Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-06-24

|
science, and the holy conquest OF
philanthropy. In the development OF
this purpose 1 snail rot invoke the
graces of trope and metaphor. nor seek
the aid of eloquence, but rather lie.
! the story be a plain, unvarnished tale
only pausing from time to time to en-
phasize the thought that these things
are all the fruit of the century il
which our fair city has grown from a
| struggling hamlet to its present
beautiful proportions, time almost
! covered by the memory of some who
honor me with their attention at this
| hour. First then let us consider those
| inventions which have annihilated
| time and space in the transportation OF
! thought and articles Of commerce. One
! hundred years ago no swifter courier
than stage coach and the breeze
driven ships brought tidings of life or
! death, communications as to the affairs
! OF state, or the message of the mer-
chant. The sail waited for the favor
ing winds and the slow moving wagon
was al the mercy Of the horse or the OK
/ when the storehouses Of commerce
We're empty. To American ingenuity
we owe the first improvement in this
| condition when Robert Fulton began
to navigate the Hudson river by a
steamboat in 1907, thereby preceding
by five years like navigation on the
Clyde and by ten years that upon the
| Thames. If the nineteenth century had
produced no other invention than the
application of steam power to naviga-
ton it would still have easily held first
place among the ages by reason of the
material benefit which it has bestowed
upon mankind. So familiar are we
now with the steamboat from the tiny
! launch to the mammoth floating pal
aces costing fortunes that it might
seem TO the younger generations a fable
I to say that when their grandfatherS
left the little hamlet of Waterville to
fight the battles of 1912 there were but
eleven steam driven vessels in the
world. one in England and ten in
America. At that time DR.. Lardner, i
great English scientist, was reported
to have declared that steam navigation
could never be made practicable, on
account of the great expense of opera
ton, and that no ship could ever cross
the Atlantic ocean by steam power
alone because it would not be possible
to carry coal sufficient to the voyage.
And yet, thanks to Yankee ingenuity
which our British cousins always re-
mctantly admit, so rapid and SO sue
ceSSlul was the development of steam
navigation that the same learned gen.
tleman, in less than three decades after
the trial trip of Fulton's little craft
DIS made, use the following gracious
language: Among the various ways in
which the steam engine has ministered
to the social progress of our race none
is more important and interesting
than the aid it has afforded to steam
navigation. Before it lent its giant
power to that art. locomotion over the
deep was attended with a degree OF
danger and uncertainty it seemed SO
necessary and so inevitable that, as a
common Droverb, it became the type
and representative OF everything else
which was precariuus and perilous.
How great has been the social progress,
and in what direction, everyone may
have some conception who will con-
template the amount of business now
done daily by steam vessels, how safely
and how swiftly it is done and how its
performance brings the market Of the
world to our very doors. But we should
not forget that steam navigation,
grown from the little ClaremOnt With
! it's speed Of less than five miles an hour
4 to that great ocean greyhound which q
/ short time ago crossed the broad At
! lantic in tritle over five days; grown
/ from the 'DemOlogOs,' 4 steam pro-
PEELED battery of 2476 tons to the mag
nific mt ships of the California class
/ with a record Of 1860 tons, is gift
of the century whose close we cele-
brate today. Made first by our English
cousins. this same century has also
seen the experiment of steam locOmO-
ton for railway purposes pass into the
realm of csta blished necessities and to-
day we Whrl across the continent in
less time than one might go from here
to New York when Waterville asked
the incorporation from the hands OF
the legislature of Massa ChusettS. The
transmission of thought by telegraph
ana telephone has now become so com
f mon as to excite no comment but i
: remains for Americans of the nine
teenth century to perfect telegraphl
so as to make it practical and to in
, vent the telephone which was an abSo
, lutely unknown factor in the world
progress little more than twenty-five
years ago. None can tell what the flu
r lure may have in store for those VIII
have abandoned the wire for the trans
| mission Of messages and are teaching
: the whispering airs of heaven to tel
l the story of MarcCni, but we may We
he proud of the fact that American en-
? terprise and American capital have no
? been sought in vain with which to ties
|. the pra teal value of this latest gift o
I invention. Descending to what Nigh
e be called a humber line | borrow for
Y moment the words of noted autho
f who saws: The comforts Of life hav
. been immeasurably increased by tn
= | adoption of things now termed com
t, mon and Indispensable. such as friction
y matches. gas lighting, electric ligh
$ and appliances. or steel pens-as We
If as modern methods of heating, plumb
:. ing and construction. But huma
4 life as it now exists among civilize
,e communities, owes still more perhap
If to cur new labor saving machine:
should we attempt to enumerate til
~ inventions of the century in this clas'
N time would fail and patience be eS
V. hausted with the telling Machines fo
l. the working of wood and iron, ms