THE OFFSPRING OF SCIENCE 



who looked forward to a time when all human 

 food stuffs would be prepared in the laboratory 

 and the drudgery of industrial and agricultural 

 labor eliminated. A new impetus was given to 

 electric vacuum work in 1893-95 by * ne publica- 

 tion in Germany of the results of experiments 

 made by Lenard and Rontgen, showing that cer- 

 tain rays of light, invisible to the human eye, 

 penetrated substances, which had been considered 

 impenetrable for light of any kind, and affected 

 photographic plates. And in 1896, Becquerel, 

 experimenting in France with phenomena of 

 phosphorescence, showed that salts of uranium 

 emit radiations which penetrate opaque bodies, 

 affect photographic plates, and discharge an elec- 

 trometer. Following close upon Becquerel's dis- 

 coveries came the brilliant work of Mr. and Mrs. 

 Curie on the radio-activity of bodies accompany- 

 ing uranium (radium and helium). 



Edison's phonograph, Marconi's and Tesla's 

 experiments with wireless telegraphy, liquid air, 

 the transmission of power by means of water- 

 falls or tides of the oceans, sun-motors, airships, 

 color-photography, the ultra-microscope, and sim- 

 ilar discoveries and inventions, augur an 

 impending revolution in methods of industrial 

 activity, reducing the element of distance to a 



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