The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-08-05
DREAMS that COME TRUE

other, though at never so great '
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 it 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 manner
that it could move round without inn
pediment 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 a certain hour of the day,
and to converse with one another by
means of this, their invention " BY
this means they talked together across
a whole continent and conveyed their
thoughts to one another in an instant
over cities and mountains, seas or
deserts"
1t will be seen how close is the de-
scription of this dial instrument to
the A b c telegraph of Wheatstone
, which, until it was superseded by the
telegraph, 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 justi-
J fed in regarding this as being pro-
| phetical of the more recent invention
, OF Marconi.
Roger Bacon 0214-94 may have
/ foreseen the possibility of making dy-
Mantle and other powerful explosives
, when he wrote the following words:
J "A small portion of matter, about the
> size of the thumb, properly disposed
| will make a tremendous sound and
t coruscatiOn, by which cities and arm
= les 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 a
doomed place from a distance of seven
miles or more, a terrible example of
: that power of propellants which was
' witnessed in the war in the Far East
\ The torpedo was very well described
! by Ben Jonson three hundred years
e ago, as the following bit of dialogue,
q taken from his STAPLE of News" pro,
. duced in 1926, will show:
Barber: They write here of one
o Cornelus-son hath made the Holland
: ers an invisible eel to swim the haver
4 at Dunkirk and sink all the shipping
o there.
"Pennyboy: But how it's done?
"Cymbal; I'll show you, sir 1t is al
. automon, runs under water with
, SNUG nose, and has nimble tail mad
4. like an auger, with which tail sh
i, wriggles betwixt the costs (ribs) of
!. ship and sinks it straight
q 'Pennyboy: A most brave device t,
v murder their fiat bottoms"
q No doubt, however, can be entertain
=. ed regarding the reality of the various
,. devices described and illustrated il
l. the work by Hero of Alexandria, VIII,
d fourished about 100 b. c. In this bool
e may be found the prototype of tn
l. steam turbine, the form OF engine tina
e has come to the front within the las
n few years.
n Turning over the pages of Hero
S, work, we are, reminded that the slo
IS machines which seem to us modern
e such a new way of dispensing SINAI
II articles are by no means new in prir
n. ciple. Here a machine is describe
n and figured which is provided with
slot, the dropping of a coin With