CAN WE INVENT?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 256, 4 December 1909, Page 4

CAN WE INVENT?

OR IS JOHX BULL SLEEPI.NG « ulLh, OTHERS WO UK? The remarkable achievement aecomjilisUed. by the French aeronaut, M. Bleriot, lias sot people wondering whether this nation occupies the commanding position it once did among its commercial rivals. One of the readiest and most accurate means of gauging a nation's greatness is by ascertaining the number and achievements of its principal men. Anil when achievements are mentioned, it must be understood that these must be of practical utility to mankind, and calculated to prove boons and blessings to the race.

'Let us see, then, how this Britain ot ours shall stand such a test! (iEI'TIXU UP Si'lS A.M. Sixty years' ago an enormous advantage was being derived in this country from the discovery of steam, the introduction of railways, and the invention of machinery, because these innovations not merely made famous the names ot Watt, Stephenson, and Arkwriglit, but they turned this country into a workshop for the whrfe world, and immediately brought in tliat tremendous wave of commercial prosperity which has made the Empire what it is.

In the last lifteen or twenty years :t would seem that other nations' have been more keen upon experimenting with new ideas than we have. Take, for instance, motor-cars, which in the astonishingly short period of a dozen years have penetrated into some of the most inaccessible parts of the earth. The discovery of %hc motor-car was, me might say, an accident.

All engineers were aware that petroleum was highly inltammable; but until a few years ago it was not known that this quality of exploding with considerable energy could be used as a practical force in propulsion. ' The discovery and manufacture oi motors in France was simply a goldmine to the nation for many years, anil it is only in comparatively recent times that Germany and Britajn have succeedI cd in holding their own.

FRANCE FOR FILJIS. The cinematograph was first publicly exploited by a Frenchman, and the making of films for the countless thousands of machines that now provide entertainment in palaces and music-halls, in splendid theatres, and in pcuny shows is very largely in the hands of two French firms. Indeed, one doesn't need to know much about Paris to see tuat the great bulk of the scenes shown are faked in the streets of the French capital.

l'rofcsor Rontgen -lias most certainly conferred a boon and a blessing on mankind with the introduction of his famous Rontgen rays, without which no hospital nowadays would be complete. The invention of this adjunct of the physician's and surgeon's art' 'has become so universally accepted thai Us utility is at once admitted; and ihe' name of Rontgen, therefore, win lor ever rank as one of the most konoreu! of those belonging to Germany. It seems' but yesterday that Signer Marconi—an Italian—announced his success to the world with wireless telegraphy. But Britain may claim some credit for this wonderfully ingenious device for conveying messages without connected transmitters, since it was in this country that he carried out his ex-, peiinients. 1 Within the two years France and! Germany have been experimenting, wi.ii'

I considerable success, in aeronautic while few attempts made in Knglan other than with balloons, have met wit success. The brothers Wright, America, iirst showed what possiuiiili' lay in a lightlv-eonstructed aerobian and their marvellous movements sou attracted the attention of other «pirii Ino less intrepid, uulil, at the presei day, it may be said that France is 11 home of flying men, ior though Englis. men and Americans have acnievcd eon success in these directions, yet they lia. all sought France to carry out exper ments. The eppclin airship, however, is ti most assured and reliable advance nuui by mankind in flying since the won began. Bailoons ) of course, have bee known for many years, but at best tinwere unreliable, and "taeir practici utility was never quite apparent. Tn Zeppelin airship, in two sustained test has proved its capability of flying at good speed along any given line, of ris lug and falling at the will of the steer; man, and of being lowered to the earl without injury to its occupants, lb fact, also, that the Zeppelin ship- ca carry thirty men in her cabin makes; magnificent asset with boundless poss: biiities to the German nation. THE TURBINE 'XiijjUMX'II. •Against all these world boons an blessings, there is only one that ea; compare with them for utility and in geniousness invented by an iniiabitan of any part of the British Isles; that i the turbine. Let it be noted, morcovei that the application of the turbine t< steamships is simply an adaptation o former ideas to now methods.

The ilou. C. A. Parsons, of Newcastle, experimented for years with a torpedo craft before lie was able to convince the I marine world of men that a revolution in the propulsion of steam vessels had at length arrived, ill', Parsons -has on several occasions referred to Uie coolness shown towards his invention, a id the failure which appeared to stare him in the face. The Government at length experimentally ordered turbine propulsion for several torpedo boats, and the speed of these vessels was so remarkably in excess; of that attained by those

lilted with ordinary engines that luitlier orders followed. 'i'HONLMi WITHOUT >, ...aS. Submarines ore to the sea what aeroplanes are in the air. The first successful submarine was constructed in a French dockyard, but the construction of these curious craft was so speedily adopted by the British Government that at the present day tlie two countries may claim ail almost equal share in their development. Wireless telephony appears to be illmost realised—again, unfortunately for our claim to continued greatness—in France. Two French naval lieutenants, with the aid of some skilfully-devised instruments, were able to speak to a friend on a battleship fifty miles nt sea, while they remained on aiioii » lim-, deaux. So a meagre newspaper repuu, informs us. The discovery is so iikkli in tlie experimental stage yet that cannot venture to predict its future; but the possibility of its being acelaiuieu as another accession towards tlie progress of tlie race is so absolutely eertain"that it may claim a place among those achievements) which distinguish great nations. —Home paper.