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Annals of the
Forty Four Club

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ANNALS OF THE
FORTY FOUR
CLUB

SEVENTY YEARS 1844-1914

Printed by The Barta Press, Boston

Reunion of the
"Forty Fours"

THE first regular meeting of this Club
which has no constitution or by-laws,
no President, Secretary or Treasurer,
was held at the residence of Hon. J. R. Leeson,
upon his invitation, December 2, 1914— pres
ent, Mr. Leeson, Arthur: C. Walworth, David
H. Andrews and W. E. Huntington. After
a sumptuous dinner of vegetables grov/n on
the estate, and other courses produced by the
rare skill of Mr. Leeson's culinary chief, the
Club spent a delightful hour or two in con
genial chat, and In a sketchy review of some
important things that have happened during
the seventy years since 1844.
This review, by Mr. Leeson's request, was
conducted by Messrs. Walworth, Andrews and
Huntington. Mr. Walworth outlined the [5]

SEVENTY YEARS
progress that has been made in the mechani
cal world; Mr. Andrews traced the growth
of engineering; Mr. Huntington gave some
of the main facts in the advance of education.
These contributions are, at Mr. Leeson's
suggestion, put into type-written form, and
are the first chapter in the Annals of the
Forty-four Club. W. E. H.

[6]

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Education in the United
States Since 1844
IT is difficult to compress within the limits
of a brief sketch even the main facts in
regard to the advances made in education
during the last seventy years. At the middle
period of the nineteenth century the common
school system was well established as a national
organism; but school buildings, especially in
rural districts, were small and poorly equipped,
only elementary studies were taught, school
books were not attractive in content or form,
Illustrative materials, such as maps, charts
and apparatus, were of the simplest kind, or
else — as was often the case— entirely lacking.
Colleges were then scarcely more than what
the best High Schools are to-day; in fact,
in scope of Instruction, thoroughness of drill,
facilities for scientific study, the College of
seventy years ago was inferior to our best
High Schools. Harvard and Yale were then [7]

SEVENTY YEARS
small Colleges. The total number of students
in either of these Colleges in 1844 was not
equal to the number of Freshmen entering
in 1914. My own class that was graduated
from the University of Wisconsin in 1870 num
bered seventeen. In June, 1914, this Univer
sity turned out from all its departments over
five hundred graduates.
The vast expansion and enrichment of edu
cational opportunities in this country, espe
cially since the close of the Civil War, has been
the marvel of all the world. It may well be
claimed that as our nation has increased in
material prosperity, the advance of educational
institutions and their equipment has kept pace
with the growth of wealth. This has been
accomplished because of far-sighted and devoted
leaders, both in our national councils and
in the separate states.
Two men of marked distinction may stand
as types of educational leadership. Horace
Mann, in our own Commonwealth, was a pow
erful force in giving to Massachusetts a public
[8]

WILLIAM E. HUNTINGTON
school Standard that has not been surpassed
in any of the states. He was the son of a
small farmer of Franklin County, was a grad
uate and then an Instructor of Brown Univer
sity, studied law in Litchfield, Connecticut,
and practised law for a time in Dedham, be
came a member of the Massachusetts Legis
lature, and debated, with earnestness and in
telligence, all important public questions. Of
high moral standards in his own character,
he entered cordially into every movement for
the elevation of public intelligence and moral
ity. He became Secretary of the State Board
of Education at the time of its organization
in 1837, and from that date he threw himself
heart and soul into the work of recasting the
entire school system. Under his leadership
Normal Schools were established, educational
institutes, or conventions, were introduced,
school registers showing the actual conditions
of the schools were kept, and from these data
he brought out his annual reports which were
looked upon as standards in matters of edu- [9]

SEVENTY YEARS
catlonal opinion. About the year that the
members of this Club were born Horace Mann
visited Europe at his own expense, gathered
information on School problems at various
seats of learning in the Old World, and after
wards published this store of knowledge In a
volume which went through many editions.
In the history of the part Massachusetts has
taken In the development of the best principles
of education, Horace Mann's achievements were
of noteworthy importance.
In a still larger field of Influence William
T. Harris, who was born In Connecticut nine
years previous to the date so sacred to this
Club, was a distinct force In the national scope
of our public school system. He began as a
teacher in the schools of St. Louis, Missouri,
in 1848; became Superintendent of the City
Schools in 1868, and held this post for many
years. In 1889 he was appointed Commis
sioner of Education for the United States.
For many years he was editor and chief con
tributor of the "Journal of Speculative Phi-
[ 10]

WILLIAM E. HUNTINGTON
losophy" which he established. In this Journal
he was the very able expounder of Hegel's
philosophy, and the translator of important
papers from Leibnitz, Descartes, Kant, Fichte
and Schelling. He also contributed to the
magazine remarkable articles on art. In 1899
the University of Jena gave him the honorary
degree of Doctor of Philosophy for his work on
Hegel. His philosophic mind, his wide grasp
of the best theories of education, his facility
in expressing the results of his pedagogical
learning and experience In excellent literary
form, made his Reports as Commissioner a
national contribution to the advancement of
the general cause of education. Dr. Harris
established while In St. Louis the first per
manent public-school kindergarten In the
United States. On his retirement from the
Commissionership In 1906, the Carnegie Foun
dation for the Advancement of Teaching con
ferred upon him "as the first man to whom
such recognition for meritorious service Is
given, the highest retiring allowance which our
[11]

SEVENTY YEARS
rules will allow, an annual income of $3,000."
If we turn to the rank of Collegiate and
University institutions, and their development
in the past seventy years, we are surprised to
find that of the five hundred and more higher
institutions now in existence in the United
States over four hundred were established since
1844. This astonishing multiplication of Col
leges indicates the widespread purpose among
the American people to give the best possible
facilities to the oncoming ranks of youth for
an ample equipment In mental discipline to
meet the tasks before them.
It must be confessed that Colleges and Uni
versities of highest rank are few; and that there
is a long list of institutions of slender founda
tions and meager equipment, that ought not
to be ranked above academies, and which never
theless grant College degrees. The hope is,
of course, that the poor ones will become rich,
and outgrow the limitations that poverty has
imposed. A few great endowments have come to some
[12 ]

