MARVELS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XII, Issue 3234, 3 February 1879, Page 3

MARVELS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

It is difficult for the present generation to go buck in idea to the age baforo gas . and steam ™botli now our mighty servants—had rendered '.lieir giptaatic powers i for our control; for our young people , have been boru in tlie times of the modern i miracles with which science seems to 1 cover the earth. Yet gas was first used i only -in 1803 —at Birmingham, at the 1 illuminations for the peace, Strange also ' that the wondrous might of steam was i not revealed to us until this nineteenth century. In 1802 the first steamboat was launched, with intent but to tug loaded*. . barges upon the Thames, and its utmost"' speed was six miles an hour. Now all the world travels by steam, and vessels of 4,000 tons in nine days can bridge the Atlantic. e have taken the wings of the wind, not only by boat, but by carriage, for steam is servant both on land and water. Railway cars ware first used in collieries in 1817, to carry coal, and were not adapted to the use of passengers till 1880; and now the iron road is the road for all mankind. After that came steam printing, which has revolutionised the world of books and eminently affectod the circulation of the Bible. And now electricity speaks for us, either ovor the earth or under the sea, and it is wonderoils how every invention seems to hare reacted either on the illustration or the distribution of God's word. For with the linglislimau the Bible, and with his fresh facilities of transit ho goes everywhere, and the men of all nations visit him.™ Sunday Magazine,