Nikola Tesla in Who's Who, Part One

Who's Who as a title is now in the public domain so that whoever is who can publish their own versions. However, once upon a time, it was the definitive guide to a nation's most prominent individuals. First appearing in England in 1849, it began publication in the United States in 1899 as "Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Living Men and Women of the United States." The publisher was A.N. Marquis and the American series is often referred to as "Marquis Who's Who."

Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone

The year 1899 is a fine moment to take a snapshot of Nikola Tesla's career.

(page 719)
TESLA, Nikola, electrician; b, Smiljan, Lika, Servia, 1857; ed. in Servia at public schools of Gospich; grad. Real Schule, Karlstadt, 1873; studied at Polytechnic School, Gratz, with intent to become prof, mathematics and physics, but in second year changed to the eng'ring course, which he completed; later studied languages at Prague and Buda-Pesth; (LL.D., Yale and Columbia). For short time was asst. in gov't telegraph-eng'ring dept., and invented several improvements; then was eng'r for a large lighting company at Paris; soon after came to U.S. and was employed at Edison Works, Orange, N.J.; later left to become electrician Tesla Electric Light Co., and to establish the Tesla laboratory in New York for independent electrical research. Invented the modern principle of the rotary magnetic field, embodied in the apparatus used in the transmission of power from Niagara Falls; new forms of dynamos, transformers, induction coils, condensers, arc and incandescent lamps; and also the oscillator combining steam-engine and dynamo; etc. His researches in electrical oscillation have created a new field of electrical investigation. Address: 46 E. Houston St., New York. (First Edition, Who's Who in America, 1899)

As matter of comparative fame, let's look at Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell's entries.

(pages 49-50)
BELL, Alexander Graham. physiologist, (illegible) b. Edinburgh, Scotland, March 3, 1847; son Alexander Melville Bell, q.v., ed. at Edinburgh and London Univs., went to Canada 1870 and to Boston 1873 becoming prof in vocal physiology, Boston Univ. Invented telephone which he first exhibited at Centennial Exp'n, 1876; also invented the photophone. Address: 1331 Connecticut Av., Washington.

(page 213)
EDISON, Thomas Alva, electrician; b. Alva, O. [sic], Feb. 11, 1847; received some instruction from his mother (Ph.D.. Union.1878); at 12 years of age became newsboy on Grand Trunk Ry.; later learned telegraphy; worked as operator at various places in U.S. and Canada; invented many telegraphic appliances, including automatic repeater, duplex telegraph, printing telegraph, etc. established workshop at Newark, N.J., removing to Menlo Park, N.J., 1876, and later to West Orange, N.J. Invented machines for quadruplex and sextuplex telegraphic transmission; the carbon telegraph transmitter; the microtasimeter for detection of small changes in temperature; the megaphone, to magnify sound; the phonograph; the aerophone; the incandescent lamp; the kinetoscope; also scores of other inventions. Was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French gov't. Address: West Orange, N.J.

Tesla's entry at 179 words proved to be nearly as long as Bell's and Edison's combined (56 and 128 words, respectively).

More fascinating is to look at how the length of entries changed over time. New editions were published approximately each two years with the number of entries and overall length of the book increasing. Below the length of entries is provided for the first three editions. Bell's biographical sketch doubled then tripled, Edison's slightly increased and Tesla's remained roughly the same.

The First Edition, 1899, 827 pages and 8,602 sketches.
Tesla: 179 words
Bell: 56 words
Edison: 128 words

The Second Edition, 1901, 1,300 pages and 11,551 sketches.
Tesla: 177 words
Bell: 115 words
Edison: 138 words

The Third Edition, 1903, 1,800 pages and 14.443 sketches.
Tesla: 177 words
Bell: 173 words
Edison: 148 words

And then with the Fourth Edition, Tesla's entry exploded.

The Fourth Edition, 1906, 2,000 pages and 16,216 sketches.
Tesla: 306 words
Bell: 186 words
Edison: 148 words

The Fifth Edition, 1908, 2,304 pages 16,395 sketches.
Tesla: 305 words
Bell: 192 words
Edison: 156 words

The Sixth Edition, 1910, 2,468 pages and 17,546 sketches.
Tesla: 309 words
Bell: 209 words
Edison: 155 words

With the Seventh Edition, 1912, again a marked increase took place in Tesla's entry and this time his sketch became longer than Bell's and Edison's combined.

The Seventh Edition, 1912, 2,664 pages and 18,794 sketches.
Tesla: 394 words
Bell: 215 words
Edison: 155 words

The length of his biographical sketch was remarkable. Having glanced through these books, it seemed to me to be as long or longer than anyone else's. I decided to sample several of the most prominent living Americans of the year, 1912*.

At that time, William Howard Taft had been president for three years. His sketch was 354 words.

John Pierpont Morgan, a supporter and sometimes thorn-in-the-side of Tesla had a sketch of 308 words.

John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, 251 words.

George Westinghouse, longtime advocate and business partner of Tesla, 353 words.

The only person I could find whose biography eked out that of Tesla was then ex-president Theodore Roosevelt, with 404 words, representative of a fascination which continues to this day.

This dominance was not long-lived. While the Eighth through the Tenth Editions of Marquis Who's Who are not available on-line, the Eleventh Edition is available. Tesla, always in first place, is now third.

The Eleventh Edition, 1920, contains 3,302 pages and 23,443 sketches.
Tesla: 238 words
Bell: 249 words
Edison: 245 words


*Some famous Americans had recently died, including Mark Twain and Grover Cleveland,
while others, including Henry Ford had yet to make their mark.
 --------------------------
A Predator's Game is available for pre-order through Amazon.

A Predator's Game, available March 30, 2016, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my forthcoming thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

What Will the New Century See?

Continuing on the theme of late-19th century prophesies of the 20th century, I offer this article by George L. Kilmer. Kilmer wrote a number of popular science articles and was also a war historian. His vision of the future relies heavily on comments by Nikola Tesla.

What Will the New Century See? A Dip into the Future
by George L. Kilmer
as published, December 29, 1900, Aberdeen Daily News (Aberdeen, South Dakota), page 2.

  Were a prophet to foretell an advancement in manners, morals, learning and social and material progress for the next century equal to that of the last he would certainly be set down as a dreamer. Thinkers who are not pessimists believe that in many directions the limit, or about that, has been reached.

  In mechanical inventions the nineteenth century achieved wonders which recall Aladdin and his lamp. Yet bold scientists declare that we may expect revelations of hidden energy in the sun and earth and air, which may be harnessed to do the work of mankind. Tesla believes in the possibility of a solar engine, he considers wireless telegraphy proved beyond a doubt, is working at a teleautomaton which will be simply a mentally endowe3d mechanism and declares he has discovered electrical oscillations which will produce steady light without the aid of lamps, incandescent filaments or wires.

