Boys' Second Book of Inventions

And the possibilities of the mercury tube – indeed, of incandescent gas tubes in general – have by no means been exhausted. A new door has been opened to investigators, and no one knows what science will find in the treasure-house – perhaps new and more wonderful inventions, perhaps the very secret of electricity itself. Mr. Hewitt is still busily engaged in experimenting along these lines, both in the realm of abstract science and in that of practical invention. He is too careful a scientist, however, to speak much of the future, but those who are most familiar with his methods of work predict that the three inventions he has already announced are only forerunners of many other discoveries.

The chief pursuit of science and invention in this day of wonders is the electrical conquest of the world, the introduction of the electrical age. The electric motor is driving out the steam locomotive, the electric light is superseding gas and kerosene, the waterfall must soon take the place of coal. But certain great problems stand like solid walls in the way of development, part of them problems of science, part of mechanical efficiency. The battle of science is, indeed, not unlike real war, charging its way over one battlement after another, until the very citadel of final secret is captured. Mr. Hewitt with his three inventions has led the way over some of the most serious present barriers in the progress of technical electricity, enabling the whole industry, in a hundred different phases of its progress, to go forward.

THE END

notes

1

In the first "Boys' Book of Inventions," the author devoted a chapter entitled "Through the Air" to the interesting work of the inventors of flying machines who have experimented with aëroplanes; that is, soaring machines modelled after the wings of a bird. The work of Professor S. P. Langley with his marvellous Aërodrome, and that of Hiram Maxim and of Otto Lilienthal, were given especial consideration. In the present chapter attention is directed to an entirely different class of flying machines – the steerable balloons.