The revolution in transport and communication

The Renaissance gave the world an intellectual revolution, the 18th century an industrial
revolution, and the 20th century is giving us a scientific revolution, of which the advances in
transport and communications are a part.

For the purpose of this essay, we can discount the train, ship, motor car, and telephone, because
they have all been with us for many years, and consider more recent developments, As we do so,
we are confronted with a bewildering array.

Taking transport first, the most dramatic advance has been in rocketry. At this moment, both the
USSR and the USA are capable of putting men `into orbit' round the earth, who can even leave
their space-craft and float in the space. Permanent scientific satellites already carry equipment
which feeds back date to the earth. The second revolutionary advance is the speed of air transport
due to the development of jet engine. Invented by Sir Frank Whittle, this engine today, powers
aircraft to incredible speeds and heights. The 'sound barrier' is broken very easily and high flying
reduces air friction, so that crossing oceans and continents is now a matter of hours. The safety-
factor has also been highly developed. Air line disasters continually make news, but in fact, the
accident rate in flying is very low. For local transport, the helicopter has become an incredibly
useful machine. Able to hover, land and take-off vertically, this aircraft needs only a confined
space; even the top of a large building or a small jungle clearing will do. The machine has shown
its paces in war, and also in the more humane tasks of land-sea rescue, collecting land-casualties
and dropping food and medical supplies. Perhaps bracketed with this machine is the hovercraft,
land-sea or land by means of compressed-air jets. For short, comfortable journeys, this transport
innovation is ideal. Four of them have recently been ordered by Britain for the English Channel
crossing. Finally, of course, nuclear fission has helped transport. The nuclear engine can operate
for months without re-fueling, with the result that submarines carrying strategic nuclear weapons,
can remain under sea almost permanently, and that nuclear sea-transports are independent of
fuelling-stops.

Turning to communications, we find a series of similar advances. Perhaps the modern age dawned
when the murderer, Crippen, was arrested in 1910, as he left the trans-Atlantic liner in the USA
where subsequently, he was tried and executed. His arrest was due to the radio-telephone, an
invention which has been of great service ever since where world-wide instantaneous
communication is desired. Nowadays, it is possible to pick up the telephone in Singapore and
within a matter of seconds speak to the subscriber in London. This is achieved by a series of
booster radio stations set up at intervals for this purpose. The undersea cable supplements this
method, and it is not possible to send pictures by both means. This is a boon to journalists.
Internal communication have, of course, been greatly improved. A large office or factory
nowadays, relies greatly on two modern methods of communication; that of the intercom
telephone system, which enables offices to exchanges notes at the drop of a switch, and the
'public address' system for disseminating news and even 'music while you work'. The same
system is used on ships and at sports meetings, among other places. The last has marked the
development of radar, which is really a locating system. Radio waves 'bounced' back from the
object located define its position, on a screen. Television is, of course, the best known advance in
communication. It has a variety of scientific uses in addition to its commercial use as a news and
entertainment medium. Satellites such as 'Telestar' and 'Early bird' now enable television to be
used on world-wide scale.

We live in an age of scientific marvels, which could make for a better, happier world - were their
employment confined to humane purposes. But every one of these inventions can be misused, and
the reflective mind is saddened by the fact that whereas man is making enormous advances on the
scientific front, he is still in the dark age from the moral point of view.