  Tesla also predicts an industrial revolution in the dethronement of iron and elevation of aluminum. He estimates the civilizing potency of aluminum as 100 times greater than that of iron and its bulk available for man 30 times greater. Liquid air, while a marvelous discovery, he holds can never be commercially profitable.

  The sole aim of the scientist, Tesla insists, should be the increase of human energy and in that way the increase of human happiness. Material advancement is only a means to social advancement, and so after all the landmarks of progress are the monuments of social changes. The conditions of life for the masses upon this globe 100 years henbce are of more consequence as a speculative topic even than the rare culture or superior development of a few or a class. What will be the conditions of life, and especially what degree of immunity from grinding toil, from hunger and from disease, in the year 2001. It may be assumed that in the United States, if anywhere, the progress will be steady for another century. The country is comparatively new and its resources only partially developed. Should the population increase for the next 100 years in the same proportion as in the last 20 years it will then contain about 400,000,000 souls. In 1801 the population was about 5,000,000, which is but 1,000,000 more than the population of Greater New York and the Jersey suburbs today. New York should have a population at the end of the twentieth century of over 20,000,000 if its growth remains normal and proportionate to that of the whole country upon the above calculation.

  At present New York attracts about one-eighteenth of the total population of the country and Chicago about one-half as many as New York. In another hundred years Chicago should have a population of about 13,000,000, Philadelphia 10,000,000, Boston, St. Louis and Baltimore each 3,000,000, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Cleveland, New Orleans and Pittsburgh 2,000,000 each and Detroit, Milwaukee and Minneapolis 1,500,000. In that era a population of 1,000,000 will be nothing extraordinary for a thriving inland city, and this conclusion is borne out by the history of densely populated countries in the old world.

  The great industrial future which seems fixed by the hand of fate for this country will for generations at least tend to the growth of cities. Not alone that, but the attractions of city life will draw to them a mass of people still having commercial interests remote from the towns. The rapid means of communication will permit the landowner and the country manufacturer to dwell in the city the greater part of the year and still look after their business interests at a distance. And what marvels of cheapness and convenience those cities of the future will be. Municipal ownership of all enterprises which conduce to public convenience, the railways, boats, telegraph, heating and lighting plants, of libraries and perhaps of amusements, will reduce the cost of city life, which now appalls the economic visitor, to a merely nominal sum.

  At present the tide of population sets toward the cities and while this must change, eventually a century is nothing in the life of a nation, and leaving out the probability of some great social upheaval forcing the people back to the soil there seems no reason why the commercial and industrial development of 1901 should not continue to the end of the century and not then have reached its limit.

  The danger to health of massing millions of people in cities must be overcome by scientific appliances and discoveries. Cities of the old world have been depopulated by epidemics which would not be allowed to run their course today. The water of the future city will be pure, the temperature will be equalized, food will be scientifically prepare and men will more and more obey the common sense laws of health, avoiding extremes of exertion and stimulation.

  Many propositions for the simplification of life which now seem chimerical may yet justify their champions. Condensed milk has stood the test of half a century of use, and other foods may be prepared in quantities by inexpensive labor and thus make it possible to live, if not on 15 cents a day, at least without the cost of maintaining a separate kitchen for every three or four persons. In that happy time there will perhaps be no necessity for reducing the hours of sleep to four in every 24, yet if the forms of entertainment multiply with other things everybody can keep awake 20 hours a day without suffering ennui.

  The scientists tell us that even at the rapid rate projected for all forms of activity life and limb will be measurably secure. The perfect airship is one of the certainties of dreamers, but even Tesla warns the nations who would be ready to cast about for means of attaining supremacy in the matter of "air power." If airy navies, then of course passenger lines. The passenger for Buffalo can be "put off" safely from a transcontinental "flier" by means of a parachute, and, although the artist won't believe it as yet, he need not wake up even, but have his berth transferred from the stateroom and slung under the ribs of the canopy. There he may finish his sleep as comfortably as did the nineteenth century tourist in a Wagner or Pullman at the terminal sheds.

  Even war is to be robbed of its ghastliness, for, according to Tesla, machines will do the fighting of the future and sustain all the hard knocks, their human manipulators being out of range. Finally contests will come to be mere duels between automatons, and broken metal will figure in the casualty lists instead of broken bones.

  Photography, a nineteenth century development, is on the cards wonders greater than those yet achieved. Photography in colors is a certainty of near future, and that wonder of the age, the typesetting machine, is doomed to fall down before the camera, which is to reproduce upon the printing plate text and pictures as set in order in the editor's sanctum without bringing in the aid of compositors or type.

  The artist thinks that the Chinese imbroglio will not be settled until Uncle Sam can short horse sense down a well curb into John Chinaman's ear. And there is no wilder flight of imagination than prophecies of nineteenth century marvels which have become commonplaces would have been on New Year's day, 1801.
 

Tesla' Telautomaton.

 --------------------------
A Predator's Game is available for pre-order through Amazon.

A Predator's Game, available March 30, 2016, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my forthcoming thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

What Psychology Promises

As they say, from the sublime to the . . .

This article appeared as part of predictions for the coming twentieth century. Dr. Quackenbos believed hypnotherapy would be recognized as a tool to perform miracles, including the prevention and cure of cancer, fetal hypnotism and the ability to talk to the dead. Reprinted in various forms, this one is from the December 31, 1900 edition of the Evansville Courier and Press, page 4.

 
What Psychology Promises 
by John B. Quackenbos. Professor Emeritus, Psychology, Columbus University.

  I regard the most important advance made by psychology during the last century to be its assumption of a practical character, which has brought certainty out of chaos. The Scotchman's definition of this science no longer avails, viz., "Twa folk disputin' thegither. He that's listenin' does na ken what he that's talkin' means, and he that's talkin' does na ken himself."

  Reputable physicians in this country and abroad have successfully relieved by the application of post-hypnotic suggestion functional disorders of digestion and circulation, seasickness, eczema, hyperhidrosis (excessive perspiration), nervous diseases, like hysteria and St. Vitus dance; nervous exhaustion, or Americanitis, with its attendant insomnia; auto-intoxications, morbid fears, dread of responsibility, indecision, imperative conceptions and delusions, even organic diseases characterized by distressing pain, like sciatica, angina pectoris, locomotor ataxia, consumption and cancer.

  Moreover, in my hands hypnotism has been used with most gratifying results in restoring degenerates and reforming the criminal classes.

