A cheap substitute for gasoline is heartily to be hoped for and inventors are searching for it now. The engine of the future will be driven by some high explosive mixture each ingredient of which will be perfectly harmless in itself but when the fractional part of a drop of each chemical is mixed with the other in the cylinder of the engine they will combine and explode violently.
Aviation.—The aeroplane is the speed machine of to-morrow. The great requirement of the present time in the flying machine is inherent stability, which means that it is so designed that it will not overturn, or if overturned it will right itself of its own accord. Fig. 111 shows a gyro-stabilizer for this purpose.
Fig. 111. A GYRO-STABILIZER FOR MAKING AN AEROPLANE KEEP ITS BALANCE
After stability the next most desirable improvement needed in an aeroplane is one that will make it rise from the ground at a far larger angle from the horizontal, that is fly more nearly straight up than those that are built at the present time. A better engine, an easier way of starting and a surer way of alighting, are next in order.
Chemistry.—There are unlimited possibilities in chemistry for making big inventions. A method to produce cheap liquid air, see Fig. 112, would revolutionize many industries. Radium which is worth $1,000,000 a pound, or thereabouts, is plentiful in nature and requires some simpler method only for its cheap extraction. But both of the above are very hard things to do.
Fig. 112. A LIQUID AIR MACHINE
Fig. 113a. THE CHEAPEST FORM OF LIGHT
Artificial milk, tea, coffee and eggs, the extraction of caffeine from coffee, thein from tea and nicotine from tobacco—which are the harmful chemicals in these products, a cheap method of producing artificial ice, or refrigeration without ice, a substance to denature alcohol are only a few of the things to be invented in chemistry.