Computer-adaptable system to measure the flow of street-traffic?
Computer-based communication traffic worldwide?

Oh, electricity!

¹ Light bulbs formed in 1888 that fabulous figure: 100.000 — one hundred thousand ounces of gold, excavated from Johannesburg’s soil within one year. Eckstein Bros. put up a great electrical signboard; it was the first one to appear in South Africa.
The following year the gold total seemed certain to be half as much again. Slowly, at first, an ugly rumour grew, then became overnight a rearing menace gripping the whole Ridge by the throat.
That year, my wife Agnes became proud mother of our son — one of the first English children born to parents married in Johannesburg. My wife’s parents came almost daily to my new establishment at the Salisbury Mine, of which I was both director and secretary. While my wife and her mother brooded fondly over young Filmer, the old man and I would sit on the stoep and talk.
„It‘s getting worse“, said my father-in-law gloomily one day. „The whole place is panicking. Two more mills closed down today. The Market Square is a mass of furniture, machinery, pianos, anything you like for sale. More people are pulling out every day. How‘s effecting you, Harry?“
„Very badly. Business is at a standstill. No new companies are being floated and no new shares issued. There’s practically no money coming in. …“
„Does Agnes know?“
„Up to a point — yes. She‘s so absorbed in the baby it doesn‘t mean much yet. But I‘ll have to tell her everything soon.“
When her parents had gone, Agnes gazed in concern at the hazy evening sky.
„How dusty it looks?“ she exclaimed. „I wonder why!“
It was a good opening, and I seized it resolutely.
„There are a lot of wagons on the move, dear. Perhaps that’s why. People are getting out fast ... I‘ve been wondering if we should join them.“
She turned a shocked face to me.
„It’s pretty bad.“ I explained further. „You see, the mines have reached what they call the sulphide zone. That means the reef has gone into rock from which it is very difficult to extract the gold. Our processing methods are crude. All gold-mining methods are. Now they just aren’t good enough. A lot of people think it’s the end. Some of them have always thought the Reef was an old, tilted riverbed, with no gold in it below seventy-five feet or so. Perhaps they’re right. Perhaps there is no more gold.“
„What do you think?“
„I still believe in it. I‘m prepared to hang on to the bitter end — even if it means losing all I‘ve made so far and starting again.“

I lost — that was my first crisis

However, I still got my legal training to fall back on, but I had to sit my exams again — in Dutch — before I’d be allowed to practice.
It was hard work. Night after night, I sat up studying till all hours, and when my eyes closed involuntarily and my head nodded with weariness, my wife would come and bath my forehead with vinegar and water to rouse me. But the result was worthwhile. I was called to the Bar six months later. Within two years, I had built up one of the best legal practices in Johannesburg. The first big hurdle in our life was safely passed — the first fortune lost, and the foundation of another laid.
Meanwhile the great exodus went on. A third of the shops and houses in town stood empty. But we had hung on, and at last, our faith and steadfastness was rewarded. A man named Macarthur arrived in Johannesburg from far-off Glasgow, where for three years he had been busy with two brothers named Forrest, experimenting with gold extraction.
Upon the shoulders of three men — John Stewart Macarthur, Doctor Robert Forrest and Doctor William Forrest, rested the whole future of the great goldfield. Macarthur was a clever young chemist who had worked with the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Company, which specialised in the treatment of ores. From all over the world mining concerns faced with metallurgical troubles sent samples to the Company for testing and experiment. Also in Glasgow were the Forrest brothers, two doctors who spent time they could spare from medical work in carrying out chemical experiments, including the recovery of gold from ores. Luckily, for the trio, the Tharsis Company took a friendly interest in their work.
Meanwhile, on the distant Transvaal high field, the dump heaps piled up beside the shafts with countless thousands of pounds worth of gold still in them. Thousands of tons of rock — hundreds of ounces of gold locked up in them … and nobody knew how to break the locks.
Macarthur had already discovered that gold was usually associated with base metals soluble in certain compounds. From there he went on to investigate cyanides as solvents for gold itself. By 1887, he had proved the cyanide process. So, in 1890 Macarthur brought to the Ridge a small plant, which was put up beside the Salisbury Mine. It was a queer conglomeration of small vats, pipes and tables. Over it all Macarthur brooded like an impassive genii, feeding the contraption with mysterious liquids which, he claimed, would actually dissolve the gold held fast in the stubborn sand, and hold it for reclamation by simple means.
I joined the anxious watchers during the last stage. There was no chance of humbug! Mining men were watching everything, and Hennen Jennings, Eckstein’s man, was sampling and measuring all that was used. Macarthur won’t fool him, that was certain. It took two days and two nights to prove the discovery. When his gold-sample was tested, it showed ninety-eight per cent extractions

It was salvation — the future of the White Waters Ridge, and mine, glowed rosy and golden once more.

The crisis was solved … thanks to poison and to electricity …

Once I switch off this computer, its dark monitor will mirror my own features, ageless … then I am going to bend over my notebook and dot down …

„Oh no, sir. I don‘t summarise. That‘s for the editor. I just take down what the speaker says and write it out in longhand afterwards.“

I browse through my notes and read:

„Human beings are capable to rule the world in a peaceful manner but they always would prefer to let the world tumble into war.“

Valid is the spoken word!




Click!