  Addiction to drugs and stimulants, immoral impulses, habits of lying and stealing, dangerous delusions and dominant ideas, suicidal and homicidal mania, erratic and unmanageable dispositions in children, lack of reverence for superiors and general incorrigibility have been found curable by hypnotic suggestion.

  Hypnotic suggestion is adapted to treatment of acute amnesia, or loss of memory, of melancholia, monomania and mild forms of insanity in their incipiency, where the attention of the patient can be fixed and his mind controlled so that it cease to wander from image to image and from thought to thought--an indispensable condition of success in all cases.

  Stammering, stuttering and similar speech defects are amenable to hypnotic treatment. High purpose and noble endeavor may be substituted in character for carnal propensities and sordid aims, worthy ideals for bestial standards, intellectual brilliance and living interest for obtuseness and indifference. Habits of thought concentration may be made to take place of habits of rambling, ability to use grammatical English for uncertainty in syntax, a taste that approves elegance for an inclination to slang.

  And the end is not yet. You ask me to forecast the uses of hypnotism in the century which has just dawned. I believe that as an agent of physical cure it will shortly come to be universally employed by trained nurses to carry their patients through the crisis of disease. It will be used by physicians for intra-uterine inspiration, the character of the forming child will be determined by ante-natal suggestion, and this method of improving ethically and intellectually a coming generation will be practiced on so large and broad a scale that society will feel the uplift.

  Intelligent physicians will anticipate by hypnotism and inherited tendency to malignant growths, fortifying through the channels of suggestion the system of the subject against any chemical, mechanical or emotional cause for the development of cancer, etc. Carcinoma, for instance, being rare under 30, the physician of the future will keep up the vitality of the threatened tissues in cases where heritage is suspected by powerful suggestions to the subpersonal mind begun at the age of 25.

  Such will be the treatment of the twentieth century. Suggestion will be further used to regulate fecundity, and so control the population of the earth. Hypno-science is destined to demonstrate immortality on scientific principles, to determine the laws that govern telepathic intercourse and possibly to extend its investigations into the realm of the dead, establishing communication with spiritual intelligence.

  We are as yet only on the threshold of psychological discovery.

  --------------------------
A Predator's Game is available for pre-order through Amazon.

A Predator's Game, available March 30, 2016, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my forthcoming thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

Women of the Future!

In the previous post, a variety of experts polled at the beginning of the 20th century spoke of the man of the future, or more particularly, the fate of the humankind. Below is an article printed originally in The Christian Herald (New York) which asked some of the most prominent leaders of the women's rights movement what the fate of women would be in the coming twentieth century. 

In spite of the fact that the respondents represented the luminaries of female emancipation of the day, the answers were somewhat ordinary, i.e., progress will be made. Elizabeth Cady Stanton seemed to be speaking to a narrow topic, women as the focus of campaigns to clean up vice. But, enough of my judgment, here is the article.

Outlook for Woman in the New Century

From the Advance Sheets of the Christian Herald, New York


Give Woman Her Rightful Place

By Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Ever and anon public thought is aroused on the question of vice in cities. Though an aroused public sentiment can repress the evils for a time in one locality, they reappear at once with renewed energy in many others. Occasionally church officials make their protests, but one seems to understand the hidden cause of all these outrages.

  The authorities of the Episcopal church are just now fully aroused to action. The first step to be taken is to teach woman a greater self-respect and the rising generation a more profound reverence for her. So long as we assign to her an inferior position in the scale of being: one unfit to stand in the "Holy of Holies" in cathedrals; to take seat as delegate in a synod, general assembly or conference; to be ordained to preach the gospel or administer the sacraments--so long will the degradation and dependence of woman continue!

  All our efforts to suppress vice are hopeless until woman is recognized in the Canon law and all church discipline, as equal in goodness, grace and dignity with bishops, archbishops--yea, with all who are called the head of the church.

  Our sons in the law schools do not rise from their studies of the invidious statutes and opinions of jurists in regard women with a higher respect for them. Our sons in theological seminaries do not rise from their studies of the Bible, and the popular commentaries on the passages of Scripture concerning woman's creation and position in the scale of being, with an added respect for the mothers who went to the very gates of death to give them life and immortality.

  Just as long as the church and the state continue to make woman an outcast she will be the sport of the multitude. If the same respect of the masses are educated to feel for cathedrals, altars, symbols and sacraments was extended to the mothers of the race, as it should be, all these problems would be settled.

                                 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

Woman To Become the Peer of Man.

By Lillie Devereux Blake

Despite the fact that women have through the Christian centuries been condemned to positions of inferiority, when happy conditions or strange accidents have given to fine specimens of their sex the opportunity to show their ability, they have proved their superiority in innumerable instances. The armies of Israel were led to victory by Deborah when Barak lacked the energy to continue the contest. The armies of France were led by Joan of Arc, when the French generals had met only defeat. Elizabeth of England, Maria Theresa of Austria, Catherine the Great of Russia are familiar examples of Queens who were greater than the kings who preceded or followed them.

  Woman's capacity is beyond dispute, and if this be granted, there can be no doubt of her ability to bear the burdens and responsibilities of government. And no woman will ever be elevated to high official position unless she has shown herself at least the peer of those who now hold such places.

Woman An Active Worker in the Church.

By Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott).

  It is one of the consolations of age that I can look back to almost the beginning of the wonderful progress of woman toward Stuart Mill calls her "emancipation." Some of our hopeful, stout-hearted workers believe themselves working toward emancipation from old-time tyrannies of custom and prejudice, toward political, moral, social and legal equality. It is a happy, second-sight vision, but my heart tells me that such a blessed period in the history of humanity will never arrive without spiritual aid--without the alliance of religious faith and forces. I believe that, first of all, woman should be allowed her true power and position in the Protestant church. When I was a child I heard frequently of a famous woman minister, in a neighboring Methodist church, under whose fervent preaching old men sat gladly, while among the "sisters" of other congregations of the same liberal denomination were many eloquent exhorters. Woman has not kept pace in advance with man in secular fields. Many good women in the church are allowed to do the greater part of its charity and missionary work, but it is not enough. Many a woman sits silent and apart in your conferences and prayer meetings, who has a treasure all unsuspected locked in her devout soul--a passionate persuasive eloquence that might draw many disciples to the Master--and who is gifted with a power of "fervent, effectual prayer" that might lift your sinking and world burdened souls upward and heavenward as on mighty wings.

  "The female prayer meeting" is doubtless a good influence and agency, as are all forms of "female" religious meetings, but they are by no means sufficient for the well-being of women of the church and the complete development of the Christian character and energies. If you do not look forward to a divided heaven, you should begin now to work for co-operation, introfusion, equality. In church organizations woman has been robbed of "the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free."