WILLIAM E. HUNTINGTON
of the conspicuous Universities within the last
twenty-five years. Leland Stanford, Jr., Uni
versity in California and the University of
Chicago have been the two Institutions that
have been most munificently endowed by pri
vate benefactions of many millions. For the
past forty years some of the State Universities
have received bountiful grants from the State
Legislatures — Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and
Minnesota being among those most favored
by such subsidies. But, beyond the range of
these great institutions, scores of Colleges and
Universities have been gathering in noble en
dowments, witnessing to the great generosity
of the people who are thus fostering the in
telligent powers of the Republic.
One of the great features of educational ad
vancement since the time of the opening of our
Civil War was the establishing by what is
known as the Morrill Act of Congress of the
Agricultural Colleges of the United States. By
this act a large land grant was given to each
state for the support of the Agricultural Col- [13]

SEVENTY YEARS
leges that should be established. The object
of the American Agricultural College was:
1. To promote the business and social welfare
of the farmer through courses of study and by
means of appropriate dealing with the ma
terials of his life and surroundings. 2. To
Insure the development of agriculture beyond
the confines of handicraft and Into the field of
science, not as a favor to farmers, but as a
matter of general and public welfare. 3. To
preserve the homogeneity of the American peo
ple by making It unnecessary to desert the
farm and the shop In order to secure the
benefits and graces of education. No event
In our educational history Is so remarkable
as the rise and development of agricultural
education. While the nation was somewhat
slow in furnishing the necessary means to carry
out the original purpose of such an institu
tion, the recent developments of agriculture
and of the Experiment Stations have induced
the government to appropriate large sums of
money for a successful work to be done In
[14]

WILLIAM E. HUNTINGTON
these agricultural centers. The latest data at
hand show that $20,000,000 was recently ap
propriated to carry on the work of the Agri
cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations.
The following are some of the main features
of the Agricultural Department of the United
States:— 1. The Weather Bureau is under the
direction of this department.
2. The Investigation Bureau of Ani
mal Industry.
3. The Bureau of Soils which deals
with the Chemical and Biological
make-up of soils.
4. The Forest Service which Is respon
sible for developing the Ameri
can Science of Forestry.
5. The Bureau of Plant Industry.
6. The Bureau of Chemistry which
applies in its investigations the
Science of Food Adulterations.
7. Bureau of Entomology. [15]

SEVENTY YEARS
8. Biological Service which deals
with the migration of birds.
9. Bureau of Statistics.
10. Office of Public Roads.
11. Office of Experiment Stations.
It is a remarkable fact that the Department
of Agriculture which began its most Important
work as early as 1858, but was greatly stimu
lated by the work accomplished through Sena
tor Morrill of Vermont, launched the scheme
for establishing Agricultural Colleges in all the
states in the early period of the Civil War, in
1862. It is felt that a close sympathy exists
between the great American public schools and
the state institutions, thus welding the common
interests of our people into a noble unity.
Those who are expert in this line of education
think the following influences from land-grant
colleges, as they are called, may be noted: —
1. A greatly stimulated interest of the
people In higher education.
[16]

WILLIAM E. HUNTINGTON
2. The debates Incident to the pas
sage of the land-grant act have
set a precedent and proved the
wisdom of Federal aid to educa
tion.
3. The experience and history of these
colleges have brought Industrial
education to a place of esteem
among the American people and
have forced Its recognition by
all Institutions for higher educa
tion.
4. Agricultural Colleges have In
fluenced the practical aims of
higher education.
5. They have stimulated Investiga
tion and research in many fields.
6. The establishing of these institu
tions has had an influence upon
the government itself which has
become more and more humane,
beneficent and philanthropic in
its activities. William E. Huntington. [17]

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Seventy Years
1844—1914
IT Is a remarkable fact that no period of
seventy years in the world's history can
be named that covers as much material
and scientific progress as that of 1844-1914.
In the time of our lives which seems so
brief to us as we look back, the whole face
of civilization has been changed. 1844 was
the twilight of a new day of invention and
material progress; perhaps 1914 Is high noon,
for science is advancing yet with rapid steps
and seems now to be pressing across the bound
ary between the known and the unknown.
Already the old definitions of matter and spirit
are obsolete; what our grandchildren may see
and know, who can say?
The writer, the oldest of "us four," was
born on the 29th of April, 1844. On that
day James K. Polk sent his "profession of
[19]

SEVENTY YEARS
faith" to the Democratic Convention at Bal
timore, which later gave him the nomination;
this was the custom In those days, and not
a bad one. At that date, steamboats had
just begun to be a factor In travel and rail
roads were in their infancy, for the first of
them out of Boston were completed in 1835.
The electric telegraph, invented by S. F. B.
Morse In 1840, was not yet in use. In 1845
came the Hoe cylinder press, making the mod
ern newspaper possible. In 1846 Elias Howe
patented the sewing machine.
At that date, my father's store and machine
shop was at No. 18 Devonshire Street, where
the building designated as No. 54 now stands;
the firm was "Walworth & Nason," estab
lished in 1841, the first In the U. S. to make
and sell steam-pipes, valves and fittings.
Right across the street was a machinist named
Baker. Elias Howe ran the engine at our
shop, the family living In a large house still
standing in Cambridgeport. Howe was an
ingenious cuss and spent his spare time in
[20]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
making a machine that would sew. At last
he hit the vital idea of putting the eye next
the point of the needle, the key of the inven
tion. Not until his patent on this device
expired, could any one make or sell a sewing
machine without paying him a royalty. He
showed his crude contraption to Baker,
across the street, who became Interested and
helped him develop his first machines. Later
Mr. Baker associated himself with a Mr.
Grover and the firm of Grover & Baker began
to make machines. In 1854 Mr. Nathaniel
Wheeler of Bridgeport Invented a "four mo
tion" feed for sewing machines, while Howe
Invested his royalties In a large factory In
Bridgeport. Howe, Baker and Wheeler all be
came very wealthy. That eccentric Baker, who
had a very strange estate in Needham, was
a son of this old Baker and he was paid a
salary to keep away from the factory. The
cost of sewing machines has fallen from $100
to $17 In the fifty years of their use. My
father bought a "Grover & Baker" In 1854. [21]

SEVENTY YEARS
The neighbors came in to see it operated by
my mother.
About this time Prof. Morse was having
a hard time to get his telegraph tested and at
last he obtained a small grant from Con
gress to build an experimental line from Wash
ington to Baltimore.
Every one who has seen a steam boiler or
apparatus has probably noticed a dial like
a clock, with an index hand. This Is the
steam gauge Invented by Bourdon, a French
man, in 1849. They used to cost from $50
to $100. They are now required by law and
may be bought for $1.50.
About 1852 the fire alarm telegraph was
invented and first used In Boston. A key was
used to strike the several numbers by hand,
but the operator sometimes made mistakes.
In 1854, a young Englishman, Mr. E. C. Clay,
who worked In our shop, patented an im
provement by which, after setting a dial, the
signals were given automatically. Mr. Clay
Is still living and his device is still in use, but
[22]

