March, 1879. THE WEST SHORE. 87 ROOM FOR INVENTION. We frequently hear the remark that the time will toon come when the course of invention will be run; when, like Alexander, inventive genius will weep, because there are no more worlds to conquer. The fact that iron fingers have in so many branches of industry been made to perform tasks onoe done by bone and sinew; that electric throbbing have outstripped the fleet messenger in business affairs, and the iron horse with food of burning ooals carries the love-letter and the meal-sack, where onoe the out-fed country steed galloped along the hard-beaten road. These facts are impressive and suggestive, but not convincing on the sub jeot of an ultimate limit to inventive usefulness or inventive power. The ball of progress in rolling along has wrapped about it many a layer of ideas formed into tangible facts; but the per iphery grows, and the capacity for enlargement grows with it As the circle of knowledge widens, the illimitable space beyond still more increases, and there is both more to learn and greater ability to learn it If the nmlt of man were the sole gauge of his demands, there might well be a point at which invention, satis fied with granting all needful things, would be compelled to rest But "to want means both "to lack" and "to desire;" the food and shelter and clothing absolutely requisite devolop into luxuries of palate and (esthetic taste. The rude needle of bono that sewed with sinew the boar skin cloak and made of it a deiinitn garment, was an invention that might have sufficed in its line, had the skin-garment satisfied ; but demand and supply are comnieusurately progressive; esch surpasses each, onward in the march of progress; and now we have that household com panion, the sewing machine, purriug like kit ten, while basting, sewing, hemming, gather ing, tidily at high speed; this modern sewing machine being as legitimately the development of the bone needle, as the fashionable garment of to-day is the outgrowth of the fig leaf of Eve and the skin covering of her son. Our wauta have become artificial. With suc cessive generations, luxuries develop into cus tomary grants and eventually become necessities. Our condition is ameliorated, and henoe our appreciation sharpened, while certain faculties have become dulled and invention must supply their places or their deficiencies. Where inven tion hsi produced an effect it is for invention to extend and perfect it Thus, in every walk of life it is for cunning brain and deft fingers to effect new combinations or perfect the old, fear leu of thwart or limit In proof that with im provement criticism becomes more keen, and demauda more imperative, we have only to look about us for promising fields to engage the in ventor. While the harvest of golden grain no longer falls before the classic sickle, and the hay maker has oaased to be a picturesque inspir ation for the poet the root-crops still demand personal delving and grubbing, and the ripened fruiti still call for human pickers to pluck them on by one. For the invootors who would de vise a mode removing half the blossoms from a peach tree, without injuring the buds which form the next year's bearing stains, there awaits a magnificent prize. Ramie and other fibers still defy the textile art; and the gorgeous aniline dyes fade with a summer's sun. Household fires, onoe eynonyms of health and cheerfulness, are now gloomy and noxious monuments of oar heedlessness of things sanitary. Those do mestic conveniences that should minister to our comfort and well-being, poison us insidiously but sorely. Our vaunted gaslights blacken oar paint and kill oar window plants, while in the street, the pipes which lead the gas destroy oar shade tree. Oar sewers and oar drains are confounded in nam and in use, and both of then an poisonous. Oar chimney breath forth sntok which is un consumed fuel, aad heooe wasteful. Oar steam boilers, with Partly consumed fool, supply oar engines with wet team, aad the engines (whoa cylinders have to be supplied with oil, through faultv deeign and workuiausiupi waste part ot the remainder. Onr hones, shod with no regard to humanity or for tractive effect draw wagons or can which rattle our teeth out, on road or rails whioh rattle the vehicle to pieces. The explosives which long ago wen constrained to throw hurt ful missiles, have but in one instance -blasting been employed in eaoaful work ; if we may except the gunpowder pile driver, the precursor of a long line of exploaive motor yet to come. For these, and hundreds of other evils, inven tive genius must provide th remedy; aud as new and artificial want arise and develop into necessities, upon the inventor, ever in the van guard, devolves the duty of exploring the land of the possible and providing for the legions of the actual. It might be said that as science falls into the ranks of knowledge, and art after art is added to the forces of man, the field of true invention would narrow, and that of improvement, oombi nutiou and application correspondingly widon. And this distinction may not perhaps be im proper to draw, nor inappropriate to apply, Certain it is, that as oliaervation and experience lay down the facts, and reason deduces there from the theories and evolves from these again the laws which govern things tangible aud forces intangible, the plane of the inventer will rise higher and higher, and his usefulness will never diminish. It is to him that races uulmrn, nations unformed, countries unexplorad, look to for their betterment and the achievement of their substantial welfare. Through him the antagonism between man anil man -the foul distinct ions of caste and olass -will be swept away; aud better men, under better live aud higher pleasure and comforts, achieve the destiny Title 1 for them in the day when the rooky rib of this earth were formed.