4.—The Growth of the Productivity of Labor.A far-reaching appliance of motor-power, and of the most perfect machines and tools, a detailed division of labor and a skillful combination of the various forces, will so heighten the productivity of labor that the necessary quantities of all commodities can be produced, notwithstandinga considerable shortening of the hours of work. Increased production will be to the common advantage of all.The share of each individual increases with the productivity of labor, and the increased productivity of labor again makes it possible to reduce the time required for the performance of socially necessary labor.Among the motor powers that will be applied, electricity will most likely hold the foremost place. Bourgeois society everywhere presses it into service, and the more this is done the better it is for general progress. The revolutionizing effect of the most powerful of all natural forces will onlyhastenthe overthrow of the bourgeois world and help to usher in Socialism. But only in socialistic society will the force be generally applied and turned to the best advantage. Both as a motor-power and as a source of light and heat it will contributelargely to the improved standard of living of society. Electricity is distinguished from every other force by the fact that it exists in nature in abundance. Our streams, high and low tide of the sea, wind and sunlight will furnish countless horse-powers when we shall thoroughly understand how to apply them.“A wealth of energy that by far exceeds all demands is furnished by those parts of the surface of the earth that are so regularly subjected to the heat of the sun that it might be applied to regular technical operations. Perhaps it would not be an exaggerated precaution if a nation would even now secure a share in such places. The required areas need not even be very large; a few square miles in Northern Africa would suffice for the requirements of a country like the German Empire. By concentrating the heat of the sun a high temperature can be produced, and thereby everything else—portable mechanical work, charging of batteries, light and heat, and, by electrolysis, even fuel.”[217]The man who opens up these vistas is not a dreamer, but an appointed professor at the Berlin University and president of the Royal Physical and Technical Institute, a man who ranks high in the scientific world. At the 79th congress of the British Association in Winnipeg (during August, 1909), the famous English physicist, Sir S. Thompson, said: “The day is not too far distant when our life will be revolutionized by applying the rays of the sun. Man will liberate himself from his dependence upon coal-and-water power, and all large cities will be surrounded by immense apparatus, real sunbeam traps, into which the heat of the sun will be gathered, and the obtained energy will be stored away in tremendous reservoirs. It is the force of the sun, stored away in coal, in waterfalls, in nourishment, that performs all the world’s work. How great is this tribute of force that the sun pours down upon us becomes evident when we consider the fact that the warmth received by the earth when the sun is high and the sky is clear, according to the researches of Langley, equals an energy of 7000 horse-powers per acre. Although our engineershave not yet found the way to apply this gigantic source of power, I do not doubt that they will ultimately succeed in finding it. When the supply of coal in the bowels of the earth has been exhausted, when the water-powers will no longer suffice to meet our requirements, then we will obtain from this source all the energy needed to complete the work of the world. Then the centers of industry will be removed to the glowing deserts of Sahara, and the value of the land will be measured by how well it is suited to the erection of the great ‘sunbeam traps.’”[218]According to this, our anxiety that we might at some time lack fuel, is removed. The inventions of the accumulators would make it possible to store a large quantity of force away for future use at any time and place; so that, besides the power furnished by sun and tide, the power furnished by the wind and by mountain torrents, which can be obtained only periodically, might be stored and applied. So there may finally be no human task for which motor power cannot be supplied if necessary. Only by the assistance of electricity has it become possible to employ water-power on a large scale. According to T. Koehn, eight European states have the following supply of water-power at their disposal.Horse-powersPer 1000 inhabitantsGreat Britain963,00023.1Germany1,425,90024.5Switzerland1,500,000138Italy5,500,000150France5,857,000169Austria and Hungary6,460,000454.5Sweden6,750,0001290Norway7,500,0003409Of the German states, Baden and Bavaria control the largest amount of water-power. Baden alone can obtain200,000 horse-powers at the Upper Rhine. Bavaria has at its disposal 300,000 horse-powers that have so far not been applied, besides 100,000 that are applied. Professor Rehbock estimates that the theoretical energy of the entire amount of water flowing upon the surface of the earth amounts to eight thousand million horse-powers. If only the sixteenth part of this could be efficiently applied, 500 millions of permanently serviceable horse-powers could still be won, an amount of energy ten times as great as the energy obtained by the mining of coal during the year 1907, approximately calculated at 1000 million tons. Although such calculations are of a purely theoretical character at present, they still show what achievements we may anticipate in the future from the use of “white coal.” The Niagara Falls alone, which flow from lakes covering an area of 231,880 kilometers—about 43 per cent. of the entire area of Germany—might furnish more water-power than exists in England, Germany and Switzerland combined.[219]According to another calculation quoted in an official report, the United States have water-power at their disposal of no less than twenty million horse-powers, which represent an equivalent of three hundred million tons of coal annually.[220]The mills that will be driven by means of this white or “green” coal, with the force of the gushing mountain streams and waterfalls, will have no smokestacks and no fire.Electricity will also make it possible to more than double the speed of our railroads. At the beginning of the nineties of the last century,Mr.Meems, in Baltimore, declared it to be possible to construct an electric car that would make 300 kilometers an hour, and Professor Elihu Thomson, in Lynn, believed that electric motors could be constructed that would make it possible to cover 260 kilometers in an hour. These expectations have nearly been realized. The trial-rides made on the military railway Berlin-Zossen, during 1901 and 1902, showed the possibility of speed up to 150 kilometers an hour. During experiments made in 1903, the Siemens car attained aspeed of 201 kilometers, and that of the General Electric Company, 208 kilometers. In the succeeding years steam locomotives have also attained a speed of 150 kilometers an hour, and more. The present aim is to attain 200 kilometers per hour. Already, August Sherl has entered the arena with his new project of rapid transit, which relegates the existing railway lines to freight service and proposes to connect the large cities by monorail train service, with a speed of200 kilometers.[221]The question of transforming railroad service from steam into electricity is a current topic in England, Austria, Italy, and America. Between New York and Philadelphia an electric train is to run at a speed of 200 kilometers an hour.The speed of ocean vessels will increase in the same manner. Here the determining factor is the steam turbine.