Transfusion of blood is accomplished, in case of wounds by accident, without inconvenience to the one supplying the life-fluid, or danger to the recipient, while effective tonics bring about the rapid replacement of the amount of blood abstracted in the emergency.
The triumphs of electricians in their wonderful science have caused the twentieth century to be named the Age of Electricity.
The power of great rivers, such as Niagara, is utilized by being converted into electricity and transmitted where desired; also stored up at convenient distributing places, to be used when wanted. Wave force has been taken hold of and similarly carried to great distances and used in quantities, or at times, to suit.
The wind and the lightning are in the same way harnessed to do man’s bidding; so that each storm contributes to public wealth to an extent greater than the damage it works.
Lightning is no longer a source of danger. The electric and other connections of the building render an injurious shock impossible; and where it does strike any building in the protected circuit, the charge is stored to be used for domestic purposes, such as driving the passenger and goods elevators in the house, or furnishing light and heat.
Welding is accomplished by electricity, on a large scale. Not only are ordinary masses of steel so made one, but the hulls, masts and yards of steel vessels are thus welded together electrically, so that there is no possibility of a seam “giving,” nor of a leak taking place. Steel bridge-members being similarly electrically welded together, the danger from such bridges giving way is reduced to an insignificant minimum.
Primary batteries generate an electric current by chemical action upon coal, without the production of heat or odor; so that the steam engine is seldom needed, and, indeed, in many places as rarely seen as the wind-mill was in 1893.
Horology, as of old, is one of the exact sciences; but we find upon every street, electrically-driven clocks telling to the tenth of a second the time of day or night; the twenty-four hour system having come into general use about 1900, and London time being kept in every city in the civilized world.
The central stations of the telephone and other conveniences are worked by the subscribers themselves; the apparatus in each house enabling the subscriber to ascertain whether or not the person with whom he wishes to communicate is at liberty; and to connect with him if he is.
All cities on the Continent are connected in a universal telegraphic and telephonic exchange, so that San Francisco can write, print or talk in New Orleans or Montreal. The telephone is so improved that it can be worked across the Atlantic, although the Pacific as yet defies all attempts of inventors to produce a system that will work without fail under all conditions. By this wonderful improvement Patti, from her castle at Craig-y-Nos; Campanini, from his beloved Italy, and other celebrated artists, could have delighted those who heard them in New York, by taking part in a concert together; but those great artists are but memories, and have been supplanted by others, with voices improved by surgery and special nurture until their range, delicacy and power have been brought to a degree of perfection of which the nineteenth century never dreamed.