4
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND, DECEMBER 8, 1912.
2AL
MAN JMS6CC)JZ4LFAJmM)JS:j3JP YEAR.
TWELVE WOTOERS OF 1912.
JANUARY Completion of H, M. Flagler's oversea rallwayv linking:
Key West, ihitherto 65 miles at sea, to the mainland and.
shortening: the time between New York and Cuba by 20 hours.
FEBRUARY A perfected combination of cinematograph and phono
graph, reproducing- sounds with pictures.
MARCH Wireless messages exchanged between New York and Lon
don, receipt following filing in 22 minutes when eastbound,
and In 10 minutes westbound.
APRIL An invention by which signatures and other handwriting
may be exactly duplicated on many papers.
MAT An automatic aeroplane stabilizator, allowing an operator the
free use of both hands.
JUNE Wings adapted to bicycle locomotion, both to produce motive
power and Increase speed.
JULY An electrical and mechanical automatic appliance through
which a head-on collision becomes Impossible.
AUGUST A practical "syllabic" typewriter, composing in syllables
rather than in single letters.
SEPTEMBER An automatic violin player "to reproduce any effect
of the most accomplished virtuoso."
OCTOBER Synthetlo ("cowless") milk produced by a chemical man
ufacture of vegetable Ingredients.
NOVEMBER Completely satisfactory communication by wireless
telephone between Rome and Tripoli (400 miles).
DECEMBER An automatic self - taking" photograph apparatus,
exposing and developing a plate, printing and mounting a
picture, by "slot" action. In 67 seconds.
SINCE brute brawn first yielded to Wright brothers had actually flown 17
thinking brain, longer ago than miles in a light breeze! We think noth
oir,rfar. t.n ...w-h occeediiff lnS of it that 1912 should have seen 11
TWHveiuuuiii u '"(British Channel nlnff within a fr 1
man s progress in nis conquest over tne moments of each other, lighting at
elements and very forces of nature. I Dover like a flock of giant gulls. We
Pondering by his hearthside, working treat It as an of-course of the daily
In his laboratories, testing here and v .... . . ..,.' ,o 1 x
rperlmenting there, slowly but surely various sorts of planes in all kind's of
has he more and more perfected his competitions. But the point to be em-
Ingenuity and Perseverance Have Made Possible the Advancement by Road and Rail, Through
Air and Water, in the Home and the World of Business A Baker's Dozen
of Prophecies for Next Year to "Grow On."
control of things material, till today
lie stands master of the earth and the
air above It. of the seven seas and the
depths of them.
In this "steady march of time, 1912
phasized In such a chronicle as this is I
that swifter airships, lighter ones.
those to climb higher or convey greater
passenger weights are no longer the
chief objects of those Inventors whose
has played an active part, pushing yet I specialty Ms the development of aero
farther the labors which 1911 had car- I nautics. Safer aeroplanes and dirigibles
Tied far, and initiating movements of I
Its own destined in a near future to
give it high rank In the annals of hu
man achievement.
January, In four dispatches, sounded
with unmistakable clearness the note
which was to become tonal through all
that is the goal aimed at, and with
increasing success.
Aeroplane stabilizators have been ex
hibited satisfactorily by two of the I
r rench experts, Moreau In May and
Roger Sommer in October. The "Tag-
liche Rundschau," of Berlin, in closest
the days and weeks to come. Paris re- touch with. German aviation circles, an-
ported that the pocket telephone had nounces an even more laudable ad
been at last so perfected that all mu- vance In a plane which may be arrest
nlcipal gendarmes were to be supplied ed In Its flight and held stationary at
with the device. . London announced any point desired. In the matter of
that an inventor named Rose had com- safety for operators In case of accident I
pleted work upon an efficient self-re- the parachute is being used by Russian
cording rifle target, doing away with experimenters; a device which opens
the arduous calling of "marker" at the automatically should need arise, and
butts, as the position of every shot is the American W. I. Twombly has per-
automaticallv recorded on a screen at I lectea wnat he cans a "safety harness,''
the firing point. which holds the aviator in his seat In I
The 21st of the month brought the tho roughest kind of weather but re-1
final word of an engineering accom- leases him instantly on the pulling of
plishment which not the United States a single cotter-pin. it should also be
only but half the world beside has for aald that the military authorities of
some time watched with growing In- the third republic, where perhaps the
terest and wonder, the opening of the greatest progress In aeronautics is be-
Flagler "oversea railway" to Key West ln now oe. are using a recent tsei
The completion of this work Is admit- lan Invention for measuring the alti-
tedly one of the most remarkable
achievements in railroad construction
ever Tecorded. Built on keys and coral
rocks, this great viaduct Is literally a
road across the "vasty deep." For
many miles the right-of-way lies over
salt water and at certain points pas-
sengers are actually out of sight of
tudes reached, a sort of theodolite
adapted to this latest demand.
