The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-22
AGE OF INVENTION A Theory That It Is Already Passing Slowly
 Away.
NOT AS PROLIFIC AS IT WAS
Some Interesting Facts Set Forth in Support of the
 Theory.

careful study of the history of mechanical progress convinces me that the inventive age attained the prime or It's splendid career in the years in- elusive of 1876 and 1896, and that in that wonderful period the world wit messed the conception and practical de- velopment of larger number of val uable devices than any preceding era. also that it is decidedly improbable that any future generation will ap- preach its record. Before our optimis- tic friends scoff at this rather dismal prediction l will ask them to name some really great invention or discov. cry which has been announced since 1896. He may name scores of little devices, but if he will look into the facts he will likely find that all of them are based on the superb series of fundamental inventions and discov- cries which marked 1S76-96.
 Suppose that those years were stricken out of mechanical and scien- tific advancement-wha would the world be denied? The telephone. cleo tric lights, both arc and incandescent; gas lights of high intensity and econ omy, duplex and multiple telegraphy, the typewriter, electric heating, all the innumerable forms of electric bells and signalling, automobiles, bicycles, motor cycles, motor boats, typesetting machines, the phonograph, high speed elevators, scientific cold storage and refrigeration. steel buildings which have revolutionized our cities-the list is far from complete, but those who are not properly impressed with this list may reflect that 1S76-96 also added such lesser inventions and sys- l tems as cable railroads (now discard | ed), cameras and all sorts of photo- i graphic material suitable for popular use, r-brakcs, safety couplings, safe- ' ty razors, smoke consumers, pneumat- { ic tubes, electric photography. moving picture machines. the wonders of mod ern dentistry and the bewildering as- sortment of breakfast foods.
 All these and many more were crowded into the twenty-year period have in mind and again I ask those who think we are keeping up the pace then set to name few inventions which deserve to be classed with the I thirty which have been enumerated. 1 Would it be advisable to discard the telephone or electric lights for all that has been added to Invention since 1896? How many of the recent inven- tions would it take to offset the elec- tric railway systems of the United States? Since when was there created an industry of the extent of the auto mobile? When has there been devised two inventions which have given so much pleasure and created so much annoyance as the photograph and the automatic piano? What inventor in the last ten years has done as much for the business man as did the per- feCIl0n OI the NpeWTlleT WHO ifdS contributed to the newspaper owner or publisher an invention as valuable as the typesetting machine? What would happen to the world tomorrow if it's storage batteries lost their efficiency? When will some inventor do as much for business architecture as did the genius who designed building with steel frame and multiplied the prac- tcal height and efficiency of a struc- ture by six or eight?
 It will be urged that the principles of such inventions as the telephone electric light typewriter and other epoch- making devices were known in advance of 1876. Admitted. but what of it? We now know the principle of extracting heat and power directly from coal without combustion, and tho consequent waste, but this fact will not detract from the credit of the man who solves the problem--if it ever is solved. None of the things I have enumerated was in practical operation in 1816.-Frederick Upham Adams in
 Appleton's Magazine.