NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12420, 9 December 1908, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Edison on Airships. Edison Is reported to have recently said to. an interviewer : — I am firmly convinced that the time is near at hand when it will be possible to sail through the air as easily and as safely as we now go by land or by water. I have little faith in the aeroplane or the balloon as a means of aerial navigation. The aeroplane of the Wright brothers depends too much upon the personal equation. Place some other man in that; aeroplane, and it would, not work. It depends upon the skilful handling of the machine by the inventor. It is also unlikely that the, efforts of inventors who have pinned their faith to, the . dirigible balloon will meet with success. When you have something lighter than air it is apparent, oven to the layman, that it is the toy of the winds. It is wafted about like thistledown when a strong wind is' blowing. The aeroplane and the dirigible balloon will be improved, I have no doubt, but I look to the application of a principle different from either in the successful airship. Henry Farman has started in the -right direction. The airship of the future will be lifted by a mechanism something like a spiral. It will have the ability to rise without, first giving it^ forward momentum, and it will imitate closely the flight of birds. With the helical lifting appliance, improved propellors, and a device for maintaining balance in the air, the future airship will fly into the teeth of the wind, will rise to the heights where favourable currents may be found, or skim the surface of the oarth. Yes,, navigation of the air will surely come. It is simply a question of applying mechanical knowledge in a new way." Women In the Industrial World. Male labour (writes a contributor to the "Edinburgh Review") is being largely displaced by female labor, women ' are supplanting men, girls are supplanting women, and children are supplanting girls. We are confronted with the fact that the great trades ie are so proud .of are largely built up upon the labour of women and young girls, and that the rotos of our industrial life are planted in a morass of unwholesome and unorganised labour. Here is another passage :— "Economically, a, man's foes are those of his own house. The woman, aided by children, is able to take work at a, cheaper rate, and by and by theyjreceive "no more than the ymothe^;' did, .working alone, and the .employer . and the. public have obtained the l, children's 'labour fbr nothing^. Jjfor does' the; public necessarily profit to any real extent .by the cheap mamifacture." " Moreover, when the -wife ."tates work' at home, the. husband\ .becomes ■ lcUe .' and demoralised. No: fewer. ; than 3^00,000 women in the United Kingdom - work either in domestic, service'; or industrial . employ_ment.. . And : of^ that number, nearly 2,000,000 are '. engaged in industrial toil.' The : _census of, J. 901 shows an increase of 770,000 of occupied women over that of 1881., The contributor takes a gloomy %'iew of the situation. ' .'." . j