The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-03
ELECTRICITY n THE FUTURE.
impossible to Prophesy the Won
dcrs Ii VIII Perform.
From The Pittsburg Dispatch.

from the Pittsburg Dispatch.
Prof. Eihu Thomson's address at the re-
cent educational conference at Eliot, Me-.
embodies some interesting forecasts in re-
gard to electrical development. The fol-
lowing passage from Prof. Thomson's
opening remarks is notable for its presen-
tation of profound. scientific thought: ITO
me has been left that most difficult of all
tasks, the predicting the future of electric
ity. Who can tell what discoveries are
yet TO be made; who can set the bounds
20 human insight, to invention, to discov-
cry? Three years ago the wonderful
Roentgen ray was not known to exist.
All the prophets of the past had had their
try at il, but no one limited at its exist
ence. All the seers, all the clairvoyants,
failed TO note its existence, and yet it was
for years before our very eyes, pleading
as it We're. TO be discovered. And IL was
sadly needed, as its greatly extended use
in surgery now abundantly proves. But the
history of many other great discoveries
is much the same, and the fact that the
prophets did not predict them leads me to
think that in the present instance l may
succeed no better.
Prof. Thomson went on to enumerate
some of the directions in which electrical
progress might be looked for. The tele-
phone and the telegraph have not yet
ANiC4lGu NilGI lHlIl. NlIlln year mas
been seen development of Heartzian
wave biography. predicted as possible
not less than eight or nine years ago. BY
this new system even the conducting wire
between stations is abolished. the signals
enter and ring bells in enclosed boxes;
solid walls of stone or brick make no diff
ference to the passing to and fro of the
signals; fog, mist and storm are unable
to cut them off. The reason we can do
this i2 that IA,
and when we set up ether waves the vi
brauons pass through air liquids and sol
ids. One of the results of this discovery
is that navigation in a fog or near a
dangerous shore enshrouded in mist or
darkness, need not now prevent those on
passing vessel from ascertaining their
position. If ever man is to acquire a
true understanding of the universe, he
must study and understand the ether. He
knows already that 1t is an electro-mag-
netic medium, as through it electrical
actions become possible.
But when he discovers, if he ever does,
that difference which makes the contrast
of positive and negative electricities, he
will have touched very near to the foun-
dations of all science. One of the next
great steps in electrical work will be the
obtaining of more light from a given
amount of electric energy than is now
possible. Present methods are too waste
full; only about per cent. of the eficien-
cy of the fuel is turned into electricity.
The use of electrical energy in chemical
work will go on in an increasing ratio,
there will soon be plenty for the rising
electrical engineer to do in the rapidly
multiplying affiliations and the transmits
sion of electrical power. Mines will be
operated and illuminated entirely by e.ec-
tricity, but whether we shall ride in cleo
tric trains exclusively in the future is I'M
certain. At the same time the wide ex-
tension of railroad service through cleo
trical power, and the supplanting Of steam
in railway passenger traffic on a scale
hardly yet dreamt of, will inevitably be
features of the near future