EVENT AND COMMENT
Mr. Andrew Carnegie has offered the sum of ten million dollars to the government of the United States to endow a national institution for the promotion of the higher scientific research.
While the generosity of the donor is universally acknowledged, there are some who question the practical value of the proposed university.
“Why,” they ask, “devote this vast sum to the special education of a select few, while thousands of our children can only with difficulty obtain the rudiments of a common education?”
If the endowment in question were intended merely for the present generation, this question would be difficult to answer. In reality, however, the very form and nature of the gift show that it is dedicated not to the individual but to the race; and it is chiefly under the leadership of the scientific specialist that the race advances. It is his work rather than the influence of the common schools that has given to mankind the steam-engine, the telegraph, and the electric light.
Heretofore, however, the development of men like Watt, Morse, Bell, and Edison has been wholly dependent upon chance and their own phenomenal perseverance. Who can say how many more of such men have been lost to the public service through mere want of opportunity? It is this opportunity that Mr. Carnegie’s gift would insure to coming generations.
As our great military school at West Point supplies the nation with men educated for military leadership, so this institution will create and perpetuate a corps of savants, forever at the service of the whole people.
One cannot but feel that with this gift Mr. Carnegie has exercised an even wiser forethought than in his many other generous benefactions.
Signor Marconi, by means of his system of wireless telegraphy, has at length succeeded in transmitting the equivalent of the letter “s” from Europe to America. A glance at the work of the young inventor, however, will show that his success is not yet insured.
His system—indeed, we might say all systems—of wireless telegraphy depends upon the properties of luminiferous ether—that mysterious medium that is supposed to exist in every known substance. The discharge of an electric spark produces in this ether a bubble-like wave which radiates in all directions. It is upon the reception and recording, at Newfoundland, of this wave, produced at England, that the success of Marconi’s experiment depends.
Even to the ordinary mind, such a proposition presents innumerable difficulties. One of the most apparent would be the confusion arising from two sets of signals operated in the same locality. But just as we can throw all the rays of a search-light in one direction, Marconi reflects these waves of ether toward his receiving station.
Perhaps one of the real drawbacks of this system would be the expense of maintaining a current of sufficient voltage to signal long distances. Nevertheless, we feel confident that, whether it be from the brain of Marconi or Tesla, or the united efforts of Orling and Armstrong, wireless telegraphy is insured to the future.
We all remember with what wonder the public viewed the construction of the great suspension bridge between New York and Brooklyn. Remarkable as was that feat of engineering, a far more difficult one is now under way. It is proposed to run a continuous tunnel under the North river, New York City, and the East river, connecting the Pennsylvania Railroad in New Jersey with the Long Island Railroad at Brooklyn. It is to be eight miles long. Its chief purpose is to give trains, especially those from the West, a direct and unimpeded entrance to New York City.
Beginning in the neighborhood of West Hoboken, the tunnel will penetrate the hard ridge of the Palisades, and continue with a downward incline until, under the North, or Hudson, river, it will reach a depth of one hundred feet.
At Thirty-third street, in New York City, it will rise to within twenty-five feet of the surface, and at this level cross beneath Manhattan Island, where, at some central point, a large station will be erected. Proceeding, east, the tunnel will again take a dip to pass the East river, and come to light on the Brooklyn side in the neighborhood of the present terminal of the Long Island Railroad.
The work of construction will begin early in the summer of 1902, and will require a period of three or four years. Its estimated cost is not less than $40,000,000.
An important question which has arisen recently is the location of the future Isthmian canal. Shall it cross at Nicaragua or Panama?
The House of Representatives, on January 9th, 1902, chose the former, the best reasons being:
The saving of two days in the voyage between our Atlantic and Pacific ports;
Its healthier climate, and the alleged lesser cost of construction.
TheEngineering Magazine, on the other hand, sums up the advantages of the already-undertaken Panama canal as follows:
It is three-fourths shorter, and could be maintained at a cost of $1,350,000 a year less than the Nicaragua canal, is exempt from fifty miles of dangerous river navigation, and its completion would require but half the amount necessary to build the Nicaragua canal.
On January 24th, 1902, the government of Denmark, through the pen of their minister in Washington, ceded to the United States the group of islands known as the Danish West Indies. Unsuccessful attempts to purchase these islands were made in the years 1869 and 1877.
This last effort which, so far, promises success, was begun two years ago. The delay has been due to a difference of price. The amount now agreed upon is believed to be $5,000,000.