[222]“It holds the foremost place in technical interest at present. It seems destined to displace the piston. While most engineers still regarded the steam turbine as a task of the future, it had become a present-day problem that attracted the attention of the entire world of technics by its success. It remained for electrotechnics, with its rapidly running machinery to create a large field for the practical application of this new power engine. The by far greatest number of all steam-turbines in use to-day serves to drive dynamos.”[223]The turbine has especially proved its superiority over the piston in navigation. The English steamship “Lusitania,” which is equipped with steam-turbines, during August, 1909, made the journey from Ireland to New York in 4 days 11 hours and 42 minutes,[224]with an average speed of 25.85 knots anhour. The steamship “America,” constructed in 1863, the fastest vessel at the time, made 12.5 knots an hour.[225]The day is not distant when the problem of electric propellers for large vessels will be satisfactorily solved. They are already in use with smaller vessels. Simplicity, safety, good self-regulation, and absence of shaking make the steam-turbine the ideal power for the creation of electric energy on board. Electricity will eventually be generally applied to both railway and steamship service.By electricity the technics of moving loads has also been revolutionized. “Steam-power, having made it possible to construct lifting-engines with natural force, electric transmission of power led to a complete revolution in the construction of lifting-machines by giving these machines freedom of motion and constant readiness for use.” Electric power has, among other things, led to a complete transformation in the construction of the cranes. “With its massive curved beak of rolled iron, resting upon a heavy foundation of stone-masonry, with slow motions and the hissing noise of the puffed-out steam, the steam-crane conveys the impression of resembling a gigantic, prehistoric monster. When it has grasped a load it exhibits a tremendous power for lifting, but it needs the assistance of human beings, who, by means of chains, fasten the weights to its hook. Owing to its clumsiness and slow motions it is serviceable only for the lifting of very heavy loads, but not where quick action is needed. Even externally the modern electric crane presents an entirely different aspect. We behold graceful steel trellis-work stretched above the hall, and from this is stretched out a slender pair of tongs, which is movable in all directions. The whole mechanism is controlled by a single man. By means of a gentle pressure on the levers, he directs the electric currents and drives the slender steel limbs of the crane to rapid action.Unaided, they grasp the glowing steel and whirl it through the air, while no other noise is heard but the low buzzing of the electro-motors.”[226]Without the aid of these machines the steadily increasing transportation of masses of goods would not be possible. By a comparison of the wharf-crane at Pola and that at Kiel, the development, in regard to the increase of lifting-power from the middle to the end of the nineteenth century, may be judged. The lifting-power of the former was 60 tons, that of the latter, 200 tons. The manufacture of Bessemer steel only is possible when rapidly working lifting-machines are at hand, for otherwise the tremendous quantities of liquid steel that are produced in a short time could not be transported in the casting-moulds. In the iron-works of Krupp, in Essen alone, 608 cranes are in action, having an aggregate lifting-power of 6513 tons, equal to a freight train of 650 cars. The low cost of freight, which is a condition of present-day international commerce, would not be possible, could not the capital invested in vessels be put to such intense use by the rapid process of unloading. The equipping of a vessel with electric cranes led to a reduction in the annual cost of traffic from 23,000 to 13,000 marks, almost by one-half. And this comparison takes into consideration only the progress of a single decade.The technics of navigation and transportation present new achievements almost daily along all lines. The problem of aerial navigation, which seemed insoluble but two decades ago, is practically solved. At present the dirigible balloons and flying machines do not serve the easier and cheaper transportation of the masses, but only sport and military purposes. But later on they will enhance the productive forces of society. Great progress has also been made by wireless telegraphy; its industrial value grows each day. In a few years, accordingly, traffic will be placed on a new basis.Mining, too, is in a state of transformation at present that still seemed inconceivable ten years ago. Electricityhas been introduced and has revolutionized the machines, the pumps, and the winding-engines.Marvelous are the prospects revealed by the former French minister of public instruction, Professor Berthelot (died March 18, 1907), in an address on the future significance of chemistry, delivered at a banquet of the syndicate of manufacturers of chemicals. In this address,Mr.Berthelot depicted the possible achievements of chemistry in the year 2000, and, though his description contains some humorous exaggerations, it also contains much that is true, of which the following is a brief synopsis.Mr.Berthelot gave a resumé of what chemistry had accomplished in a few decades and enumerated, among other things: The manufacture of sulphuric acid, of soda, bleaching and dyeing, beet-sugar, therapeutic alcaloids, gas, gilding and silvering,etc.Then came electro-chemistry, which completely transformed metallurgy, the chemistry of explosives, which provided mining and warfare with new engines, and the marvels of organic chemistry in the manufacture of colors, perfumes, therapeutic and antiseptic remedies,etc.But all this, said the lecturer, was only a beginning. Far greater problems would soon be solved. In the year 2000, agriculture and peasants would have ceased to exist, as chemistry would have made cultivation of the soil superfluous. There would be no coal-mines and, accordingly, no miners’ strikes. Fuel would be replaced by chemical and physical processes. Tariff and warfare would be abolished; aerial navigation, employing chemicals as a means of locomotion would have done away with these antiquated institutions. The problem of industry consists in finding sources of power that are inexhaustible and can be renewed with the least possible amount of labor. Until now we have generated steam by the chemical energy of burned coal. But the coal is difficult to obtain, and the supply is diminishing daily. It becomes necessary to utilize the heat of the sun and the heat inside the earth. There is good reason to hope that both these sources will find unlimited application. Thereby the source of all heat and of all industry would be made accessible. If water-power were also applied, all imaginable machines might be run on the earth. This source of power wouldbarely diminish in centuries. By means of the warmth of the earth many chemical problems might be solved, among others the chemical production of food. Theoretically this problem is already solved. The synthesis of fats and oils is long since known, sugar and the hydrates of carbon are known also, and the synthesis of the nitrogen-compounds will soon become known. The problem of food is a purely chemical one. As soon as the necessary cheap power could be obtained, by means of carbon from carbonic acid, oxygen and hydrogen from water, and nitrogen from the atmosphere, food of all kinds would be produced. What had heretofore been done by theplantswould henceforth be done byindustry, and the products of industry would be more perfect than those of nature. The time would come when every one would carry a box of chemicals in his pocket from which he would satisfy his need of nourishment in albumen, fat and hydrates of carbon, regardless of time and seasons, of rain and drought, of frost, hail and destructive insects. This would lead to a transformation that was as yet beyond our conception. Orchards, vineyards and pastures would disappear. Man would become more gentle and humane, because he would no longer live upon the