Project Gutenberg's Twentieth Century Inventions, by George Sutherland

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Twentieth Century Inventions
A Forecast

Author: George Sutherland

Release Date: February 10, 2010 [EBook #31243]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWENTIETH CENTURY INVENTIONS ***

Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)

TWENTIETH CENTURY INVENTIONS

A Forecast

BY
GEORGE SUTHERLAND, M.A.

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1901

PREFACE.

Twenty years ago the author started a career in technological
journalism by writing descriptions of what he regarded as the most
promising inventions which had been displayed in international
exhibitions then recently held. From that time until the present it
has been his constant duty and practice to take note of the advance of
inventive science as applied to industrial improvement--to watch it as
an organic growth, not only from a philosophical, but also from a
practical, point of view. The advance towards the actual adoption of
any great industrial invention is generally a more or less collective
movement; and, in the course of a practice such as that referred to,
the habit of watching the signs of progress has been naturally
acquired.

Moreover, it has always been necessary to take a comprehensive, rather
than a minute or detailed, view of the progress of the great
industrial army of nineteenth century civilisation towards certain
objectives. It is better, for some purposes of technological
journalism, to be attached to the staff than to march with any
individual company--for the war correspondent must ever place himself
in a position from which a bird's-eye view is possible. The personal
aspect of the campaign becomes merge