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The Wonderful Century 1880 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https ://arch i ve . 0 rg/detai Is/b24851 322 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY 1 s 1* THE WONDERFUL CENTURY . THE AGE OF NEW IDEAS IN : SCIENCE AND INVENTION U NEIF EDITION Revised and largely Re-written ALFRED RUSSEL WAIXACE ii Author of “ The Malay Archipelago^'' '"'‘Island Li/Cy" “ Jya>-7vinismy" etc. etc. I iri'III 107 1 . LUSTRATIONS t ^ LONDON t- SWAN SONNENSCHEIN f & CO, LIMITED, PATER- NOSTER f SQUARE, E.C MCMIII ! PREFACE The present edition is, substantially, a new work. The earlier editions were very imperfect as regards the small space devoted to several of the more important sciences, as well as to some of the greatest mechanical advances of the century. The chapters on Locomotion by Land and by Sea have now been greatly extended and copiously illustrated. In Photography, I have added a new feature in a popular account of the methods by which artistic illustrations are produced, from the common process-plate to the beautiful photogravures and Woodbury-type prints. The chapter on Chemistry has been greatly extended, and a new one on Electricity has been added. Four new chapters have been devoted to Astronomy, the most ancient of the sciences, and at the same time that which has made the most amazing advance during the nineteenth century. The remaining chapters have been carefully revised and have often received important additions. To make room for so much new matter in a single volume, the very long chapter on the Vaccination ques- tion in former editions has been omitted. It has fulfilled the purpose for which it was originally included in the V vi PREFACE work, and this purpose is now better served by its con- tinued issue in a pamphlet form. I may state here that during the five years it has been before the public it has never been replied to, nor have any of the facts or the arguments demonstrating the uselessness of Vaccination been proved to be erroneous. ALFRED R. WALLACE. Broadstone, Dorset, 30/A June 1903. CONTENTS PART I. — SUCCESSES CHAHTEK I’AGE I. Modes of Travelling • • 3 II. The Advance in Locomotion on the Ocean 40 III. Labour-Saving Machinery . 61 IV. The Conveyance of Thought . 74 V. Fire and Light .... 86 VI. New Applic.\tions of Light—Photography 97 VII. Light: Its Nature and Properties . 131 VIII. Physical Principles and their Applica- tions . .146 IX. The Importance of Dust: A Source of Beauty and Essential to Life . 170 X. Some of the Chief Problems and Dis- coveries OF Chemistry . .192 XL Electricity: The Science of the Century 21 i XII. Astronomy: The Solar System . 226 XIII. The Sun’s N.ature and Constitution . 265 XIV. The Stars . .279 vii viii CONTENTS CHAPTKK PAGE XV. The Structure of the Heavens . 317 XVI. Geology : The Glacial Epoch, and the . Antiquity of Man . 348 XVII. Evolution and Natural Selection . 376 XVI II. Popular Discoveries in Physiology . 388 XIX. The Nineteenth compared with Preced- ing Centuries .... 396 PART II.— FAILURES XX. The Neglect of Phrenology . 405 XXL The Opposition to Hypnotism and Psy- chical Research .... 43^ XXII. Militarism—The Curse of Civilisation . 454 XXIII. The Demon of Greed . 47° XXIV. The Plunder of the Earth—Conclusion 494 Appendix.—The Remedy for Want in the Midst OF Wealth .... 506 • . • Index . ^ 1 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Portrait of the Author .... Fro7itispiece To Gretna Green in a Post-Chaise . 6 Third-class Train in 1845 • • • • . 8 A First-class Train in 1833 . 9 . A Second-class Train in 1833 . 9 Third-class Dining-car— Midland Railway, 19C0 . 10 Ancient War Chariot . 1 Riding on a Pillion . .15 King John’s Carriage . .17 Elizabeth’s Carriage . Queen ( 1 568) .17 A Long Waggon, an early Public Conveyance, 1605 . 19 A Stage Waggon . .19 Woodhouse Tower, Caledonian Railway—The Old World and the New ...... 2^ “The Rocket” Locomotive ..... 27 A Lady Cyclist, 1900 ...... 36 A Cycle Race, 1900 ...... 37 A Motor Carriage, 1900 ..... 38 Coracles of Ancient Britain . .41 Small Roman Galley (from Trajan’s Column) . 42 A Three-Banked Galley ..... 42 Roman Merchant Ship (from Trajan’s Column) . 43 Norman Ship (from Bayeux Tapestry) ... 43 Warship, Fifteenth Century ..... 44 The Harry Grace Dieit^ Sixteenth Century ... 45 The Great Harry Early Sixteenth Century 1 (Henry VI .) . 46 ix 1 X ir.LUSTRATIONS I’Ar.E One of Cabot’s Ships, 1497 ..... 47 The Royal Sovereign, 1637 ..... 47 The CoUingiLiood, Two-Decker, Middle of Nineteenth Century ....... 48 Iron Clipper Ship Tayleur, 1853 .... 49 A Clipper Ship in the China Trade, 1850 ... 50 A Warship (H.M.S. Blen/ieim), 1900 ... 57 Torpedo-boat, . A . 1900 . .58 The . Hand Sewing of 1800 . 62 The Sewing Machine of 1900 .... 63 Typewriter ....... 63 A Typical .American Harvesting-Machine ... 65 A Mail Train, 1900 ...... 74 An English Mail-Coach in i8co . .76 Telegraph Instrument ..... 