murder and destruction of living beings. Then the difference between fertile and unfertile regions would also disappear, and perhaps thedeserts would become the favorite resortsof man, since they are healthier than the damp and marshy plains where agriculture is carried on at present. Then art and all the beauties of human life would attain their fullest development. The earth would no longer be disfigured by the geometrical figures drawn on its surface by agriculture, but would become a garden in which grass, flowers, shrubs and forests might be grown at will; all humanity would dwell in plenty, in a golden age. But man would not fall a victim to laziness and corruption. Work is needful to happiness, and man would work as ever, since he worked for hisownwelfare, for the development of his mental, moral and æsthetic possibilities.The reader may accept as true from this address of Berthelot whatever he chooses. The fact remains thatfuture development will lead to a tremendous improvement in the quantity, quality and variety of products, and that the comforts of life of coming generations will increase to a degree that we can barely conceive to-day.Professor Elihu Thomson agrees with Werner Siemens, who declared at the convention of scientists in Berlin, in 1887, that it would become possible by means of electricity totransform the elements directly into food. Werner Siemens held the opinion that it might be possible, at a remote time, to produce artificially a hydrate of carbon, as grape-sugar or starch, whereby the possibility would be given “to make bread of stones.” The chemist,Dr.H. Meyer, declared that it would be possible to make ligneous fibre a source of human nourishment. In the meantime (1890), Emil Fisher has actually produced grape-sugar artificially, and has thereby made a discovery that Werner Siemens considered possible only “at a remote time.” Since then chemistry has made still further progress. Indigo, vanilla and camphor have been artificially produced. In 1906, W. Loeb succeeded in achieving the assimilation of carbonic acid, outside of the plant up to the production of sugar by means of electric tension. In 1907 Emil Fisher obtained one of the most complicated synthetic bodies that is closely related to natural protein. In 1908 Willstatter and Benz produced pure chlorophyl and proved it to be a compound of magnesium. Thereby the main problem of organic chemistry—to obtain albumen—may find its solution in a future not too far distant.[217]“The Energy of Labor and Appliance of the Electric Current” byFr.Kohlrausch. Leipsic, 1900.[218]As early as 1864, Augustin Mouchot made an attempt to make the heat of the sun serve industrial purposes directly and constructed a sun-machine that was improved by Pifré. The largest sun-machine (heliomotor) is in California and serves as an apparatus for pumping. The water in the well is pumped up at the rate of 11,000 litres a minute.[219]T. Koehn—Some Large European Water-Power Plants and Their Economic Significance.[220]Supply and Distribution of Cotton. Washington, 1908.[221]In 1908, the Prussian department of public works decided to transform the steam-railways Leipsic-Bitterfeld, Magdeburg and Leipsic, Halle into electric railways.[222]While the old steam-engine turns the driving-wheels in a round-about way (by the transmission of the motion of the piston rods), the steam-turbine produces a direct rotary motion, like the wind turns the wind-mill.[223]C. Matchoss—The Evolution of the Steam-Engine.[224]During September, 1910, the Mauretania broke this record by hour and one minute.—Tr.[225]During the fifties of the last century, the sailing vessels took about six weeks to reach New York. The steamers crossed in two weeks. During the nineties, the voyage was made in a week, and now it is made in 5½ days. As a result of this progress, the two continents are brought nearer to each other now than Berlin and Vienna were a century ago.[226]O. Kammerer—The Technics of Moving Loads, Formerly and at the Present Time. Berlin, 1907.
4.—The Growth of the Productivity of Labor.A far-reaching appliance of motor-power, and of the most perfect machines and tools, a detailed division of labor and a skillful combination of the various forces, will so heighten the productivity of labor that the necessary quantities of all commodities can be produced, notwithstandinga considerable shortening of the hours of work. Increased production will be to the common advantage of all.The share of each individual increases with the productivity of labor, and the increased productivity of labor again makes it possible to reduce the time required for the performance of socially necessary labor.Among the motor powers that will be applied, electricity will most likely hold the foremost place. Bourgeois society everywhere presses it into service, and the more this is done the better it is for general progress. The revolutionizing effect of the most powerful of all natural forces will onlyhastenthe overthrow of the bourgeois world and help to usher in Socialism. But only in socialistic society will the force be generally applied and turned to the best advantage. Both as a motor-power and as a source of light and heat it will contributelargely to the improved standard of living of society. Electricity is distinguished from every other force by the fact that it exists in nature in abundance. Our streams, high and low tide of the sea, wind and sunlight will furnish countless horse-powers when we shall thoroughly understand how to apply them.“A wealth of energy that by far exceeds all demands is furnished by those parts of the surface of the earth that are so regularly subjected to the heat of the sun that it might be applied to regular technical operations. Perhaps it would not be an exaggerated precaution if a nation would even now secure a share in such places. The required areas need not even be very large; a few square miles in Northern Africa would suffice for the requirements of a country like the German Empire. By concentrating the heat of the sun a high temperature can be produced, and thereby everything else—portable mechanical work, charging of batteries, light and heat, and, by electrolysis, even fuel.”[217]The man who opens up these vistas is not a dreamer, but an appointed professor at the Berlin University and president of the Royal Physical and Technical Institute, a man who ranks high in the scientific world. At the 79th congress of the British Association in Winnipeg (during August, 1909), the famous English physicist, Sir S. Thompson, said: “The day is not too far distant when our life will be revolutionized by applying the rays of the sun. Man will liberate himself from his dependence upon coal-and-water power, and all large cities will be surrounded by immense apparatus, real sunbeam traps, into which the heat of the sun will be gathered, and the obtained energy will be stored away in tremendous reservoirs. It is the force of the sun, stored away in coal, in waterfalls, in nourishment, that performs all the world’s work. How great is this tribute of force that the sun pours down upon us becomes evident when we consider the fact that the warmth received by the earth when the sun is high and the sky is clear, according to the researches of Langley, equals an energy of 7000 horse-powers per acre. Although our engineershave not yet found the way to apply this gigantic source of power, I do not doubt that they will ultimately succeed in finding it. When the supply of coal in the bowels of the earth has been exhausted, when the water-powers will no longer suffice to meet our requirements, then we will obtain from this source all the energy needed to complete the work of the world. Then the centers of industry will be removed to the glowing deserts of Sahara, and the value of the land will be measured by how well it is suited to the erection of the great ‘sunbeam traps.’”