South Canterbury Times WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1901.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2980, 2 January 1901, Page 2

South Canterbury Times WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1901.

We have now entered upon a new century, and looking back upon what mankind has achieved in the last century, and the start in hand for the present one, the consideration of what may be achieved in the next hundred years is bewildering, from the vastness of the possibilities that offer themselves. We may feel sure that the young man of twenty, who lives to be seventy, will witness enormous advances, but except in a few cases it is difficult to make any forecast of what these are likely to be. Nowadays problems and projects are so rapidly perfected that but little time elapses between the birth of a practical idea and the realisation of it in useful form. One conspicuous exception is the flying machine. This has been in hand a long time now, and has not yet been even roughly com-

pleted. We cannot, however, doubt that the idea of an air-ship will soon be a. successful concrete fact. And we can easily imagine that when it shall have arrived it will be as much more useful than the railway and steamboat, as a civilising agent, as these have been above the stagecoach and the white-winged messengers of the sea. Electricity, of course, will come more and more into use, and before the year 2001 the pressure of a necessity for economy in coals must produce some great and general changes in the methods of generating heat, light, and power. These changes may be effected through electricity directly, or through new chemical discoveries in the production of combustibles, such as artificial kerosene, at points where electricity can be cheaply obtained to produce the necessary elements or components.

This would be but producing a. substance that would give out heat as the electrically produced carbide of calcium gives out light. Already the greatest furnace heat available is derived from a substance (aluminium) which is electrically produced. We should not wonder if some such fuel were produced, or if, as a further step in consequence, such arrangements were found possible that the fuel for power generation could be burned within a steam boiler so that no heat would be wasted by going up a chimney or funnel as at present. ! The propulsion of ships will be greatly improved, by developments of the principle of Parsons’ turbine, which is as yet too expensive in fuel for general use. Ihe utilisation of) the potential working power of the rise and fall of the tides and of the movements of storm waves, has long been a favourite problem with some people, but the right man has not yet taken it in nand. He will probably appear within

the next hundred years, and by his inventions shift the localities of manufacturing industries a good deal. Means of controlling weather, if only to the extent of compelling rain to fall where needed from clouds that refuse to yield possible showers, seems to be so difficult of attainment no real step has been taken in that direction—that we are not justified in looking forward to this much-desired power being attained within this century. On the other hand, the atmosphere may be compelled to yield nitrogen to he soil more freely than hitherto for thd benefit of the farmer and the gardener. The farmer’s operations have already been so greatly facilitated by new tools and machinery that it seems likely that further advances in

that direction will be slow. The motor car has come to stay, but it is not likely to supersede the bicycle. There ' will perhaps be further modifications of this useful machine, but in general form it is difficult to imagine that simplicity and effectiveness can be carried much further. In, regard to machines and machine tools in general, there will be endless additions to these and the more if some advice recently given by an authority is accepted, namely, that makers should be content to make tools for use, good enough for their

work and no better, so that they can be turned out as cheaply as possible. As to he political and social and economic possibilities of the new century, these are too difficult to deal with in the way of forecast. But one remark may be safely made, and that is that human nature is stubbornly resistant of change and improvement. No new invention can be applied to accelerate or change the direction of its movements with certainty, and if the movements which already seem to have made a good start, it would not be safe to affirm that they will certainly continue to maintain themselves. The general tendency of the course of change, as, we believe, in the direction of improvement, but human society is so complex a thing that it frequently provides rude shocks for itself when sought to be driven, and “ make haste slowly ” is the first motto for the would-be reformer.