By Road and Rail.
Wings have been given the auto. too. I
On July 12 a successful trial run was I
made between Paris and Lyons (321 1
miles) by a car driven by revolving I
arms adding new terror to the already I
land. By It 20 hours are saved between sufficiently threatened life of the mere
New York and Cuba, and Key West, 65
miles out in the ocean. Is riveted to the
mainland.
Messages Via Wireless.
January 2S saw the first message
flung off across the miles from the
wireless station at Aranjuez, Spain; an
Indicative happening, surely, for In no
other single respect has this passing
year shown longer forward steps than
In the development of this most won
derful of all modes of communication
from man to distant man.
They marvel, but know me not
Eyes that are dull with the clods.
IV'ond'rlne they give me their meas&re.
They who have laughed at the rods.
Swifter than lichtnlnff'a ftaah.
With breath of the unlversea stirred,
I am a thrill of God's vibrant life,
I am his winffedword.
Scarce a land but now is linked to
sister states the world around by this
unseen Mercury. Colombia and Nicar
agua have installed services, and the
far reaches of the Upper Amazon basin
are now reached by it. The recesses of
darkest Africa are to be linked with
pedestrian! Skimming the earth like
some uncanny bird It reached a speed
about 90 miles an hour, till even the
placid pigs shuddered in their pens.
Another road advance fitly to be re
corded tells of the beginnings of cycle-
plus-planes, or wings; "aviettes the
French call them. Lavalade, at Juvlsy,
In June, and Gabriel Foulin, near Paris,
In July, have each done enough In this
sort (albeit little if regarded abso
lutely) to prove that a next step in
rapid mechanical locomotion may He
along this path.
A railway achievement of 1912 prop
erly to be ranked close to that of the
Flagler "over-seas" line was the com
pletion of the Trans-Andean road from
Arica, Chili, to La Paz, Bolivia. The
270 miles length suggests nothing of
what has been here accomplished by
men's patience and ingenuity, nor even
the elevation of 14,000 feet which Is
reached at one point; the work has had
to be prosecuted through a country of
such natural difficulties that, a few
years back, the most skilled engineers
civilization, and ere lonr the Pamirs flatly declared it impossible.
will be gossiping with Dawson City and Of greater popular Interest than this,
Buenos Avres. Late in October the and falling in much the same category,
globe encircling system of our Federal Is the announced perfecting of a device
Navy Department at Arlington was in- fr preventing head-on collisions in
angurated when, crackling and sputter- railroad travel, which has been- patented
lnsr. the most Dowerful Dlant in the by A R. Angus, an Australian. The
world scattered Its first greeting from demonstration, in- Somerset. England,
the top of Its lofty aerials. In Feb- last July, was thus described:
ruary Admiral Thomas, commanding
the Pacific fleet (then at Honolulu),
was In communication with Washing
ton, via Mare Island Yard and Key
West, 4303 miles, while a span almost
identically as great was covered by
wireless when Astoria, Or., "talked
with the Japanese steamer, the Yoko
hama Mam.