[218]According to this, our anxiety that we might at some time lack fuel, is removed. The inventions of the accumulators would make it possible to store a large quantity of force away for future use at any time and place; so that, besides the power furnished by sun and tide, the power furnished by the wind and by mountain torrents, which can be obtained only periodically, might be stored and applied. So there may finally be no human task for which motor power cannot be supplied if necessary. Only by the assistance of electricity has it become possible to employ water-power on a large scale. According to T. Koehn, eight European states have the following supply of water-power at their disposal.Horse-powersPer 1000 inhabitantsGreat Britain963,00023.1Germany1,425,90024.5Switzerland1,500,000138Italy5,500,000150France5,857,000169Austria and Hungary6,460,000454.5Sweden6,750,0001290Norway7,500,0003409Of the German states, Baden and Bavaria control the largest amount of water-power. Baden alone can obtain200,000 horse-powers at the Upper Rhine. Bavaria has at its disposal 300,000 horse-powers that have so far not been applied, besides 100,000 that are applied. Professor Rehbock estimates that the theoretical energy of the entire amount of water flowing upon the surface of the earth amounts to eight thousand million horse-powers. If only the sixteenth part of this could be efficiently applied, 500 millions of permanently serviceable horse-powers could still be won, an amount of energy ten times as great as the energy obtained by the mining of coal during the year 1907, approximately calculated at 1000 million tons. Although such calculations are of a purely theoretical character at present, they still show what achievements we may anticipate in the future from the use of “white coal.” The Niagara Falls alone, which flow from lakes covering an area of 231,880 kilometers—about 43 per cent. of the entire area of Germany—might furnish more water-power than exists in England, Germany and Switzerland combined.[219]According to another calculation quoted in an official report, the United States have water-power at their disposal of no less than twenty million horse-powers, which represent an equivalent of three hundred million tons of coal annually.[220]The mills that will be driven by means of this white or “green” coal, with the force of the gushing mountain streams and waterfalls, will have no smokestacks and no fire.Electricity will also make it possible to more than double the speed of our railroads. At the beginning of the nineties of the last century,Mr.Meems, in Baltimore, declared it to be possible to construct an electric car that would make 300 kilometers an hour, and Professor Elihu Thomson, in Lynn, believed that electric motors could be constructed that would make it possible to cover 260 kilometers in an hour. These expectations have nearly been realized. The trial-rides made on the military railway Berlin-Zossen, during 1901 and 1902, showed the possibility of speed up to 150 kilometers an hour. During experiments made in 1903, the Siemens car attained aspeed of 201 kilometers, and that of the General Electric Company, 208 kilometers. In the succeeding years steam locomotives have also attained a speed of 150 kilometers an hour, and more. The present aim is to attain 200 kilometers per hour. Already, August Sherl has entered the arena with his new project of rapid transit, which relegates the existing railway lines to freight service and proposes to connect the large cities by monorail train service, with a speed of200 kilometers.[221]The question of transforming railroad service from steam into electricity is a current topic in England, Austria, Italy, and America. Between New York and Philadelphia an electric train is to run at a speed of 200 kilometers an hour.The speed of ocean vessels will increase in the same manner. Here the determining factor is the steam turbine.[222]“It holds the foremost place in technical interest at present. It seems destined to displace the piston. While most engineers still regarded the steam turbine as a task of the future, it had become a present-day problem that attracted the attention of the entire world of technics by its success. It remained for electrotechnics, with its rapidly running machinery to create a large field for the practical application of this new power engine. The by far greatest number of all steam-turbines in use to-day serves to drive dynamos.”[223]The turbine has especially proved its superiority over the piston in navigation. The English steamship “Lusitania,” which is equipped with steam-turbines, during August, 1909, made the journey from Ireland to New York in 4 days 11 hours and 42 minutes,[224]with an average speed of 25.85 knots anhour. The steamship “America,” constructed in 1863, the fastest vessel at the time, made 12.5 knots an hour.[225]The day is not distant when the problem of electric propellers for large vessels will be satisfactorily solved. They are already in use with smaller vessels. Simplicity, safety, good self-regulation, and absence of shaking make the steam-turbine the ideal power for the creation of electric energy on board. Electricity will eventually be generally applied to both railway and steamship service.By electricity the technics of moving loads has also been revolutionized. “Steam-power, having made it possible to construct lifting-engines with natural force, electric transmission of power led to a complete revolution in the construction of lifting-machines by giving these machines freedom of motion and constant readiness for use.” Electric power has, among other things, led to a complete transformation in the construction of the cranes. “With its massive curved beak of rolled iron, resting upon a heavy foundation of stone-masonry, with slow motions and the hissing noise of the puffed-out steam, the steam-crane conveys the impression of resembling a gigantic, prehistoric monster. When it has grasped a load it exhibits a tremendous power for lifting, but it needs the assistance of human beings, who, by means of chains, fasten the weights to its hook. Owing to its clumsiness and slow motions it is serviceable only for the lifting of very heavy loads, but not where quick action is needed. Even externally the modern electric crane presents an entirely different aspect. We behold graceful steel trellis-work stretched above the hall, and from this is stretched out a slender pair of tongs, which is movable in all directions. The whole mechanism is controlled by a single man. By means of a gentle pressure on the levers, he directs the electric currents and drives the slender steel limbs of the crane to rapid action.Unaided, they grasp the glowing steel and whirl it through the air, while no other noise is heard but the low buzzing of the electro-motors.”[226]Without the aid of these machines the steadily increasing transportation of masses of goods would not be possible. By a comparison of the wharf-crane at Pola and that at Kiel, the development, in regard to the increase of lifting-power from the middle to the end of the nineteenth century, may be judged. The lifting-power of the former was 60 tons, that of the latter, 200 tons. The manufacture of Bessemer steel only is possible when rapidly working lifting-machines are at hand, for otherwise the tremendous quantities of liquid steel that are produced in a short time could not be transported in the casting-moulds. In the iron-works of Krupp, in Essen alone, 608 cranes are in action, having an aggregate lifting-power of 6513 tons, equal to a freight train of 650 cars. The low cost of freight, which is a condition of present-day international commerce, would not be possible, could not the capital invested in vessels be put to such intense use by the rapid process of unloading. The equipping of a vessel with electric cranes led to a reduction in the annual cost of traffic from 23,000 to 13,000 marks, almost by one-half. And this comparison takes into consideration only the progress of a single decade.The technics of navigation and transportation present new achievements almost daily along all lines. The problem of aerial navigation, which seemed insoluble but