Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

10 AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
Still the largest stone arch in America, the Cabin John Bridge was completed in 1859, a
220-foot span carrying a water conduit and carriage nov over Cabin John Creek. For
44 years it was the largest masonry arch in the world, until larger ones were built in
Saxony and France. Since then masonry has been replaced by concrete in great
bridges, as more economical.
Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Succeeding chapters in the histories
recounted the latest developments in electric, gasoline, and steam vehicles and
the new roadways being built for them, the growth of the iron and steel
industry, of railroads and steamships, and the development of the machine
tool industry, of petroleum products, textiles, clay products, rubber goods,
glass making, and leather goods.
Among the new instruments of science described were the spectro-
scope and improved telescopes, opening new prospects in astronomy; the
X-ray machine and fluoroscope; and according to one contemporary his-
torian, Edison's phonograph and kinetoscope, which "belong naturally under
this chapter," though they also had their "commercial and amusement
purposes." 10
(Yet it is doubtful whether he foresaw the use science would
Charles H. Cochrane, Modern Industrial Progress (Philadelphia & London: J. B.
Lippencott, 1904), pp. 406, 409. See also Edward W. Byron, The Progress of In-
vention in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Munn & Co., 1900); William H.
Doolittle, Inventions in the Century (The Nineteenth Century Series, London &
Philadelphia: Linscott, 1902); Trumbull White, Our Wonderful Progress (Chicago,
1902); Calendar of Invention and Discovery, compiled by John C. Wait (New York:
McGraw, 1903); and anticipating these, Robert Routledge's Discoveries and Inven-