To the right is the Queen’s steam yacht Victoria and Albert; in the centre the Prince of Wales’s Britannia; and to the left the German Emperor’s Meteor.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
Material Progress during the Reign—Modern Locomotion—The Bicycle—Motor Carriages—The Proposed Channel Tunnel—Steam Navigation—Ironclads—The Telephone—The Phonograph—Electricity as an Illuminant—Photography—Its Effect on Painting and Engraving—Victorian Architecture—Absence of Principle in Design—Universal Education—Its Effect on Moral Character and Literary Habits—The Predominance of Fiction—The Growth and Character of British Journalism—The Advance of Natural Science—Surgery and Medicine—Vaccination—Antiseptic and Aseptic Treatment—Bacteriology—The Röntgen Rays—Sanitary Legislation—Conclusion.
ALLUSION has been made in earlier chapters to the development during the reign of Queen Victoria of the powers of steam applied to locomotion, of electricity applied to the conveyance of news, to the institution of the penny post, and to the invention of anæsthetics in surgery. |Material Progress during the Reign.| But no survey, however brief, would be satisfactory which took no note of a few other stages in the progress of applied knowledge—progress which, up to the present moment, shows no sign of slackening.
From a Photograph] [by F. W. Burgess,
Ringmer.
AN EARLY BICYCLE.
This is probably the earliest Bicycle seen in England; it was made in 1868 by Mr. W. F. Martin.
First, as to locomotion: when Sir Walter Scott was writing the opening chapters of the “Heart of Midlothian,” in 1818, he referred to the wonderful development of facilities for travel, and may have thought he was exceeding the limits of the probable when he penned the sentence: “Perhaps the echoes of Ben Nevis may soon be awakened by the bugle, not of a warlike chieftain, but of the guard of a mail coach.” Scott was by no means deficient in imaginative power, but the maximum speed he can have contemplated was ten miles an hour, for the standard of speed in those days was the pace of a horse (we still reckon the strength of our engines at so many “horse” power). |Modern Locomotion.| What would he think now, were it possible for him to take his seat in a luxurious saloon and be whirled round the flanks of Ben Nevis, along the West Highland Railway? Eleven years after the publication of the “Heart of Midlothian” a competition of locomotives was held on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and the prize was taken by Messrs. Stephenson’s “Rocket.” Weighing 7 tons 9 cwts., this engine was able to draw a load of 9 tons 10 cwts. at an average speed of thirteen miles an hour. One of the first-class express engines on the London and North-Western line at the present day weighs 77 tons 2 cwts., and draws a load of 160 tons, at an average speed of forty-seven miles an hour.