The One-Hundredth Birthday of the Nation

The nation was preparing to celebrate its one-hundredth birthday. What progress had been made during that century! And much of it during the lifetime of James and Ellen White. It was a period matched by none for advancement in knowledge and in the development of a workable democracy.3BIO 12.3

New inventions followed each other with breathtaking rapidity and ever-broadening scope. Candles and whale-oil lamps had given way to the brighter and more convenient and efficient kerosene lamps, and lights powered by electricity were on the verge of being used. Power looms were taking the place of the spinning wheel and hand looms. The sewing machine lightened the task and shortened the time it took to make clothing. The telegraph now speeded communications, and that wonder, the telephone, would soon obliterate distances. Quill pens gave way to pencils and the fountain pen. The invention of the typewriter gave promise of a revolution in literary work, but for James and Ellen White, this was yet almost a decade away. Photography had developed to the point that from a glass photographic plate multiple prints could be made. The steam engine was employed to propel railroad cars, riverboats, and oceangoing vessels.3BIO 12.4

Little wonder that the great Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in the summer of 1876 was looked upon with awe for its massive buildings and exhibition of inventions, arts, and wares from all parts of the world.3BIO 12.5