Woman's Future as Judged by the Present.

By Kate Tannatt Woods.

  Woman's future in business depends not only upon her tact, but her environment. At the present time women are competing with men against heavy odds. Men milliners, dressmakers and shopkeepers do not as a rule make her business life easy. In the professions she has already accomplished much, and is destined to do far more. In the pulpit she is justly honored; in law, she is trusted and encouraged, while in medicine, despite some opposition in the past, she is doing a grand work, which cannot be measured by dry statistics. Her executive faculties are steadily developing as occasion demands, while her management of large organizations has commanded the admiration of statesmen and political leaders.

  As a rule, the progressive West offers better opportunities to women our more conservative East. More women are employed in banks, one lady having the reputation in Illinois several years since of being a "superior bank president." In the State of Washington a woman was first employed as "clerk of the Senate." As librarians women are fast forging to the front and are doing excellent work.

  In literature her efforts have been most successful in weeding out the "goody good trash" formerly offered to the young, and her genuine dislike of can and hypocrisy will do still more in the future: it will aid in overcoming the sensational tendency now so disastrous to legitimate literary work. All this means better wives, wiser fathers, more intelligent mothers, happier spinsters, and a better world, through the general uplifting of our social and spiritual forces.

Woman in Trade, The Army and Politics.

By Harriet Prescott Spofford

  In the future, as in the past, there will doubtless be some women who will cultivate the mercantile spirit, and they can claim the example of Mrs. Henry Green who has turned one million into many millions. And while it does not follow that they need to be eccentric or notorious or niggardly in doing it, it is certain that they will do it better, and to nobler ends by reason of the training received all over the country in schools and colleges of to-day.

  The bad habit of dependence, if not subjection, which until lately has been encouraged in women, has hindered their inventive development. But it is likely that the superior effect of the modern methods, the self-dependence fostered, will increase the inventive quality, and the manual training given in the schools will have taught the use of tools, and the old joke of the woman and the hammer will have lost its clinch. If they can never enter trades that require muscular strength, they can enter those that do not require so much, as many men do. The enlargement also of the intellectual powers, must of course find play in the professions, and women have already demonstrated their value as lawyers, as physicians, helped by feminine tenderness, as ministers, to whom the long cultivation of the spiritual nature through generation after generation lends an added heavenly grace.

  It is often quoted as an argument against the advancement of women that they cannot fight, as if there were nothing in the world to do but to fight, as if, indeed all men could fight.

  There is an ample field for women in connection with the army, in commissary and sanitary and hospital departments, quite as important as any other service. And it should be remembered that when responsibility is brought home to women there will be much less fighting than there is these days.

  And in conclusion, may I not say that while those concerned in our country's welfare are urging the cultivated and refined among them to go into politics, it would seem that the presence of women in politics could not be otherwise than beneficial to the country.

Woman's Advancement in the Professions.

By Belva A. Lockwood.

Woman's introduction into the business world was a necessity fostered by education, that has resulted in the commercial independence of a very large class of American women. All classes and grades of work are to-day the result of skilled machinery instead of skilled handiwork. Skilled machinery must be operated by skilled minds, in which, to a very large extent sex does not enter. In all of the prairie states of the west, where the farming is done by machinery, the women can do the plowing and reaping as well as the men. They have won a power in this industrial independence that has lifted them out of tutelage. We are no longer educating girls to get married, but are training them like the boy, to trades and professions. In the business future of the country there will be a rivalry between men and women for preferment, but heavy contracts, large ventures, and business requiring large capital and intricate problems and long experience will for the next half century be in the hands of men.

  The professions have been opened to woman, who has succeeded in them to a degree that will form a precedent for those who come after, so that the number of women lawyers, doctors, and ministers will increase with each succeeding year. Already the woman doctor has become a necessity for every considerable town, and she welcomed by all of the countries of the orient, where the seclusion of women has been for centuries past the custom of the people.

  The advent of women into the real political life of the country has been mostly confined to the new states of the west, but women politicians will increase and multiply as the years roll on, and they will gradually occupy higher places. Wu Ting Fang, the very astute Chinese minister to this country, who has been much interested in noting our progressive women, said to me, "I believe that some day the United States will have a woman president, but they must first become cabinet ministers." I think however, that to succeed politically women must go into the primaries, be sent as delegates to the nominating conventions, and talk and write in the political campaigns. Nor will this progress lead to the degradation of women as has been feared. 

(as reprinted in the Helena Independent, Helena, MO, December 31, 1900)

 --------------------------
A Predator's Game is available for pre-order through Amazon.

A Predator's Game, available March 30, 2016, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my forthcoming thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

MEN OF THE FUTURE!

To mark the coming of the 20th century, a number of newspapers polled experts as to how they envisioned the future. One such article was What Man Will Become. It was reprinted in slightly varying forms in different papers, as was typical, according to space. I have combined several versions to preserve as many of the prophecies as possible. Although most of these predictions have not come to pass, few are given a time due date.

First some of the subheadings:

HE WILL BE A HOMELY CREATURE
He Will Be Taller, of Slighter Build, With Heavier Hair and Larger Head
Will Dress in Robes.


Long-Lived Giants Regarded as the Probable Result of the Process of Evolution
To a Great Extent the Political and Social Problems of Today Will Be Eliminated
Fate of Great Cities.

And now for the article. 

MEN OF THE FUTURE

Guesses of Scientists as to the Ultimate Fate of the Race

Some Predictions Startling

Washington, D.C., Nov. 24 [1899]. Here are some of the most remarkable prophecies ever ventured by men of science. To learned savants in various scientific institutions lately this question was addressed: " Looking as far into the future as your mind's eye can see, what changes are likely to occur to our brains, bodies, and environments?"

"Man of the distant future," said Professor Otis Mason, a leading authority on racial problems. "will occupy a belt near the equator. The earth is cooling, and, as a result; the Eskimo must leave the polar regions. Later, the Yankee must quit New England. All savage peoples will be eliminated from the earth. The entire human race will be brunette. The blonde people were once brunettes and became as they are through some process of interbreeding.

"The convolutions of the brain will be larger and will admit a much greater blood flow to carry-on the commerce of the mind. Man will be stronger physically. His hands and feet will be much smaller. Labor-saving will reduce physical labor but an increase of athletics will make the race stronger. Disappearance of small printing type will leave the eyes much stronger.

  "The ear can never take the place of the eye until some other heavenly body can be substituted for the sun. The hat will vanish and the hair will improve.