ARTHUR C, WALWORTH
he never received a cent for It. My father
furnished the cash to take out his patent.
1855 saw the birth of a new epoch In the
steel industry, through the invention of Bes
semer, who by melting iron in a "converter"
and blowing a jet of air through it produced
a new and cheaper kind of steel that is used
wherever civilization extends.
And it was about this time that Goodyear's
invention of vulcanizing India rubber was made
useful for the thousands of articles that are
now made of it.
In 1855 the first apartment house in Bos
ton, or French flat as it was called, the Hotel
Pelham, was erected, on the corner of Tremont
and Boylston Streets.
In 1858 the first Atlantic Cable was laid and
messages were sent under the ocean and, at
about the same time, people began to ride in
sleeping cars. My first ride in one was in
1861, on the New York Owl train. This car
had three tiers of fixed bunks on each side and
a red hot stove in the middle! Also at this [23]

SEVENTY YEARS
date a passenger elevator was placed In the
Continental Hotel In Philadelphia. The car
was "screwed" from bottom to top on a long
iron screw; this was safe but painfully slow.
To-day some elevators travel at the rate of
twenty feet per second. The next passenger
elevator was that of the Fifth Avenue Hotel
in New York.
I have now arrived at the date where we
ourselves can remember the new things and
the Impressions they made, such as Ericsson's
"Monitor" with Its revolving turret, and the
introduction of iron-clad war ships. Dyna
mite came in 1867 and oleomargarine In 1868.
At this date horse railroads were almost the
only means of City transit in our cities and
suburbs, and the Broadway "busses" were not
discontinued until many years later.
The first horse railroad for passengers that
I can find a record of ran from Trenton, N. J.,
to Bordentown. My father traveled on this
road in 1832. On October 19th of that year he
records, "At 6 A.M. arrived at the railroad,
[24]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
four splendid cars were soon in readiness to
receive the passengers. The cars have a capac
ity to carry twenty-four passengers and thirty-
six could ride comfortably" (they must have
had strap hangers on them), "and each car Is
drawn by one horse at a rate of speed almost
eight miles an hour." This road later be
came part of the Camden & Amboy Railroad.
Also my father notes that the best Hotel in
Philadelphia charged $1.25 per day for every
thing, on the American plan.
Street Transportation
The writer's memory goes back to 1852.
At that time Hathorne's Line of red omni
buses ran from Charlestown to the Norfolk
House, but many of these busses ran only to
Canton Street. For one pull on the strap the
coach would stop on the right-hand side of the
street, for two pulls on the left. The end of
the strap was under the driver's feet and some
times an excited fat woman would come near
dumping him into the street. The little five- [25]

SEVENTY YEARS
cent silver piece was passed up through the
hole to the driver and it was a difficult task
for him to drive a pair of horses and handle
this small change in zero weather. Often a
6 1-4 cent piece was passed up and the driver
would hand back a big copper cent. Horse
cars had been running In New York on 4th
Avenue to Harlem before this, but there were
on Broadway at least ten lines of "busses"
making that thoroughfare look like the Strand
in London.
The first horse railway in Boston ran from
Bowdoin Square to Cambridge in 1854, and the
Metropolitan Road to Roxbury was opened
soon after and still later the South Boston
Road and the Highland Railway, whose cars
were painted In Scotch plaid patterns. The
last horse car was run In Boston on Marl
borough Street Dec. 24, 1900.
Next came the Electric Cars with overhead
trolley, about 1890. The Slot system of elec
trical conduction was first used on Boylston
and Beacon Streets, but singularly enough was
[26]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
soon abandoned, and, at the same time, adopted
in New York. It should have been retained
here and probably costs no more to maintain
in the long run. It was claimed that it could
not be operated in winter and would kill horses
by electric shocks, but neither of these inci
dents have been observed In New York. Next
came the "Elevated" system. Here, New York
was ahead of us, but in Subways Boston was
the pioneer and New York called on our Mr.
George S. Rice of Newton Centre to go there
and engineer their tunnels. Motor "busses"
are also running in New York, thousands in
London, and a few in Boston, so in sixty years
the whole system of street transportation has
been changed three times and completely
revolutionized. In the early seventies. Prof. Alexander Gra
ham Bell, who was teaching lip-reading to
the deaf and studying the acoustics of human
speech, began to experiment In transmitting
sound vibrations over wires by means of elec
tric magnets with vibrating armatures in front [27]

SEVENTY YEARS
of their poles. In 1876, he exhibited at the
Philadelphia Exposition a telephone line one
hundred feet long, over which I talked, and
words could be plainly heard, and later he
was able to talk over a mile of wire, strung
around a room, but naturally this convinced
no one that the telephone was an Instrument
of practical value. It was necessary to demon
strate that It could transmit audible speech
from one town to another.
Mr. Charles Eustis Hubbard, a relative of his
wife, was at that time a Director in the Wal
worth Mfg. Co. Through him, Mr. Bell ob
tained the use of a private wire, owned by that
Company, which extended from 69 Kilby
Street, Boston, to their factory at Cambridge-
port; this wire he could use at night for his
experiments. On October 9th he gave a prac
tical demonstration to the Reporters of the
Daily Advertiser^ stationed at each end of the
line, Prof. Bell at one end and his assistant Mr.
Watson at the other in Cambridge. The pub
lished report says, "The sounds, at first faint
[ 28]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
and indistinct, became suddenly quite loud
and intelligible. Notes were taken of what
was said and heard and the comparison of the
two records showed the accuracy of the electric
transmission." Then followed a long conversation In parallel
columns, as sent and received, proving the
fact of transmission of audible speech without
difficulty between Boston and Cambridge. This
demonstration by Prof. Bell was the birth of
the telephone as a practical device, but even
then no one had any conception of its future
and It was very difficult to persuade any one
to invest money in the invention, but those
who wisely seized the opportunity became very
wealthy. The writer was at this time, among
other duties, in charge of this wire, so that
he can say, "all of which I saw and part of
which I was."
The day of hand fire engines Is within our
easy recollection. Perhaps as boys we have "run
with the old machine," or manned the brakes
at a fire. What was more exciting for a boy? [29]