two decades ago, is practically solved. At present the dirigible balloons and flying machines do not serve the easier and cheaper transportation of the masses, but only sport and military purposes. But later on they will enhance the productive forces of society. Great progress has also been made by wireless telegraphy; its industrial value grows each day. In a few years, accordingly, traffic will be placed on a new basis.Mining, too, is in a state of transformation at present that still seemed inconceivable ten years ago. Electricityhas been introduced and has revolutionized the machines, the pumps, and the winding-engines.Marvelous are the prospects revealed by the former French minister of public instruction, Professor Berthelot (died March 18, 1907), in an address on the future significance of chemistry, delivered at a banquet of the syndicate of manufacturers of chemicals. In this address,Mr.Berthelot depicted the possible achievements of chemistry in the year 2000, and, though his description contains some humorous exaggerations, it also contains much that is true, of which the following is a brief synopsis.Mr.Berthelot gave a resumé of what chemistry had accomplished in a few decades and enumerated, among other things: The manufacture of sulphuric acid, of soda, bleaching and dyeing, beet-sugar, therapeutic alcaloids, gas, gilding and silvering,etc.Then came electro-chemistry, which completely transformed metallurgy, the chemistry of explosives, which provided mining and warfare with new engines, and the marvels of organic chemistry in the manufacture of colors, perfumes, therapeutic and antiseptic remedies,etc.But all this, said the lecturer, was only a beginning. Far greater problems would soon be solved. In the year 2000, agriculture and peasants would have ceased to exist, as chemistry would have made cultivation of the soil superfluous. There would be no coal-mines and, accordingly, no miners’ strikes. Fuel would be replaced by chemical and physical processes. Tariff and warfare would be abolished; aerial navigation, employing chemicals as a means of locomotion would have done away with these antiquated institutions. The problem of industry consists in finding sources of power that are inexhaustible and can be renewed with the least possible amount of labor. Until now we have generated steam by the chemical energy of burned coal. But the coal is difficult to obtain, and the supply is diminishing daily. It becomes necessary to utilize the heat of the sun and the heat inside the earth. There is good reason to hope that both these sources will find unlimited application. Thereby the source of all heat and of all industry would be made accessible. If water-power were also applied, all imaginable machines might be run on the earth. This source of power wouldbarely diminish in centuries. By means of the warmth of the earth many chemical problems might be solved, among others the chemical production of food. Theoretically this problem is already solved. The synthesis of fats and oils is long since known, sugar and the hydrates of carbon are known also, and the synthesis of the nitrogen-compounds will soon become known. The problem of food is a purely chemical one. As soon as the necessary cheap power could be obtained, by means of carbon from carbonic acid, oxygen and hydrogen from water, and nitrogen from the atmosphere, food of all kinds would be produced. What had heretofore been done by theplantswould henceforth be done byindustry, and the products of industry would be more perfect than those of nature. The time would come when every one would carry a box of chemicals in his pocket from which he would satisfy his need of nourishment in albumen, fat and hydrates of carbon, regardless of time and seasons, of rain and drought, of frost, hail and destructive insects. This would lead to a transformation that was as yet beyond our conception. Orchards, vineyards and pastures would disappear. Man would become more gentle and humane, because he would no longer live upon the murder and destruction of living beings. Then the difference between fertile and unfertile regions would also disappear, and perhaps thedeserts would become the favorite resortsof man, since they are healthier than the damp and marshy plains where agriculture is carried on at present. Then art and all the beauties of human life would attain their fullest development. The earth would no longer be disfigured by the geometrical figures drawn on its surface by agriculture, but would become a garden in which grass, flowers, shrubs and forests might be grown at will; all humanity would dwell in plenty, in a golden age. But man would not fall a victim to laziness and corruption. Work is needful to happiness, and man would work as ever, since he worked for hisownwelfare, for the development of his mental, moral and æsthetic possibilities.The reader may accept as true from this address of Berthelot whatever he chooses. The fact remains thatfuture development will lead to a tremendous improvement in the quantity, quality and variety of products, and that the comforts of life of coming generations will increase to a degree that we can barely conceive to-day.Professor Elihu Thomson agrees with Werner Siemens, who declared at the convention of scientists in Berlin, in 1887, that it would become possible by means of electricity totransform the elements directly into food. Werner Siemens held the opinion that it might be possible, at a remote time, to produce artificially a hydrate of carbon, as grape-sugar or starch, whereby the possibility would be given “to make bread of stones.” The chemist,Dr.H. Meyer, declared that it would be possible to make ligneous fibre a source of human nourishment. In the meantime (1890), Emil Fisher has actually produced grape-sugar artificially, and has thereby made a discovery that Werner Siemens considered possible only “at a remote time.” Since then chemistry has made still further progress. Indigo, vanilla and camphor have been artificially produced. In 1906, W. Loeb succeeded in achieving the assimilation of carbonic acid, outside of the plant up to the production of sugar by means of electric tension. In 1907 Emil Fisher obtained one of the most complicated synthetic bodies that is closely related to natural protein. In 1908 Willstatter and Benz produced pure chlorophyl and proved it to be a compound of magnesium. Thereby the main problem of organic chemistry—to obtain albumen—may find its solution in a future not too far distant.[217]“The Energy of Labor and Appliance of the Electric Current” byFr.Kohlrausch. Leipsic, 1900.[218]As early as 1864, Augustin Mouchot made an attempt to make the heat of the sun serve industrial purposes directly and constructed a sun-machine that was improved by Pifré. The largest sun-machine (heliomotor) is in California and serves as an apparatus for pumping. The water in the well is pumped up at the rate of 11,000 litres a minute.[219]T. Koehn—Some Large European Water-Power Plants and Their Economic Significance.[220]Supply and Distribution of Cotton. Washington, 1908.[221]In 1908, the Prussian department of public works decided to transform the steam-railways Leipsic-Bitterfeld, Magdeburg and Leipsic, Halle into electric railways.[222]While the old steam-engine turns the driving-wheels in a round-about way (by the transmission of the motion of the piston rods), the steam-turbine produces a direct rotary motion, like the wind turns the wind-mill.[223]C. Matchoss—The Evolution of the Steam-Engine.[224]During September, 1910, the Mauretania broke this record by hour and one minute.—Tr.[225]During the fifties of the last century, the sailing vessels took about six weeks to reach New York. The steamers crossed in two weeks. During the nineties, the voyage was made in a week, and now it is made in 5½ days. As a result of this progress, the two continents are brought nearer to each other now than Berlin and Vienna were a century ago.[226]O. Kammerer—The Technics of Moving Loads, Formerly and at the Present Time. Berlin, 1907.