In March a message from London to
rew York had been received only
few seconds over 10 minutes after Its
filing In the British metropolis, while
yet another distinctly new record in
this relatively recent science came
when, on the evening of "the first Tues- I
Two trains without engineers, op-
If i; f Iris s'fer h. V
proachlng each other at high speed on
the same line, automatically stopped
when collision seemed inevitable. The
portion of the railway to be used had
been fitted with steel ramps on inclined
planes between the rails. A shoe, fit
ted to the engine, touches these with a
slight impact, and the engineer is
warned if the section ahead is not clear
by a combined disc and whistle. Should
he not himself stop his train an elec
trical apparatus automatically shuts off
steam and applies the brakes. -
An apparently successful attempt to
solve another of those problems which,
now and then, have led to horrible loss
of life through lack of solution, is an
emergency door for theaters, invented
by a Chicago man. This can be opened
from without only by use of a special
key, though the slightest pressure on
any part of the inner surface opens it
Instantly. Of not dissimilar kind, It In
stantly. Of not dissimilar kind, in
that it too looks to the saving of life,
is the production by a native of Dort
mund, Germany, of an electric safety
lamp for miners. If this, as would ap
pear, is absolutely proof against fire
damp combustion its inventor has rich
ly earned the $3000 prize which the Bri
tish government has awarded him.
Another prize ($500) for life-saving,
though it be of horses, not humans,
has been won this year by Dr. G. W.
Kinnell, of New York City, who has
worked out a device which, when at
tached to the shoe, prevents the ani
mals slipping on greasy pavements.
Be It also chronicled that a Call
fornlan has put on the markets an au
tomatic change-making machine; that
for the first time in many years of ex
perimenting a typewriter for Arabic
characters has become practical; that
yet another typewriter for recording
syllables, not letters, has been invented
by Paul de Carsalade, of Paris, and
that a ""Slgnagraph" has made Its com
mercial appearance, by means of which
the movements of a pen held in
writer's hand are exactly duplicated
over other checks or bonds or what
not. A Philadelphia financier is said
to have affixed hi3 signature to 6000
documents In this way in 38 minutes.
levices for Around the Home.
After the mechanical piano-player
comes the automatic violinist, another
of Germany's contributions to the 12
months' wonders. Three violins are
used, each with a single string, played
by a revolving circular bow, composed
of 3000 horsehairs, which it Is said, will
reproduce practically any effect to be
attained by the most accomplished vir
tuosobut one wonderB If there is not
another side to this penny? May it not
be necessary, if this sort of thing mul
tiolies. to greatly extend the .use of a
certain drug whose virtues are Deing
heralded by A. J. Wienland, a retired
chemist of Santa Monica, Cal.T He has
a concoction, he says, which, fed to
ambitious roosters, prevents early
morning crowing.
A French agriculturist has gone fur
ther than this, however. Knowing that
canary breeders obtain a delicate roee
pink tinge in the plumage of their
birds by mixing cayenne pepper with
their food, he subjected some white
hens to a like diet. The result went
somewhat beyond his expectations. For
the biddies, coral pink under , a steady
barometer, flushed violent scarlet when
ever there was dampness in tne air. Al
ter this "stingless bees" sound tame
and unpoetic, though a Loughton (Eng
land) apiarist has obtained some by
crossing Cyprian drones and Italian
queens.
Synthetic milk Is the latest product
of the chemical laboratories. In Oc-
A GIFT BY BIO GRAPH A SHORT STORY
(Continued From Page 3.)
fell Into the well-known formation.
Holley, the easy-moving fullback, had
stepped back for a kick. Peyton could
almost hear the plunk of the ball and
the thumping feet of the ends as they
coursed down under tho punt. He ex
amined them critically. Even allow
day after the first Monday" In last No- lug 'or the exaggerated speed of the
vember, the election returns were olograph, he could see how easily they
flashed out from San Francisco to IE - moved, how perfect was tneir condition.