SEVENTY YEARS
I have seen the hand "tubs" race down the
hill on Cambridge Street, Boston, and I tell
you they were "going some." A steam fire
engine invented in 1854 by Moses Latta and
built by Miles Greenwood in Cincinnati was
exhibited on the Common about 1857, while
the writer was attending Boston Latin School
in Bedford Street. It sucked water from the
frog-pond and was considered a great wonder.
It could throw two streams at once and keep
it up as long as coal could be provided for the
boiler. This was the first successful steam
fire engine.
The first practical typewriters seem to have
been made by the Remington Company. I
have a circular saying that after making many
experiments they had constructed one hun
dred standard machines and had them in actual
service in business houses. The reports were
so satisfactory that they decided to make up
1,000 machines and place them on the mar
ket. Circular shows a table complete with
instrument. Price named is $100.
[30]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
The word typewriter seems to have been
then originated, which term is now a little
ambiguous, being applied to the operators as
well as the machine. One woman is said to
have had a fit when she overheard her husband
say that he had a new little typewriter that he
could hold In his lap.
Electric Telegraph
This Invention is especially deserving of men
tion In this paper, as it actually was born in
1844, when the first practical line was built,
although it was conceived some few years earlier.
Samuel F. B. Morse was born In Charles
town, Mass., April 27, 1791, a son of Rev.
Jedediah Morse, D.D., a distinguished Con
gregational clergyman and religious leader, a
founder of Park Street Church, Boston, and a
Yale graduate. Morse, the inventor, gradu
ated at Yale In the class of 1810. He studied
Art both In this country and abroad, and
became an eminent artist, being chosen first
President of the National Academy of Design [31]

SEVENTY YEARS
In 1826. In 1827 he made the acquaintance
of Prof. T. F. Dana, a fellow-lecturer (on
Physics) of the University of New York, and
became interested In the subjects of electricity
and magnetism, whose Identity had just been
proved. On his second return voyage to the
United States In 1832, he conceived the Idea
of using an electro-magnet to record messages
over a wire. Prof. Dana brought the first
electro-magnet to this country and Morse was
able to experiment with this Instrument, which
device Is now used on every telegraph line
In the world. Many of Morse's fellow-pas
sengers on the steamer substantiated later,
In court, his statements about his Invention.
In 1837 Morse showed an experimental ap
paratus at Yale College and in 1838 took it to
Europe, but could interest no one. England
refused a patent and France gave him a useless
"Brevet." He returned to America and In
1842 petitioned Congress for a grant to build
a line to Baltimore. After he had despaired
of obtaining this. In the last hour of the ses-
[32]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
sion of March 4, 1843, his bill was passed.
His first idea was to place the wire under
ground, but this proved impracticable, and
he built his line with poles and overhead wires
and insulators, just as lines are constructed
to-day. The construction of a line to Balti
more was immediately begun. The first mes
sage was sent from Washington May 27, 1844,
so that this wonderful invention, which revolu
tionized the transmission of intelligence all
over the world, well deserves a place in the
annals of the 1844 Club.
Very soon the line was extended to Jersey
City, and, in a few years, all the cities In the
United States were connected by telegraph lines.
The reliability and simplicity of the Morse
system was such that it gradually took the
lead, and is now used, not only in the United
States, but in every country in Europe, and
yet the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," In its article
of many pages on telegraphs, only gives one
line to Professor Morse.
One of the writer's classmates at the Boston [33]

SEVENTY YEARS
Latin School was a delicate looking boy by
the name of John Trowbridge. He graduated
at Harvard In 1865, became an instructor
and afterwards a Professor. By using a magnet
telephone, he made, In 1880, a very elaborate
Investigation of the propagation of electric cur
rents through earth, water and air. He showed
that signaling could be carried on over con
siderable distances without wires by the hum
ming of the telephone detector placed in the
Induced current, and suggested that the method
be applied to the Inter-communication of ships
at sea. In 1882 Graham Bell, with boats
on the Potomac River, sent signals a mile and
a half without wires. In 1891 Trowbridge
discovered another method by means of mag
netic induction between two separate and com
pletely insulated currents. Willoughby Smith
and Sir W. H. Preece experimented In the
same line and actually sent messages across the
Solent to the Isle of Wight during a failure
of the submarine cable. This was in 1882.
But all the later systems and inventions are
[34]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
based on Hertz's investigation of the Hertzian
waves. These waves are produced at one wire
less station and detected at another. The de
tection is based on the discovery that a tube
of metallic filings, closely packed, was respon
sive to electrical sparks made five hundred
yards away through Hertzian waves.
This Hughes Detector, as It was called,
proved to be far more sensitive than any of
the others.
In 1890, Branby described the fact that an
electric spark at a distance had the power of
changing loose aggregations of metallic pow
ders from poor to good electric conductors,
from a very high resistance to that of a few
ohms. In 1894, Marconi began to study devices
for the detection of electric waves and invented
a new and very sensitive coherer, and dis
covered that if one terminal of the coherer
was connected to a metallic plate burled in
the earth, and the other to a series of aerial
wires, which are called antennae, he could de-
[35]

SEVENTY YEARS
tect very feeble Hertzian waves made at a
great distance. This combination forms the
basis of all wireless telegraphs. The messages
are sent by pressing down a key, sending a
current through a very powerful inductive coil,
for a longer or shorter time, and sending a
torrent of electric sparks between two spark-
balls, alternately charging and discharging the
elevated wires. At the receiving station there
is a simple voltaic cell and a sensitive tele
graphic relay In series with the tube of metallic
filings. The relay actuates through a local
battery, an ordinary Morse printing telegraph
instrument, which records the message. The
whole apparatus is now so simplified that
mere lads are using it for their own entertain
ment, to the confusion of some legitimate opera
tors. It is necessary that the little tube should
be tapped, after each electric charge, by light
blows on the underside, to render it non-con
ductive; this Is done automatically by a
connection with the Morse relay Instrument;
thus are made the dots and dashes that spell
[36]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
the words In letters of the Morse alphabet.
In 1895 this system was used between Bourne
mouth, England, and Alum Bay, a distance of
14 1-2 miles. In 1899 communication was used
between England and France, sending twenty
to fifty words per minute. In 1901 messages
were sent 200 miles. In 1902 It was the writ
er's privilege to have the working of the ap
paratus on the Cunarder "Saxonia" explained
to him by Prof. Trowbridge himself, really
the first experimenter In sending messages with
out wires.
In 1906 regular service was established from
Ireland to Cape Breton, and lately messages
have been sent from Washington to Honolulu;
and now the same systems have been adapted
for telephoning and people talk without wires
from Chicago to Boston and San Francisco.
This year of 1914 will be long remembered as
the date of the Pan-German War. The military
operations have demonstrated the extraor
dinary changes in the science of warfare during
the last seventy years. We hear for the first [37]

