| Show ADVANCES OF SCIENCE are made in the fickle Llari manner ncr of nature THE TEE or OF MAU to fly and dd ional strum aluminium Is needed bet ra rivis itile ithe in clay baal development of of tile tho L copyrights copyright IWO 1500 by jolln jolin dark clark ridpath Eid path VIII in human history there is little that is logical whoever attempts to apply the syllogism to the affairs of men and nations will be disappointed it may not no be doubted that the civilized life goes forward by regular stages but the stages cannot be calculated or predicted the advances are made in the capacious capucio ng manner of the natural world meteorology is on tho the whole a bottei science than history the event of the tha atmosphere may be discerned at least a few hours before it comes hot but nau ufa life gives EO 60 little premonition of 0 its purpose that no human foresight foie sight can foretell its notion for a day the principal reason of the irregular progress pro giess gless of events is to be found in the fact that modern civilization so profoundly with fit alm is amov movements e of science it has science tor for the tha chief condit condition loa of its growth and evolution and science itself is variable the irregular advances of science are tho the chief cause of the ca prices of progress la in man life i it is tile the unforeseen that comes to pass because the advance of science Is whimsical tho the scientific tille evolution spreads over the earth and posses possesses seu it in themar the manlier luer of a vino vine growing whither it will not all of the learned societies in the world can turn one tendril in this direction or in that As a result all invention and all application ci c nature ii laws and consequently all progress are bound to conform to the capric capricious ions movements of a fact that is iu in nowise understood since one cannot see the next stage in scientific development and since the mind is so constituted as to run before exist existing inq conditions and to expect this form oll 01 that as the next aspect of the civilized life there them is a constant break between baci fact slid and expectation it is thus literally the unexpected thing that occurs and the expected that thai bomes late or never comes at all por this rison renson the predictions of the prophet are not fulfilled take the case of flying for more than years aerial navigation has bag been expect expected ted it was expected before there them was a steam cylinder in tho the world before there wc a cartridge before there was a of public postage that man should le able to lift himself a little and mik inake c his way through the air seems to bo be one of the easiest and most ni da i i il A stages in progress the ocean is a cj and the atmosphere is a sea tto nm gato gate tile the water was one of the earliest exploits of man to navigate the air has been his long standing anding fit ambition yet he be has not succeeded in doing it he has not made perceptible progress iu in the direction of doing it the scientific ev evolution uan does not seem to lie that way tho the end of the he century finds the principal inhabitant of the earth able to fly as far as he can jump between him and the frog considered as aeronaut aero honors are easy fifteen years yeara ago there was more to be expected from the phonograph than from either the telephone or the electrical light or both tile the possibility of the phonograph was and is larger than th the e possibility of either of the of other her tv two 0 tho phonograph is perhaps the hint ever suggested iu in the intellect na nial sphere it points to a complete in the method of learning and in all the recorded forms of literature it proposes to put beck back upon the natural basis tile the entire mental prod nets of the world by sound and the human ear to their normal offices in the tha acquirement and re registration istra of knowledge it proposes to t alia ake every child among the nations and to promote and complete his bis education along thu same lines which ho he happily followed from his moth bothern mothern mo thern fars knee until his progress was broken broke by an artificial entrance into the kingdom of books but the scheme for the restoration ot of memory and lor for making every man his hin own secretary does not noi seem to work it does not apply itself tho the telephone tele goes goc on oil to perfection and opens up the world wor III every man speaks to his bis udah her bor the electrical light illumine rl the he world every man sees his neighbor darkness and crime slink awny away t together toge a get h m 1 and hido hide in the same fame bed but the dimmed and exhausted eye is still hill obliged to dothe wink ot of the tar car UK as well as its As own iu in the he prodigious tuska tasks of learning the ibe earth has bag in it a giant tantalus ns called aluminium out of every clay bank the giant groans to lie ile delivered if a of clay bearing 60 parts of a 1 ahn 1 gium could be made to give up its it treasure ore for a leant ther the world would lie be transformed What whatever evir so called Co design sigar there is ia in nature is ie here hem taws iab 1 l I 1 1 l reri rl ri t 1 and ana put lint at fault buu tho 1 new moral anil and seeks it with all his ingenuity ity but the tha ruffied chemist is obliged iri in old age to find companion bhim with the bankrupt aeronaut neither does the tie one fly nor tho the other faud fi a way the tha nations ate aie walking on a bell bed of metal more useful than iron and mole beatti beautiful ful than silver walling walking and gliding net act seeing without the ability to gilt get A largo part of the sur see face of tile the earth is waiting to bo be fused iu in tile lutei ests of a higher and more beautiful civilization and do discoverer lends leads the way man hoping to find the way sees suddenly above his bead in an elect electrical lical light lie ile beholds a stretched clied wire and hears a man cian talking fion sa lern lem to san an diego he be beholds a car flying arloss tile the plain at 90 miles the b hour 0 ur no go visible agent of propulsion I 1 all these have como come while ile ha ban baa been seeking tho the means of fusing a metal that thai ought in all reason to melt and pour on out of the tha earth in a shining chining river at tho