"Jules Verne - In the Year 2889" - читать интересную книгу автора (Verne Jules)

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the telephone and telephote more, had they not forgotten the telegraph?


Surprisingly, all these transformations rest on principles perfectly familiar
to
our remote ancestors, which they disregarded. Heat, for instance, is as
ancient
as man himself; electricity was known 3000 years ago, and steam 1100. Nay, so
early as 10 centuries ago it was known that the differences between the
several
chemical and physical forces depend on the mode of vibration of etheric
particles, which is for each specifically different. When at last the kinship
of
all these forces was discovered, it is simply astounding that 500 years still
elapsed before men could analyze and describe the distinct modes of vibration
that constitute these differences. Above all, it is amazing that the method
of
reproducing these forces directly from one another, and of reproducing one
without the others, should have remained undiscovered till less than a
century
ago. Nevertheless, such was the course of events, for it was not till the
year
2792 that the famous Oswald Nier made this discovery.
Truly was he a great benefactor of the human race. His admirable discovery
led
to many others. Hence is sprung a pleiad of inventors, its brightest star our
great Joseph Jackson. To Jackson we are indebted those wonderful
instruments--the new accumulators. Some of these absorb and condense the
living
force contained in the sun's rays; others, the electricity stored in our
globe;
others again, energy from whatever source: waterfalls, streams, wind, etc.
He,
too, invented the transformer, a more wonderful contrivance still, which
takes
the living force from the accumulator, and, at the touch of a button, returns
it
to space in any form desired, whether as heat, light, electricity, or
mechanical
force, after having first obtained from it the work required. From the day
these
two instruments were contrived should be dated the era of true progress. They
have put into the hands of man almost infinite power. As for their
applications,
they are numberless. Mitigating the rigors of winter, by giving back to the
atmosphere the surplus heat stored up during the summer, they have
revolutionized agriculture. Supplying motive power for aerial navigation,
they
have given to commerce a mighty impetus. To them we are indebted for the