SEVENTY YEARS
time since the advent of civilization the "gospel
of frightfulness" preached. The unspeakable
barbarism and cruelty of the apostles of the
new Kultur, the deliberate drowning of thou
sands of women and children, the wanton de
struction of the homes and household goods of
poor peasants to no advantage to the aggres
sors, the harrying into servitude in the enemies'
country of thousands of laborers, and the car
rying away of the young girls, the whole con
stituting a chapter of unparalleled horror.
On the physical side of warfare the changes
in seventy years have been extraordinary. The
war of 1812 was fought with flint-lock muskets
six feet long. In 1844 the Springfield Armory
was altering the guns of this pattern to the
percussion locks used In the Mexican War. In
the war of the rebellion the rifled Springfield
muzzle-loader was our arm, although breech
loaders had been invented and many "Sharp"
rifles and others were used before the end of
that war: also the Colt revolver had come Into
almost universal use.
[38]

ARTHUR C. WALWORTH
The Franco-German War of 1870 marked the
substitution of breech-loaders for muzzle-load
ers, needle-guns by the Germans and Chasse-
pots by the French; also the use of rapid-fire
machine guns and mitrailleuses. In our Span
ish War we used the Krag-Springfield rifle,
which pattern, modified and improved. Is used
by the United States to-day, while the English
are using the "Enfield," which takes the same
ammunition. The army rifle of to-day is of about
half the weight and half the length of the mus
ket of 1844; it fires a small bullet, shaped like
one-third of a lead pencil, five times as far, and
will bore a hole through a file of five men, and
It uses smokeless powder. In artillery equal
Improvements have been introduced, and for
trench warfare hand-grenades like those of 150
years ago are used. The Germans have also
Introduced the new horrors of blinding poison
gas, and the Zeppelins that drop bombs on
peaceful homes.
It is a pity to close this paper with such a
tale of horror marking our seventieth year. [39]

SEVENTY YEARS
Let US hope that the children born in
1914, when they sit down to their anniversary
dinner in 1984, will be able to say that there
will be no more war but universal peace "per
secula seculorum."

[40]

; /r^ //V^^.

Notable Events in Engineering
Progress During the Past
Seventy Years
So far as can be learned the title of En
gineer originated with the early develop
ment of the skill of individuals in de
signing building and operating so-called en
gines of ancient warfare, and engineering was
primarily of a military nature.
When civilization had so far progressed that
the wants of mankind demanded the applica
tion of engineering skill to the designing and
production of works of public and private
utility, the term of Civil Engineering began
to be applied to all other engineering develop
ments In distinction from military engineering.
Civil Engineering, when the Institution of
Civil Engineers was formed in London in 1828,
was described as "the art of directing great
resources of Power In Nature for the use and
convenience of man." The description went [41]

SEVENTY YEARS
on to enumerate many of the methods of ap
plication of engineering study and skill, ending
with "the construction and adaptation of ma
chinery." Though a broad one for that day,
the enumeration falls far short of the fields
occupied and served by the engineers of to-day.
Later on. In the nineteenth century, a gradual
specialization set in, and so far as known the
first branch to be recognized as separate was
Mechanical Engineering, which Is concerned
with the design and production of machinery
of all descriptions.
Soon engineering especially devoted to the
development and operating of mines became
Mining Engineering. Subsequently other sub
divisions came into existence, such as Marine
and Naval Engineers, Chemical Engineers, Hy
draulic Engineers, Railway Engineers, Sani
tary Engineers, the modern Electrical Engineer
and, at last, the still more modern Efficiency
Engineer. Leaving out the last entitled subdivision
which should, perhaps, be adjudged a mls-
[42]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
nomer, engineering of to-day signifies in a broad
way the art of turning to practical benefit the
powers and utilities which exist In nature.
The accomplishments which, during the last
seventy years, stand accredited to the Engi
neering Profession, are very numerous, highly
interesting and of enormous progress, and It
would be difficult. If not impossible, to deter
mine the most far reaching of these accom
plishments. Zoology, after the most analytical comparison
of man with other animals, used to say that the
final and distinctive difference between man
and other animals is articulate speech. Whether
or not that distinction remains true, it will
be conceded that human Intercommunication
Is one of the greatest factors in the progress of
mankind. Hence, the engineering accomplish
ments which contribute most to facilitate such
Intercourse attract first attention.
Among the high engineering accomplish
ments of this order stands the establishment
and growth of the Railway. Although tram- [43]

SEVENTY YEARS
ways with tracks of some sort to support and
In some Instances to guide the wheels for wagons
propelled by animals or human beings existed
as far back as the middle of the sixteenth
century, it was not until 1804 that the first
attempt was made to propel vehicles by steam
upon trams laid down for the wheels. This
early effort proved a failure and the effort was
abandoned. In 1814 George Stevenson's first steam loco
motive, the "Blucher," drew a train of eight
wagons at the rate of four miles an hour and
in 1821 the English Parliament authorized
the building of a thirty-eight mile railroad
for horse propulsion. This railroad was opened
in 1825 and by Stevenson's advice Steam
Locomotives were adopted, but they were only
hopeful forerunners of the locomotive to come.
The first attempt to build a steam railroad
in this country was by the Delaware & Hudson
Canal Company when. In 1828, It decided to
build a railroad sixteen miles long and pur
chased In England three locomotives, the first
[44]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
of which to arrive here was the well-known
"America." The first locomotive made In America was
the "Best Friend," built by the West Point
Foundry, New York, and it was completed
in 1830, and following this the first locomotive
to have a pair of driving wheels under the
fire box and a pair of carrying wheels under
the smokestack was completed but ten years
before the unheralded but momentous arrival
of the founders of the Forty-four Club.
In 1840 the mileage of steam railroads in
the United States was only 9,015 miles and In
1908 the mileage was 236,949 miles and that
of the whole world was 601,808 miles.
The building and mechanical equipment
of all these miles of railroad. Involving huge
hill cuttings and valley embankments, the
tunneling of mountains, the bridging of great
rivers, the conception and building of vast
terminal facilities, the Improvement of cars
from the small four-wheeled wagons to the
steel freight car carrying its 100-ton load, and [45]