  "The home of this age will be a great communal dwelling where all people of the same kinship will live under the same roof–children, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Rapid transit will eliminate sky-scrapers. Increased artificialization of life will render co-operation more necessary. Separate establishments, such as the corner grocery will be considered absurdities of by-gone days, as will also the keeping of servants.

  "Chemically pure drinking water will free the cells of the body from mineral matter and permit man to live to the age of Methuselah. Compressed foods will never come into use. If they should, the stomach would atrophy. The death of an infant will be an exception, whereas today one-half of the human race never mature. The deadly microbe will suffer the fate of such dangerous animal pests as have already been made extinct. Dress will be more perfectly adapted to comfort, health, longevity, and beauty. It will never be deprived of ornamentation, and women and men will never dress alike."

  "Man will lose his wisdom teeth utterly," said Curator Lucas, the anatomist of the National Museum, "but modern systems of dentistry will probably save the other teeth. It is possible that there may be the germ of a third set, to cut after the disappearance of the second. Mammals far back in the ages had a third set of teeth, and man shows indications of the same tendency. I might add that there is some danger of the human race becoming homely rather than beautiful as a result of the tendency of man to marry for intelligence rather than beauty."

  That man of the distant future would be minus a little toe was the only prophecy ventured by Dr. Dr. D.S. Lamb, the pathologist of the Medical Museum.

  Dr. Theodore N. Gill, biologist of the Smithsonian Institution, said that the wisdom teeth would disappear, as would possibly the vermiform appendix and the little toe.

  "Man himself," said he, "is a striking evidence of the fact that he was not specially created. He is not only like the ape, but bears the impress of many inferior stocks. The appendix, for instance, was inherited from ancestors to whom it was important, and came to us through the apes from primitive forms somewhat like marsupials. It may disappear to a slight extent. The gray matter of the brain may increase somewhat in bulk, but cerebration is not dependent upon size of brain. It is possible that the little toe will disappear, but doubtful. It has its use in giving greater basis to the foot.

  "I doubt whether there will be an increase in stature, especially since the future intellectuality will become more and more predominant over brute force. Hygienic and sanitary progress will have an appreciable effect upon the average length of human life, but longevity dependent upon improved physical conditions cannot be anticipated. I doubt if the hair will decrease. The more civilized have a thicker growth upon their faces than lower order of men."

  "The man of the remote future," said Professor Elmer Gates, "will develop into a creature as superior to man, zoologically, as man today is superior to the quadrumana. His normal span of life will be 150 years with a chance for greater prolongation. His head will not be relatively larger, but his brain cortex will be thicker and he will possess in his brain and other nervous centers a much greater number of real layers. The number of fibre tracts connecting cell groups in the former will have greatly multiplied. All bodily organs not needed will have disappeared. This creature will be much larger and stronger than man is today. His eyes will be larger and mobile in expression.

  "I believe that acuteness of the senses will be increased from five to ten times during the next century alone. The man of the remote future will have senses which we do not possess. He will be able to hear higher pitches of sound and to recognize a greater number of tone qualities. He will be able to discriminate between colors below the red and above the violet. Five thousand years from now the human race will detect ten different steps in each fundamental color.

  "The time will come when man's faculties will have increased from ten to twenty times in speed of functioning. He will then actually experience in a normal lifetime what it would take us perhaps 300 years to experience with our mental equipment. He will be rid of all depressing, evil, and malicious emotions, and because of an introspective knowledge of his own mind will be able to control himself in a manner now apparently impossible. While rid of emotions now poisoning his blood and weakening his judgment, he will possess a greater number of normal emotions active in his daily life.

  "He will be more affectionate and will love a greater number of things. He will be more artistic, more aesthetic, more just, and more sympathetic. He will be, technically, more skillful in his trade or profession. He will not commit crimes or indulge in warfare. He will be trained to exercise great skill in performing the usual functions for the maintenance of reputation and acquisition of character.

  "His period of childhood will be longer than now. Disease will not be handed down from parent to child. Ripe old age will find itself in possession of every function. It is possible that the tendency toward a second childhood will be stimulated into a natural rejuvenating process, prolonging human life indefinitely.

  "By artificial selective propagation foods will be made far more nutritive. The killing of animals will cease. Food will be derived from vegetables or micro-organisms. Man will substitute for meat single cell structures lower in the scale of life than either vegetables or animals, but containing the nutritive qualities of each. Not possessing the organs in which animal diseases thrive, they cannot acquire them.

  "Among these latter single-cell structures are notably the protista. They can be rapidly propagated in water. A ton will become two tons in a short space of time. Then there are many millions of single cell species, both animal and vegetable, which would answer the purpose.

  "The large city will have ceased to exist. The number of villages will increase, and perfected aerial navigation will allow men to live hundreds of miles from their daily occupations. A man in one part of the world will be able to talk with and to see another in a distant part; the atmosphere will not be permeated with carbonic acid gas from the burning of fuels.

  "Porous material will not be used in the of dwellings. They will be entirely fire-proof and moisture-proof. They will be equipped with devices for regulating not only temperature but moisture and electric potential. Dust and germs will be completely screened out, and man will no longer waste his energy combating such things. Water will be more pure. Clothing will not interfere with the ventilation or motion of any part of the body.

  "Language will be so simplified that when a man shall have learned from one to two thousand simple vocables and syllables, he will have mastered his entire language. This mode of speaking will first become common among scientists. Science will be the propagandized religion. Ascertainment of truth by investigation will become a religious purpose. Man will develop more in the twentieth century than he has in the last thousand years."

  "Strawberries as cheap and plentiful for Christmas dinner as during June and July was one of the predictions for the American of the far future, made by Dr. Langworthy, the government's food expert. He added that perfection of transportation facilities would make the season for all fruits and vegetables endless; that electricity would replace cooking fuels; that homework would be done by co-operation; that the preparation of food would be a dignified, rather than a degrading, occupation; and that man's food would not be vastly different from that of today, but  that methods of storing and preparing it would be very much more sanitary.

Ethnologist F.W. Hodge prophesied that printing would become a lost art, and that a combination of graphophone and kinetoscope would replace it. Artificial eardrums would become as common as spectacles.

  "Every man will be white," said Professor W.J. McGee, ethnologist. "His average height and weight will be decidedly greater. His head will be larger, absolutely and relatively. His hands and brains will be better co-ordinated, and therefore he will be a better mechanician. His vision will be stronger, his sense of smell more acute, and his hearing and sense of taste more delicate.

