The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-13
IF THEY COULD COMB BACK.


 IF THEY COULD coMB BACK. In looking back over the discoveries and inventions of & century of time it is sometimes interesting to think of wha. would be the feelings of some tcs to visit the earth in q flesh and 1 contrast the present era with the times in which they lived. We can hardly imagine. for instance. what would be the astonishment and won der of Benjamin Franklin if he could come back now and see the develop ment of the subtle electric fluid he was the first to understand in any degree.
 Franklin did not invent" electric ity. of course, It cannot fairly be said that he discovered 1t, but he was first to harness 1t in a way that gave promise of wonderful things, but the time had not arrived. All it's develop ment was to come after he was dead, and if he could return to earth he would hardly be able to believe what his own eyes would tell him. He would see houses and streets and cit- les illuminated In a way that hs could not have dreamed of. He would See street cars whizzing along with their loads of human beings, and various He would see powerful machinery in shops, factories and other industries driven by the same invisible fluid that came down the string of his kite. In short, he would find that the embryo he experimented with had become one of the most mighty and potent giants of earth. In all probability the glare and notse and confusion would make | him long to return to the quiet tomb, convinced that he had visited the wrong place.
 l When Watt and Newcommen and others were experimenting with steam engines. something like a century ago, they little dreamed of the growth that their infant would attain In a hun dred years. The rude and imperfect engines they constructed. and the ruder railway tracks they laid wore probably great curiosities to those who beheld them, but if these engi- neers and inventors could revisit their own country now they would doubt less wonder If such things could be as would be presented to their sight. They would see almost every part of England covered by railway tracks on which are enormous iron or steel rails, and on them engines of a size they never even dreamed of, going at almost lightning speed, and drawing such trains of cars as they would not have believed 1t possible for human again would be an evidence Of what great things may grow from small be- ginnings.
 | A trifIe more than a century has passed since Robert Fulton launched his little steamboat on the Hudson and made the first successful voyage in a vessel of that kind. We are told that thousands of curious people as- sembled to witness the wonderful sight as the little Clsrmont. actually propelled by steam, made her way against wind and current up the ma jestic Hudson river. No doubt 1t was wonderful sight. and many who went there to soon and ridicule the inventor were forced to acknowledge that he had done what he promised.
 No doubt Fulton thought he had &C., to think so. under all the circum- stances, but if he could visit New York now and view the mighty ves- sells now in use he would ask himself If he was looking on real objects or only imagining things. He would see steamships beside which tho Clermont would resemble mud-scow, and would witness degree of speed that would make his brain reel. Perhaps 1 he would ask himself If he did really build and operate a steamboat or had he dreamed it.
 | And so it would be all through