Evening star., 1941-11-09
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

Although now half a century old.
news item printed In The Star on No
vember 8, 1891, has a familiar ring.
The headlines would apply
Worship just as well today as then:
Renn;,. Repairing Warships-Work
Being Hurried al the Brook
lyn Navy Yard" The dispatch itself
read: These are busy times at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard Night and day
hammers resound through the usually
quiet yard. The big storehouses are
open all the time, and although from
the commandant down to the store
keeper one and all say there is nothing
up there is every indication of hur-
ried departure OF the feet for some
kind Of foreign service. On all the ships
additional coal room has been made and
extra stores taken on board.
The Bennington this morning had
steam up and was ready to put to sea
at moments notice All her men were
aboard and no one was allowed shore
leave. - The Atlanta which is on the
dry dock. was taking in coal and will
be ready for sea by Friday The officers
Of the ship were getting their dunnage
on board. = . The Chicago is another
ship ready for sea. and her men, wait
ing orders, were taken out in the yard
and drilled in shore movements. =
Work on the monitor Miantonomoh is
progressing with a rush and she will be
ready for sea in a few days. "'' A tele-
graphic order was received at the ord
nance department this morning to hurry
up certain guns"
A report from Vallejo Calf, told Of
equal activity on the West Coast The
reason for these activities,
Ihe although not mentioned Of
Reo.o, ficially by the State Depart
ment, was fear Of trouble
with Chile. American bluejackets. on
shore leave at Valparaiso, had been as
saulted by Chilean sailors. and some
had been murdered The rebel govern
ment, having just won power. had at
that time declined to take any action
in the case, and more trouble was brew
ing. Later they apologized and gave
reparations, but not until more vessels
Of our feet had proceeded to Chilean
waters to stand by.
On Saturday, November 7. 1891. The
Stars feature story was called Edison
ar His unrk EIi-
Edison sons comments and pre-
At Work dictions, in the light of
what has happened since,
show that he had a clear grasp of
science and its possibilities. although he
did fail to forecast the extreme impor-
tance OF one of his inventions, the kline
tograph. later developed into the multi
million dollar movie industry. Extracts
from the article follow: interviewer:
Twill We ever have flying machines?"
Mr.. Edison: ''Yes, think so. but it will
not be on any OF the plans now pro-
posed. have different idea in re-
gard to such matters. but am not
ready to experiment with them yet"
"He showed me his last inven-
ton which he calls by the name Of the
kinetograph. I saw one of these
machines in motion representing one
of Mr.. Edison's employees taking a
smoke and you can see the man raise
the cigar to his lips, turn his head and
blow out the smoke just as naturally as
though he were In life . = Mr.. Edison
expects to show this machine in it's
perfection at the Columbian Exposition" !"
Editorial note: 1t later was shown there,
and created q sensationD
Mr.. Edison also correctly forecast the
electrical transmission Of photographs,
now standard practice and commercially
profitable; and besides this he declared
that some day 1t would be possible to
operate typesetting machines electrically
from great distances. but he doubted II
1t would be profitable or extensive. So
far, Mr.. Edison was correct. Linotypes
have been operated in this way. bat only
- IN experiment.