Synthetic chemistry, that is the artificial production of real rubber, camphor, diamonds, rubies and other precious stones, dye-stuffs and other products heretofore supplied only by nature, also offers a large and fascinating field for the inventive chemist.
Fig. 113b. a tube system of electric lights
Electricity.—There are hundreds, if not thousands of electrical inventors who are busier than a swarm of bees in a field of clover, but there is enough left for all of them and as many more to do if they worked in eight hour shifts until the dawn of the millennium.
An apparatus for dispelling fogs by electricity, television, or transmitting sight by electricity, cheap electric lights, see Fig. 113, a simple telautograph, or writing telegraph, a means for directing wireless telegraph and telephone messages, automatic block signals which operate in the engine driver’s cab and are positive in action, transmitting pictures by wireless and a cheap and powerful generator of sustained electric oscillations by a battery or other low voltage current, all these needs show that there is still plenty of room for improvement.
Electro-Chemistry.—In this field of endeavor the things that are needed would fill a large book and many things that will come have not even been dreamed of yet.
A few that I can think of is a self-charging primary battery, a light weight storage battery, a way to produce electricity direct from coal, a scheme to prevent electrolysis in underground pipes, the electrification of farming lands to make forty bushels of rye grow where only one was sown, see Fig. 114, to store up electrical energy from the sun and the production of entirely new and unheard of substances in the electric furnace.
Fig. 114. FARMING BY WIRELESS. THE HIGH TENSION ELECTRIC GENERATOR
Building.—In the building line heating, ventilation and drainage are all open to great improvement. Glass that can be bent to shape and which cannot be so easily broken is much needed while fireproof materials and fire protection leave much to the inventor to perfect. Even improvements are needed for wrecking buildings as will be seen in Fig. 115.