272 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 372. 



Ifli anything that I may say let it be under- 

 stood that I am not personal to Professor 

 Franklin, who brings the editorial from Lon- 

 don Electrician to our attention. The readers 

 of Science need no statement from me as to 

 Professor Franklin's qualifications. 



It is too much the habit of scientists to be 

 conservative about the application of scientific 

 theory to commercial use. It seems to be an 

 attitude which it is impossible to avoid; and 

 the limitations of the individual are usually 

 regarded as those of the science. For this 

 reason I protest against the conclusions so 

 hastily drawn in the present immature stage 

 of the art of Wireless Telegraphy, viz., that 

 it is practically incapable of any substantial 

 extension. In this connection I quote from 

 the Scientific American Supplement, the issue 

 of August 5, 1882, page 5490, from an article 

 called 'Electro-Mania' by W. M. Williams. 



I well remember making this journey to Box- 

 moor (upon one of the early steam railway car- 

 riages on the London and Northwestern Railway ) , 

 and four or five years later travelling on a circu- 

 lar- electro-magnetic railway. Comparing that 

 electric railway with those now exhibiting, and 

 comparing the Boxmoor trip with the present 

 work of the London and Northwestern Railway, T 

 have no hesitation in affirming that the rate of 

 progress in electro-locomotion during the last 

 forty years has been far smaller than that of 

 - steam. The leading fallacy which is urging the 

 electro-maniacs of the present time to their ruin- 

 ous investments is the idea that electro-motors 

 are novelties, and that electric lighting is in its 

 infancy; while gas lighting is regarded as an old, 

 or mature middle-aged business, and, therefore, we 

 are to expect a marvelous growth of the infant 

 and no further progress of the adult. 



This quotation is a type. Further, appli- 

 cation of scientific theory to the affairs of man 

 has from time immemorial been met by the 

 scoffs not only of the ignorant (which may be 

 borne with equanimity), but of those who 

 ought to know better. The article by Mr. 

 Williams was written after the birth of the 

 dynamo, and he was doubtless incapable of dis- 

 tinguishing then between the old galvanic bat- 

 tery electric railways and those which followed 

 the development of mechanical electric con- 

 trivances. We now know that the electric 



railv.ay, so lightly characterized then, is an 

 every-day matter involving the use of more 

 capital than all other electric contrivances 

 combinfd. The capital liabilities of the elec- 

 tric railways in the United States alone 

 amount to $2,000,000,000; the telegraphs of 

 the United States amount to $175,000,000, and 

 the telephone systems of all kinds to a little 

 less than $250,000,000. 



Further, I protest that the entire article in 

 the London Electrician is of the most un- 

 scientific character, utterly unworthy the at- 

 tention of any one who tries to preserve fair- 

 mindedness ; and again that it misrepresents 

 facts in the baldest manner; take such an ex- 

 ample as this : 



The wireless channel of transmission will be 

 rigorously avoided by business men, to whom a 

 guarantee of secrecy and the certainty of a re- 

 corded message are absolutely indispensable. 

 Wireless signals in the ether can never be secret; 

 it must always be possible to intercept them. And 

 messages received in no more permanent form 

 than by sounds in a telephone are too evanescent 

 and uncertain to commend themselves to the pur- 

 poses of commerce. 



And this in spite of the fact that the most 

 enormous transactions are undertaken and 

 consummated by telephone ! 



Ipse dixit predictions of this kind are un- 

 scientific. The scientist who has learned to 

 distinguish between 'It can't be done' and 'I 

 can't do it' has learned something which the 

 evanescent gentleman who penned the article 

 brought to our attention has certainly neg- 

 lected. A caution against undue haste or bold- 

 ness of prediction is all right; but predictions 

 of what cannot be done are all wrong, and very 

 much further wrong, because they neglect all 

 the teachings of the past, and instead of adopt- 

 ing a Baconian philosophy would render it 

 impossible for scientific men to obtain the 

 means of pursuing investigations. 



T. J. Johnston. 



8H0BTEB ARTICLES. 



THE DISCOVERY OF TORREJON MAMMALS IN 

 MONTANA. 



Last spring (1901), after it was decided th^t 

 an expedition should be sent from Princeton 