000 people on board 60 ocean grey-1 lu h' own thews he could feel again
hounds. that powerful sest of the man trained
In June a Turin vouth da Rarnocchl to the minute, as he comes to the mark
by name, conducted highly successful I for hiB supreme effort.
experiments between bis home city and I The Yale side was next, ana tne re-
Milan (92 miles) with his "incono-1 ceptlon, equally frantic' of their team,
graph," which transmits besides ordi- J This series 'vanished, and In Its place
xiary wireless messages autographs, came a prolonged close view of each of
short hand, and all sorts of designs. The the sections. Peyton jumped again.
official report of the Italian Minister The pictures were so near and the fig
of War says of It (there may be a few ures so big It was like being in front
who will understand what the gentle- of the seats. There was Moulton, 0
man Is driving at) "An exact reproduc
tion follows upon the interaction of
synchronic periods of electric waves In
correspondence with synchronlo periods
of belicoidal movements." Two other
remarkable victories of the inventors
of signor Marconi's country were re
ported in May and November. In the
!rat case it appears that satisfactory
communication by wireless telephony
was established between Monte Mario
and Sardinia, above 160 miles; and In
the second Rome and Tripoli were con
nected by this amazing invention, 400
miles.
To add to such entries as these that
the wireless outfit may now be oper
ated from a bicycle, a motor car or an
aeroplane comes -almost as anti-climax.
The last of these accomplishments is,
however, somewhat startling; messages
having been transmitted over distances
of from 30 to 40 miles from 'planes at
an elevation of some 1600 feet.
The Man-Bird la A4loa.
How this would have astounded old
Daedalus, the first of aviators; how
Icarus, his son. who held an altitude
"record" In those mythological days
(with a most unhappy ending!) would
have opened his Archaic eyes at the
news! Yet we take it quite for granted
we who, four short years ago, rec
orded In awe-struck tones that .the,
Moulton who, he thought, was In New
Orleans. How the deuce did he Great
Scott! there was Wright, '05, with Doris
Nason. He didn't even know they
knew each other. There was a whole
bunch of Hasty Pudding fellows. What
a good time they were having! There
were the Hiltons and the Morrows and
the Galleghers, all talking, laughing,
waving flags to each other, exchang
ing chaff, examining score cards. And,
by Jove, there in front row. big as life,
happy in a holiday seriousness, were
Milly and Ted Dunton, his cousins.
He caught himself just In time. He
bad started to yell over the footlights.
Milly was getting to be an awfully
pretty girl. How becoming those furs
were to her! She pulled a bunch of
envelopes from her muff and, charac
teristically, she looked them over. Ted.
saucer-eyed, with the fierce concentra
tion of a prep-boy, had Interest for
nothing but the field. The team must
still be practising Peyton could tell
from the lack of tensity In the audi
ence. But what in the world was Milly
doing? There were letters and a pack
age under her arm. Peyton suddenly
understood. Milly was a senior at Rad
cliffe. Coming down from Fay House
to meet Ted at Harvard Square she
had scooped her mall off the letter-board,
She glanced at the letters, and, with
out opening them, put them back in her
muff. The package evidently interested
her; she looked it all over. It Interested
Peyton also; there was something fa
miliar about it. A huge, jet-black sig
nature dashed a slanting course over
one corner. Suddenly he recognized It.
It was the trademark of the St. Louis
photographer who had, recently, taken
his pictures. He himself had sent Milly
that package six weeks ago. Grinning
to himself, Peyton watched her open It.
Her unfeigned delight in the picture
was pleasant; Peyton's spirits lightened
a little. Equally amusing was Teds
swift, grumpy, unseeing glance.
And then it was curious it had never
occurred to him to anticipate thi
Constance Terry came walking down
the aisle with Lawrence Graves. I'ey1
ton knew her the moment she appeared
at the top of the picture. And so real
she seemed that he shrank back in his
seat. He watched her progress, not
breathing.
Down she came, growing bigger with
each step down, down,- down. She was
going to sit in the front row with Milly.
There was something almost dramatio
about this entrance. Looking from her
height over the field, she seemed to
be gazing straight into his eyes. There
was something curious about her gaze;
it was as If she looked hard at some
thing that she did not see. Peyton'
devouring glance noted that she had
lost none of her beauty; the spirited
grace of her figure, the lovely lift of
a red upper lip over a red lower one,
the long, straight eyelashes, the thick,
black brows, that In anger made thun
der clouds of her gray eyes. His mem
ory limned all the colors that the bio-
graph left out.
