Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/24

8 to excavate the Darien Canal in less than nine months, whereas the earlier work at Panama had occupied eight or nine timetimes [sic] that period, and a dozen times as many workmen. The problem of aerial navigation, though frequently assailed, seemed to defy a perfect solution, but even here an approach to success had been attained in the clever "Torpedo Flyers" attached to our ships of war, which from their power of passing through the air in short flights of 400 to 600 yards at great speed obtained the nickname of "Flying Fish," which creature indeed they much resembled.

But 'tis idle for me to recapitulate the wonders, never I fear to be repeated, of this last age of human skill. Suffice it to say that as soon as the unlimited amount and conductibility of the natural forces was realised all efforts were directed to substituting automatic machines for the less efficient and more expensive labour of man. Thus we had automatic implements of agriculture, automatic miners for our minerals, automatic builders, which would run up the walls of a house in twenty-four hours, automatic locomotives requiring neither driver nor stoker, and