FIG. 305.—LIQUID AIR EXPERIMENTS.
10. Frozen mercury. 11. Liquid oxygen in water. 12. Frozen whisky. 13. Carbonic acid snow. 14. Combustion of carbon pencil.
[CHAPTER XXXIV.]
Minor Inventions
and
Patents in Principal Countries of the World.
If the reader has been patient enough to have reviewed the preceding pages, the impression may have been formed that the notable inventions referred to represent all that is worth while to consider in this great field of human achievement. It would be a fallacy to entertain such a thought, for the little stars out-number the big ones, and the twigs of the tree are far more numerous than its branches. The great things in life are comparatively few and far between, and the bulk of human existence is made up of an unclassified mass of little things, sown like sands along the shore of time between the boulders of great events. So also in invention is its warp and woof made up of a multitude of little threads behind the gorgeous patterns of meteoric genius. Every hour of the day of modern life is replete with the achievements of invention. Look around the room, and there is not a thing in sight that does not suggest the material advance of the age; the books, the furniture, the carpets, the curtains, the wall paper, the clock, the mantels, the house trimmings, the culinary utensils, and the clothing, all represent creations of this century. So full is the daily life of these things, and so much of a necessity have they all become, that their commonplace character dismisses them from conspicuous notice. Take the most matter-of-fact and prosy half hour of the day, that at the time of rising, and see what a faithful account of the average man’s everyday life would present. The awakening is definitely determined by an alarm clock, and the sleepy Nineteenth Century man rolling over under the seductive comfort of a spring bed, takes another nap, because he knows that the rapid transit cars will give him time to spare. Rising a little later his bare feet find a comfortable footing on a machine-made rug, until thrust into full fashioned hose, and ensconced in a pair of machine-sewed slippers. Drawing the loom-made lace curtains, he starts up the window shade on the automatic Hartshorn roller and is enabled to see how to put in his collar button and adjust his shirt studs. He awakens the servant below with an electric bell, calls down the speaking tube to order breakfast, and perhaps lights the gas for her by the push button. He then proceeds to the bath, where hot and cold water, the sanitary closet, a gas heater, and a great array of useful modern articles present themselves, such as vaseline, witch hazel, dentifrices, cold cream, soaps and antiseptics, which supply every luxurious want and every modern conception of sanitation. His bath concluded, he proceeds to dress, and maybe puts in his false teeth, or straps on an artificial leg. Donning his shirt with patented gussets and bands, he quickly adjusts his separable cuff buttons, puts on his patented suspenders, and, winding a stem-winding watch, proceeds down stairs to breakfast. A revolving fly brush and fly screens contribute to his comfort. A cup of coffee from a drip coffee-pot, a lump of artificial ice in his tumbler, sausage ground in a machine, batter cakes made with an egg beater, waffles from a patented waffle iron, honey in artificial honey comb, cream raised by a centrifugal skimmer, butter made in a patented churn, hot biscuits from the cooking range, and a refrigerator with a well stocked larder, all help to make him comfortable and happy. The picture is not exceptional in its fullness of invented agencies, and one could just as well go on with our citizen through the rest of the day’s experience, and start him off after breakfast with a patented match, in a patented match case, and a patented cigarette, with his patented overshoes and umbrella, and send him along over the patented pavement to the patented street car, or automobile, and so on to the end of the day.
Some of the minor inventions are really of too much importance to be passed without comment. The cable car is a factor which has cut no small figure in the activities of city life. The first patent on a slotted underground conduit between the rails, with traction cable inside and running on pulleys, was that to E. A. Gardner, No. 19,736, March 23, 1858. Hallidie, in San Francisco, in 1876, directed his energies to a development of this system, and brought it to a degree of perfection and general adoption that made it for many years the leading system of street car propulsion. To-day, however, it represents but a decadent type, being largely supplanted by the superior advantages of electricity.
Passenger elevators constitute one of the conspicuous features of modern locomotion. Without them the tall office buildings, hotels, and department stores would have no existence; the Eiffel Tower would never have been dreamed of, and the expenditure of vital force in stair climbing would have been greatly augmented. The passenger elevator has for its prototype the ancient hoist or lift for mines, but in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century it has developed into a distinct institution—a luxurious little room, gliding noiselessly up and down, actuated by a power that is not seen, and supplied with every appliance for safety and comfort, such as governors, safety catches, automatic stops, mirrors and cushioned seats. The principle of the screw, of balance weights, of the lazy tongs, and other mechanical powers have each found application in the elevator, but steam, hydraulic power, and electricity constitute the moving agencies of the modern type. The patent to E. G. Otis, No. 31,128, January 15, 1861, marks the beginning of its useful applications.