XIV 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS OF APPLIED SCIENCE 



NOT long ago a little company of men met in 

 a lecture hall of Columbia University to dis- 

 cuss certain questions in applied science. 

 It was a small gathering, and its proceedings were so 

 unspectacular as to be esteemed worth only a few lines 

 of newspaper space. The very name "Society of 

 Electro-Chemistry" seemed to mark it as having 

 to do with things that are caviare to the general. The 

 name seems to smack of fumes of the laboratory, far 

 removed from the interests of the man in the street. 

 Yet Professor Chandler said in his address of welcome 

 to the members of the society, that though theirs was 

 the very youngest of scientific organizations, he could 

 confidently predict for it a future position outranking 

 that of all its sister societies; and his prediction was 

 based on the belief that electro-chemistry is destined 

 to revolutionize vast and important departments of 

 modern industry. A majority of the heat-using methods 

 of mechanics will owe their future development to 

 the new science. 



In a word, then, despite its repellant name, the so- 

 ciety in question has to do with affairs that are of the 

 utmost importance to the man in the street. Though 

 its members may sometimes deal in occult formulas 



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