Show the ago age of coal naming burning I 1 have heard that when king hudson in tho the zenith of his fame was asked as to what bis his railways were to do when wh ell all the tile coal was burned out he replied that ill at ly by that time we should have learned how to burn bum water those who are asked the same question now will often reply that they will use electricity and doubtless think that they have thus disposed of the question the fallacy of such answers is obvious A BO so called water gas may no doubt bo be used for developing heat but it is not the water which supplies the energy trains may inay bo be run by electricity but all that the electricity doea does is to convey the energy from the point where it is generated to tho the train which is in motion electricity is itself no more a source of power than is the rope with which a horse drags a boat along tho the canal tho the fact is that a very large part of the boasted advance of civilization is merely the acquisition of an increased rap capability ability of squandering for wl what bat are wo we doing every day but devising fresh appliances to exhaust with ith ever greater rapidity tho the hoard of coal al robert ball in fortnightly review |