PRIZES FOR THE INVENTOR 



135 



machinery to enable alcohol to be used 

 as the source of power. 



Evolution in science has not always 

 been accomplished by a series of gradual 

 changes, each small in itself, but cumu- 

 lative in effect. There have also been 

 sudden "mutations" followed by advances 

 of knowledge by leaps and bounds in a 

 new direction, and the establishment of 

 new and useful arts never before even 

 dreamed of by man. 



Although Clerk - Maxwell and others 

 had long ago enunciated the theory that 

 light and electricity were vibratory move- 

 ments of the so-called "ether" or lumi- 

 niferous medium of space, differing . 

 chiefly in frequency from one another, 

 the world was not prepared for the ex- 

 periments of Hertz, who demonstrated 

 the reality of the conception and actually 

 measured the wave-length of electrical 

 discharges. Still less was it prepared for 

 the discovery that brick walls and other 

 apparently opaque objects were as trans- 

 parent to the Hertzian waves as glass is 

 to light. These experiments formed the 

 basis for numerous other startling dis- 

 coveries and practical applications for 

 the benefit of man. 



WE CAN SEE OUR OWN HEARTS BEAT 



Flesh proved to be transparent to the 

 Roentgen rays, and the world was fairly 

 startled by the first X-ray photographs 

 of the bones in the living human hand. 

 Now physicians and surgeons use X-ray 

 lamps to enable them to see bullets and 

 other objects imbedded in flesh, and have 

 even devised means of observing the 

 beating of the heart and the movements 

 of other internal organs without pain to 

 their patients. 



Other developments of the Hertzian 

 waves have resulted in the creation of the 

 new art of wireless telegraphy. Most of 

 us, I think, can remember the first S.O.S. 

 signals sent out by a ship in distress and 

 the instant response from distant vessels 

 equipped with the Marconi apparatus. 

 Then came the rush of vessels to the 

 scene of disaster and the rescue of the 

 passengers and crew. 



Developments of wireless telegraphy 

 are proceeding with great rapidity, and 

 no man can predict what startling discov- 



eries and applications may appear in the 

 near future. Here may be an opening 

 for some of you, and I know of no more 

 promising field of exploration to recom- 

 mend to your notice. 



HONOLULU EAVESDROPS WHILE WASHING- 

 TON TALKS TO PARIS 



Already privacy of communication has 

 been secured by wireless transmitters and 

 receivers "tuned," so to speak, to respond 

 to electrical vibrations of certain fre- 

 quencies alone. They are sensitive only 

 to electrical impulses of definite wave- 

 length. The principle of sympathetic vi- 

 bration operating tuned wireless receivers 

 has also been applied to the control of 

 machinery from a distance and the steer- 

 ing of boats without a man on board. 

 The possibilities of development in this 

 direction are practically illimitable, and 

 we shall probably be able to perform at 

 a distance by wireless almost any mechan- 

 ical operation that can be done at hand. 



Still more recently wireless telegraphy 

 has given birth to another new art, and 

 wireless telephony has appeared. Only 

 a short time ago a man in Arlington, Va., 

 at the wireless station there, talked by 

 word of mouth to a man on the Eiffel 

 Tower in Paris, France. Not only that, 

 but a man in Honolulu overheard the 

 conversation ! The distance from Hono- 

 lulu to the Eiffel Tower must be 8,000 

 miles at least — one-third the distance 

 around the globe — and this achievement 

 surely foreshadows the time when we 

 may be able to talk with a man in any 

 part of the world by telephone and with- 

 out wires. 



OUR MOST CHERISHED THEORIES UPSET BY 

 A WOMAN 



The above illustrations exhibit what we 

 might call "mutations" of science ; but 

 the greatest of all these mutations was 

 the discovery that opened the twentieth 

 century, and I may add for the encour- 

 agement of our young lady graduates 

 that it was made by a woman. I allude 

 to the discovery of radium by Madame 

 Curie of Paris. 



Radium has recently upset our most 

 cherished theories of matter and force. 

 The whole subject of chemistry has to be 