  "He will live under a universal republican government, but it is doubtful whether any one administrative head will be required. Disputes between individuals, corporations or states will be settled by courts of various magnitudes. There will be a universal language–a composite of all present tongues–but, like the English, a language of vocables and syntax. Written and spoken language will be more similar. Phonetic spelling will effect great economy in both printing and writing.

  "Fish will be relatively more important as food. Oceans and lakes will be the main source of food supply. Land will be almost entirely occupied for dwelling and for horticulture and intensified agriculture. Need of clothing will diminish. Control of temperature will be met by other than our present retail methods. There will be no serious exposure to cold. In winter men will travel in well-heated vehicles, carrying them from one warm building to another. Ozone will be sold at drug stores, and will be applied to kill bacilli as soon as they appear.

  "The earth will be an endless succession of suburbs. Cities will meanwhile grow less and less dense. The street block or row will be no more. The home will be more individual, each family occupying a separate house built to suit its peculiar taste.

  "Transportation will be chiefly electric, and will be much more rapid as a result of straightening and multiplication of tracks. Aerial navigation will be valuable only for sports and amusements. Sub-marine navigation will be valuable only as a means of escaping from storms. Vessels will be equipped with means of diving and remaining below the surface until storms blow over. Perfection of telegraphy will decrease mail business. Money will remain a medium of exchange, but financial transactions will be made mostly by negotiable paper, for which individuals will be more responsible than governments.

"Religion will be more of an individual sentiment. There will be an elimination of creeds. As progress of nature grows more complete, man will rely less and less upon the occult. Punishment will be obsolete. All children will receive the foundations of their educations in public schools. Universities and private institutions of learning will give only special training. Children will have to study less, will learn spontaneously, and will be encouraged to do what their minds naturally lead them to prefer. Sex of children will be predeterminable."


Sources:
December 10, 1899, Fort Worth Morning Register, page 11.
December 1, 1899, Denver Post, page 4.
December 03, 1899, The Saint Paul Globe, page 24.
November 26, 1899, The Chicago Tribune, page 46.

 --------------------------
A Predator's Game is available for pre-order through Amazon.

A Predator's Game, available March 30, 2016, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my forthcoming thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

Edge of the Future: 1894

Experts, Including Tesla, Predict the Future.

In December of 1894, the Dallas Morning News asked experts in various fields to predict what lay ahead for 1895. This group of prophets included Nikola Tesla along with the renowned in labor, business, health and art.

I found this article interesting but I wish I could say more interesting. Tesla, who often made fantastic (and accurate) predictions of the far future spoke of incremental progress. The physician who spoke of health made too grand of prophecies. Others spoke to their particular fields. Nonetheless, it speaks to a moment of history.

This piece makes a pleasant appetizer for another predictions of the future piece I will try to have up for tomorrow.

Summary of the Experts.

Labor: Samuel Gompers remains one of the leading figures in the history of organized labor, founding the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and leading it for nearly forty years.

Art: Bernhard Gillam was a caricaturist and satirist, one of the several greats of an age when this medium could change history.

Science: Nikola Tesla was the great inventor of his generation. As a Boston Herald piece on Thomas Edison compared the fame of the two: "With the possible exception of Nikola Tesla, no inventor of recent years has awakened keener curiosity than the "Wizard of Menlo Park." [Thomas Edison]" Boston Herald, December 19, 1894.

Health: Dr. Cyrus M. Edson was the son of Franklin Edson, mayor of New York, and he was Health Commissioner of the state of New York. Here he predicts major advancements in the war against infectious diseases.

Transoceanic Trade: Clement A. Griscom was a shipping magnate who aggressively grew the American shipping industry establishing it on par with Britain and Germany.

Railroading: In an age of railroad barons, Chauncey M. Depew was the chief lawyer to Cornelius Vanderbilt and president of New York Central & Hudson River RR, and sat on the boards of ten other railroads.

Finance: Henry W. Cannon became comptroller of currency under President Chester Arthur at age 33 and helped avert a banking crisis in 1884. He became the president of Chase National Bank at age 36.

Sunday, December 30, 1894  Dallas Morning News, page 18.

EDGE OF THE FUTURE

Outlook for Coming Year From Several Standpoints.

What Labor, Art, Electricity, Healing and Finance May Expect.

"No year in the history of organized labor," said Samuel Gompers, until recently president of the American federation of labor and now delegate from America to the world's trade union congress in 1895 in England, "has promised more than does this coming year. The labor movement is assuming an international scope. The principle of solidarity will assert itself in the year to come. The working classes now realize the need of acting together as a single force, and if we can bring about the things aimed at now, I should say that the labor unions will amalgamate into one great cohesive organization which, while preserving the autonomy of the various unions will give enough centralized power to make concerted action effective.

  "The labor situation, truly, will need such a union of unions. I do not think the working classes will share very largely in the prosperity anticipated by the trading classes during 1895. That is, of course, the way it nearly always is. Everybody gets a share of the good things that happen to be going, but the workingman puts his hand in last. The demand for labor may, perhaps, be greater next year than it has been during this coming one, but so far as compensation is concerned, I am afraid there will be disappointment for the workers. The only remedy is the perfection of existing organizations and their prudent management. For my part I think that labor unions are destined to achieve great success in 1895. Their immediate future is very bright."

[Context and assessment of predictions. Starting with the Great Panic of 1893, unemployment hit a near-record high and strikes were frequent and violent. The economy recovered in 1895 but dipped again in 1896 and unemployment remained high through the end of the decade.]

THE OUTLOOK IN ART.

Evanescent as caricature must ever be, it makes history. Bernhard Gillam knows this, if ever a man knew it yet, for he already has planned in outline a year's work in the field in which his fame has been won. "This year to come," said he, discussing the future of his work, "will place American caricature in the front. That may seem a bold thing to say, but I think our country affords the best of all fields for the display of modern genius. In America we are better judges of caricature than they are in other countries. Our wit is keener, our sense of humor brighter. The year of 1895 will undoubtedly witness a bolder departure from the conventional in caricature. The cartoon will appeal to the intellect while losing none of its satire. We are undoubtedly on the eve of a development that will make the refined and, if I may so express it, the permanent, a feature of what we try to satirize. An appeal to the broadly human keeps its value for centuries.
  "It would be nearly correct to say that art is caricature for the moment. The marvelous effect upon more serious art by Aubrey Beardsley's daring blacks and whites, and the French poster school during 1894 has shown that art was ready for changes that can not fail to become more marked in 1895. Beardsleyism is not to be taken too seriously; but art will learn caricature in 1895 the lesson that Napoleon taught the strategists—that of massing effects."

[Context and assessment of predictions. Gillam provides much of the context. This was a golden age of newspaper and magazine caricatures and those such as Thomas Nast could bring down a government. His predictions for 1895 did not foresee his death in January of 1896 at age 39.]

