WHAT MAY BE NEXT CENTURY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 23 February 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

WHAT MAY BE NEXT CENTURY.

AN IMAGINATIVE MAX'S PROPHECIES

Hot or cold air will be turned on from spigot.", to regulate the temperature of n hcuse as we now turn ou hot or cold water from spigots to regulate the temperature of the bath. Ready-cooked meals will be bought from establishments similar to our bakeries of to-day. They will purchase materials In tremendous wholesale quantities and sell the cooked foods at a price much lower than the cost of individual cooking. Food will be srrved hot or cold to private houses in pneumatic tubes or automobile waggons. The meal being over, the dishes used will be packed and returned to the cooking establishments, where they will be washed. Coal will not be used for heating or cooking. It will be scarce, but not entirely exhausted. Man will have found electricity manufactured by water power to be much cheaper. Every river with any suitable fall will be equipped with waterj motors, turning dynamos, making electricity. Along- the sea roast will be numerous reservoirs continually tilled by waves and tides washing In. There will be no street cars in our large cities. All hurry tralric will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In mostcltles it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with moving stairways leading to the top. Trains will run two miles a minute, normally; express trains one hundred and fifty miles an hour. Giant guns will shoot twenty-live miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius shells exploding and destroying whole cities. Such guns will be aimed by aid of compasses, when used on land or sea, and telescopes when directed from great heights. Fleets of air-ships, hiding themselves with dense smoky mists, thrown off by themselves as they move, will lloat over cities, fortifications, camps or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts. These aerial warships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates over their tops as well as at their sides. Huge forts on wheels will dash ncross open space at the speed of express trains of to-day. They will make what are now known as cavalry charges. Great automobile ploughs will dig deep intrenchments as fast as soldiers can occunv them. Rifles will use silent cartridges. Submarine boats submerged for days will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep. Balloons and flying machines will carry telescopes of one-hundred-mile vision with camera attachments, photographing an enemy within that radius. These photographs, as distinct and large as if taken from across the stret, will be lowered to the commanding officer in charge of troops below. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at onDosite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. We shall view in our theatres upon huge curtains the coronations of kings or the progress of battles. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very floors of people will be connected with a giant telepnonc apparatus transmitting- each incidental sound in its I appropriate place. Thus the guns of a i distant battle will be heard to bdom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move. Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband-in the middle of the Atlantic will be'able to converse with his wife at home. We will be able to telephone to China as easily as to the next street.

Winter will be turned into summer and night into day by the farmer. In cold weather he will place heat-conducting electric wires under the soil of his garden and thus warm his growing plants. He will also grow large gardens under glass. At night his vegetables will be bathed in powerful electric light, serving, like sunlight, to hasten their growth. Electric currents applied to the soil will make valuable plants grow larger and faster, and will kill troublesome weeds.

There will t>e no wiia animals except In menageries. Rats and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will have become practically extinct. A few of hiprli breed will be kept by the rich for racing, hunting and exercise. The automobile will have driven out the horse.

A University education will be free to every man and woman. Several great national Universities will have been established. Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and not copied after the Latin. Time will be saved by. grouping like studies. Poor students will be given free board, free clothing, and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses.

Medical inspectors regularly visiting the public schools will furnish poor children free eyeglasses, free dentistry, and free medical attention of every kind. The very poor will, when necessary, get free rides to and from school, and free lunches between sessions. 'In holiday time poor children will be taken on trips to various parts of the world. Utiquette and housekeeping will ba , important studies In the public schools.~"Weekly Scotsman."