FINAL DEDUCTIONS. 



95 



dent of the American Society of Mechanical En- 

 gineers " * : 



" I have sometimes said that the world is waiting for 

 the appearance of three great inventors, yet unknown, 

 for whom it has in store honors and emoluments far 

 exceeding all ever yet accorded to any one of their 

 predecessors. The first is the man who is to show 

 how, by the consumption of coal, we may directly pro- 

 duce electricity, and thus, perhaps, evade that now 

 inevitable and enormous loss that comes of the utihza- 

 tion of energy in all heat-engines driven by substances 

 of variable volume. Our electrical engineers have this 

 great step still to take, and are apparently not likely 

 soon to gain the prize that will reward some genius yet 

 to be born. The second of these greatest of inventors 

 is he who will teach us the source of the beautiful soft- 

 beaming Hght of the firefly and the glowworm, and 

 will show us how to produce this singular illuminant 

 and to apply it with success practically and commer- 

 cially. This wonderful light, free from heat and from 

 consequent loss of energy, is nature's substitute for the 

 crude and extravagantly wasteful lights of which we 

 have, through so many years, been foohshly boasting. 

 The dynamo-electrical engineer has nearly solved this 

 problem. Let us hope that it may be soon fully solved, 

 and by one of those among our own colleagues who are 

 now so earnestly working in this field, and that we may 

 all live to see him steal the glowworm's light and to see 

 the approaching days of Vril predicted so long ago by 

 Xord Lytton. The third great genius is the man who 

 is to fulfil Erasmus Darwin's prophecy closing the 

 stanza : 



* Transactions "A. S. M. E.," November 1881, R. H. T. 