the slightest vouch touch of science the age of aluminium is retarded by that caprice of the civilized life which leads it nito unexpected places and holds it back tor for a century from tho the anticipated and longed for or goal i the whole system of locomotion is 1 threatened with imminent revolution 1 tho the tw two 0 horses one of flesh and one of 0 iron one eating oats and the other coal find their vocations going away together science threatens to burn I 1 their carcasses on the same pyre electricity i offers itself as a locollo locomotive etive force i tor for the nations the steam locomotive vaunted emblem and token of the great areat eat of the centuries finds itself at the close about to be relegated to the great ash heap of curiosities before which civilization stands laughing buethe but the thing is riot not yet certain we cannot make haste baste to diga dig a grave tor for the locomotive it may be that the twentieth century will still demand that heavy clumsy but very efficient brute whose office it has been for two generations to carry man and his products to the ends ol of the earth the substitution of electricity tor for steam as a motive force on the great railways of the united states which now flow seems so imminent will be if it come the most marvelous single change that has bag ever occurred among the physics of the civilized life of man oddly enough the event is held bold back by one cue of the ca prices of progress the strength of the locomotive is in its imperfection the application of steam to enginery is accompanied with an error which has cost civilization more dearly than any other flaw in her apparatus the acceptance of electricity as the one great motive force is strongly impeded by a circumstance which according to all logical ought long lone since to have been obviated this circum stance lies in the application of heat beat or rather in the evolution of heat beat ind and its it economy in the production of power fully fout fifthe of all the fuel of the world are thrown away the of people in the un united led states aro are burning up their own must precious resources 60 with an absolute w waste aste of more mole than 80 per cent of the whole victor hugo chided the parisians Pari for sending annually nallY thron li tile the sew sewers eri of francs into the ra what at shall we say fay of the bhola olied 1 I III shoveling coal into the roar roaring ilig throaty of 0 furnaces there is ii bot an engine anywhere 1 or gocr or was that economizes economizer ar moro more than 20 per cent of the fuel it devours sometimes progress performs the act of the fabled scorpion it bends forward its ita scaly tail and stings itself to death this act not altogether rare in modern modem times may maybe be called the suicide of progress as the historian is greatly perplexed sometimes discouraged with this phenomenon meno at intervals the beneficent forces of civilization gather volume and run on till they become organic 14 in some come great result and then the hinder part bart of the movement bending over plants it a deadly dart in in its own vitals the discovery of the coal oil fields within the he present generation has powerfully affected iffe cred the industry industrial ial life and Intine somewhat what modified the domestic life of the american people our I 1 institutions have baa given opportunity for monopoly to fix itself on tho the bays basis of this vast sub sea of wealth the crust of the earth has been bored through in places in order that the artesian streamy streams might spring up f for the lubrication and lighting and heating of the world the several monopolies of the great industry combine themselves into one 0 over ver this a single figure rises as the emperor of oil bo be becomes the owner not only y of man but of nature ile he makes goe neology elegy his superintendent and ha haf god for his silent partner dy and by lie he has of wealth all the other millionaires aro are below him the princes find monarchs monarch fi of all christendom are dolight cd with tile the honor of his acquaintance and he is is a philanthropist ile he wishes well to his him und kind perhaps Ier hapa he can afford to give away a little glancing ground around the horizon of the world the emperor of oil sees chicago that marvel of the century there lie he will build a monument for the good af of man there he will endows endow a great university ver sity doling being modest he will not ae ac acci its it name but lid he will I for the highest development of tho abo intellectual and moral powers of the people by nod add by a friend of his by cruelly oppressing and wronging his ahou thousands s a of cf workmen pro produces duLes an iu in r t ion by which the reace peace of the nation i 1 disturbed the tha IT ander der man ground down own rises at last in revolt and shaken a cn ched ht fist at the lie monopoly y which for 30 nirh icari has double char charged ged every pais rr for or III hi beith chicago is ia shaken with the tumult in tile the aci philanthropic university the professor or of economics faithful to duty ald truth offers a modest word of criticism ile ha shows that there is a gas monopoly in the tha city and that it is better policy for a city to supply its own people with gas and water all the monopolies are at one when they are assail assailed col chicago gas looked over at the emperor of oil and said eaid you yon have produced an institution ution which supports a mau man who lias criticized criticised me and pullman put him out fint presto the thing is done professor demis is notified that while his services ar are e appreciated the tha environment is not congenial to his work and to himself his resignation is accepted and the chair is filled with one who is ia presumably in sympathy with wilh the business in interests of the country the oilfields oil fields of ohio and pennsylvania send up their floods of power in order that civilization may bo be promoted in order that wealth may be accumulated in order that a university may be founded and ela endowed dowed in order that eliat the hi highest bliest and best thought of thac university the head and brain of it be to speak may be lie stung to death with the bent up t tail ail of the coal oil scorpion it is one of the ca prices of progress JOHN CLARK |