79 The Second Atlantic Cable ..... 80 — The Telephone Brighton to London ... 82 Fire obtained by Friction ..... 87 •The Simple F'ire-Drill ..... 88 Tinder Box, Flint, Steel, and Brimstone Matches . 89 “ ” •A. Link- Boy with Torch ..... 91 Greek and Roman Lamps ..... 92 An Argand Oil- Lamp ..... 92 The Thames Embankment lit up by Electric Lamps . 94 — Portion of a Moving Object Photo The Jubilee Procession 1 1 A Star Photograph . .112 An X-Rays Apparatus . .114 A Rdntgen-Ray Photo . .115 Commodore Byron making Presents to the Patagonians . 124 A Sailor giving a Patagonian Woman a Biscuit for her Child 1 26 Specimen Line Block. .127 6 ILLUSTRATIONS xi PAGE Specimen Half-Tone Block—Fine Grain 128 An Instantaneous Photograph 129 Solar Spectrum .... I34 The Kathode Rays .... •• I3S Faraday’s Tube for Liquefying Gas . 151 The Radiometer .... 157 Eclipse of Jupiter’s Satellites . 159 The Orbits of the Earth and of Jupiter 160 Measurement of Velocity of Light I6I Foucault’s Experiment to show the Earth’s Rotation 164 The Phonograph .... 167 Examples of Deep-Sea Organisms . I8I With Dust—Soft Shadows . 187 Without Dust—Dark Shadows 187 John Dalton, F.R.S. .... 193 Sir Humphry Davy .... 198 Series of Lines in Helium and Allied Gases 203 Spectral Lines forming Flutings 203. Fractionation of Yttria 205 CErsted’s Experiment .... 215 Bar Magnet and Iron Filings . 2 1 Horse-shoe Magnet and Iron Filings 216 Contrasted Effects of Attraction and Repulsion 217 Faraday’s Disc Machine 218 A Dynamo ..... 219' The Orbit of Eros .... 235 Mars, showing the “ ” Markings or Canals . 238 Saturn ...... 242 Orbit of Halley’s Comet 245, Donati’s Comet, 9th October 1885 . 251 Swift’s Comet ..... 255 xii ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A Sun-Spot photographed ..... 267 Diagram of Sun-Spots and Magnetism . 269 The Corona, as seen during the Total Eclipse of 1883 . 275 Measurement of Inaccessible Distances . 281 Diagram showing the Orbit of the Companion to Sirius . 301 The Great Nebula in Orion . .310 The Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius .... 312 in . Photograph of the Great Nebula Andromeda . 313 “ 1 Spiral Nebula in Canes Venatici, 5 Messier” . 315 Portion of the Milky Way . • 319 Diagram of Star-Distribution in the Northern Hemisphere 322 Diagram of Star-Distribution in the Southern Hemisphere 323 Sir Charles Lyell ...... 350 Contour Map showing the River Adur flowing through the South Downs ...... 357 Cliflfs and Peaks of Boulder Clay on Upper Oolite in Yorkshire ...... 365 Pakeolithic Flint Implement, Amiens . -371 Ice-Groovings on Steep Rock, Barmouth ... 373 Herbert Spencer ...... 379 Darwin . 385 Cells in Stem of Bean ..... 389 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY Part I —Successes A V ! CHAPTER I MODES OF TRAVELLING “Put forth your force, my iron horse, with limbs that never tire ! joints, the best of coal your fire The best of oil shall feed your and ; Like a train of ghosts, the telegraph posts go wildly trooping by. While one by one the milestones run, and off behind us fly ! Dash along, crash along, sixty miles an hour Right through old England flee ! For I am bound to see my love. Far away in the North Countrie.” Prof. Rankine. We men of the nineteenth century have not been slow to praise it. The wise and the foolish, the learned and the unlearned, the poet and the pressman, the rich and the poor, alike swell the chorus of admiration for the marvellous inventions and discoveries of our own age, and especially for those innumerable applications of science which now form part of our daily life, and which remind us every hour of our immense superiority over our com paratively ignorant forefathers. But though in this respect (and in many others) we undoubtedly think very well of ourselves, yet, in the opinion of the present writer, our self-admiration does not rest upon an adequate appreciation of the facts. No one, so far as I am aware, has yet pointed out the altogether exceptional character of our advance in science and the arts during the century which has just passed away. In order to estimate its full importance and grandeur—more especially as regards man’s increased power over nature and the application of that power to 3 4 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY [chap. the needs of his life to-day, with unlimited possibilities in the future—we must compare it, not with any pre- ceding century, or even with the last millennium, but with the whole historical period—perhaps even with the whole period that has elapsed since the Stone Age. Looking back through the long dark vista of human history, the one step in material progress that seems to be really comparable in importance with several of the steps we have just made, was, when Fire was first utilised, and became the servant and the friend instead of being the master and the enemy of man.
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