A far-reaching appliance of motor-power, and of the most perfect machines and tools, a detailed division of labor and a skillful combination of the various forces, will so heighten the productivity of labor that the necessary quantities of all commodities can be produced, notwithstandinga considerable shortening of the hours of work. Increased production will be to the common advantage of all.The share of each individual increases with the productivity of labor, and the increased productivity of labor again makes it possible to reduce the time required for the performance of socially necessary labor.
Among the motor powers that will be applied, electricity will most likely hold the foremost place. Bourgeois society everywhere presses it into service, and the more this is done the better it is for general progress. The revolutionizing effect of the most powerful of all natural forces will onlyhastenthe overthrow of the bourgeois world and help to usher in Socialism. But only in socialistic society will the force be generally applied and turned to the best advantage. Both as a motor-power and as a source of light and heat it will contributelargely to the improved standard of living of society. Electricity is distinguished from every other force by the fact that it exists in nature in abundance. Our streams, high and low tide of the sea, wind and sunlight will furnish countless horse-powers when we shall thoroughly understand how to apply them.
“A wealth of energy that by far exceeds all demands is furnished by those parts of the surface of the earth that are so regularly subjected to the heat of the sun that it might be applied to regular technical operations. Perhaps it would not be an exaggerated precaution if a nation would even now secure a share in such places. The required areas need not even be very large; a few square miles in Northern Africa would suffice for the requirements of a country like the German Empire. By concentrating the heat of the sun a high temperature can be produced, and thereby everything else—portable mechanical work, charging of batteries, light and heat, and, by electrolysis, even fuel.”[217]The man who opens up these vistas is not a dreamer, but an appointed professor at the Berlin University and president of the Royal Physical and Technical Institute, a man who ranks high in the scientific world. At the 79th congress of the British Association in Winnipeg (during August, 1909), the famous English physicist, Sir S. Thompson, said: “The day is not too far distant when our life will be revolutionized by applying the rays of the sun. Man will liberate himself from his dependence upon coal-and-water power, and all large cities will be surrounded by immense apparatus, real sunbeam traps, into which the heat of the sun will be gathered, and the obtained energy will be stored away in tremendous reservoirs. It is the force of the sun, stored away in coal, in waterfalls, in nourishment, that performs all the world’s work. How great is this tribute of force that the sun pours down upon us becomes evident when we consider the fact that the warmth received by the earth when the sun is high and the sky is clear, according to the researches of Langley, equals an energy of 7000 horse-powers per acre. Although our engineershave not yet found the way to apply this gigantic source of power, I do not doubt that they will ultimately succeed in finding it. When the supply of coal in the bowels of the earth has been exhausted, when the water-powers will no longer suffice to meet our requirements, then we will obtain from this source all the energy needed to complete the work of the world. Then the centers of industry will be removed to the glowing deserts of Sahara, and the value of the land will be measured by how well it is suited to the erection of the great ‘sunbeam traps.’”[218]According to this, our anxiety that we might at some time lack fuel, is removed. The inventions of the accumulators would make it possible to store a large quantity of force away for future use at any time and place; so that, besides the power furnished by sun and tide, the power furnished by the wind and by mountain torrents, which can be obtained only periodically, might be stored and applied. So there may finally be no human task for which motor power cannot be supplied if necessary. Only by the assistance of electricity has it become possible to employ water-power on a large scale. According to T. Koehn, eight European states have the following supply of water-power at their disposal.
Of the German states, Baden and Bavaria control the largest amount of water-power. Baden alone can obtain200,000 horse-powers at the Upper Rhine. Bavaria has at its disposal 300,000 horse-powers that have so far not been applied, besides 100,000 that are applied. Professor Rehbock estimates that the theoretical energy of the entire amount of water flowing upon the surface of the earth amounts to eight thousand million horse-powers. If only the sixteenth part of this could be efficiently applied, 500 millions of permanently serviceable horse-powers could still be won, an amount of energy ten times as great as the energy obtained by the mining of coal during the year 1907, approximately calculated at 1000 million tons. Although such calculations are of a purely theoretical character at present, they still show what achievements we may anticipate in the future from the use of “white coal.” The Niagara Falls alone, which flow from lakes covering an area of 231,880 kilometers—about 43 per cent. of the entire area of Germany—might furnish more water-power than exists in England, Germany and Switzerland combined.[219]According to another calculation quoted in an official report, the United States have water-power at their disposal of no less than twenty million horse-powers, which represent an equivalent of three hundred million tons of coal annually.[220]The mills that will be driven by means of this white or “green” coal, with the force of the gushing mountain streams and waterfalls, will have no smokestacks and no fire.
