Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-12
THE BRAIN OF MAN IS THE
GREATEST MACHINE YET
Automobile Engine Cannot Compare With
II, for the Creator Is Greater Than
Its Creature

/
l. sional and amateur, in the United
States than in any other country in the
world.
More things are done by machinery
! here than anywhere else. We have in
vented labor-saving devices and set the
pace for other nations. We have stan
dardized manufacture and simplltied
processes and multiplied luxuries until
the workingman enjoys greater comfort
than it was possible for Charlemagne to
buy with all his kingly wealth.
The steam filter or the plumber can
hear Caruso sing in his own parlor and
can make him repeat his song as often
as he pleases; the carpenter can talk
with his employer ten or fifty miles
away without leaving his own home, and
the trolley-car conductor can reproduce
on his mechanical piano the finest musi-
cal compositions. And they all do it.
Thus has mechanical invention
brought convenience and refinement into
the homes of the workers.
The world has made greater material
progress in the hundred years since 1919
than in all the centuries since it was
sent whirling into space mass of form
less vapor nobody knows how many cons
ago. During the last century the de-
vices for the use of steam on land and
sea have been perfected.
If Napoleon had had fleet of steam
ships he could have invaded England and
the history of Europe would have been
different. There might have been no
st. Helena.
If he had had railroads his expedition
into Russia would not have ended disas-
trously on the white and frozen plains
Of hostile country where the very
forces of nature fought against him.
Since his time we have subdued ma
ture and compelled the hidden forces to
do our bidding. Neither gasoline nor
petroleum was known to the great Cor
sican. The effect of their utilization
upon the progress of the last half CEN
tury would take volumes to tell.
We have invented the electric tele-
graph and the telephone, which have
brought the ends of the earth into famil-
lar converse with one another and have
done much toward revealing to the COM
monest man the brotherhood of the whole
human race. We have penetrated the
mysteries of the upper air and have
brought down electricity from its secret
spaces and used it for the wireless trans
mission of messages by signals, and
even by the spoken voice.
And we have taken the destructive
gases generated by volatile oils and put
them into an engine by means of which
vehicles are propelled on the highroads.
And more remarkable still, the forces of
gravity have succumbed to a greater
power, and these engines have carried
and are carrying man about in flying
machines above the clouds at an incredi-
BILE speed.
The internal combustion engine is one
of the greatest marvels of invention of
all time. And it is still in its infancy.
The automobile would be impossible
without it. 1t is likely to produce almost
as great a revolution in water traffic as
was brought about by the perfection of
the marine engine driven by steam.
The Great Eastern was commercial
failure for the reason that its engines
and the coal to supply the steam filled
| so much space that there was no room
left for a profitable cargo. The amount
Of space occupied by an internal COM
| bustion engine and its fuel is 30 small
that a ship equipped with one has its
hold almost wholly free for freight.
When the inventors begin to give their
attention to developing the engine for
ocean use steam is likely to disappear
from the sea.
The engine is used for all sorts OF
purposes on land. Many small factories
use no other power. 1t is used on farms
to drive machinery, to pump water and
to haul plows in the field, displacine
horses and wind power.
But its greatest use is in automobiles
This is why the statement with which VIC
began this article is true. There are
three and half million automobiles in
daily use in the United States at the
present time. Twenty years ago there
were only ten thousand.
Every owner Of an automobile Is ar
amateur machinist. He knows something
of the principles of mechanics and h,
can talk learnedly about differential.
and crank shafts and gaskets and cote,
pins and universal joints and horse
power and compression and gear boxe,
whether he knows much about them o,
not. He does know enough to operat,
his car, which, now that the inventor,
have simplified the processes, is SO cas-,
to manage that the fool, even though h,
ride. cannot blunder very much.
The cynic might say that the motor.
car is m admirable device for KILLING
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