Deuced pretty girl," Starrow com
mented; "that one that's taking a seat
in the front row."
Peyton did not answer.
Milly had risen. There were quick
greetings; and the party seated Itself.
Something Lawrence was saying gave
him the center of the stage. Constance,
not listening, turned her attention
again to the field; again, apparently,
she looked straight Into Peyton's eyes.
The. Straus expression cams back lata
her face. Her look was absent, apa
thetic, almost unhappy.
What could be the matter? Was it
possible that Lawrence had not pro
posed yet he knew Lawrence's ways
with girls and that she was perplexed
perhaps grieving over the omission? He
wondered why Lawrence delayed; for
tnere was no doubt of the genuineness
of his "case" on Constance Terry. Cer
tainly It was not fear of a refusal. In
all Lawrence's meteoric amorous career
Peyton had never known him to fail.
Peyton tried to lmas-ine himself hold.
Ing off one minute after he had seen
that he had any show with Constance
Terry. Not that he had any Idea that
he could .complicate Lawrence's suit.
He had left Cambridge the moment be
found himself In love with the girl his
room-mate had picked. He could re
nounce, but he could not stay and day
by day face his renunciation.
, Milly's lips moved. Constance with
drew her wandering, unseeing gaze
from the field. The two girls talked,
The picture passed. - Peyton had lived
through the longest five minutes of his
life.
Peyton threw himself Into the game
with a fierce Intensity. At first there
were moments when he lost himself
so completely that he thought himself
fighting with the Harvard eleven.
Starrow would wake him with a "Say,
cut It out, will you; you're pushing me
into the aisle." But, after a while.
Constance's face kept coming between
him and the struggling head on the
gridiron. His yearning for another
glimpse of her began to absorb his in
terest In the game. He spent the last
minutes of the first half thrashing Im
patiently in his seat.
He groaned with Impatience when
he saw that the blograph, instead of
turning back on the spectators between
halves, still trained itself on the grid
iron. It was just a flashing picture of
the Yale eleven trotting wearily to its
quarters, circled and surrounded by
trainers, coaches, rubbers and the
privileged spectators of the side-lines.
Would it never go back to the stands?
Ah, there they were scattering
glimpses of the spectators, at first only
quivering, waving throngs in which he
could not recognize a face. Once the
band must-have broken -into the "Mar
seillaise"; for, suddenly, the whole Har.
vard section arose, lifting their hats
three times and in perfect unison. Me
chanically, true to an old training, Pey
ton started to rise, too. But, again,
Starrow held him down.
Finally, when he thought he could
stand the suspense no longer, came
the section-pictures; the group he
longed to see. In the midst of a storm
center of howling Harvard enthusiasts,
Constance sat, still languid, still dis
trait. In another second, Peyton was
sorry that his wish had been granted.
For Lawrence, taking advantage of
the preoccupation of the rest of the
party, was devoting himself to her. A
jealousy, as hot as flame, excoriated
Peyton as he noted the little Intim
acies of his attitude. Lawrence ques
tioned and explained. He leaned over
her to adjust wraps obviously in no
need of adjustment. Though his suf
fering grew intense, Peyton could not
take his eyes away.
Once It came over him how strange
it was. The tragedy of his life was
being played there before a theaterlul
of holiday riffraff, and no one sus
pected it. No one about him had an
eye for his little group. Not a man
about him but was watching the
shrieking. Jumping, cheering, flag-wav
ing crowd that surged about the lovers.
Followed more pictures oi tne Har
vard sections; followed many of the
Yale sections, but Peyton did not see
them. He did not even look at them.
The second half was close. Peyton
summoned all the mental strength
that was In him to concentrate on the
game. And at first re tnougnt mat
he was going to be successful, that
his mind had adjusted Itself to the
situation. But after a brief Interval,
his longing, his impatience began to
grind in him again. He churned rest
lessly In his chair. He studied the
audience about him. It must have
been somewhere along here that he
failed to see that long run on a for
ward pass the sensational play of
the season, by which the game was
won.
