28 JOURNAIv OF THE 



proximations only, one cannot help thinking" that two 

 of the great problems of the immediate future will be, 

 devising- less wasteful methods for using* our fuel and 

 freeing- the air from the impurities we so recklessly 

 pour into it. 



As to the question of our supply of fuel, the g-reat 

 strides in the knowledg-e and use of electricity leave 

 little doubt that it will furnish the lig'ht, heat and mo- 

 tive power of the future. We will not have to rel}^ 

 upon the etheriiic force of Keely or others. Every 

 torrent, every waterfall, the motion of the tides, the 

 quiet flow of the rivers, reservoirs of pent-up rainfall, 

 all will be called into requisition to gfenerate for us 

 this force, so beneficent when tamed. Who would have 

 believed a few years ag-o that it would so soon have at- 

 tained its present position as motive and lig-hting" pow- 

 er ? It is already usurping- the place of fuel in extract- 

 ing- the metals from their ores and we have scarcely 

 entered upon the era of its use in the manufactures. 



If, however, we must have fuel we need not seek 

 very far for inventions which mig-ht supply our needs. 

 It is not conceivable that we shall g-o on for another 

 hundred years with the inconvenient and wasteful use 

 of fuel in the solid form, any more than we would now 

 be willing- to return to the torch and tallow dip of our 

 fathers as a source of lig-lit. Gaseous fuel will be the 

 only form marketable in the next century and the soon- 

 er we come to this the better. The advantages in the 

 use of g-as for heating- and industrial purposes have al- 

 ready been experienced by those dwelling- in the natur- 

 al gas reg-ion and they are loath to g-ive it up. 



The g-aseous fuel of the future will consist mainly of 

 hydrog-en and carbon monoxide. The first we can easi- 

 ly obtain by decomposing- water b}^ means of electricity 



