Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-02

In the innumera bile assem- blies of
gayety which ushered in the New
Year, how many "happers and es-
corts there We're who we're not present
when the twentieth century arrived.
A quarter of century seems 1"
youth an interminab bic age. such
changes. Why. one can recall that
in the beginning there were horses on
the street and few automobiles. \
decade previous to the quarter of
century there were no automobiles.
and even well-to-do folks drove in
busgies or rode in mule-drawn street
cars But little more than two quar-
ter centuries steam draw trains for
Philadelphia were stopped AT the linn
IT'S of the CITY 50 that the locomotives
might be detached and mules might
be hitched TO bring the cars To the
station, lest the steam engines cause
a horse panic.
At the same time, there were no
electric lights. no telephones. no
N-rays no known radium. no radios,
no wireless talking across the oceans.
ELECTRICITY then was a plaSthing. I'M
known in practical industry. Steam
power was almost a curiosity, nd Tor
decades after the Centennial EXpoSi-
ton ora tors eXpatiated over the mon
strous dynamics OF the Corliss steam
engine because 1t was capable OF sup
plving power to run all the machinery
Of the exposition. Today single steam
engines develop 5000 horsepower
How modern are all the mechanical
| improvements so common In industry
today, II is less than a century ago
when Stephenson's locomotive won
| first prize because II could pun =
/ small load so miles an hour on level
road. 1t Is less than "a years ago
when Joseph Henry. q New York
Academy teacher. made the first
! electro agnet. without which we
| could have neither telegraph. tele-
uhone nor any electrical machinery.
, Four years before an English scientist
! had "proved" that an electric tete-
! rranh was 'impossible." because the
power of an electro-masnet was de.
creased in proportion to the length OF
| the wire.
Henry laid the foundation for
Morse's telegraph and a few years
| later for electric motors. Then came
| Faraday with his demonstration that
not only could electricity create power,
| but also power could create e!ec-
| tricity-making the present super
L
| tribution of power over radius OF
! hundreds of miles from waterfalls and
| coal mines Thus the industrial world
/ has expanded and multiplied WITHIN
! less than a century, dating back from
| Yesterday. Who can measure the I'M
| nortance of that answer to- the fore
| holdings of Nautilus. who century
| AGO figured that today the Worio
! would be so populous that il would be
| impossible to produce food sufncleh'
| 10 prevent general starvation?
Electricity and wireless waves. Last
evening one listened in upon his radio
and heard music in London. clearly
audible in America! The LoCarno
treaty NAV be powerful In preventing
| future wars. but when men OF all
nations talk together over the waves
and human voices span the oceans. II
seems almost repetition OF the
angels singing peace on earth.
X * X
Ii Is less than quarter of cen
tury since the most advanced sclen-
lists have learned that chemical
| ANALYSIS of foods could not discover
their ultimate nutritive qualities since
no one knew of the existence OF vita
mines, without which food, alone, leads
', to disease and starvation.
1t is less IMAM d century since
ba cteriology taught of the micro
scopic life of the infinitely small,
which preyed upon or sustained all
life Entomology is less than 100
wears old, and the study of insect life
is of such vast Importance that DIR.
| Howard, the entomologist of the De.
partment of Agriculture. startles the
world by a recent announcement that
/ lust as man has succeeded the huge
dinosaur in conquering the world so
the insect may outlive man and be-
come the big bug" of creation.
DR.. Howard proves that the small
is bigger than the great-at least in
] evolution-for while the dinosaur has