In 1898 Professor and Madam Curie, of Paris, discovered radium. This remarkable substance is extracted from pitch-blende. It is said to require the reduction of about five thousand tons of the blende to produce one pound of radium. The cost of one pound of radium is variously estimated at from one to three millions of dollars. Radium overturns all the laws of chemistry and physics. Scientists state that if a method of producing it cheaply is ever discovered it will create the greatest revolution in industrial circles. One pound of radium is said to be capable of lighting an enormous area for one billion years without reducing its size or substance by one thousandth part. In other words, it exerts abnormal energy without any appreciable loss.
In 1902, January, Peter Cooper Hewitt, of New York City, announced the invention by him of his Mercury Vapor tube electric light. This light is red-less,—gives off all colors except red. It is in present use in many large establishments. It is practically indestructible, and gives eight times as much light with the same amount of electricity as other lights. Mr. Hewitt is a wealthy man, having inherited money. He comes of the famous New York Hewitt family, whose members have been in the forefront of progress. Mr. Hewitt also invented the "Hewitt Electrical Converter" and the "Hewitt Electrical Interrupter," both inventions of unusual merit.
In 1903, January 18th, Guglielmo Marconi sent a wireless message from Cape Cod, Mass., to Cornwall, England, a distance of 3000 miles. Such a thing, a few years ago, would have been considered absolutely impossible,—unbelievable,—a wild flight of the imagination. Marconi's achievement was accomplished only after the most prolonged experimentation and many disappointments.
In 1908, September 12th, Hudson Maxim filed an application for a patent on an electrical invention for the prolongation of human life.
In 1908, Professor Alexander Graham Bell and Professor Emile Berliner, famous inventors in telephones, are working on new styles of flying machines. With these experts in the field, aerial navigation will, no doubt, shortly be a problem completely solved.
NOTES.
In 200 B.C., Hero, of Alexandria, gives an account of an ingenious steam toy.
In 1543, one Blasco de Garay is said to have shown in the harbor of Barcelona, Spain, a vessel of two hundred tons' burden, moved by a paddle wheel driven by steam power.