Some Scientific Inventions of the Present Age
Science has revolutioned the present age. In every department of life, it is science that moves the wheels of being, and works changes tending to increase the comfort and happiness of man. Things which were formerly regarded as impossible are the very common places of today. Places which were mere-ly geographical spots to our people are now easily accessible. Time and distance have both been abridged to an extent inconceivable to our ancestors.
Not the least wonderful of the wonders that science has wrought in India, are our railways. Half a century ago, the people of these provinces had no railways, and there are men still living among us who have never in their life seen a railway train. To a people to whom the primitive bullock-cart was for centuries the only known conveyance, rapid transit by rail is indeed a wonder. The days are well remembered still when pilgrims setting out for Puri used to bequeath their property and take farewell of their families on the assured chance that they would never return home again; and this was indeed the fate of a large percentage of the ancient pilgrims to the temple of Jagannath, because the journey was a most perilous one and took an enormous length of time.
Later inventions have however eclipsed the glory of railways. The electric light is likely to remain a standing wonder to our people for several generations still. To the man ignorant of the science of electricity, it is an insoluble puzzle how man could catch and subdue the lightning, and make it light our lamps and work our fans, and run our tramways, and flash our messages. To the so-called scientist too it is no less a wonder : he knows the uses of electricity well enough, but he is quite ignorant as to what it is.
The aeroplane is perhaps the greatest triumph won by science in the present age. Man can at last fly like the birds. For ages he has been dreaming of such a feat, not, of course, as something within the bounds of possibility, but as a piece of romance, an imaginative flight, a poetic dream; and now at last, in the twentieth century, he is able to realise his dream and turn an airy nothing into an accomplished fact. It is really wonderful to think how a machine, several tons in weight, containing complicated machinery within its bowels, can float in the air, and soar up and “drive down as easily as a tame pigeon. Some of the modern types of flying machines are reported to be large enough to accommodate a crew of fifty or a hundred, and carry light guns in addition. British and French flying machines have wrought wonders in the present war and have carried havoc and dismay into the enemy’s ranks. They have dispersed armed concentrations; they have blown up arsenals and magazines; they have bombed enemy encampments; they have annihilated armies. One can easily conceive how terrible must be their peril, coming as they do quietly overhead, and hurling their deadly discharge like a shower of thunder-bolts from the blue. There are many types and designs of aeroplane actually in use on the battlefields, and new types are being evolved with a rapidity of invention amazing to the scientific world itself.
The submarine, a kind of boat which swims at some depth below the surface of the sea, as its very name suggests, is another scientific invention of the present age, which an evil fortune has reserved for the destructive purposes of war. These boats are large enough to carry a full complement of officers and crew, and are furnished with a mysterious apparatus with the aid of which the men under water can see what is happening on the surface. But though living under water, in pitch darkness, the men inside the boat live happily; they enjoy light and warmth; they cook their food and have hearty meals, and even play indoor games for the sake of relaxation. They get fresh air to breathe and fresh water to drink, and have no need of setting foot on dry land, or popping up from their submarine regions, except when they have to replenish their supplies of water, bread, or fuel; and this need does not arise except once in a couple of months or so.
These are wonderful inventions, every one of them; but unhappily their use is destructive and limited. To us ordinary people aeroplanes and submarines are objects of dread more than objects of admiration or objects of daily use. The triumph of science in these fields is a notable triumph no doubt, but it is streaked with blood. The triumphs which science has won in the domain of peace are perhaps less brilliant, but they are certainly more commendable. What miracles has science worked in combating with human suffering ! There is hardly a disease for which effective medicines are not known to the modern up-to-date physician; there is hardly a wound caused by accident or battle, which the surgeon of today cannot heal. Entire organs of the body can now be re laced by artificial structures, without any material loss to the vital system. What the poet says in a bantering style has come to be literally true—
“All diseases quenched by science, no man halt, or deaf or mind,
Stronger ever born of weaker, lustier body, larger mind.”
The net result of these and other scientific inventions has been to increase the happiness and comfort of man. But has man been on the whole a gainer ? It is very difficult to give a definite reply to this question, or at least a reply that will be acceptable to all parties. Some will say that mankind are assuredly better-off in every respect than they were a century ago; others will demur to this view, and say that while in some respects he has undoubtedly advanced, in others, he has undoubtedly gone backward. Others again will say that science, while it has conduced to man’s material progress, has wrought his spiritual ruin, in that it has made him atheistic, or at best sceptic. The reason why a final answer cannot be given to this question is that the changes wrought are so multifarious that it is almost impossible to compare the present with the past. Those who are enjoying the present-day facilities of life never lived in the age when these were unknown, while the few remnants of that past age still seen here and there are either too dull or too conservative to make a just comparison. Those who rail at science on account of what they believe to be its atheistic tendencies, appreciate the blessings conferred by it no less than its own votaries. If science has given rise to a tendency to belittle things of the spiritual world and magnify those of the material, the remedy is, not to hew down the tree of knowledge, but to water the plant of spiritualism, so that the spread of science may make mankind admire, not his own inventive genius or industrial skill, but the power and glory of Him who gave him a mind to think and a hand to work with, and who furnished this earth with a variety of things for the use of His gifted creature.