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Show THE REVIEW. (Continued from page S.) buted them over the face of the earth in fixed quantitative proportions. the rarer, They almost always nearer the surface, and procured with less expense, but not in sufficient quantities to answer the demand of the worlds traffic, if alone used as the medium of exchange. Manifestly, they were meant to supplement each other. But the philosophers stone has really, at last, been found, ard silver is actually transformed into gold. In the United States mints there are now specimens of this transformed metal which stand all the tests applied to gold dug from the earth, and cannot be distinguished from it. It is a singular and startling fact that in transforming silver into gold, the reduction of quantity required maintains the same fixed ratio. It is the law written in the eternal hills, and that same unchanging law is now retranscribed by the hand of science with its pen of iron and its point of a diamond. When Edison has completed and applied his electrical process for ore extraction, the entire system of metallurgy will doubtless be revolutionized. The problem that most has needed solution in our agricultural world, has been how to overcome the disadvantage of the long distance of the wealth producer from the ports of commerce. The wheat fields of Minnesota and Dakota yield their golden harvests for the needs of the hungry millions; but the long railroad lines that must carry the precious cereals consume the profits of the farmer: Californias orange orchards and her amber grapes ripen deliciously in the mellow sun light; but the delays and expenses, incident to their long transportation, rob the grower of his gains. The transmission of power through long distances, by means of the alternating currents of electrical transformers, is, then, an immense gain in the possibilities of feeding the multitudes. The water courses that leap laughing down our mountains, become reservoirs of limitless power to move the worlds granaries; and the harnessing of Niagara was a phenomenal feat, more remarkable for what it promises in the deve co-exi- st; lopment of the western world than for anything it can accomplish in New York and Canada. It has been believed that the use of eleectricity in railroad traction, must be limited to the large centers of population, because, in using coal to develop power, from 85 to 90 per cent of heating value is lost in boiler and engine; but, with water power within easy access, as it will be when it is transmitted undiminished from 40 to 100 miles, the use of coal can be superseded and its expense cease to be an obstacle. However, in these days to meet a difficulty, it seems to be only necessary to state it; a genius, somewhere on the Pacific slope, has invented a transformer, in which the absorbing thirst of red hot iron for oxygen drinks it from water, thereby liberating hydrogen to be used as heat material, unlimited in extent so long as the waters, divided on earths natal morning, shall continue to bathe the shores of the green continents. With so many sources of cheap fuel it is not likely that the steam locomotive will soon be disused, where heavy freight is to be carried long distances. But the multiplication of the wealth of our plutocracy means the multiplication of luxurious desires and the craving for more refined gratifications. The noise, dust and smoke of the steam engine interfere with the enjoyment of our palatial cars, and there is no questioning the prophecy that, at no distant date, electric cars will monopolize passenger traffic. An inventor in Philadelphia, has devised a huge wheel moved noiselessly by electricity, which revolves with a rapidity that would enable it to travel at the rate of 150 miles per hour. The cars, meanwhile placed one above the other, are carried without apparent motion, inside the revolving circumference. This arrangement, innovation upon common sense as it appears, has been satisfactorily tested on a short line in Pennsylvania, and capitalists are preparing to put it in successful operation. The idea seems chimerical, an imagination at which we smile derisively; but men more than smiled, they laughed to scorn the suggestion that we could ap ply electrical traction to Street Railways. No longer ago than 1887, a convention of Street Railway men declared it a waste of time to discuss so unpractical a measure. But electric railways triumphed none the less. But man was born with a sublime discontent, and Progress is divine Discontents son and heir. It is not enough that the swift wing of steam shall carry us on its strong pinion. It is not enough that electricity sends its light rays with the brightness of the full moon, more than nine miles over the sea; not enough that we can chat with our representative in China, and photograph the hidden heart of the mountains; man will never be satisfied merely to walk and ride at any speed upon the land, and sail upon the sea, so long as he sees the bird plume his pinions and soar gracefully through the mazes of the infinite have been inazure. Many vented, but generally their direction air-shi- ps and guidance have been uncertain, and have brought their passengers to grief. A son of Edison, the master magician, has at last perfected a scheme that promises to accomplish the hitherto unattainable. It is managed by sails, sewed into small compartments, each of which is inflated with the gas It needs that is the motive power. a small share of the spirit of prophecy to predict that the day of aerial navigation is already dawning and will soon pass into recognized fullness. Then the heart will no longer sigh with the poet: Oh that to me the wings were given, That bear the turtle to her nest, Then would I cleave the vault of Heaven, And flee away and be at rest. When the spirit of weariness oppresses and the soul longs for change, we will step lightly into our air ships and sail away from the miasmatic lowlands into the clear realms of ether. Our Goulds and Vanderbilts will fit luxurious air carriages instead of gorgeously furnished cars, and the general traveling public, when about to journey, instead of hunting railroad time tables, and hours when steamers leave the ocean ports will go to the lines and hail the aerial vehicle with the ease and accuracy with which the Venetian summons his light sailing gondola. Is this a picture too fanciful to be realized in literal verity? Quien sabe? air-sh- ip |