SEVENTY YEARS
from the crude box passenger coach to the
luxurious Pullman parlor and sleeping cars,
constitute a brilliant galaxy of engineering
achievements, practically all of which have been
accomplished within the last seventy years.
The great Invention by George Westing-
house of his straight compressed air brake In
1869 quickly followed by his automatic air
brake In 1894 enormously contributed to hu
man safety and made possible the running of
very high speed trains.
The telegraph with Its enormous usefulness
was foreshadowed In 1753 when theoretically,
but without practical application. It was pro
posed to convey messages by means of as many
wires carrying electric currents as there are
letters in the alphabet, and words were to be
spelled by passing the electric current through
each wire as the indication of each appropriate
letter was desired, the charged wire being In
dicated by various. methods suggested.
It was not, however, until S. F. B. Morse
in 1835 perfected a model by which an alphabet
[46]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
consisting of letters Indicated by long and
short occurrences of an electric current that
practical communication by the telegraph was
accomplished and the world was given seem
ingly unsurpassable human intercourse.
Nevertheless, this accomplishment was far
surpassed when Alexander Graham Bell In 1876
Invented the telephone. This invention was
undoubtedly suggested by the fact, well known
in the time of our childhood, that conversa
tion can be carried on by persons, quite distant
from, and out of sight of each other, by means of
a string stretched across the interval, each end
of which is attached to the bottom of a tin
can, the other end of the can being open.
The can bottoms acting as diaphragms re
ceive the sound vibrations at one end and
give them out again to the listening ear at the
opposite end.
The telephone transmits the sound waves
by means of a conducting wire charged with
electricity and joined at its opposite ends to
thin steel diaphragms In such a manner that [47]

SEVENTY YEARS
the sound waves received by one diaphragm
so modulate the electric current that the same
waves are reproduced in the opposite dia
phragm, and the most subtle variations of
sound are audible. The whole civilized world
is now covered with a network of telephone
wires, so that men converse with each other,
though hundreds of miles of separation
Intervene. This achievement would seem to be climactic;
but no — human ingenuity has recently given
us wireless telegraphy by means of which Inter
mittent groups of electric waves sent out into
the air are intercepted by appropriate Instru
ments hundreds and even thousands of miles
away, and ships widely separated upon the sea
converse with ease and in distress call succor
from afar.
We await now the acme of human Inter
communication when some Inventive wizard
shall enable us to see each other through a wire
a thousand miles stretched out.
The almost universal substitution of soft
[48]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
steel for wrought iron constitutes one of the
greatest engineering accomplishments of the
past fifty years. Wrought Iron, so-called. Is
made from pig iron by the laborious hand
process called puddling, and its tensile strength
and other qualities are ordinarily much below
those of soft steel.
Sir Henry Bessemer In 1854 began an at
tempt to improve metal for the manufacture
of artillery and In 1856 made public his in
vention, which by means of a blast of air
through molten pig iron decarbonized It and
produced soft steel. This invention caused the
complete substitution of soft steel for iron
railroad rails, greatly enhancing both their
strength and durability.
This Invention has also resulted in the sub
stitution of soft steel for iron In all cases where
the particular qualities of iron for welding and
forging are not requisite and has contributed
enormously to the growth of great steel struc
tures, such as the modern skyscraper buildings,
huge bridges and other utilities. [49]

SEVENTY YEARS
In 1867 Sir William Siemens, an English
engineer and inventor, brought out what Is
called the open hearth process for producing
mild or soft steel. This process produces at a
slightly higher cost a steel of greater uniformity
and reliability than the so-called Bessemer steel,
permitting the manufacture of steam boilers
able to carry with safety vastly higher pressure
and of much higher efficiency than formerly.
The most advanced railroads are now ordering
all their rails to be made of this open hearth
steel and all railroad bridges are made out
of It.
A sewing machine, in very crude form, was
invented in 1830 by a Frenchman, but al
though the inventor labored upon it until
1857 he died unsuccessful and unrewarded.
Walter Hunt in 1834 constructed a sewing
machine having a curved needle with an eye
near the point and a stitch was formed by an
oscillating shuttle, but no patent was attempted
until 1853 and then it was disallowed. The
needle with an eye near the point, the basic
[50]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
necessity of all sewing machines, was patented
In 1841 by an EngHshman.
All this was unknown to Elias Howe of
Spencer, Mass., who In 1846 patented the first
lock stitch sewing machine. Howe was un
successful and sold out his English patent to
an English corset manufacturer for 250 pounds
and was so poor that he pawned his American
patents; but he finally recovered his American
patents and was successful In litigation with
Singer and others, and as a result all the sew
ing machine manufacturers became tributary
to him and he was amply rewarded. Follow
ing Howe with patentable Improvements were
Singer, Isaac Merritt, Wheeler & Wilson, Grover,
and Wilcox & Gibbs, and the sewing machine
has become such a necessary factory of human
welfare and the cost of its production by en
gineering study and practice so greatly re
duced, that a home to-day without a sewing
machine is a rare exception.
The perfection of the cloth sewing machine
seems to have excited a demand for machine- [51]

SEVENTY YEARS
made shoes In which the most difficult opera
tion is the attachment of the sole to the uppers.
This attachment was formerly all accomplished
by hand and though sewing was extensively
used, the largest number of the soles were
attached by some form of wooden or metallic
pegs. The first successful machine for sewing
on the soles of shoes was Invented and patented
by Lyman R. Blake In 1858, but his machine
would not sew around the toe.
In 1860 Gordon McKay, In conjunction with
Blake, effected important Improvements and
protected them so successfully by patents that
they effected a practical monopoly in sewing
machines for shoemaking.
For a short time this discouraged Invention,
but in 1862 August Destory Invented a ma
chine for sewing soles to the welt, which was
afterward perfected by Charles Goodyear, a
son of the celebrated inventor of rubber vul
canization. Improvements thereafter contin
ued, until now not a single hand application
is required to manufacture the best and most
[52]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
comfortable leather shoe the world has ever
seen. Discoveries respecting electricity and mag
netism date back to scanty knowledge by the
ancients; and It is said that 600 years before
Christ it was known that amber, jet and a
few other substances had the power, when
rubbed, ot attracting straws, feathers and other
substances. One Gilbert In 1600 made for
himself a name by publishing the first study of
magnetic attraction. Many Ingenious students
of electrical phenomena discovered various prop
erties of electrical and magnetic functions, for
which they obtained lasting credit. Among
these was Volta, whose chemico-electrical dis
coveries in 1799 have resulted, in conjunction
with the additional efforts of others, in pro
ducing those batteries which generate electric
ity by chemical dissolution, like the ordinary
zinc, carbon and sal ammoniac battery. But
the most Important discoveries, forecasting the
developments which have produced the modern
generator and motor, are unquestionably due
[53]