Electricity will also make it possible to more than double the speed of our railroads. At the beginning of the nineties of the last century,Mr.Meems, in Baltimore, declared it to be possible to construct an electric car that would make 300 kilometers an hour, and Professor Elihu Thomson, in Lynn, believed that electric motors could be constructed that would make it possible to cover 260 kilometers in an hour. These expectations have nearly been realized. The trial-rides made on the military railway Berlin-Zossen, during 1901 and 1902, showed the possibility of speed up to 150 kilometers an hour. During experiments made in 1903, the Siemens car attained aspeed of 201 kilometers, and that of the General Electric Company, 208 kilometers. In the succeeding years steam locomotives have also attained a speed of 150 kilometers an hour, and more. The present aim is to attain 200 kilometers per hour. Already, August Sherl has entered the arena with his new project of rapid transit, which relegates the existing railway lines to freight service and proposes to connect the large cities by monorail train service, with a speed of200 kilometers.[221]
The question of transforming railroad service from steam into electricity is a current topic in England, Austria, Italy, and America. Between New York and Philadelphia an electric train is to run at a speed of 200 kilometers an hour.
The speed of ocean vessels will increase in the same manner. Here the determining factor is the steam turbine.[222]“It holds the foremost place in technical interest at present. It seems destined to displace the piston. While most engineers still regarded the steam turbine as a task of the future, it had become a present-day problem that attracted the attention of the entire world of technics by its success. It remained for electrotechnics, with its rapidly running machinery to create a large field for the practical application of this new power engine. The by far greatest number of all steam-turbines in use to-day serves to drive dynamos.”[223]The turbine has especially proved its superiority over the piston in navigation. The English steamship “Lusitania,” which is equipped with steam-turbines, during August, 1909, made the journey from Ireland to New York in 4 days 11 hours and 42 minutes,[224]with an average speed of 25.85 knots anhour. The steamship “America,” constructed in 1863, the fastest vessel at the time, made 12.5 knots an hour.[225]The day is not distant when the problem of electric propellers for large vessels will be satisfactorily solved. They are already in use with smaller vessels. Simplicity, safety, good self-regulation, and absence of shaking make the steam-turbine the ideal power for the creation of electric energy on board. Electricity will eventually be generally applied to both railway and steamship service.
By electricity the technics of moving loads has also been revolutionized. “Steam-power, having made it possible to construct lifting-engines with natural force, electric transmission of power led to a complete revolution in the construction of lifting-machines by giving these machines freedom of motion and constant readiness for use.” Electric power has, among other things, led to a complete transformation in the construction of the cranes. “With its massive curved beak of rolled iron, resting upon a heavy foundation of stone-masonry, with slow motions and the hissing noise of the puffed-out steam, the steam-crane conveys the impression of resembling a gigantic, prehistoric monster. When it has grasped a load it exhibits a tremendous power for lifting, but it needs the assistance of human beings, who, by means of chains, fasten the weights to its hook. Owing to its clumsiness and slow motions it is serviceable only for the lifting of very heavy loads, but not where quick action is needed. Even externally the modern electric crane presents an entirely different aspect. We behold graceful steel trellis-work stretched above the hall, and from this is stretched out a slender pair of tongs, which is movable in all directions. The whole mechanism is controlled by a single man. By means of a gentle pressure on the levers, he directs the electric currents and drives the slender steel limbs of the crane to rapid action.Unaided, they grasp the glowing steel and whirl it through the air, while no other noise is heard but the low buzzing of the electro-motors.”[226]Without the aid of these machines the steadily increasing transportation of masses of goods would not be possible. By a comparison of the wharf-crane at Pola and that at Kiel, the development, in regard to the increase of lifting-power from the middle to the end of the nineteenth century, may be judged. The lifting-power of the former was 60 tons, that of the latter, 200 tons. The manufacture of Bessemer steel only is possible when rapidly working lifting-machines are at hand, for otherwise the tremendous quantities of liquid steel that are produced in a short time could not be transported in the casting-moulds. In the iron-works of Krupp, in Essen alone, 608 cranes are in action, having an aggregate lifting-power of 6513 tons, equal to a freight train of 650 cars. The low cost of freight, which is a condition of present-day international commerce, would not be possible, could not the capital invested in vessels be put to such intense use by the rapid process of unloading. The equipping of a vessel with electric cranes led to a reduction in the annual cost of traffic from 23,000 to 13,000 marks, almost by one-half. And this comparison takes into consideration only the progress of a single decade.
The technics of navigation and transportation present new achievements almost daily along all lines. The problem of aerial navigation, which seemed insoluble but two decades ago, is practically solved. At present the dirigible balloons and flying machines do not serve the easier and cheaper transportation of the masses, but only sport and military purposes. But later on they will enhance the productive forces of society. Great progress has also been made by wireless telegraphy; its industrial value grows each day. In a few years, accordingly, traffic will be placed on a new basis.
Mining, too, is in a state of transformation at present that still seemed inconceivable ten years ago. Electricityhas been introduced and has revolutionized the machines, the pumps, and the winding-engines.
