496 Discoveries of the Present Century. October, 



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Some of the most wonderful results of human intellect have been 

 witnessed in the last fifty years. It is remarkable how the mind of 

 the world has run into scientific investigation, and what achievement, 

 it has effected in that short period. Fulton launched the first steam- 

 boat in 1807, now there are 3,000 steamboats traversing the waters 

 of America only. In 1825 the first railroad was put in operation in 

 Massachusetts. In 1800 there was not a single railroad in the 

 world. In the United States alone there are now 18,797 miles of 

 railroad, costing $235,000,000 to build, and about 22,000 miles of 

 railroad in America. The electric telegraph had its beginning in 

 1845. The electric magnet was discovered in 1812, and electrotyp- 

 ing is a still later invention. Hoe's printing press, capable of print- 

 ing 20,000 copies an hour, is a very recent discovery. Gas light 

 was unknown in 1800; now every city and town of any pretense is 

 lighted with gas, and we have the annoucement of a still greater 

 discovery, by which light, heat, and motive power, may be produced 

 from water, with scarcely any cost. Daguerre communicated to the 

 world his beautiful invention in 1839. Gun cotton and chloroform 

 are discoveries but a few years old. Astronomy has added a number 

 of new planets to the solar system. What will the next half cen- 

 tury accomplish ? We may look for still greater discoveries ; for the 

 intellect of man is awake, exploring every mine of knowledge and 

 searching for useful information in every department of art and in- 

 dustry. 



New Kind of Gas. — An English paper states that the Queen's 

 Palace has for some time been lighted by means of the "Torbanehill 

 mineral," the gas from this substance being destitute of sulj^hur. — 

 The same journal says : Last year ten thousand tons of this mineral 

 were sent to London, alone. Not long ago the French Government 

 published a report concerning this substance, which had previously 

 lighted up the whole of the Hotel des Invalides. It is sent to the 

 most distant parts of the globe. A ship loaded with blocks of this 

 mineral conveys an enormous quantity of a peculiar oil, the source 

 of the illuminating power in the smallest possible bulk — seventy-five 

 per cent., or three-fourths of the substance being latent oil, and the 

 rest pure clay. 



