and to-day
we are able to obtain a perfect picture of an
object at any time either at night in the light
of day, and at any place or in any position. In
deed we are able with the kaleidoscope invented
by Edison, to see the representation of life, not
as photograph or a statue, but as the living
moving body. with movements and expression
exactly as they are in the living being.
Another wonder revealed to us in this branch
of invention and discovery is the or Rentgen
ray. By it we are able to see the bones of our
hand, our arm. or OF any part of the body. We
can find a bullet imbedded in the flesh see a
CO1u III pufScs VI q udll uIlfcu lutO hOOus
One of the most interesting things revealed
upon this page is the Bicycle Beginning pro-
perly in 1S47 with the machine made by Calvin
Dalzell the advancement has continued and
to-day we have a machine which is q model
of beauty and utility.
So it has been a continual unrest The
human mind has been forever looking for some
thing new, and when we stop and make a sum-
mary of what has been accomplished. we are
wont to ask: Is it all done? Is the work fin
ished? Is the field of invention exhausted? In
the light of what stands revealed upon the
page of the last fifty years, we impatiently
await the unfolding of the next page which we
confidently expect will disclose to us msrvels
beside which the wonders of the present age
vii seem commonplace.
In the words of Caleb Sprague Henry: THE
old limitations to human endeavor seem to be
broken through. The everlasting conditions of
time and space seem to be annulled. The rich
achievements of to-day lead to but grander
projects for tomorrow. Success in the past
serves but to enlarge the purposes of the future
and the people are rushing onward in a career
of physical development to which no bounds
can he assigned