. At the end it was a relief to cheer
with the handful of Harvard men who
sprang up from different parts of the
auditorium and, following the motions ,
of the yell-leader In the blograph,
shouted themselves hoarse. But, in a
moment, his heart was thumping in a
very madness of yearning, pointed by
the anguish of uncertainty. Biting his
lips, he watched the long line of un
dergraduates zigzagging over the field
In the wake of the band. When, at
last, the blograph began to show sec
tion views of the dispersing audience,
he gripped the orchestra- rail hard.
If it came it would be his last view
of her until until when? . he won
dered. Until, best man at their wed
ding, he would watch her drive off
with Lawrence. He clenched his hands.
Again the picture! Unmindful of the
others, his burning eyes riveted them
selves on Constance. The group had
risen, waiting tor tne crowd to thin.
Milly was talking. In the midst ol
her narrative, she handed to Constance
the package that contained Peyton s
picture. Without stopping, she swept
the two men on In her talk.
Constance pulled the picture out of
Its wrappings. Peyton watched her.
And he saw in a. brief moment he
saw a great deal. He saw the pro
nounced start that shook her at the
sight of It. He saw the quick, furtive
glance she gave at her unnoticing
companions. He saw her turn her back
to them, and like one famished, look
at It again, holding It, in her uncon
sciousness, unnecessarily close to her
face. He saw her start to put it back
into the paper, but, changing her mind,
look at it again, a long, close gaze. He
saw her turn it over as if she expected
some writing. And he saw but now
more with the eyes of the soul than
of the body the emotion that seemed
to vitalize her whole figure, to shine
through her wistful face, to make light
in her somber eyes.
"Say, what's your rush?" Starrow
remonstrated, as Peyton made a flying
leap into an open space which offered
a swifter egress.
"Oh, I say, excuse me, Starrow,"
Peyton exclaimed. "I've got to get to
a long-distance telephone." And then,
in utter forgetfulness of a statement
thank somebody for a Christmas gift may yet become the true sign manual
I've Just received." of the "
(Copyrtsht, The Frank A MuDaey Co.) 1 w
tober several London scientists tasteAl
and approved a "cowless lacteal fluid."
While the method of manufacture la
(naturally) kept secret, it is announced
to be composed entirely of vegetable
Ingredients, "digested" by machinery
Instead of the customary bossy. It is
the color of the animal liquid and is
held to be more nourishing, as well as
to keep sweet longer.
Among other recent patents of
strictly domestic ilk Is one for making
sausages without casings, and one for
an illuminated fiatiron, the latter con
taining Incandescent bulbs which serve
to illuminate the work under hand even
while they heat the instrument.
One event many would write It
"the" event of 1012 was not of Its
calendar, though emphasis Is none the
less proper in this record as it was
March 9, last, when we first heard that
the South Pole had at last been reached
by man. On December 16, only a fort
night before the 12-months arrival.
Captain Roald Amundsen penetrated to
the globe's southernmost point and
the part played by brain in the epochal
happening is too splendidly consider
able to overlook. The "Fram," first
famous among present-day ships as the
vessel which bore Nansen's party into
the Arctic regions, was fitted with oil-
burning engines, which is another point
here to be called attention to. Fol
lowing the same general direction as
this courageous Dane, the Englishman
Scott has pushed "down below," on
January 3, having reached a point only
150 miles short of his goal. Late In
March the Jap navigator, Shlrase, an
chored in the harbor of Wellington,
New Zealand, after an expedition into
the interior of King Edward VII Land
with valuable results to cartographers
and natural scientists.
Not malapropos of these happenings
fall a trio of recent advances, all made
In connection with "the waters under '
the earth." Alfred Williams, an Eng
glish engineer, has demonstrated at Se
attle the first wholly practical . subma
rine telephone: a Hollander has laid
claim to having discovered how arti
ficial rubber may be made from fish
waste; and the first sea mowing-ma- '
chine has been launched at San Diego.
This last is to be utilized for cutting
the millions of tons of kelp and marine
weeds growing along the California
coast, which, when dried, become ex
cellent fertilizer.
Camera Curios Perfected.
