The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-25
HASkIN On
10Th CENTURY
advertiser Correspondence. Copyright
by Frederic J. Haskin.}

/ advertiser Correspondents. C0pyr1gh
by Frederic J. Haskin.)
As the world today looks back upol
the reign of Elizabeth as the golden
| age Of letters. upon the era Of Pericle
as the golden age of Greek civilization
so the world of the future will Iool
back upon the twentieth century a.
| the golden age of science. The won.
derful inventions and discoveries O
the nineteenth century have already
changed the whole world. but there /.
good reason for the faith of scientific
men that they were only the seeds
scattered from the hand of the sower
the promise of the full fruition to
come in this present century.
The scientists of the United States
do not lead all the world, it is true,
but the Americans are first in the ap-
plication of science to practical af-
fairs. There was a time when the sci
enlist was a recluse who pursued his
painstaking Investigations merely for
the love of his work Nowadays the
scientist works with a purpose-and
that purpose the desire TO tighten the
burden, increase the usefulness and
add to the pleasure of every living
man.
Every field of human inquiry is be-
ing examined into with the slow, pa
tient. careful and intelligent question
ing of the scientist. Every discovery
made is instantly applied to some
problem of actual life. Time was, and
not SO long ago, that the world laugh
ed at the bespectacled man who bent
for years over his microscope looking
at bugs The world laughs no
longer That much despised ''bugolo-
gist" has freed the race from mortal
fear of many diseases. he has found
the way to prevent devastating blights
which destroyed useful plants, he is
still tirelessly at work for the good OF
mankind.
The great problem of the inventor
and the scientist of the future will be
the utilization of what the people now
waste in this country. For instance,
it is said that the railroads of the
United States use 150,000,00o tons Of
coal a year in their engines. and that
Sy
is utilized. the energy of the other
142, 500. 600 tons passing uselessly away
into the air. Every ton Of this wasted
coal gives off $1,000 pounds of carboniG
acid gas and each pound of it has as
much efficiency in it as three pounds
of steam. Thus. every year the rail-
roads alone waste power equivalent 10
fwenty-seyen tFillion pounds of steam.
Think of the wonderful benefits the
man will confer upon humanity who
will find a practical way TO utilize only
sone-haif of the wasted energy! II all
coaEa consumption shows a proportion
ate amount of wasted energy it means
,thatsin the United states we annually
lose the energy of more than sixty-nve
strfllfon pounds of steam. That energy,
properly doled out, would be sufi1cient
to meet all the power requirements OF
the whole world Some idea of its IN
conceivable immensely may be gather
ed from the statement that if every
one of the twenty five million horses
in the United states were required to
exert their full pulling power, il would
take them more than $500 years. work
ing eight hours out of every day and
3uU udSS out Oh every yeah ~ ~ 80 -
a like amount of work.
Then there is the waste of water
power. The total amount of water
power used in 1865 was about a mil
lion and a half horsepower. If the
streams Of the United States from the
smallest available mountain brook up
to the waterfalls and rapids of the big
rivers were harnessed, ii would prob
ably show hundredfoId increase over
the present capacity, or enough to fur
nish the power of the whole nation a
hundred years hence. BY the utiHza-
ton of the hydro-eIectric principle the
millions of horsepower now going to
waste in the mountain Businesses or
the country can be brought out into
human ha5itations and made TO bear
its burden in a growing civilization.
Every community in the land could
have its hydro-electric plant just as 1t
now has its blacksmith shop and its
grist mill. With his storage batteries
the farmer would have a cheap sub
stftute for his horses, having them re-
pIenished just as he now goes to the
blacksmith shop to have his horses
shod. Or, perhaps it viii come even
closer To MN. 1OIdy tEAE tt4k AAANA 80
advanced rural communities who mas
no telephone is rarity. Why not
electric transmission plants reaching
every farm? There are today inter-
urban railroads which sell their sur
plus current to farmers within their
territory at less than half the cost Of
horsepower. Is it beyond the hope OF
a century's progress TO see thing in
general use which has already proved
its value? As the years come and go,
farms will get smaller and men viii be
forced to consider every item Of ex-
pense, and to reduce waste 10 the mini
mum. Electric power viii be one or
the things 10 come as a result OF this
twentieth century development.
There Is even possibility that wire
transmission Of power may be sue
ceeded in the future. Wireless tele-
gra ply looked impossible until within
a few years ago. Seeing by wire, or
telephotography. would seem an idle
dream but for the fact that we know
it has been accomplished. But beyond
this even. we would have regarded the
dfschargfng Of a torpedo by wireless
communication. within range OF
seven miles, as impossible And yet