One of the gorgeous satirical caricatures of Bernhard Gillam.

LIGHTNING'S AGE IS HERE.

What the great electrical work of the immediate future will be," said the Napoleon of the science, Nicola Tesla, "it is not easy to say offhand. My opinion is that the application of higher steam pressure to the generation of the electricity itself will be one of the ends to be attained before very long. This may seem a trifling matter, but it means much to the future of the science. Another work still waiting to be done satisfactorily is the securing of better results from street illumination. Electricity is still in its infancy as a science. In the year to come we may see its illuminating power applied on a scale and in a way as yet undreamed of. We have been working on the problem for years, but it never was nearer solution than it is to-day. If the year 1895 witnesses a solution of this problem our streets at night will rival the brilliancy and even exceed the beauty of day."
  Mr. Tesla deems cost the great impediment. Electricity, in spite of the wonderful progress made in its production as a force, is still but crudely applied. It is too expensive yet for many purposes, but once the cost problem is eliminated, the current may work a transformation of our civilization itself.

[Context and assessment of predictions. In 1895 the Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant went online and provided cheap electricity.]

THE FUTURE OF HEALING.

Young doctors always have to battle with the prejudice of people who think a white beard is essential to ability as a healer. Cyrus Edson's discoveries in the field of medicine have enabled him to set this prejudice at flat defiance and have won him the title of America's Jenner. Few physicians have had his opportunities of keeping posted in the latest developments of the healing art, and since he became New York's commissioner of health he has studied the problems of his profession with every appreciation of the opportunities it affords.
  "The coming year will witness a greater interest than ever in the investigation of what may be termed the higher problems of medicine," said he. "Important discoveries are being worked out in a number of lines and the problem of prolonging life is one which I think will be dealt with scientifically. We shall get nearer to the source of things. It is not enough merely to cure the ills of man. We must prevent them. In connection with this view of medicine, it is perhaps a trite thing to say that health is a thing for nature to deal with and that we can but assist nature. She can be best assisted by removing obstacles in her way. Along these lines we may look for brilliant work by specialists in diseases of the lungs, for example. Tuberculosis is the scourge of the human race, and modern science will not rest content until the trail on which they are following after a cure shall grow hotter and lead them to the remedy. The stage of experiment has been a long one but I believe decisive progress will appear in 1895."

  "One of the newest medical marvels is anti-toxine, the new treatment of diphtheria. If, by its use, a death proportion of one in three can be reduced to one in thirty-five, as has been claimed recently, one great scourge of humanity will have lost most of its terrors. Emmons Clark, secretary of the health board, considers diphtheria as truly a preventable disease as smallpox, cholera and typhus have been proved.

  Men will not learn in 1895 to live an average term of 100 years, but the death rate grows constantly lower. What can be done by modern science is indicated in a London death rate of 17 compared with a death rate of 40 in a smaller manufacturing town!

[Context and assessment of predictions. Diphtheria antitoxin, the heat-disabling of diphtheria toxin, was the latest great finding in health sciences and is still used today. Major breakthroughs for tuberculosis were far away. A vaccine for children was introduced to humans in the 1920s and continues to this day. It is not effective for adults. Modern drug treatment allowed the cure of tuberculosis beginning in the 1950s. The disease has made a resurgence and is still a scourge. Humans have not extended life expectancy beyond 80 years. Cyrus Edson would die of pneumonia in 1903 at age 46.]

FUTURE SEA PROBLEMS.

Even in this land of brilliant careers few have been so brilliant as that of Clement A. Griscom. He is, in the real sense of the term, a financial magnate. To him is due the preset prominence of the American steamship line.

  "It is scarcely possible to select one detail among so many as a matter of development," said he. "What the future has in store for American steamships is a vast subject, you see. There is the quesiton of speed, not to speak of equipments and safety, and construction. We are doing wonderful things over here, and the coming year will be even more brilliant than the immediate past has been. There is no doubt that we have the skill and material out of which the best ocean lines in the world are made. That we can profit by these advantages goes without saying. American steamships are going to be the peers of all competitors."

  Mr. Griscom, in speaking thus confidently seems to foreshadow in the new St. Louis of the American line a record-breaker surpassing the Cunard flyers. Nor does he overlook the activity on the other side: there never was a time in the history of American voyaging when competition was so keen. This Mr. Griscom looks upon as a desirable thing, since Americans are most successful when competition is fiercest. If a four-day boat is to be built—not in '95, but before the century goes out—it will be a competition that forces the triumph.

  Passenger steamship building is, however, only one branch of a fascinating subject. Torpedo boats will undoubtedly continue to break the record, although that has not been pushed beyond thirty knots an hour, and that American river, sound and lake boats, already the finest in the world, will show constant improvement is fairly predictable from the recent increase in lake traffic.

  Aluminum for material and electric power are the unknown elements in future problems of speed and force. The former has already been tried in a French yacht, the latter in small launches. The year will undoubtedly witness their combination.

[Context and assessment of predictions. Aluminum was an expensive metal in 1894, it required what was then expensive electricity to separate and purify. When the Niagara Falls hydroelectric power came online, an oversupply of electricity was available and Alcoa, a major aluminum processing plant, moved into the area.]

THE YEAR IN RAILROADING.

"Anyone may predict," said Chauncey M. Depew when the future was suggested to him as a topic, "but who can fulfill? I might tell you a dozen things that might make the year 1895 historical in railroading, but they may not materialize. Take for instance the New York Central Railroad. You know what its achievements have been. And yet how essential it is that we should be continually looking out for improvements. The roadbed must be studied, the coal stations need attention—in a word we must never be satisfied with the results that have been attained, no matter how good they are. So much for detail. Now for the general.

  "You know that Engine 999 of the New York Central road has attained a speed unheralded of its kind in the history of travel. Our trains may also be termed flashes of lightning, but their rate is not a circumstance to the speed they are now aiming at. Then there is the matter of safety. I need not assure you that the safety of passengers is the most important thing a railroad man has to do with. This year we expect to attain what some people may consider a chimera—namely perfect freedom of risk in the transportation of human beings by rail. We have, we believe, solved the problem, and that, I should say, will make 1895 an unequaled year in railroading.

  "In the far as in the near future romantic things are done, or are being projected. A tunnel to the summit of the Jungfrau is one of the things possible. The TransSiberian railway and the South African line to Mashonaland are two projects on the edge of the future—the former already well under way—and the poetry of railroading will be experienced in the new rush of railroad building certain to ensue in Japan when the Chinese war indemnity is paid—which will certainly happen in 1895."