So generous have been l$12's con
tributions to the advancement of photo
graphic art that It becomes difficult
to pick and choose those accomplish
ments most Interesting now and most
Important for the future. The follow
ing brief paragraphs may possibly sug
gest the extent of the year's labor In
this broad and useful field.
Color photography has been demon
strated as not necessarily the result
of artificial colored screens or colored
particles. C. A. Kulmert, of Pittsburg,
exhibited on February 6 some strik
ingly brilliant negatives made In con
nection with a certain electric light of
peculiar intensity and quality, while
Ernest and Julius Rheinberg, of Lon
don, have utilized a prism to a like
successful end.
Professor William Stirling has dem
onstrated before the British Royal In
stitution an invention by which' the
cinematograph and phonograph are
combined. This "chonophone" shows
pictures in their natural colors and
also reproduces the sounds of the scene
depicted. (
A charming and unique use has been
made of motion photography In a Ber
lin production of "The Maglo Flute,"
when a waterfall In motion (the film
was exposed on the Tyrol) appeared as
back drop to the stage.
An absolutely fireproof moving-pic
ture film has been put on the market
by a Dusseldorf firm. It Is called
celllt from the chemical compound
from which it is made; an acetlycellu-
lose solution In aoeton.
An experimenter in Jackson, Mich.,
has perfected a moving-picture cam
era as small and light as the average
kodak.
And finally comes word of a dlme-in-
the-slot machine, by means of which
Tom, Dick and Harry may photograph
their worthy selves without the mid
dleman. The announcement reads:
The sitter places the coin In the slot.
pulls a lever, and thus an electric
light is turned on, a plate dropped Into
osition, and the shutter opened for
three seconds. The machine then de
velops, fixes and washes the plate.
prints and mounts and delivers the
picture complete In 67 seconds."
A Look Into the Future.
Merlin might be put to It to predict
all the future Is to hold. The "thyroid
extract" of 'Dr. G. A Gibson, of Edin
burgh, may yet prove capable of the
marvels he claims for It and show it
self the controlling factor in human
tature; and Franz Szokely, of Buda-
pesth, may be able to prove beyond
present cavil that he really has chanced
upon the secret of a "living wig,"
with really truly hair actually affixed
to the bald man s scalp till a very bar
ber might fall to detect the deception.
Then Dr. Walden, president of the 9th
International Congress of Applied
Chemistry, meeting at St. Petersburg,
has declared it his considered opinion
that a variety of nitrogenous foods
will soon be made from air, and eggs
first of all.
Nlneteen-thlrteen cannot well help
but bring extraordinary advances in
wireless transmission. Great Britain
Is planning such communication among
all the constituent parts of her vast
dominions, till the Invisible pathways
of the air will be to her what were to
Rome those wonderous roads that led
from the most distant provinces down
to the Eternal City. Like schemes are
being debated at Paris and Berlin.
France to expend 34,000,000 on the pro
ject and Germany 33,250,000. Poulsen,
of Copenhagen, adds to this that
another year shall see communication
between Scandinavia and the Americas,
with an Intermediate station in South
Greenland.
Nor is the telephone to lag behind.
If even a few of the many promises
are fulfilled. Professor Rosing, of the
St. Petersburg Technological Institute,
believes that the phone user of the near
future will be able to see the corres
pondent at the other end of the wire
(and there are moments when that's
going to be Inconvenient!) New York
Is to be able to talk to Los Angeles
verv soon for 315! while C. A Ran
dall, a former assistant of Mr. Edi
son, claim such virtue lor a certain
"rpnuater" of his make that a conver
sation between London and Baltimore
becomes little more than a matter of
the straightening out oi a lew minor
details.
stMiriahlni are to pass, announces
Sir Marcus Samuel; gas engines are to
move the vessels of the years ahead.
But are we not aesimeu iu witneoa
trans-Atlantic flights of air ships, pre
sumably of the dirigible type? And is
the day not soon to dawn when the
...nnimi will no longer depend upon
a motor? the Frenchman Flament has
"driven" one more than two miles,
working the propeller with his hands
Ohly , it , . v.
Sober Mr. UOwper a xvniciieiiu, wun
'his hair on end at sucnmaa wonders,