Edward W. Byrn

“ What has not the steam engine done for the Nineteenth Century? It speeds the locomotive across the continent faster and farther than the birds can fly; no fish can equal the mighty steamship on the sea; it grinds our grain; it weaves our cloth; it prints our books; it forges our steel, and in every department of life it is the ubiquitous, tireless, potent agency of civilization. Does the ambitious young philosopher predict that electricity will supersede steam? ”

“ A labor-saving machine was looked upon askance as the enemy of the working man, and many an earnest inventor, after years of arduous thought and painstaking labor, saw his cherished model broken up and his hopes forever blasted by the animosity of his fellow men. But with the Nineteenth Century a new era has dawned. The legitimate results of inventions have been realized in larger incomes, shorter hours of labor, and lives so much richer in health, comfort, happiness, and usefulness, that to-day the inventor is a benefactor whom the world delights to honor. ”

“ The great things in life are comparatively few and far between, and the bulk of human existence is made up of an unclassified mass of little things, sown like sands along the shore of time between the boulders of great events. So also in invention is its warp and woof made up of a multitude of little threads behind the gorgeous patterns of meteoric genius. Every hour of the day of modern life is replete with the achievements of invention. ”

“ The surprises of the Nineteenth Century have been so many and so astounding, and the principles of this invention are so far correct, that it would be dogmatic to say that this hope may not be realized.
To the sum total of human knowledge no department of science has contributed more than that of optics. With the telescope man has climbed into the limitless space of the heavens, and ascertained the infinite vastness of the universe. The flaming sun which warms and vitalizes the world, is found more than ninety millions of miles away. ”

“ If Benjamin Franklin could wake from his long sleep and enter the composing rooms of our great dailies, and witness the imposing array of linotype machines, more resembling a machine shop than a printing office, and then visit the press room and see the avalanche of finished papers flying at the rate of 1,600 a minute, neatly folded, and counted for delivery, he would doubtless be overwhelmed with emotions of wonder and incredulity, for broad-minded man as he was, he could have no conception of such progress. ”

“ The speculative philosophy of the past is but a too empty consolation for short-lived, busy man, and, seeing with the eye of science the possibilities of matter, he has touched it with the divine breath of thought and made a new world.
When the Nineteenth Century registered its advent in history, the world of invention was a babe still in its swaddling clothes, but, with a consciousness of coming power, was beginning to stretch its strong young [4] arms into the tremendous energy of its life. James Watt had invented the steam engine. ”

“ Will not the chemist learn how to produce electricity direct from the combustion of coal, or solve the problem of the synthesis of food? Will not the American continent be parted by an inter-oceanic canal, or the rough waters of the English Channel be avoided with a submarine tunnel? May not a ship canal through France to the Mediterranean give to that country the connected enjoyment of riparian rights, without passing the frowning battlements of Gibraltar, or might not a tunnel under the Straits of Gibraltar put Europe and Africa in direct railway communication? ”

“ The relation of electricity to life is a field of pregnant possibilities, and may we not also learn to swap the surplus heat of summer for the winter’s cold, and by an equalization of their two extremes bring eternal spring and joy to the animated world? Shall we not yet stand on the North Pole, or looking away into space may we not extend a neighborly welcome to our brothers in Mars, if any there be? It is permitted to dream in this field, for it is this reaching out into the unknown that plats the boundaries of an extended world, and adds to the possessions of man. ”

“ The tender affection of a ray of light touches the heart of a rose, brings a blush to its cheek, and life, becoming the bride of chemical affinity, blooms into surpassing beauty and loveliness. Photography is closely allied to nature’s painting, for just as light brings into existence nature’s living beauties, so does light fix, preserve, and perpetuate these beauties by the same subtile and mysterious agency of a quickened chemical affinity. Photography is both an art and a science, and as such is both beautiful and true. ”

