The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-02-19
ghe Wlessrngrr.
HOW GREAT NEW INVENTIONS
WERE ANTICIPATED.


Thomas all Baptist ministers, that he
stov and a money safe. They had been
buried more than eighteen centuries
he also saw stepping stones across a
street precisely like those to be seen on
Liberty street. Baltimore. Some veal
or two ago we read in a British Review
of indications that the telegraph was
perhaps known to the Romans before
Christ. Another statement We met with
that a system of something like short
hand was used by a Roman, and by
others We tax it.
We are reminded of these old things,
supposed however new things, of the
last century or two by a recent very
instructive paper that appeared in the
English Good Words" by Mr.. II. G..
Archer. The title of his article is
Modern Inventions Anticipated" We
propose briefly to Mention some of these
and they will be sure 10 interest man
of the readers Of the Messenger. Solo
mon, we think it was. who said there
is nothing new under the sun" Mr..
<lCnCI dlNIlD0lCS lAol dAlIAChL So Il6
TO modern English people. He gives
another saying. as from the French,
that 1T is only the new that has been
forgotten" True n striking.
The Calling gun (by a North CAROLYN
ian, DR.. Gatling) of the great war was
anticipated by much more h n
hundred years. In 1920 Mr.. James
Puckle made a large revolver on a trr-
red. The breech was turned by hand
AM the gun was six-chambered. 1t
nd an elevating ARRANGEMENT n
coIld be turned in any direction. The
C,.ambers were removable at pleasure.
He tried to "foat his gun as a COM
pany." 1t disappeared after this and
the idea itself lay dormant for another
hundred and fifty years" An old print
with verses by Puckle on his ma
chine are extant.
Another old idea thought to be strict
Iy new is sound vibrations. in A. D.,
9S2, a Chinese professor demonstrated
that the far speaking tube had been
invented by IAN inhabitant of Peking."
Later, it is stated. in 1876. Raphael, the
great painter. made a drawing that
furnishes us with an unconscious but
none the less most remarkable antici-
patton of the greatest inventions of the
age"-BelPs discovery and Edison's
monograph. The latter was anticipat-
ed by the now we'll known Cyrano de
Bergerac. Near the middle of the sew
ienteenth century he published a book
entitled 9TH Comical History of States
and Empires of the Moon and Sum-" 1t
is full of strange adventures. He tells
of a book given him that had neither
leaves nor letters" a book wholly for
the ears and not for the eyes" The full
description is given of it but We mere
ly wish to indicate it's 1t talk
ed just like an Edison monograph. The
%invento says when one wishes to read
The winds UP that machine, with a
great many little strings: then he turns
his hand to the chapter which he de-
sires to read land straight as from the
mouth of a man. or a musical instru-
ment proceed all the distinct and diff
ferent sounds which the lunar grandees
makes use of for expressing their
thoughts instead of language
In 164S. Bishop Wilkins. English, in
his Mathematical Magick," anticipates
the very same latter-day invention. He
says of the proposed invention of one
Walchius that the words will come
out of 1t in the same order as wherein
they were spoken" The "coin-in-the-
slot is very old, but supposed to be re-
cent. A great mathematician, Hero Of
Alexander, invented an apparatus built
on the same idea Of the present auto
matte invention. That was between
III and ISL after Christ.
Would you believe that road locomo-
tives or motor-cars were old? The au-
thor of the paper writes:
For thanks to the avarice of toll
keepers, the hostilities OF o trustees
and the outside influence brought TO
bear upon members of parliament, the
doom of the motor-cars which flour
ished during the early portion of this
century was sealed lust when their flu
ture seemed brightest, n the idea
was not revived until sixty years had
elapsed. From 1921 to 1881 Sir Colds
worthy Quincy and Sir Charles Dance
experimental successfully with steam
barouches and phaetons; but at the end
OF the year 1881 an Act was passed pro-
hibiting their use in all but London n
the home counties. Walter Hancock, a
Stratford engineer. had for many years
turned his talents in the same direction,
and when Quincy and Dance were COM
PEELED to retire from the field, he came
forward with some steam omnibuses OF
his own manufacture"
Much is said of this but we must
hasten on. We MENTION further that
the EZRA" coach attained to speed of II
miles an hour. In 1886. 1851 passengers
were conveyed 1900 miles by these self
propelling road vehicles. A law in 1910.
ended the work.
The wireless biography is Old-is as
old as telegraphy itself. Mr.. Archer
writes that Roger Bacon the famou
oid scholar known to literary students,