SOME INVENTIONS OF THE CENTURY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 4, 24 January 1901, Page 5

SOME INVENTIONS OF THE CENTURY.

The following are a few of the many scientific discoveries and inventions during the nineteenth century : Just 100 years ago sugar was first made from beet. Four years prior to this the first electric telegraph was set up in England. (Although not coming under this head, still it is a matter worth mentioning that the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807.) Six years later Westminster Bridge was lighted by ga.s for the first time. In 1814 George Stevenson constructed the luai luouxiiutivc, which travelled at thp rn+P of six miles an hour. Some of our New Zealand settlers can appreciate the advance which hac been made since tha*- time when they can travel on some of the branch railway lines of this Colony at almost double that speed nowadays. The century was just l.~> years old when Sir Humphry Davy made humanity his debtor by the invention of the safety lamp. About this time several scientists were engaged in devising means for improving the electric telegraph, which was still in its rudimentary stage. It was only in 1818 that Macadam's method of making roads was introduced, and it was not until the early 3O's that Soubeirun discovered chloroform. In 1838 the first steamer made a trip across the Atlantic. A year or two later penny postage was introduced into England, and almost at the same time envelopes began to be generally used. The next 10 year? saw the invention of the steam hammer, gun cotton, and chloroform applied for the first time as an anaesthetic. Jußt half a century ago paraffin oil was nsed for lighting purposes, and 1851 caw the beginning of those great international exhibitions, the first one being held that year in the Crystal Palace, London, which had been specially built for the purpose. About this time Krupp and Bessemer took out patents for improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel. Just five and thirty years ago a problem, which had baffled explorers for many years, waß solved— the source of the Nile, which was found to be in Lake Albert Nyanza. In the following year the Atlantic Cable connecting Europe and America was completed, and in 1867 an electric light was substituted for an oil lamp at Dungenesa lighthouse. It was about this period that Nobel, the distinguished chemist, invented dynamite. It is of interest to know in connection with the fact that a steamer left Wellington for England a few weeks ago having on board meat to the value of £300,000, that it was in 1879 the problem of the successful transportation of fresh meat to distant markets was solved. In March of that year the steamer Circassia delivered in England the first cargo of fresh meat artificially preserved, which was taken in a Bell-Colman refrigerater. The first shipment from Australia was delivered in London in February, 1880, and in 1882 the sailing ship Dunedin took from this Colony to London over 4000 carcases of mutton, and some 22 pigs, all of which were delivered in splendid condition after a voyage of nearly 100 days. In 1877 steam tram-cars were run for the first time in Glasgow, and in the same year Edison invented the phonograph. Immediately after he announced several discoveries in connection with electric light, and also the invention of the carbon loud-speaking telephone In 1882 an electric railway was opened in Berlin, and a year later saw the first electric tramway in the United Kingdom — that from Portruah to the Giants' Causeway in the North of Ireland. Three years later Professor Pasteur made successful experiments in inoculation for hydrophobia. A year or two ago Marconi demonstrated in a practical manner the feasibility of sending telegraphic. messages without the aid of wires.