A WORLD OF CHANGE — WEIDLEIN 191 



soaring plane; the laboring locomotive for its silent, streamlined 

 cousin; the mechanical music box for the miracle of radio. 



A finger moves a dial and invokes the human voice. But the tele- 

 phone is an old story. Manufactured ice and mechanical refrigera- 

 tion come instantly to the rescue in hot midsummer days. But we 

 already forget the waste and illness of the era before man-made refriger- 

 ation. The photograph of a distinguished visitor spans the continent 

 in a few seconds. Telephoto, too, however, becomes prosaic. A 

 modern dryad wears a gown that last year was part of a tree. Yes, 

 but we grow to expect beautiful new fabrics from the commonest 

 substances, even glass. 



If yesterday's miracles are today's commonplaces, what an age 

 tomorrow may be, with science as its constant guide, insistent on 

 solving human needs, making the improbable come true. 



What kind of homes, for instance, shall we be living in by 2000 

 A. D.? What kind of furnishings shall we have? How shall we heat 

 our homes? Shall we all be living in the country or in some new kind 

 of city? What kinds of recreation ishall we have? What kinds of 

 planes, automobiles, trains? What kinds of bridges, tunnels, viaducts, 

 ramps? What materials and substances shall we wear and eat? How 

 much leisure shall we have for the art of living? We dare not more 

 than guess. 



For most prophecy is untrustworthy. We all are too likely to 

 project the present into the future, forgetting that the future may go 

 clear around us, or scrap much that we accept. Scientists speak 

 casually of harnessing the winds for power, of drawing upon the heat 

 of the sun, of using even the surge of the tides for power to replace 

 fuel that by then may be gone. Laws will not prevent men from 

 thinking. And so long as they think, so long as they refuse to accept 

 the present age as perfect, advances will be made. 



Back of all change is the wholesome spirit of discontent. There 

 must be a way to make a better stocking, to create a more durable 

 fabric, to make a better dust pan than those now sold. Dissatisfaction 

 with something less than perfection, desires for something better, 

 refusal to accept things as they are — these are the urges that lead to 

 improvement. These, and a special quality of open-mindedness that 

 keeps the present from closing the door to the future. 



Chemistry is constantly seeking through research natural facts on 

 which to base new truths, which bring about these changes. But she 

 cannot invoke them alone, without the aid of her sister sciences, any 

 one of which may at any moment find a new bit of knowledge which 

 will lead the others along new trails. This world-wide collaboration 

 is really the hope of scientific progress today. 



Modern research is characterized by its complexity and the variety 

 of phases which it presents. In the latter half of the past century and 



