Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1896 — THE DOMAIN OF DISCOVERY. [ARTICLE]

THE DOMAIN OF DISCOVERY.

POSSIBLE INVENTIONS THAT WILL ' VASTLY BENEFIT MANKIND. Utilizing ths Waves of Ocean Waters— , A Storage Battery will Solve the Flying Machine Problem—Portable Refrigeration Wanted. The new and wonderful photography i Which depicts the interior of solid ob- I jects and the discovery of argon, a , hitherto unsuspected quality of the atmosphere, show that progress nowa-I days is steady and rapid in the physical I sciences. There are several Important ; discoveries now receiving the attention of scientists and experimenters, who. almost any day. may stumble upon the right solution of problems which will yield untold wealth to the discoverer and confer lasting benefits on mankind. There is in the first place -he vast problem of utilizing the force and power of the sea. The waves that break upon our Atlantic seaboard exert in a single day a greater force than all the steam engines of the United States combined. Ocean’s mighty power, which tosses the largest steamship as a toy, upbuilds vast territories of sand only to destroy them again and thunders on a lee shore with all the violence of the heaven’s artillery, is a pitiable spectacle of wasted energy. The mighty strength of Niagara is hardly as great as that of the waves on a hundred miles of seashore. The problem involved is merely a mechanical one. You must find a mach'ue which will rise and fall with the tide, and which will be so strong as to withstand the greatest force of the incoming breakers. The swells of ocean which no v vol! in upon a thousand miles of shore must be stopped and made to gi,ve up their force. The machine which will extract this force from the waves must meet them, and take it up by preventing them from wasting their strength in simple breakers. A great wheel properly supported and balanced, it would seem, could be turned by these waves, and each revolution might represent thousands of tons of energy. A somewhat similar problem is how to utilize the mighty force of the tides, which come and go daily with resistless flow. Look in the water at high tide, and its mere weight in a large enclosure represents thousands of horse power, which could be utilized ns the water is released. This force has been ustd in many seaboard countries in a crude and trifling manner, but upon a large and comprehensive scale the experiment has never been tried. 'The electrical storage battery is a machine upon whose discovery many oilier problems are waiting for solution. The mechanism that would take the power from the waves would be uneven in its work, according as the sea was high or low, but with a proper storage battery the vast energy of a storm could be ston'd to maki up for the inefflciences of the succeeding calm.

When the ideal storage hatte-y is discovered, the flying machine problem will be nearly solved. Men are jn'evented now from flying because tlbe weight of the propelling engine they have to take along diminishes the lifting power and requires gas-bags, wings or aeroplanes too big to be practicable. If you could take along the power of 1000 horses stored in a two-pound block of metal, releasing it as required, then flying would be within the reach of all. Practicable flying machines would revolutionize warfare, making it possible to drop dynamite on armies mid mtn-of-war, so that forts would be. useless and submarine vessels only would be safe. The latter also wait for the storage battery to be discovered. An intense heat is also wanted. By this means the sand of the seashore could be melted into a cheap and excellent building material, •easily handled before the melting and more permanent than any brick. A way of making cold as easily trod cheaply as heat is now produced is also wanted. By this means houses could be cooled in summer, just as they are now heated in winter, and life in the hottest parts of the tropics could be robbed of many of its terrors. Portable refrigerators is another problem connected with this question. Malleable glass was used by the Phoenicians, and the secret of how it was made has been lost. The rediscovery of this lost art will revolutionize building. In medicine it is hoped that Micteriology contains the germ of a new sei'Ci.ee which will entirely change practice. It is now believed that every disease lias its microbe, although a few •only have been identified. With the identification of each disease microbe the discovery of its proper antidote is likely soon to follow. Drugs would thus become obsolete, and th? stomach would no longer be destroyed by chemicals, an instantaneous effect being secured through the iutuswu of the proper antidote in the bkt>d. Telegraphy without wires is a problem upon which Tesla is working. A means to combat the army worm is also wanted, as well as a thorough system for the disinfection of city sewers and a practicable method of household garbage cremation. Photography in the colors of nature has long been the dream of scientists, but it yet remains a mystery. The new gas is cheaper and more powerful than the old, but can be eclipsed in these respects by electricity. A cheaper electric light is wanted, ami there is big money awaiting the man who will invent cheap telephones nr cheap typewriters. A new cheap music box has realized fortunes within three years, but its price may be yet reduced.