Marvelous are the prospects revealed by the former French minister of public instruction, Professor Berthelot (died March 18, 1907), in an address on the future significance of chemistry, delivered at a banquet of the syndicate of manufacturers of chemicals. In this address,Mr.Berthelot depicted the possible achievements of chemistry in the year 2000, and, though his description contains some humorous exaggerations, it also contains much that is true, of which the following is a brief synopsis.Mr.Berthelot gave a resumé of what chemistry had accomplished in a few decades and enumerated, among other things: The manufacture of sulphuric acid, of soda, bleaching and dyeing, beet-sugar, therapeutic alcaloids, gas, gilding and silvering,etc.Then came electro-chemistry, which completely transformed metallurgy, the chemistry of explosives, which provided mining and warfare with new engines, and the marvels of organic chemistry in the manufacture of colors, perfumes, therapeutic and antiseptic remedies,etc.But all this, said the lecturer, was only a beginning. Far greater problems would soon be solved. In the year 2000, agriculture and peasants would have ceased to exist, as chemistry would have made cultivation of the soil superfluous. There would be no coal-mines and, accordingly, no miners’ strikes. Fuel would be replaced by chemical and physical processes. Tariff and warfare would be abolished; aerial navigation, employing chemicals as a means of locomotion would have done away with these antiquated institutions. The problem of industry consists in finding sources of power that are inexhaustible and can be renewed with the least possible amount of labor. Until now we have generated steam by the chemical energy of burned coal. But the coal is difficult to obtain, and the supply is diminishing daily. It becomes necessary to utilize the heat of the sun and the heat inside the earth. There is good reason to hope that both these sources will find unlimited application. Thereby the source of all heat and of all industry would be made accessible. If water-power were also applied, all imaginable machines might be run on the earth. This source of power wouldbarely diminish in centuries. By means of the warmth of the earth many chemical problems might be solved, among others the chemical production of food. Theoretically this problem is already solved. The synthesis of fats and oils is long since known, sugar and the hydrates of carbon are known also, and the synthesis of the nitrogen-compounds will soon become known. The problem of food is a purely chemical one. As soon as the necessary cheap power could be obtained, by means of carbon from carbonic acid, oxygen and hydrogen from water, and nitrogen from the atmosphere, food of all kinds would be produced. What had heretofore been done by theplantswould henceforth be done byindustry, and the products of industry would be more perfect than those of nature. The time would come when every one would carry a box of chemicals in his pocket from which he would satisfy his need of nourishment in albumen, fat and hydrates of carbon, regardless of time and seasons, of rain and drought, of frost, hail and destructive insects. This would lead to a transformation that was as yet beyond our conception. Orchards, vineyards and pastures would disappear. Man would become more gentle and humane, because he would no longer live upon the murder and destruction of living beings. Then the difference between fertile and unfertile regions would also disappear, and perhaps thedeserts would become the favorite resortsof man, since they are healthier than the damp and marshy plains where agriculture is carried on at present. Then art and all the beauties of human life would attain their fullest development. The earth would no longer be disfigured by the geometrical figures drawn on its surface by agriculture, but would become a garden in which grass, flowers, shrubs and forests might be grown at will; all humanity would dwell in plenty, in a golden age. But man would not fall a victim to laziness and corruption. Work is needful to happiness, and man would work as ever, since he worked for hisownwelfare, for the development of his mental, moral and æsthetic possibilities.
The reader may accept as true from this address of Berthelot whatever he chooses. The fact remains thatfuture development will lead to a tremendous improvement in the quantity, quality and variety of products, and that the comforts of life of coming generations will increase to a degree that we can barely conceive to-day.
Professor Elihu Thomson agrees with Werner Siemens, who declared at the convention of scientists in Berlin, in 1887, that it would become possible by means of electricity totransform the elements directly into food. Werner Siemens held the opinion that it might be possible, at a remote time, to produce artificially a hydrate of carbon, as grape-sugar or starch, whereby the possibility would be given “to make bread of stones.” The chemist,Dr.H. Meyer, declared that it would be possible to make ligneous fibre a source of human nourishment. In the meantime (1890), Emil Fisher has actually produced grape-sugar artificially, and has thereby made a discovery that Werner Siemens considered possible only “at a remote time.” Since then chemistry has made still further progress. Indigo, vanilla and camphor have been artificially produced. In 1906, W. Loeb succeeded in achieving the assimilation of carbonic acid, outside of the plant up to the production of sugar by means of electric tension. In 1907 Emil Fisher obtained one of the most complicated synthetic bodies that is closely related to natural protein. In 1908 Willstatter and Benz produced pure chlorophyl and proved it to be a compound of magnesium. Thereby the main problem of organic chemistry—to obtain albumen—may find its solution in a future not too far distant.
[217]“The Energy of Labor and Appliance of the Electric Current” byFr.Kohlrausch. Leipsic, 1900.[218]As early as 1864, Augustin Mouchot made an attempt to make the heat of the sun serve industrial purposes directly and constructed a sun-machine that was improved by Pifré. The largest sun-machine (heliomotor) is in California and serves as an apparatus for pumping. The water in the well is pumped up at the rate of 11,000 litres a minute.[219]T. Koehn—Some Large European Water-Power Plants and Their Economic Significance.[220]Supply and Distribution of Cotton. Washington, 1908.[221]In 1908, the Prussian department of public works decided to transform the steam-railways Leipsic-Bitterfeld, Magdeburg and Leipsic, Halle into electric railways.[222]While the old steam-engine turns the driving-wheels in a round-about way (by the transmission of the motion of the piston rods), the steam-turbine produces a direct rotary motion, like the wind turns the wind-mill.[223]C. Matchoss—The Evolution of the Steam-Engine.[224]During September, 1910, the Mauretania broke this record by hour and one minute.—Tr.[225]During the fifties of the last century, the sailing vessels took about six weeks to reach New York. The steamers crossed in two weeks. During the nineties, the voyage was made in a week, and now it is made in 5½ days. As a result of this progress, the two continents are brought nearer to each other now than Berlin and Vienna were a century ago.[226]O. Kammerer—The Technics of Moving Loads, Formerly and at the Present Time. Berlin, 1907.
[217]“The Energy of Labor and Appliance of the Electric Current” byFr.Kohlrausch. Leipsic, 1900.
[218]As early as 1864, Augustin Mouchot made an attempt to make the heat of the sun serve industrial purposes directly and constructed a sun-machine that was improved by Pifré. The largest sun-machine (heliomotor) is in California and serves as an apparatus for pumping. The water in the well is pumped up at the rate of 11,000 litres a minute.
[219]T. Koehn—Some Large European Water-Power Plants and Their Economic Significance.
[220]Supply and Distribution of Cotton. Washington, 1908.
[221]In 1908, the Prussian department of public works decided to transform the steam-railways Leipsic-Bitterfeld, Magdeburg and Leipsic, Halle into electric railways.
[222]While the old steam-engine turns the driving-wheels in a round-about way (by the transmission of the motion of the piston rods), the steam-turbine produces a direct rotary motion, like the wind turns the wind-mill.
[223]C. Matchoss—The Evolution of the Steam-Engine.
[224]During September, 1910, the Mauretania broke this record by hour and one minute.—Tr.
[225]During the fifties of the last century, the sailing vessels took about six weeks to reach New York. The steamers crossed in two weeks. During the nineties, the voyage was made in a week, and now it is made in 5½ days. As a result of this progress, the two continents are brought nearer to each other now than Berlin and Vienna were a century ago.
[226]O. Kammerer—The Technics of Moving Loads, Formerly and at the Present Time. Berlin, 1907.