Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-06-30
INVENTIONS OF A CENTURY.
Great Progress in Every Direction, in Mechan.
les and Things Without Number.

| American ingenuity is the modern
| twenty or thirtyStory Office building, n
| type of structure rendered possible by
| two comparatively new inventions. the
passenger elevator and improved steel.
| Nowadays every high building in
| America is erected on skeleton of
| steel, which has to be of certain
| quality in order to bear the weight
| and the production Of such metals de-
ponds upon processes not long known.
As for the passenger elevator the first
devices of this kind were introduced
not more than thirty years ago. The
| dwellings of a hundred years ago
| even those of the rch-were vastly
| less comfortable than those of today
They We're not provided with running
water, which in the labOrer'S cottage
of the present time, is regarded as an
| Indispensable requisite to comfort
What is called modern plumbing was,
| Of course unknown, and the luxurious
bathroom. with its hot and cold water
and sanitary apparatus. was as yet
unheard of. There We're not even COM
| Portable stoves. and hot-air furnaces
We're a thing of the future. Nobody
| had yet thought Of steam heating.
The houses of that day had no
carpets of the modern sort, and wall
paper was unknown. Woodwork, now
produced by machinery, had then to be
| made by hand entirely. and was pro-
portionately expensive. All of these
things. now matters of course in every
well-to-do household, are nineteenth
century inventions. In the year 1900
pretty furniture was a luxury that cost
enormously; at present good and really
artistic things in the way of adorn-
ment for the bedroom, dining room and
drawing room can be obtained at
prices almost incredibly small. And
we must not forget the multitude of
small ornamental articles purchasable
today for next to nothing, all products
of modern ingenuity.
Convenience in the way of furniture
have been created in astonishing num-
bers in the last few years, among
which may be mentioned folding beds
and articles convertible TO a variety
OF uses. The kitchen utensils of today
would astonish the old-time house
keeper. from the mechanical egg
beaten to the dish washing machine.
1t is a mystery how the people of 1900
Spl iloIlS NllilOul VIE IlN StIttIiS
Cheap mirrors We're unknown to them.
If their dwellings, caught fire they had
no fire eXtinguisherS or fire escapes,
and there We're no steam fire engines
to come to the rescue. For illumnat-
ing houses there was nothing better
than oil lamps or candles. and such
thing as a friction match had not been
thought of. 1t was not until 1927 that
the lucifer match came into use. Think
what 4 revolution in human affairs has
been brought about by this little in
vention. Its discoverer deserves to be
called a second PrOmctheus.
There We're pianos of a sort in those
days, but nothing like those of the
present. Nowadays we even have
pianos that play themselves, and which
reproduce the performance Of the best
masters with absolute accuracy.
Through the development Of machin-
cry. indeed, more ana more of mans
work is being rclegated to automatic.
The printing press. perhaps the most
wonderful Of all mechanical achieve
ments. is a most highly complicated
automaton. In its latest form the
newspaper press prints several colors
at one impression, folding. stitching
and counting in an hour 1900 colored
supplements Of twenty-four pages
each. The presses used by the great
magazines move at a slower speed, but
do more perfect work several highly
specialized patterns Of machinery be
ing employed, according to the paper
used and the kind of printing to be
done. The machine that attaches the
cover to a magazine is another ingeni-
Gus device Of recent invention, one of
the many modern improvements that
have made it possible to place good
literature before the millions at the
low prices that now rule.
There could be no better illustration of
the progress of mechanical art during the
present century than is furnished by the
development of printing machinery. In
1SH the entire process of making n book
or n newspaper was done by hand. In
deed. newspapers as We know them prac-
tically did not exist. and the age of il
luStration. with its multitude of patented
processes for producing and multiplying
pictures. was yet to arrive. In those
days paper was made almost exclusively
of rags. and was very costly. Nobody
had thought Of utilizing for paper max
ing the material of the forests. which are
now being deVoured at the rate Of thou
sands Of square miles annually for the
production of the daily prints Still more
recent is the perfection of the linotype
or mechanical compoSitor, which sets
type with great accuracy and rdpidity
casting the molten metal as fast as the
words can fash through the mind and
fingers Of the operator who transcribes
the copy
Who supposed in 1900 that such a thing
as a machine for sewing would ever he
devised? Attached to the earliest model
| of Elias IIowe's invention. exhibited at
| the patent office. is a label on which IS
written the couplct:
~ am the iron needlewoman,
Born to toll but not to feel
| Another type of sewing machine has
been invented for operating on shoes,
ana in consequence of these wonderful
machines good clothing and good shoes
are now within the reach of almost cv-
eryone.
What the sewing machine has done in
the art of writing by the typewriter,
which may be said to have come into be-
ing within the last twenty years, indus
trally speaking. 1t has opened "A new
| field for wOmen'S work, and actually has
enormously increased the quantity Of
matter written. 1t has rendered letter
writing so easy that many people now
keep up a large correspondence who
would write very little by hand. Inciden-
tally the volume of the mails has been
proportionately augmented. Speaking OF
mails how striking it is to consider that
in 1900 there was no such thing as
mailing envelope or an adhesive postage
stamp! In those days it cost twenty-five
cents or more to send a letter a short
distance, whereas one now may snip an