“ Never before has human conception so expressed itself in materialized embodiment, never has thought been so fruitfully wedded to the pregnant possibilities of matter, never has the divine function of creation been so closely approximated, never has such an accretion of helpful instrumentalities and material resources been added to the world’s wealth—not merely the miserly and inert wealth of gold and gems, but the wealth of an enlarged human existence. ”

“ It is the most compact, business-like, and dangerous of all utilitarian devices. To touch its brushes may be instant death, for the dynamo is the prison house of the lightning, and resents intrusion. Hidden away from public gaze in some sequestered power house, and working night and day like some tireless, dumb, [46] and mighty genii, it sends its magnetic thrills of force silently through the many miles of wire extending like radii from some great nerve center through the conduits in our streets, and stretching from pole to pole like giant cobwebs through the air. ”

“ So old an art, and so great and continuous a need for its products necessarily must have resulted in much development and progress. When the Nineteenth Century began, the world already enjoyed the results of Hargreaves’ spinning-jenny, Arkwright’s roll-drawing spinning machine, the mule spinner, the cotton gin, and the power loom, all of which were most radical inventions, equaling in importance, perhaps, any that have followed. ”

“ The influence of the steam engine upon the history and destiny of the world is an impressive subject, far beyond any intelligent computation or estimate. It has been the greatest moving force of the Nineteenth Century. The labor of 100,000 men for twenty years might build a great pyramid in Egypt, and it remains as a monument of patience only, but the genius of the modern inventor has organized a machine with muscles of steel, far more patient and tireless than those of the Egyptian slave. ”

“ Take the most matter-of-fact and prosy half hour of the day, that at the time of rising, and see what a faithful account of the average man’s everyday life would present. The awakening is definitely determined by an alarm clock, and the sleepy Nineteenth Century man rolling over under the seductive comfort of a spring bed, takes another nap, because he knows that the rapid transit cars will give him time to spare. Rising a little later his bare feet find a comfortable footing on a machine-made rug, until thrust into full fashioned hose, and ensconced in a pair of machine-sewed slippers. ”

“ The last century has been peculiarly an age of ideas and conservation of energy, materialized in practical embodiment as labor-saving inventions, often the product of a single mind, and partaking of the sacred quality of creation.
The old word of creation is, that God breathed into the clay the breath of life. In the new world of invention mind has breathed into matter, and a new and expanding creation unfolds itself. ”

“ A mere shell in construction, with engine and boiler built for highest speed, and crew suffering untold discomforts and dangers below, this modern engine of destruction, with the speed of an express locomotive, and the helplessness and deadly intent of a scorpion, darts up to the monster battleship under cover of darkness, and before being discovered discharges a torpedo and delivers a mortal wound in the side of the big ship which sends her to the bottom, perishing perhaps itself in the destruction which it works. ”

“ We can only say that the ideal sentiment of beating the sword into the plowshare is as yet the dream of the optimist, for man has gone right along in perfecting the arts of war and raising the execution of firearms to such a deadly efficacy, that the Nineteenth Century in a paramount degree has been conspicuously notable for its advances in this art. Invention after invention has followed in such rapid succession, even to the last years of the Nineteenth Century, until war now assumes the conditions of suicide and annihilation. ”

“ To-day the shuttle flies at the rate of 180 to 250 strokes a minute, and yet the complex organization of the machine works with an energy, a uniformity, an accuracy and a continuity that leaves far behind the strength of the arm, the memory of mind, and the accuracy of the human eye, and yet, if the tiny thread breaks, the whole organization instantly stops and patiently waits the remedial care of its watchful master. ”

“ Subtile as is the force imprisoned in inter-atomic relation, it has been the power behind the boom of the cannon; it has lent itself to the driving of great tunnels through the solid rock; it has lifted the coal and ore from the solid embrace of the mountain, and the building stone from its sleep in the quarry; it has opened up channels to the sea, canals on land, and in both war and peace has been one of the great agencies of civilization. ”

“ So crowded is the busy life of modern civilization with the evidences of his work, that it is impossible to open one’s eyes without seeing it on every hand, woven into the very fabric of daily existence. It is easy to lose sight of the wonderful when once familiar with it, and we usually fail to give the full measure of positive appreciation to the great things of this great age. ”