SEVENTY YEARS
to Faraday, who In 1831 discovered the fact
that magnetic lines of force are constantly
passing between adjacent and opposite mag
netic poles, and that by revolving an electric
conductor across the path of these lines and
thereby cutting them an electric current Is
generated. This is the parent thought In all
mechanical electric generators to-day. He also
discovered what Is called electro-magnetic rota
tion, another fundamental basis of modern
electric practice.
Faraday's copper disk rotating between the
poles of a magnet interested many minds In
efforts to perfect apparatus, so as to generate
electricity for commercial use. Faraday's sin
gle copper disk generated direct current elec
tricity at a very small voltage and though
much time and very large expenditure has
been devoted to the effort, no generator pro
ducing direct current electricity in its armature
has yet been successfully put into commercial
use. The first practical dynamo or generator was
[54]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
constructed by Seamens & Wheatstone In 1866
and It was used for arc lighting, which Sir
Humphry Davy had experimentally demon
strated the possibility of in May, 1808.
In 1870 Z. T. Gramme invented the Im
proved armature winding which resulted in the
present commercial alternating current arma
ture, and it was soon discovered that a dynamo
of the Gramme type would also run as a motor,
and electrical transmission of power had its
birth. One of the most Interesting and important
achievements of modern electrical engineering
was the discovery of electrical accumulation
or storage, so-called.
In the year 1801 Gauthorot discovered that
two plates of the same metal immersed In
diluted acid, after having been subjected to the
action of an electric current In one direction,
would produce, when the conducting wires were
reversed by attachment to the opposite ter
minals, a current of electricity In the opposite
direction. No practical result followed this [55]

SEVENTY YEARS
discovery until In 1859 Gaston Plante after
elaborate experiments discovered that a lead
sulphuric acid cell would retain for a long time
after charging the power to give off an electric
current. For many years It was believed that
the generated electricity was actually stored In
the battery cells, but it is now well known that
the electric current through the cells causes an
electro-chemical decomposition which produces
in the elements of the cells such a condition that
when the conducting wires are disconnected
from the generator and reversely attached to
the terminals of the cells, a reverse electro
chemical action is produced which regenerates
electricity in the opposite direction from which
the electricity passed Into the cells. The stud
ies and experiments of eminent modern elec
tricians, including our own Edison, have pro
duced storage batteries of immense importance
in the field of electrical engineering, and they
are in extensive practical use. The great func
tion of the electric storage battery is its
ability, for quite a period of time after It is
[56]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
charged, to produce an electric current by the
turn of a switch, the storage battery being
removed to any desired location.
Another important function is its ability to
deliver a perfectly uniform current of electricity
which cannot be done by any generator now in
commercial use. It will be recalled that when
the telephone was first Introduced scratching
sounds almost fatally disturbed transmission
of speech. This was due to lack of uniformity
In the current received directly from a generator
and the defect was entirely cured by the use of
storage battery current.
Electric lighting was first confined to the
light from the electric spark Itself, passing
across the open space between two electrodes.
It was, in the experimental stage of electrical
study, an unavoidable discovery, that elec
tricity in an overcharged conductor produces
heat. This led Edison and others to confine a
minute and highly overcharged conductor in
a transparently enclosed vacuum, so heating
without destruction the conductor to a high [57]

SEVENTY YEARS
State of Incandescence and thereby producing
the well-known incandescent lamp. All are
familiar with the vast application of electric
ity to the propulsion of street and other
railway cars and to the running of machinery
of every description; but there are less con
spicuous though very large fields where Its
application has produced marvelous results,
like electro-chemical separations, electro-metal
lurgical operations like the production of
aluminum and electrolytic copper, electro-min
eral formation, like the production of car
borundum and other abrasives. It may safely
be said that no generation has ever witnessed
a greater development than that which has
been accomplished by electrical engineers within
the last fifty years.
In 1794 an EngHshman by the name of
Street took out a patent for an internal com
bustion engine, vaporizing spirits of turpen
tine for his gas. The engine was impracticable
and never came Into use. Various attempts
In the same direction followed, and William
[58]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
Barnett In 1838 was the first to compress the
gas In his cylinder before exploding It, and a
Frenchman, E. Lenoir, In 1860, was the first
one to produce an internal combustion engine
of which any number were built for use.
The commercial history of the Internal
combustion engine begins with the Inventions
and patents of Dr. N. A. Otto, a German
engineer. In 1876. The Otto gas engine has
had a large commercial use, where compara
tively slow speeds are required and weight and
size are not a handicap.
In 1883 Daimler conceived the idea of pro
ducing a light engine to run at 800 to 1,000
revolutions per minute. In 1886 he made the
first motor cycle and in 1887 he had com
pleted and operated the first gasoline motor
car. He used a carburetor and water-jacketed
his cylinder, and the gas was Ignited by means
of an Igniter tube, which was so arranged that
at the proper Intervals It was fired by a con
stantly burning lamp. The igniter tube was
soon superseded by Igniting with an electric [59]

SEVENTY YEARS
spark from a battery and later with a spark
from a small high tension magneto.
From this practical beginning only thirty years
ago sprung into being the modern motor car
riage of to-day, which is now built to supply
the humblest and the most luxurious demands
and gives transportation to mankind for pleas
ure, business and traffic in every country on
the face of the globe, and it has caused the
establishment of an Incredibly vast manufac
turing Industry. The modern gasoline engine
alone has made aviation, hitherto the shadowy
dream of enthusiasts, not only possible but
practicable, so that man now soars above the
clouds and in his flights is the rival of the
birds in speed. If not In space o'erflown.
During the past seventy years the progress
in Metallurgical Engineering has been steady
and of large importance and especially as it
has affected Structural Engineering. At the
beginning of that period wood, brick, stone
and mortar, cast and wrought Iron, were the
principal materials used In structures and the
[60]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
magnitude of buildings, bridges and other struc
tures was limited to the strength of those
materials. Iron In the form of castings, with
comparatively small tensile strength, and so-
called wrought or puddled iron, were the two
principal metallic elements available for struc
tural forms. The commercial method of pro
ducing steel was the so-called crucible process,
by means of which steel capable of being hard
ened or tempered for the use of tools and cut
ting Instruments was and still is made. Such
steel Is unsuitable and also too costly for use
in building bridges and other large structures.
Wrought Iron was the only available material
for railroad rails for many years after railroads
came Into use and though made by the best
methods known, these rails would stand the
traffic of the light locomotives and cars then
In use but a short time.
In 1856 Sir Henry Bessemer Invented his
process of making soft steel by means of a
blast of air through molten Iron. The process
being comparatively Inexpensive and capable [61 ]

