Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-07-25
DREAMS THAT CAME TRUE.
Instances Where Romance Anticipated
Fact,

Instances Where Romance Anticipated
| Fact.
A proverb which by constant reiter-
alton has become somewhat rusty,
tells us that Truth is stranger than
fiction" and we have constant evil
dence of this outstripping of romance
by reality. 1t Is not so generally known
that romance has often anticipated
sober fact, says the Scientific Ameri-
can; but such Is the case. In the pres
ent article 1t is proposed to enumer-
ate few instances which appear to be
of unusual interest.
| In the year 1869 the Suez canal, one
of the most important engineering en-
terprises ever undertaken, was open
ed to the worlds traffic. 1t was fore
shadowed as long ago as the sixteenth
century by Christopher Marlowe, one
of the early English poets lin the fol-
| lowing lines:
Thence marched / into Egypt and
| Arabia,
And here, not far from Alexandria,
L S~N~
| meet,
Being distant less than full hundred
| leagues,
/ meant to cut a channel to them
| both
That men might quickly sail to India"
1t may be urged with reference to
| this quotation that so soon as 1t be-
came possible to make an approx
mately correct chart OF the world the
advantage of cutting through the
Isthmus must have been apparent to
many, and that Marlowe merely re-
hected 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 his
| torian, who was born at Rome in the
year 1872.
| Addison quotes Strada in one of his
noted essays; but we need hardly say
that in doing so he had no notion OF
any anticipation Of the electric tele-
graph, for Adds On died just century
before communication by that means
became possible. Addison writes
thus:
"Strada, in one Of his profusions,
gives an account Of a chimerical cor
respondence between two friends by
the help of a certain lodestone which
| had such virtue in 1t that II 1t touch
ed two several needles when one OF
the needles so touched began to move,
| the other, though at never so great a
distance, moved at the same time and
| in the same manner. He tells us that
| two friends, being each OF them pos
sessed of one of these needles, made a
kind of dial-plate inscribing 1t with
the four-and-twenty letters. and In
| the same manner as the hours OF the
day are marked on the ordinary dial
plate.
They then fixed one Of the needles
| on each Of these plates in such a man
ner that 1t could move round without
impediment so as to touch any Of the
four and twenty letters. Upon their
separating from one another into dis
tant countries, they agreed to with
draw themselves punctually into their
closets at certain hour Of the day,
and to converse with one another by
means of this, their invention
Ely this means they talked together
across a whole continent, and convey
ed their thoughts to one another In an
instant over cities and mountains,
seas or deserts"
It will be seen how close is the de-
scription of this dial instrument to the
A B telegraph of Wheatstone which
until it was superseded by the tele-
graph, was in common use In many
Offices But as there Is no mention Of
any conducting wires between the two
friends in communication, we are JUS
titled in regarding this as being pro-
phetical of the more recent invention
of Marconi.
Roger Bacon G214-94 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 dis
posed, will make a tremendous sound
and coruscation, by which cities and
armies 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 matter upon
doomed place from a distance OF
seven miles or more, a terrible exam
pie Of the power Of propellants which
was witnessed in the war In the east
The torpedo was very well describ-
ed by Ben Johnson three hundred
years ago, as the following bit Of dia-
logue, taken from his STAPLE Of
News" produced in 1925, will show:
"Barber-They write here of one
Cornelius-son hath made the Holland
ers an invisible eel to swim the haven
at Dunkirk and sink all the shipping
there.
"Pennyboy-But how is it done?
"Cymbal-I'll show you, sir. 1t Is
an automon, runs under water, with a
SNUG nose, and has a nimble tail made
like an auger, with which tail she
wriggles betwixt the costs (ribs) of a
ship and sinks 1t straight
"Pennyboy-A most brave device to
murder their fiat bottoms"
No doubt, however, can be enter
tained regarding the reality Of the va
rious devices described and illustrat-
ed in the work by Hero Of Alexandria,
who fourished about 100 B. C.. In
this book may be found the prototype
of the steam turbine, the form OF en-
gine that has come to the front within
the last few years.
Turning over the pages Of Hero's
work, we are reminded that the slot
machines which seem to us moderns
such a new way Of dispensing small
articles are by no means new in prin-
ciple. Here a machine is described
and figured which is provided with a
slot the dropping of coin within
which will cause a measured quantity
of the liquid to flow out.
1t has been contended that strange
foreshadowing Of the X-rays is to be
found In a book by DR.. Andrew Blair
entitled annals Of the Twenty-ninth
Century" The date of the work Is not
given, but the prediction, If it may be
called such, runs as follows:
II perceived the Secundines could
not only make glass and stones and all
inorganic substances malleable. but
possessed a power undreamed of by
man of making them transparent. il
was shown animals upon which the
youths were taught zoology and COM
parative anatomy, I'm some Of which
the skin was like a glass case showing
beneath the working Of the muscles.
In others the skin and muscles were
pellucid. showing the circulatory sys-
tenn. In others all was perspicuous