- I'oly ttthit Rtrirw. A PLANING MACHINE GRANITE. The Boaton Adveri'utr for January ad, con tains, under th head of "(Iranite Planed Like Wood," an article on a new machine for planing stone rapidly, built on the principle of the 1 planing machine. The article begins by saying that when swiftly ravnlving knives wen first made to do the work of horiaontal planes upon plank and hoard, great wnndsr was expressed, and the planing machine came at once to bs the talk of town and country . We have all become used to that and aee no impracticability in the use of steel vs. wood in th rapid displacement of the rough surface of the latter. Next in order one might rasaonably eipeet that soma ingenious man would devise a method for the cutting of soft atone, such as freeatoii. sandstone, anil the like, but that chisels or tools of any sort that oould be mads, would, when drivon, dull quickly, and render the operation practically of little value. Huoh a plan for the ontting of marble onold not 1st entertained, for the herd material must be removed by well directed strokes from a powerful arm. Tlx inventor of the above mentioned machine has now shown what may be accomplished. I darning, a it wen, to meddle with softer sulMtanos, he selects for the teat of bis invea tioo the hardest of all granite, and the hard set granite at that II "I h. we II, Easily aad simply a the surface is rsmovsj from a pine board and caused to fly off in chips, the flinty roughness is aud to leave the fan of the gnat I Jock, and only a So powdor remains to prove that a strange work ha been done by the ingenious application of steeL "If then uuuld be mads a tool that would not require constant watching aad vsry fnqueit abarpeamg, you might plane granite, eaid a practical granite cutter, The inventor showed him that for 4ft minute hi machine could ran ooatiaaoasly end the tool be uninjured, aad he was not little surprised to out the amount of work done by the machine in that abort spas of tiase. The tool oaa b changed in a few ariaat, aad the whole machine at oaa pat into opera t INSTANTANEOUS I'HOTOOH APHV The remarkable success attained by Mr. E. J. Muyhridg, of Han Francisco, in the pro duction of accurate pictures of hone in rapid motion, ha stimulated other persons in a sum lar direction. The process baa recently been applied by lien. Abbott of th United states Engineering Coins, for recording the effects of the most sudden and violent exploeiona by gun powder and dynamite. The Geuerai ha ahowa that however instantaneous an siplosioo ap pear to take place, it occupies, notwithstand ing, a measurable amount of time, whioh ucji be readily measured and th accompanying effects accurately recorded by this nw application of tho camera. Among other experiment, Gu. Abbott em ployed that instrument to make a series of pic tare of th different stags of ths iploiaa of submarine torpedoes. In order to accomplish this, according to th Many'artwrrr ami Unilltr, and in order to mak sis pictures, h had a key board constructed Ilk that of a piano, con iting of sci en keys. 1 lie pressure of each of th keys dosed a elruuiti that of the lint ky want to th torpedo and eiplndad it; the re maining an key were each connected with a fa, winch sustained by a thread the screens of in camera, prepaid to tak pictures of ths explosion. Any of the key, when touched, ignited the fun, which disrupted th thread aud dropped th screen; in th latter wm a hoi, passing la-fore th objective of th camera, giv ing, during that passage, an exposure of which the time was estimated to ba at most the one twentieth of a second. If. now, the key of this bey hoard were rapidly played, all th seven key oould b touched la sueeesalon, In any previously determined velocity, always giving tint th plneiiin itswlf, and than the espiatiire of it effect in the eainera In (uucee slvs periods of 'ten ths of seconds, or more or leu, u deeirad. The firet eiwriment wa with th ploetHi of MX) pounds of dynamite, estimated equal so fi.OOO pounds of gutiwdr, and th pictures taken at intervals uf one tenth of a second, so that all the suooesslvs picture were tak aw m not much more than hall a aeooud. Thl u not oven vry npid succession, ss almost aay pianist can easily play twice as many snoeeswive beys in that time. The result wm aa si plosion in ths pi. lures of all th aoeeiv results, snalyied and in order Among other carious effects, the photographs showed that a oka horizontal fore wm developed by the eiplnelnn. other eiiasrimeut showed Oust depth WM an important factor Th torpedoes wen espliaHed near together, one three and the other til ft deep; the tint throw an a column of water twice a high as th latter. To ascertain how s tor pedo aft. . ted a hull, or brnk up a ship, two chargss of IB pounds each were placed three feet under the bottom of a hull 1 ho ova saw nothing but a confused outburst of water, by reason of th persistence of Image on th rot ma; but ths photographic uf a wm vary araea quicker than th eye, m proved by th nets of photographs, which showed the whole manner in which the hall yielded to the hoea, th hap aad poeHloa of th dlffereal frogmen! while flying up la th air aad coming down again All this WM distinctly pictured in th series of photographs, still, from the lime the torpedo wm fired until the pierce had onn dowa, only about two seconds elapsed, while la four end oo half enl lb water where the v easel floated wm quiet again. liana A Wansaa s tables bav lately been published, aad show a total laeroM la too population of the earth of tft.UJti.UJu, partly arming from natural growth aad partly (row the showing of new and wore saet i IMO.