“LIFE SPORES.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 25, 14 September 1911, Page 3

“LIFE SPORES.”

“NO MORE DISEASE,” SAYS EDISON. Within the past few hundred years science lias undoubetedly accomplished wonders, writes Mr Thomas A. Edison, in the New York “American.” Yet we have barely crossed the threshold of ultimate scientific achievement. More progress will bo made in the next fifty years than has boon made since the world began. 1 am no dreamer, and I do not regard speculation upon the future as profitable. On the other hand, one cannot close one’s eyes to the inevitable, and.the progress of the world along certain linos is already assured, though none the less remarkable. Thus, it is very clear to me that within the next half century science will abolish night. Through the employment of electricity, one of Nature’s greatest forces, we shall practically upset the physical phenomenon of night and day. Surely no more radical utilisation of Nature’s forces against Nature lias ever been attempted than this. This era of perpetual day will come with the perfection of electric light. Some idea of the possibilities of electricity as a rival to the sun can lie gathered from the fact that the most powerful electric light in use tp-day represents only 5 per cent of.efficienpy. . Nipcty-five per cent is wasted-■ i There; is no-rea-son to doubt that (this, waste will soon be saved. Electric light will ; then be twenty times as effective as it is now. Then thqrei will be. no : night. How will we gain by dispelling -this darkness? Of. course, doing .away with night will not. enable us to. dispense with sleep. . - Nevertheless it will enable the world to work in day and night shifts ,in almost every line of endeavour, and-great works which suffer now by the interruption occasioned by the decline of the sun will no longer bo thus handicapped. NO MORE RENT. Navigation, aviation, and transportation of all kinds which are all more or less seriously impeded by darkness will likewise be greatly benefited. Darkness has always been an incentive to crime. In this respect, too, therefore perpetual day will bo a great blessing. The development of aviation is, of course, assured. In tiro streets the horse will be entirely supplanted by the electric vehicle. This will bring about an entire remodelling of city thoroughfares. Improved and cheaper methods of building const; action will empty the tenements. The day labourer will no longer pay rent, hut will live in his own house, which, in respect of comfort and sanitary condition*\vill be every' bit as good as that of his. employer. Social discontent will die out ivhen the workman 1 / I* I I 4 owns ms own homo.'. Medical science will eradicate disease. Social science will abolish poverty. Aerial navigation will eiid' war.’ Universal peace will be assured as soon as it is realises! that the airship which carries a man.could carry one hundred and fifty pounds of nitro-glycerino just as well, and twenty thousand airships thus equipped could annihilate the assembled navies o| the world. No sharpshooting, . however efficient, would he proof against such an attack. With the passing of poverty, disease and war, the cause of intellect advancement will rpceive an impetus which will carry everything before it. The man of the future will, ho an intellectual giant. Human passions and feelings can hardly be eradicated entirely, but they will ho better controlled. Physically and morally, science will make the world over. And the best part of the great triumph will be witnessed, 1 believe, within the next fifty years.