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The UK Bible Students Website History Corner |
On
Scientific Innovations Of 1919
From The Present Truth magazine (U.S.A.),
September 1, 1919, p. 164.
‘Science has been experimenting with the ultra-violet rays for plant growth and for sterilizing water, and has found that they ripen fruits more rapidly, give them richer flavor and cause them to remain fresh longer than the fruits not so treated.
Ultra-violet rays are one of the best germicides, and have been used on a large scale to sterilize water in France. . . .
‘Recently the U.S. Secretary of [the] Interior, Mr. F.L. Lane, propounded a plan for obtaining power from our waterways, for transmitting it to and for storing it in stations near our manufacturing and mining centers of the East.
This plan is both practical and economical; and promises to be a conservational policy of the first rank.
It will save an immense amount of labor and coal; will save power otherwise wasted, and will greatly reduce the price of manufacturing in our cities and of lighting and heating in our homes.
‘Farming in Spirals is another time and labor-saving device . . . . It is done by an automatic cultivator that runs in a spiral and steers itself. It will require planting everything in spirals.
It revolves about a central drum, to which it is attached by a wire and about which the wire is slowly wound, as it at even distances goes around, ever drawing nearer the central drum. It needs no watching, even working while the farmer sleeps!
‘Aircraft seemed at first to be a plaything, later a useful war implement; but the first anniversary of the U.S. Government’s aerial mail service proves that the airship has its utilitarian aspects in commercial affairs. The recent feats of crossing the ocean in lighter and heavier than air machines suggests quick passenger service between Europe and America. We may expect utilitarian marvels from these inventions ere long. Britain, with characteristic foresight, is arranging for the commercial use of airships on a large scale, having already laid out air routes of travel, somewhat like railroad routes.’
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