Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-02-29
Marvellous Inventions.
SPLENDID RESULTS OF HUMAN INGENUITY.

may we'll ask, now mat so many Things
have been invented. aad it will be an
s#ered only by the future. It is not
strange question 10 ask. for in many
lines OF endeavor Inventors seem to
have reached tn anne Of all Of our
desires, II we consider for a moment
tlte type OF locomotive thai is in use
today on the big railroads of the coun-
try We feel sure indeed that il can not
be improved upon. 1t seems to con-
tain everything REQUIRED for strength
and speed consistent with economy and
safety, yet undounteAlN new parts Will
he added even this wear tEat viii tend
to even further increase its efficiency
Electricity Seems 10 have been sue
cessfully harnessea To an uses for
which il appears at this time 70 have
been adapted, for while il is being
utilized to further advantage every
day. Yet it is aIons the same lines
which We have been following for some
time, and if we have but lately dis
covered that street ears cs14 be run by
the aid of storage batteries and with
out the necessity of wires. Yet we have
been using both electric street cars and
storage batteries fer other purposes
for a long time We have lighted our
railway coaches, SIeepers and diners
with electricity: we have installed
electric fans in these ears, but we had
both the lights and The. fans years ago.
We have not invented something new.
but we have found new use for some
thing we already possessed. and we
lhave improved upoa our former meth
DDS. In other lines our progress has
also been very wonderful. We have
heavier than air living machine. and
man has flown against the air currents.
and it is undoubtedly toward the aero
plane. the monopane and such other
air craft that the greatest inventive
talent of the world is NOW being di-
rected We desire To make our con-
quest of the air more sure and TO inn
prove our methods Of living, and above
all to make it safe. or as near safe as
il may he.
Let us consider for a moment the
other things that We have had for some
time and are enjoying at this very
moment We have Of course, the
motor car, with its enormous power
ana its high speed; the monorail. the
turbine steamship wireless teiegra pms
and wireless telephones; telephotog-
iraphy for the transmission of pictures
and photographs by Wire, and even
| without wire: teleylsion. which enables
one In see a perfect reflection Of the
person with W'hem he is conVersing;
the telegraph typewriter, which en-
ables us 10 write upon a typewriter
from any reasonable distance. We
have bottled sunshine delivered every
morning at our doors the same rs the
bottled milk. The business man in
New Orleans can dictate letters by
dietographs 10 half a dozen stcnog-
raphers ia Mobile, Shreveport. Calves
ton eaton Rouge Memphis or Monroe
without leaving his desk. He can talk
to them all at once if he so desires.
We can buy music by the meter like
gas or water. If you don't care Tor the
music box you can have phonosraph.
! q il you don. I care To 50 10 the
opera or il you can't afford 10 YOU can
sit at home and write letters While
Caruso or Constantine sirss for YOUR
amusemt as many songs as you care
/ for and as OFTEN as you care II You
can't play the piano you can sit oH Il
stool and work your feet on piano
board and have canned" music by the
yard. or as many yards of perforated
paper music roll as sou can paS for.
Transportation facilities both on
land and sea have improved wonder
fully. With the submarine man has
invaded the depths of the sea, sinking,
rising or travelling in any desired d.
reetion Securely hidden below the
surface the operator of the submarine
looks into his periscope and observes
all that is going on around him above
water for radius of several miles.
! We have color photography and We
have motion pictures and better stun
we have eolored motion pictures and
still further step in that direction we
have talking pictures.
| Perpetual motion yet remains to be
discovered, and the closest thing That
we have to it is a timepiece devised by
Hon. r. ]. Strut. the son OF LORD
Rayleigh Of London. 1t consists OF
two leaves of aluminium, an exhausted
glass tube and a fraction of a grain OF
radium. The apparently inexhausti-
BILE radio-activity of the radium causes
the aluminium leaves to move once III
minute and with a wireless coherer
bell rings at each movement. For
10, 900 years at least the wonderful en-
ergy inherent in the microscopicai
piece of radium will, it is calculated
continue to act. and nothing Whatever
needs to be done TO the clock once 1t is
set going.
one of the important improvements
in aerial biography makes 1t posslple
for four operators to send and receive
messages simultaneously from the
same aerial station. one of the hrst
obstacles To a completely suecessiui
operation OF wireless telegraphy was
rather relicved-as such. In inc
in ha