El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-11-26

double the speed of our fastest ex-
press trains. They admit that such
speed cannot be attained with the pres
ent reciprocating counter balanced To-
comotive; that it would pound both
itself and the roadbed to pieces. But
they say with a perfect rotary engine
and an ideal roadbed they can carry
passengers from Washington TO New
York more quickly than they do from
Philadelphia to New York today, and
that the trip from New York to Chi
cago could be made between lunch
and dinner time.
Power of Nitrogen.
Nitrogen, when applied to the soil in
proper quantities, possesses the almost
magical power of making four blades
of grass grow where one grew before
1t is one Of the most plentiful things
In the world, existing in incalculable
quantities in free air, but 1t comes
down only with the lightning stroke
mad the rain drop, and then in insuffi-
cient quantities. So it is now being
extracted irons the air by electro-m me-
chanical methods. The inventor who
will find cheap method of extracting
It will make the United States able
to support a population of 300,0O0,Qo0
people more advantageously than 1t
now supports 100. 100000.
The properties of that latest and
greatest of the discovered elements
radium-are so wonderful as to beggar
description. A ton of it would heat
and light a palace through thousands
of generations, losing not more than
an ounce of weight or energy in 1,O0O,-
600 years. Sir J. J. Thompson, before
the Royal institution of England, not
long ago attempted to describe some
Of its powers. He declared that IL
man could use it in war he might hurl
projectiles as big as houses with We
locity thousand times greater than
that of the finest projectile military
science has yet produced. Flour worm
larvae have been made to live three
times as long as their natural span
of life both as larva and as moth. 1t
was as if a boy had been made to live
more than 200 years and still retained
his youth Applications of radium
rays have made monsters out of tad
poles and have artificially fertilized
the eggs of the sea urchin- Radium
is so elusive that 1t is worth 5000 times
its weight in gold. Yet indications are
that it is plentiful awaiting only the
Liquid Air Possibilities.
The possibilities of liquid air are no
less interesting than those of radium.
have been attained. The gaseous air
in a small room can be compressed
into a bucketful Of liquid air. Put
piece of steel into it, and although
the LIQUID air is cold enough to freeze
mercury it will burn the steel as easily
as pine knot burns in an open CRATE.
Place the pailful of liquid air on ice
and it will begin to boil 1t will per-
NIT man to handle il as he pleases. ex-
hot xx-i1I allow itself RI he
confined Enclose it in an air tight
vessel and an explosion follows that
would make an explosion of nitro
glycerin seem like a baby firecracker
in comparison The man who will eff
fectively harness liquid air may work
even more of a transforms ton in hui
man existence than did those who gave
US our modern applications of cleo
tricity.
One scarcely can realize how rapidly
the tide of invention is rising in the
world today. The late Prof. Langley
once declared he had archaeological
evidence that it took mankind thou
sands of years to learn to sharpen his
stone ak by rubbing it on another
stone Certain it is that Andrew Jack
son had no better means of communi-
eating the victory of New Orleans to
Washington than that used in the days
of Abraham of Xerxes. The octoge-
marian OF today has seen more human
progress than all the generations since
Adam. He has seen man multiply his
powers in vast proportions: add in
finitely to his well being; and subtract
wonderfully from his limitations.
Standing on the acropolis of the
greatest 80 years in all history, and
peering from that en1inence into the
future, the inventors today tell US that
the Golden Age has not yet dawned;
that the only Golden Age they see Is
the one of realizing that illimitable
possibilities am yet ahead, and that
we are seemingly as far removed from
the Ultima Thule of what genius may
accomplish as we were years ago.
They believe that each invention opens
new fields of possibilities, and that no
man living can predict the end. 1t is
q matter of American pride that her
genius has perfected a majority Of the
race benefiting inventions of modern !
times. and of equal qualification that
American inventors are still in the
vanguard of human achievements.
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