SEVENTY YEARS
of almost unlimited production, the manu
facture of this steel soon greatly increased. It
was quickly substituted for iron in railroad
rails and on account of its superior strength
soon gave a great Impulse to the building of
structural frame and truss work of enormous
dimensions. In the years 1865 to 1867 Emile Martin and
C. W- Sieman developed the new method of
making soft steel, called the open hearth proc
ess. In this process the metallurgical char
acter of the changes proceeding can be ob
served and controlled more closely than in the
Bessemer process and the result Is a metal
much more uniform and reliable. In addition
to these two vastly far-reaching improvements
in the production of steel, very great Increase
of strength for specific uses has been secured
by alloying with it nickel and other ingredients.
Seventy years ago all trusses for bridges
were built mainly of wood, many of them hav
ing no iron members. A Mr. Howe, for whom
his form of truss was named, was the first to
[62]

DAVID H. ANDREWS
use Iron to any extent for the vertical members,
and many so-called Howe bridges are still in
existence. One of the most notable bridges
using Howe wooden trusses was the Penn
sylvania R. R. bridge over the Susquehanna
River at Havre de Grace, built about 1840
and since replaced first by an iron bridge and
later by a steel bridge.
The substitution of Iron and steel for wood
in the trusses and arches of bridges began in
this country after the close of the great Civil
War and the modern steel frame building had
its inception in 1881 in a steel cage building in
New York City, the walls being filled In with
masonry. Subsequently, this form of steel
frame building was brought extensively Into
use in Chicago and from thence spread to all
parts of the country. From these compara
tively recent beginnings steel bridges and build
ings of colossal proportions are now of common
occurrence. As time failed the author of the epistle to
the Hebrews "to tell of Gideon and Barak, [63]

SEVENTY YEARS
of Samson and Jephthae, of David also and
of Samuel and all the prophets," so time fails
us to tell of the wonderful engineering achieve
ments of the Panama Canal and of its satel
lite, the Cape Cod Canal; of the Improvement
in farming implements and machinery; the
ingenious devices for textile figure weaving and
knitting; the great development in machine
making tools and the multitude of other con
trivances of engineering skill wrought out in
the last seventy years; and we must regretfully
bring to a close this partial consideration of
remarkable engineering achievements, largely
accomplished duringthe lives of the members
of the Forty-Four Club. D. H. Andrews.

[64]

..^^ ^A^f^k^ ¦

Retrospect
PERUSAL of the foregoing papers written
on the writer's suggestion by co-mem
bers of the Forty-Four Club confirms
the wisdom of such request. My extreme good
fortune will be generally admitted in having as
near neighbors such estimable contemporaries
as Messrs. Walworth, Andrews and Dr. Hunt
ington. Moreover, there will undoubtedly be
full acquiescence in the idea of using these
papers, read at the first regular meeting of the
Forty-Four Club, as a permanent memento of
the occasion.
In addition to the remarkable expansion
shown by Dr. Huntington In educational prog
ress, and by Mr. Andrews and Mr. Walworth
In engineering and mechanical development,
the period 1844-1914 was noteworthy In the
domain of politics and economics.
Noting a few of the leading events. It may be
recalled that during the seventy years there [65]

SEVENTY YEARS
was In various parts of Europe and elsewhere
a quickening of men's minds shown In in
sistent demands for greater freedom in mental,
moral and physical aspects of human endeavor.
The French Revolution of 1848 recurs, the
struggles in Hungary, and the emancipation
of Serfs in Russia from soil slavery and
Vodka. Nearer home, the series of revolutions
in Cuba, culminating In the action of the
United States In aiding Cuba, Puerto Rico
and the Philippines to rid themselves of Span
ish domination, is remembered.
Possibly no event of the period has had more
far-reaching effects than our civil war, involv
ing abolition of slavery In the United States,
following total abolition of forced labor In all
British dominions, as well as the end of the
atrocious slave traffic In Africa.
The acquisition of the Philippines, Puerto
Rico, Hawaii, Guam and the purchase of Alaska
have, many are beginning to see, changed
the policy of our country, involving participa
tion in world affairs. Such a development
[66]

J. R. LEESON
could hardly have been foreseen or realized
in the earlier stages of our own career.
The opening of Japan to the Western world,
and her recognition by the Treaty of Ports
mouth as one of the Great Powers, the trans
formation of China from the control of a Man-
churian dynasty to a Republic, are worthy of
note. Two of the most momentous political changes
were consolidation of the several independent
States In Germany into one united empire,
and the unification of Italian States under
the masterly direction of Cavour and those
working with him. The seizure by Germany
of Alsace-Lorraine and Schleswig-Holstein,
should not be overlooked. The last named is
of especial Interest to us. Inasmuch as It was
from that region that many of the original
emigrants went to what was then Britain,
and, after overcoming the Roman power In
Britain, estabhshed government in England,
laying the foundation of that type of civiliza
tion which, being subsequently brought across [67]

SEVENTY YEARS
the Atlantic nearly one thousand years later,
made possible our Republic.
In economics, the growth of the corpora
tion into control of large business and the
increase In the use of minerals; construction of
the world's four great canal systems, Suez, Kiel,
Panama and Manchester Ship Canal, was fol
lowed nearer home by the opening of our own
canal across Cape Cod.
Development of anaesthesia and antiseptic
surgery, germ theories, serum treatment, dead
ening pain, increasing human comfort, and
adding to the span of life, are vital accom
plishments of our era.
It was In this period also that the North and
South poles were, so far as known, first vis
ited by man, and at the end of our seventy-year
span was begun the most terrible conflict
the world has known, demonstrating a bar
barism and inhumanity among the Germans
hitherto unsuspected, but now recognized as
the consequence of a generation absorbing an
immoral philosophy which disregards the pre-
[68]

J. R. LEESON
cepts of law, both human and divine. While
this fearful struggle is unique in extent of
destruction of life and material things, it is
the hope of the Forty-Four Club, that, dreadful
as the events of the war have been, the over
ruling Spirit which has created us all may, in
His own good time, bring order out of chaos,
and thus continue the progress of humanity
toward that more perfect life to which all
aspire. J. R. Leeson.

[69]

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