“ The right of a mother to her child is of this nature, and like unto it is the right of the inventor to the creation of his genius. In the last two centuries of the world’s history this right has been recognized by an enlightened civilization, and provision made for its enjoyment in the grant of patents, and if there be any right more strongly entrenched than another in the eternal verities of equity and justice it is this. Our first crude patent law was enacted in 1790, but not until 1836 was the present system adopted. ”

“ But not only in portraiture is photography a great art, for it catches the stately pose of the mountain, the grandeur of the sea, the beauty of the forest, or the majesty of Niagara Falls, and brings them all home to us, even to the vision of the bed-ridden invalid. The camera alike records the secrets of the starry heavens and the bacteria of the microscopic world. ”

“ Tense with a deep meaning which no stage simulation could approximate, and with the smoke of conflict for a drop curtain, it has laid tragedies upon the pages of history, and changed the maps of the world; while behind the scenes the great passenger steamers, with their uninterrupted traffic of human freight, are more silently, but none the less surely, stirring the peoples of the earth into the homogeneous ferment of civilization, and slowly moulding nations into the solidarity of a common brotherhood. ”

“ Brilliant arc lamps, rivaling the sun in power, make night into day, and produce [47] along our streets coruscations, silhouettes, and dancing shadows in spectacular and unceasing pageants. From the towering lighthouses of our coasts its beams are thrown seaward, and a beacon for the mariner shines beyond all other lights. The great search light of our ships is in itself but a hollow mockery until the dynamo whispers in its ear the word “light!” and then its beam, reaching for miles along the horizon, discovers a stealthy enemy, or signals the safe return to port. ”

“ The old man in his dreams of the past rejoices in his achievements, for he has stolen the fires of Prometheus and forged anew the thunderbolts of Jove for the arts of peace. Delving into the secret recesses of the earth, he has tapped the hidden supplies of nature’s fuel, has invaded her treasure house of gold and silver, robbed Mother Earth of her hoarded stores, and possessed himself of her family record, finding on the pages of geology sixty millions of years’ existence. ”

“ Even up to the beginning of this century so strong a hold had superstition on the human mind, that inventions were almost synonymous with the black arts, and the struggling genius had not only to contend with the natural laws and the thousand and one expected difficulties that hedge the path of the inventor, but had also to overcome the far greater obstacles of ignorant fear and bigoted prejudice. ”

“ This is no easy task, for the comparison not only involves the experiences of two generations, but it is like the juxtaposition of a star with the noonday sun, whose superior brilliancy obliterates the lesser light. But reverse the wheels of progress, and let us make a quick run of one hundred years into the past, and what are our experiences? Before we get to our destination we find the wheels themselves beginning to thump and jolt, and the passage becomes more difficult, more uncomfortable, and so much slower. ”

“ Of all the inventions which man has called into existence to aid him in the fulfillment of his destiny, none so closely resembles man himself in his dual quality of body and soul as the telegraph. It too has a body and soul. We see the wire and the electro-magnet, but not the vital principle which animates it. ”

“ The average individual knows very little about hydrogen, but he is very well acquainted with air, and when he was told that the air that he breathes—the gentle zephyr that blows—the wind that storms from the north, or twists itself into the rage of a cyclone in Kansas—may be bound down in liquid form, and imprisoned within the limits of an open tumbler, or be bottled up in a flask or even frozen solid, he was at first impressed with the suspicion of a fairy story. ”

“ But railroads and steam-cars constitute only one of the stirring elements of modern civilization. As we make the backward run of one hundred years we have passed by many milestones of progress. Let us see if we can count some of them as they disappear behind us. We quickly lose the telephone, phonograph and graphophone. We no longer see the cable-cars or electric railways. The electric lights have gone out. The telegraph disappears. The sewing machine, reaper, and thresher have passed away, and so also have all india-rubber goods. ”