Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-29
Men Who Have Been Prominent in
the Worlds Progress.
DURING THB WONDERFUL CENTURY
Have Added to the knowledge and
Comfort of Mankind.
WILL LIVE IN HISTORY
Written for The Evening Star.

W pioSiCSS All any SihSic uiieStiou IL 10
emphatically that of science Standing now
at its very close a glance at the personali-
ties who die most toward the shaping Of
this tendency and the molding of mems
minds is timely. There have been great
men in other departments of human en-
deavor-great writers, great statesmen, ar
fists and musicians but it is by it's scientific
achievements that the century will be
marked out from all preceding centuries.
No less a man than Alfred Russell Wal
lace has pointed out that the scientific
achievements of the last hundred years
have been greater in extent and number
than those Of all previous centuries COM
bined. And 1t has been not only in theoret
ical but practical, science as well that
most has been accomplished. In the lifting
of the burden Of labor by machinery, the
speedy transit of men and goods and the
alienation of human suffering this has been
the century of centuries.
This has been the age of steam. One of
the pathtinders in this direction was James
Watt Q736-1S19). The delicate boy who
could not play the rough games of his fell
lows was to startle the world by his dis
coVery that water, so long considered
of the elementary substances, was really
made up Of ,wo gases-oXygen and hydro
gen. But he did not stop here. He invented
the condenser of the steam engine, and the
closed cylinder, which has made the loco
motive possible. opening the way to all the
progress which the railway has brought
with it In 1863 he constructed the first
steam engine that would work satisfac-
torily 1t was he who suggested the metric
system, which has been adopted all over
Europe.
Progress In Electricity.
Next 20 steam it is electricity that has
done most for the advancement of the race
during this century, and foremost among
the original minds that solved the prelimi-
nary prob ems making advancement possible
was Michael Faraday 1791-1S6O He may
well be called the first electrician, for his
discovery of the principles of votaic and
magnetic induction laid the basis of the
science of apple electricity. Before his time
scientists knew that there was force
which they agreed to call electricity, bur
what could be done with it remained to be
proved by Faradays experiments That
electricity was possessed of a chemical quail
ity had not even been suspected until his
experiments in what has since been known
as electrolySiS.
LOcOmotiOn by Water.
John Ericsson QS03-lSS9) was a compet:-
tor of Stephenson in the trial of locomo-
tives in 1929, hut his work was to be con-
nected more with the development of loco
motion by water than on land. By the
time he was ten years old his inventive
genius had commenced to work, but it was
only after his coming to the United States
in 1895 that his most famous work was
done. He had previously invented the hot
air engine which has been so well utilized
III our modern gas machines but he will
live longest in the memory of men as the
inventor of the screw propeller for ships.
The first vessel to which he applied this
original device the Princeton in 1Si2
His place in history will be always con-
nected also with his conception of the
Monitor which played so great part in
the naval engagement in Hampton Roads
The type of vessel mcdeled after this first
example IS called a monitor even now. In
the later years OF his life FIR csson devoted
his inventive genius to The perfecting of tor
pedoes and torpedo boats.
Cuvier's Work.
Natural science has progressed marvel
ousiy in these hundred years and it is to the
mind Of George Culver Q1G9- 1S:2) that much
of it is due. What Einnaeus had done in
the previous century toward the classical
ton of animals was now put upon scen-
life basis. Cuver established the history
OF the animal kingdom in the light of COM
paraLiVe anatomy. and laid the lOunda lions
of the study Of prehistoric animal life by
his Wond TfUl festorations of extinct species
from single fragmt MS. Il is a common
place now to speak OF The age of the NAM
moth or she pie siosdurus. CuVier was the
the latest in long series Of geologic ages.
Origin Of Species.
The natural successor of Cuvier. proft!ng
by his researches and at the same time
bringing to bear new theory by which he
explained the relationship between the diff
ferent species in the animal kingdom was
Charles Darwin QSG2-1SS2l. 1t seems strange
20 that it Is less than fifty vars since
the publication OF The Origin of Species, "
IN which the principle of eVolut on was
laid down explicitly Tor the frSt time for
it has been so genera ly accepted that it is
as flnN ar a.!no$, - oar y. i, Cs. Others
| Id Gimly perceived 2n0eth.ng Of the uni
versal law. but Darwin made 1t clear, ana
furH aned The key To The MANY problems;
OF zoology WaiCn had been considered unsol-
Nahic hafOTe his tiIae. HIS work crowned
tEay Of Cayiar
s.ed:cai Science.
! Medical science has progressed along
the pathway of bacteriology chiefly during
the century and among the leaders in his
work has been Louis Pasteur 0s22 1889
As q young r1an he succeeded in solving
more than one difficult problem in che!nis-
/ try, interesting the world Of science by his
discoveries in the field of bacterial life
lie devised a method Of filtration Of water
which has stood the best tests based as
( ii is upon solid scientific principIes His
work best known to the public how ever
| is his discovery Of the virus by which
rabies is prevented.
Valuable Discoveries.
If medical science has made some steps
forward surgical science has advanced by
leaps and strides. Much of this has been
made possible by the discovery of anaes-
thejics and antiseptics, but chiefly by the
latter. No one has done such pioneer work
in this direction as Sir Joseph Lister, born
in 1897. AS early as 1863 he had suggest
ed the valuable method of guarding
against danger from the use of chloroform
| in operations by noting the breathing of
the patient. His study Of micro organisms
| led him to present some startling conclu-
sions in 1867 when he suggested that wound
| fever was caused by little germs in the
| air and that if operat tons We're performed
under proper conditions there need be no
| fever. Carbolic acid first used for
| this purpose, and later other drugs We're
| found useful. The surgeons of Germany
| accepted the new idea Immediately, but
| it was only after years of demonstration
| that the conservative British practitioners
were convinced of a fact now accepted by
every student in the world who knows
| anything at all about the subject.
The Sewing Machine.
Tho MON who did most to al tho