The sun., 1900-12-30
INVENTIONS OF THE CENTURY.
sss, ,Sss Patents Granted in the United States
In sixty-two Year,.

This has been a century Of mechanism.
A hundred years ago people were content to
live by hand, as II were; now people live
chiefly by complicated machinery. CIVILIZED
mans mode Of existence has been totally al
tered by his inventions
The world has gone patent mad. In the
United states alone there were s23 535 pa atoiits
granted In the siSty-two years from 1897 to
1895 During its existence the Patent ONCE
has received more than G0OOo.0o0 In ices
on carriages and wagons more than 10000
PATENTS have been granted; on stoves and
furnaces, Is. 900: on lamps, gas fittings. har-
yesters. boots and shoes and receptacles for
storing. 10000 each. The total OF patents
for the civilized world Ia easily twice that OF
the United States.
With the invention OF the steam engine the
world shrunk at a bound to II twentieth Of its
former size. Where the numbering stage
coach or the piodding caravan took weeks the
flying express covers the distance In few
hours The trip across this continent used
to be matter OF life and death, Now It IL a
matter of 800 and take your ease as you so.
In 1925. the first steam road was opened be-
tween Stockton and Darlington. England A
year later u similar experiment was made AT
Quincy. Mass. where the engine hauled stone
for "A distance OF four miles. The first LAS
senger road In this country was the Baltimore
and Ohio. opened in 1880 with mileage Of
fourteen miles. To-day. there are 2i0.9oe
miles Of railroad In this country. 1925 in
Europe 2e,s3I in South America. 3l.lO2 in
Asia, O.97S in Africa. and i+.ss In Australasia.
Early In the history of rallroadng twelve
miles an hour was considered recklessly fast
In January. 1899. train on the Burlington
route in n run from Siding to Arion. "a miles,
did the distance in / minute and 20 seconds,
or AT the rate OF lOs miles an hour
Mail communication was a. expensive ne
is was slow in the old DAYS. II cost shilling
10 get letter anywhere. when the century
began. and shilling in those days repre-
sented far more than it now does Now two
cents will carry a letter to the Philippines or
around the corner Then the mail matter
handled was too insignificant for statistics;
now there are 49, 900 Post Offices in this coun-
try. handling postal matter Of all kind TO
total Of 8576, ,3iO 900 pieces.
The first telegraph line in this country was
opcued in Is4. In 1899 there were oOa.6S3
miles Of wire in use In this country; II. .sas, ,itO
IN @ "a ges were sent that year
The year 1900 knew no telephone hun
dred years later sees az. $50 miles OF telephone
wire in use connected with <05. $50 stations
and answering 1881, 900 900 calls II year.
When the century was new it took six weeks
TO get news from Europe. To-day II takes
-x seconds To-day there are l7O.950 miles
of submarine cables, all laid since the first
cable Fields's great achievement. was laid
in 1867
Electricity has come to the aid of steam In
traffic There are more than one thousand
electric street car lines in operation in the
United States. with II capitalization OF N.7OO,-
600 OSO The same electric power only dInly
known before the wonderful century, now
lights our cities In the United States there
are half million arc lights and about twenty
million incandescent lights. the latter being
equivalent in lght-givins capacity of $50, Co.,
900 candle tips such as they used in 1900.
While the railroads have served to diffuse
the population from one end Of the land
to the other. another invention has served
to Centralize 1.-THE elevator.
In other times they built houses Of wood
and brick Now they construct them Of
steel and iron. And so carefully are the
plans developed that the architect can say
how many bolts will be required in the con-
structon of skyscraper. how much each
beam can support. where each piece Of iron
belongs. Wooden bridges have been sup
planted by huge steel structures. Even
stone towers are being abandoned for the
lighter steel The age Of steel is here.
our vast factory systems employing
thousands of workers and furnishing nee
essarie, and Injuries alike at prices that
would have amazed the citizen Of 1900 have
grown out of the substitution OF machinery
FOR the hand the sewing machine, the steam
loom. the ring frame, and hundreds of other
inventions
Photography is product Of the last
hundred years
In 1900 the principal daily papers were
type was hand made and hand set Nova
dnv- new type IL cast while being set; paper
comes in rolls from two to four miles long:
presses run OF 10000 complete newspapers
an hour.