Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Technology, Invention, Progress, Futurism

    Disputes the claim made by an 'American paper' that the 'inventions and discoveries' of the first half of the nineteenth century will be more important than those in the second half. While the first half witnessed such inventions as 'Punch, Steamers, railways and the electric telegraph', the second saw the production of 'Crinoline, all-round collars, peg-toptrousers' and other apparently insignificant innovations. Confident that the next forty years might see the birth of a 'genius' who will perform such feats as setting the Thames on fire.