[Context and assessment of predictions. Safety: The available statistics during this period had inconsistent methods of collection. In 1892, 460 railroad workers were killed on the job per year. In 1907, 4534 railroad workers were killed along with 610 passengers.
http://www.wcrscorp.com/resources/frasafety.pdf
The Trans-Siberian railroad, begun in 1891 and completed in 1901 was one of the most incredible undertakings of mankind. The South African line to Mashonaland was completed in 1896.]

THE NEW YEAR IN FINANCE.

Rarely does a man so young as Henry W. Cannon achieve eminence in the world of finance. Ever since he was made comptroller of the currency and demonstrated his wonderful grasp of financial problems Mr. Cannon has been recognized as a master in his line. No name is more prominent on Wall Street than his. What may result next year in the financial world, in view of the rather strained monetary situation, is a subject which he has been called on to investigate with special care.

"I am quite confident that the coming year will show improvement financially," said he. "I should say that the work of 1895 will consist, generally speaking, in such a recasting of our monetary policy as will save the country the useless strains upon its resources and the quite needless dread of the outcome. We are a trifle too much in the experimental stage of finance, I think. But I feel sure that the people will insist on sound monetary measures next year and then we shall all be better off."

  Mr. Cannon thinks that the people have in one way benefited by the country's financial experiences since the rise to prominence of the silver question. It has provoked discussion and spread knowledge. The people have been forced to see that you can't make something out of nothing in finance anymore than in physics. Perhaps, therefore, the ills of the past have been a blessing in disguise and for 1895 he predicts that out of evil good will come. Mr. Cannon does not think any of the financial heresies will be potent for mischief.

[Context and assessment of predictions. With a major recession just behind them, 1895 was a prosperous year, followed by another recession. The question of silver standard versus gold standard would be the issue of the 1896 election. Gold won.]

 --------------------------
A Predator's Game is available for pre-order through Amazon.

A Predator's Game, available March 30, 2016, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my forthcoming thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

Best-Selling Novels: An Update on the Battle of the Sexes

I have made several posts regarding the nature of the novels which have made it to the number one position on The New York Times Bestselling Fiction list.

One observation is that women have dominated the list during the 2010s. This is in stark contrast to previous decades when the list was mostly a boys club. The purpose of this post is to update this analysis and to provide additional material which shows the sharp differences over time.

The New York Times Bestsellers list first became a national sampling of best-selling books on August 9th, 1942. Interestingly, at its inception a female author had the number one book: And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field. In 1943, the list would return truer to form: female authors had zero weeks and male authors, fifty-two. Women being shut out would occur ten more times, most recently in 1993.

During these first decades, on occasion, women would have a breakthrough novel, notably Désirée by Annemarie Selinko which stayed on top for 32 weeks in 1953, Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, 29 weeks in 1956-57, Ship of  Fools by Katherine Anne Porter, 26 weeks in 1962, and Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann, 28 weeks in 1966, but for the most part, male-written novels dominated the weekly lists. In general, if women achieved parity, it was through a single breakout work, while men had an avalanche.

Until the turn of the century, there were two exceptions to this rule. One was in the remarkable year of 1944 when four women combined to lead the lists 47 out of 52 weeks (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith, Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge, and Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor.) In 1991, five female authors combined for 35 weeks.

One prominent figure in changing the disparity was J.K. Rowling who in 1999 and 2000 had three Harry Potter books staying on top for 24 weeks, a reign that only ended when the New York Times developed a new list for children's literature.

From 1943 through 2010, women have spent more weeks in the number one position seven years. Since 2011, women have been on top four out of five years. This phenomenon is not due to a single dominant author or book. In 2015 it was nine different female authors. In 2014, it was fifteen women.

The number of weeks male and female authors had a novel in the number one position of the New York Times Bestselling Fiction list for each year from 1943 to 2015. Although this forest is dense with information, the take home points are how often in the first several decades male authors (red) dominated with all or virtually all the weeks. Male authors had at least 40 weeks in first position during 38 of the 73 years depicted. Female authors, one year.

This expands the second half of the above graph making it easier to visualize the diminution of male dominance.

Overall, in the decade beginning 2010 and through 2015, women have achieved better than parity with male authors with 165.5 weeks for females (counting male-female collaborations as one half week for each) and 150.5 for males. Since 2011, women have dominated four out of five years.

----------------------------

A Predator's Game, available March 30, 2016, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my forthcoming thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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Mystery Jokes

I thought I'd Google "Mystery Jokes" to discover whether this was a category. I was surprised to find myself laughing at a number of the results.

First, there is a section at the website, MysteryFactory.com devoted to mystery jokes. Some of the jokes they present are weak (including, regrettably, many on the first page) while others worked.

Here is a sampling:

While visiting a big city, Betsy, who suspected her husband of cheating on her snuck off to visit a fortune teller of some local repute.
In a dark and hazy room, peering into a crystal ball, the mystic delivered grave news. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just be blunt: Prepare yourself to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent and horrible death this year."
Visibly shaken, Betsy stared at the woman's lined face, then at the single flickering candle, then down at her hands. She took a few deep breaths to compose herself. She simply had to know. She met the fortune teller's gaze, steadied her voice, and asked her question. "Will I be acquitted?"

Q: How many mystery writers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Two. One to screw it almost all the way in and the other to give it a surprising twist at the end.

A police recruit was asked during the exam, “What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?” He  answered  “Call for backup.”

Prosecutor: Did you kill the victim?
Defendant: No, I did not.
Prosecutor: Do you know what the penalties are for perjury?
Defendant: Yes, I do. And they're a heck of a lot better than the penalty for murder.

Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.

Which gets to the notion of courtroom anecdotes and bloopers which have websites of their own. Humor in the Court comprised a series of two books put out in the early eighties. Here is a sampling of the content.

This site relates some misfires at attempted courtroom humor including this anecdote:

In the closely watched trial accusing Zimmerman of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, defense attorney Don West began opening statements with a knock-knock joke that met with crickets. "Knock knock. Who’s there? George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman who? All right, good, you’re on the jury," he said. And when no one laughed, he responded, "Nothing? That’s funny."

Here are several classic Gary Larson mystery-themed comic panels.

The cartoonstock.com website has over a thousand courtroom-themed comic entries and over two hundred with a mystery theme.

On a very different tack, Thomas Nast was satirizing the legal system over 140 years ago.

Thomas Nast, A Game of Fox and Geese. 

The lawyer (fox) blows dust in the juries' eyes.

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A Predator's Game, available March 30, 2016, Rook's Page Publishing.

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Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my forthcoming thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →