St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-01-09
Inventions of the Century.

This has bee a century of mechanism.
A hundred years ago people were con-
tent to live by hand, as it were; now
people live CHIEFLY by complicated ma
chinery. Civiz d mans mode OF exist
ence has b, en- totally altered by his in
ventions The world has gone patent
mad. In the United States alone there
were 623 535 patents granted in the 90
wears from 1887 to 1898. During it's ex-
isrence the parent uffice has received
more than $4,000 900 IN ees. On car,
riaees and wagons more than 10000
patents have hen granted; on stoves
and furnaces, $4,000; on lamps, gas fit
t,ngs. harveslers, boots and shoes aud
rcct ptacles FIR storing 10 600 each. The
total OF patents for the civilized world is
easily twice that OF the United Safes.
With t. invention of the steam engine
the world shrunk at bound to twtn
tieth OF its formt size. Where he lumber
mg stage coach or the Flooding caravan
took weeks the flying express covers the
distance in a few hours. The trip across
thi, continent used to be matter OF lite
and death Now it is matter of 500
and take your ease as you go. In 1925
the first steam road was opened BET WI en-
Stockton and Darlington, England. A
wear later a similar experiment was
m de at Quincy, Mass, where the engine
hauled stone for distance OF tour miles.
! The first passenger ROAD in this country
was the Baltimore and Ohio, opened in
| 1880 with a mi leage oil IA miles. Today
there are 21O 906 miles Of railroad il
This country, 1913 PIG in Europe, 26, 1874
in South America 81 1902 IN Asa, 9 97S
in At lea and 1881 in Australasia.
Early in the history Of railroadIng IL
miles an hour was considered recklessly
fast. In January, 1899, train on the
Burlingt on route, in run from Siding to
Arlon "a miles, did the dis ance in l
minute and 20 seconds, or at the rate of
! 1OS miles an hour.
| Mail communication was as expensive
as it was slow in the old days 1t cost
a shilling to get letter anywhere when
the century began and shilling in those
days IT presented tar more than it now
does Now two cents will carry letter
to the Philippines or around the corner.
Then he mail matter handed was too
Insignificant Tor statistics; now there are
rs 600 post offices in this country, hand
ling postal MAJ ter OF all kinds o total
of 7 SIC, 10000 pieces. The first tele-
graph line IN This country was 0pened in
1914 In 1899 there were 9O4 633 miles
Of wire in use in this country II 1913, $50
messages were sent that year. The year
1900 knew no telephone. A hundred
Years later sees TIP 9S9 miles OF teIe-
phone wire in use. connected with 465-
$50 stations al d answering 1881 0OO,-
900 Ills year. When the century was
new il took weeks TO get news ,Om
Europe Today it takes six seconds.
To-day there are 170,950 miles OF sub
marine cables, all LAID since he first ca bic,
F,el IS great achievement was laid in
1857.
Electricity has come to the aid OF steam
to traffic. There are more than l 600
electric street car lines in operation in the
Unite States. with a capltallza ion OF
ST, 700 600 900 The same electric pow
err, only dimly known before the wonder
tul century, now lights our cities. In the
Unied States there are half a million arc
lights and about twenty million mean
descent lights, The latter being equiva
lent in l'ght-eiviug capacity of 100000
900 candle tips such as hey used in 1900
While the railroad have served to dltfuse
the population from one end Of the land
to the other, another invention has serv.
ed to centralze 1.-THE elevator.
In other times they built houses Of
wood and brick. Now they construct
hem OF steel and iron. AMI so carefully