Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-07-08

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Dated sober fact; but such is the case.
In the year 1869 the Suez canal, one
of the most important engineering en-
terprises ever undertaken, was opened
20 the worlds traffic. 1t was fore
Swallowed ss long ago as the sixteenth
centuary b Christopher Marlowe, one
OF the early English poets, in the toll
lowing lines
Thence marched l into Egypt and Ar
abba,
And here, not far from Alexandria,
Wh3reat the Terrene and the Red Sea
meet,
Being distant less than full a hundred
leagues,
I meant to cut channel to them both,
That men might quickly sail to India.
1t may be urged with reference TO
this quotation that So soon as il be-
came possible to make an approx
mately correst chart of the world, the
advantage of cutting through the
dsthmus must have been apparent to
many, and that Marlowe merely re-
dected the thought of others.
This, of course, is likely to be the
case but no such plea can be urged
against the very curious anticipation
OF wireless telegraphy by Strada, the
italian historian, who was born at
Rome in the year 1872. Addison quo
tes SSrada in one of his noted essays;
but we need hardly say that In doing
so he had no notion of any anticipa-
ton of the electric telegraph, for Ad.
olson died just a century before com
munication by that means became pos
sible. Addison writes thus:
"Strada, in one of his prolusions,
gives an account of chimericai CORES
pondence between two friends by the
help Of a certain lodestone which had
such virtue in it that If it touched two
several needles, when one of the need
les so touched began to move, the
other, though at never so great a dis.
tance, moved at the same time in the
same manner.
He tells us that two friends, being
each Of them possessed Of one of these
needles, made a kind of dial-plate, in
scribing it with the four-and-twenIy
letters, and in the same manner on
the ordinary dial-plate. They then
fixed one of the needles on each of
these plates in such manner that it
could move round without impeachment
so as to touch any of tie four-and
twenty letters
Upon their separating from one an
other into distant countries, they
agreed To withdraw themselr IS pup Ct
ually into their closets a. a certain
hour of the day and to converse with
one another by means of this their
invention across a whole
continent. and conveyed their thoughts
TO one another in an instant over cit
les and mountains, seas or DESERTS.
1t will be seen how close is the de-
5cription of this dial instrument TO
the A B C telegraph of Wheatstone,
which, until IL was superseded by the
telephone( was common use in many
Offices. But as there is no mention of
any conducting wires between the
two friends in communication, we are
justified in regarding this as being
Drophetical of the more recent inven-
tion Of Mareoni.
Roger Bacon (121+94) may have
foreseen the possibility of making dy-
mantle and other powerful explosives
when he wrote the following words.
A small portion of matter, about the
size of the thumb. properly disposed,
will make a tremendous sound and
coruscation, by which cities and arm
les might be destroyed"
But he does not go so far as to hint
that it would ever become possible to
throw small parcels of explosive mat
ter upon a doomed place from a dis
tance of seven miles or more a terri
bic example of the power of propel-
1ants which We are witnessing today
In eastern waters.
Reference to the war in the IA east
reminds us that the torpedo was very
well described by Ben JonsoI nearly
800 years ago, as the following bit of
dialogue taken from his Staple of
News. produced in 1925, will show:
"Barber-They write here of one
Cornelius-son hath made the Hollan-
ders an invisible eel to swim the ha-
ven at Dunkirk and sink all the ship
ping there
''Pennyboy-But how is't done?
"Cymbal-Ill show you. sir. It is
an automa, runs under water, with
Snug nose and has a nimble tail made
like an anger, with which tail she
wriggles betwixt the coats (ribs1 OF
a ship and sinks it straight
Pennyboy-A most brave device to
murder their bottoms"
This extract calls to mind an anus
ing story which was current a few
years back with reference to the ori-
gin Of. the steam propeller. A fisher
man out in a small boat had the mis-,
fortune to lose the cork from the
small boat hole near the keel, with
which such boats are always provided
Having nothing else at hand to stop
the leak, he thrust into the hole from
the outside lively eel which he had
just caught. and the motion Of the
creatures tail. in its efforts TO get
free. propelled the boat home. and
gave its owner the first motion of the
screw.
This Dry is quite aprocryhal: but