"Scarcely a ton of coal comes to Manhattan Island or its vicinity in a year.Very little of it leaves the mines,at the mouths of which it is converted into electricity and sent to the points of consumption by wire,where it is employed for all uses to which fuel was put,and many others.Consequently there is no smoke,and the streets are not encumbered with coal-carts;the entire width being given up to carriages,etc.The ground floors in the business parts are used for large warehouses,trucks running in to load and unload.Pedestrians therefore have sidewalks level with the second story,consisting of glass floors let into aluminum frames,while all street crossings are made on bridges.
Private houses have a front door opening on the sidewalk,and another on the ground level,so that ladies paying visits or leaving cards can do so in carriages.In business streets the second story is used for shops.In place of steel covering,country roads have a thick coating of cement and asphalt over a foundation of crushed stone,giving a capital surface,and have a width of thirty-three feet (two rods)in thinly settled districts,to sixty-six feet (four rods)where the population is greater.All are planted with shade and fruit trees,while the wide driveways have one or two broad sidewalks.The same rule of making the slow-moving vehicles keep near the outside prevails,though the rate of increase in speed on approaching the middle is more rapid than in cities,and there is usually no dividing ridge.On reaching the top of a long and steep hill,if we do not wish to coast,we convert the motors into dynamos,while running at full speed,and so change the kinetic energy of the descent into potential in our batteries.This twentieth-century stage-coaching is one of the delights to which we are heirs,though horses are still used by those that prefer them.
We have been much aided in our material progress by the facility with which we obtain the metals.It was observed,some time ago,that when artesian and oil wells had reached a considerable depth,what appeared to be drops of lead and antimony came up with the stream.It finally occurred to a well-borer that if he could make his drill hard enough and get it down far enough,keeping it cool by solidified carbonic acid during the proceeding,he would reach a point at which most of the metals would be viscous,if not actually molten,and on being freed from the pressure of the crust they would expand,and reach the surface in a stream.This experiment he performed near the hot geysers in Yellowstone Park,and what was his delight,on reaching a depth scarcely half a mile beyond his usual stopping-place,to be rewarded by a stream of metal that heralded its approach by a loud explosion and a great rush of superheated steam!It ran for a month,completely filling the bed of a small,dried-up river,and when it did stop there were ten million tons in sight.This proved the feasibility of the scheme,and,though many subsequent attempts were less successful,we have learned by experience where it is best to drill,and can now obtain almost any metal we wish.
"'Magnetic eyes'are of great use to miners and Civil engineers.
These instruments are something like the mariner's compass,with the sensitiveness enormously increased by galvanic currents.The 'eye,'as it were,sees what substances are underground,and at what distances.It also shows how many people are in an adjoining room--through the magnetic properties of the iron in their blood--whether they are moving,and in what directions and at what speed they go.In connection with the phonograph and concealed by draperies,it is useful to detectives,who,through a registering attachment,can obtain a record of everything said and done.
"Our political system remains with but little change.Each State has still two United States Senators,though the population represented by each representative has been greatly increased,so that the Senate has grown numerically much more than the House.
It is the duty of each member of Congress to understand the conditions existing in every other member's State or district,and the country's interest always precedes that of party.We have a comprehensive examination system in the civil service,and every officeholder,except members of the Cabinet,retains his office while efficiently performing his duty,without regard to politics.The President can also be re-elected any number of times.The Cabinet members,as formerly,usually remain in office while he does,and appear regularly in Congress to defend their measures.
"The really rapid transit lines in New York are underground,and have six tracks,two being used for freight.At all stations the local tracks rise several feet towards the street and slope off in both directions,while the express tracks do this only at stations at which the faster trains stop.This gives the passengers a shorter distance to descend or rise in the elevators,and the ascent before the stations aids the brakes in stopping,while the drop helps the motors to start the trains quickly in getting away.
"Photography has also made great strides,and there is now no difficulty in reproducing exactly the colours of the object taken.
"Telephones have been so improved that one person can speak in his natural voice with another in any part of the globe,the wire that enables him to hear also showing him the face of the speaker though he be at the antipodes.All telephone wires being underground and kept by themselves,they are not interfered with by any high-tension electric-light or power wires,thunderstorms,or anything else.
