The person who would give to the world some great invention must not
deceive himself into thinking that he can do it by creative processes.
It is not our function to create. It is our province only to adapt the
laws and forces already in existence to our needs. The process is really
a relative rather than a creative one. The laws and forces are here. It
is our work to relate ourselves to them. One cannot build a machine that
will do anything. He can only construct a mechanism through which the
already existing laws of nature can operate.
Another mistake apt to be made by the amateur, and one which will lead him
farther away from instead of nearer to success, is the entertainment of
the notion that a wonderful mechanism must necessarily be complex. The
wonderful thing about nature, after all, is its simplicity. The mechanism
which is to establish a point of contact between us and a force of nature
must be as simple in its principle as the force itself.
The notable thing about almost any of our great inventions is the
simplicity of their design and operative principle. After observing the
action of any of them, one is quite apt to turn away and inwardly remark
that he could have done the same thing himself if he had only thought of
it. Of course, the chief approach to any notable achievement is the matter
of thinking of it. Most of us do not think of these things, and the reason
is often the fact that we are looking for something complex when the real
principle is very simple.
The problem of the would-be inventor or discoverer, then, is not one of
adding something to the universe as it stands. His work is to ponder the
forces that have long operated and the laws by which they have operated,
and then relate his work to some one of them. One of the chief of these,
and one upon which some of our notable inventions have been based, is the
universal fact of vibration.
The first great inventions which are based upon the vibration theory were
made long before any of us were born, and each of us has been given a free
sample of both. One is named the eye, while the other is known as the ear.
So far as that is concerned, the work of the actual nerves at the surface
of the skin is based upon the same principle.
The other day in a medical laboratory I was examining a dissection of the
human head made with a view to showing the nerves in their relation to the
spinal trunk and to the brain. The brain had been removed down to where
its base rests upon the spinal stem. I was not so much interested in the
countless fibers running off from the entire length of the spinal cord
nearly so much as the two sets of nerves which have to do with seeing and
hearing. Off from the spinal stem, just below the base of the brain, two
large nerves ran forward to the eyes, and two other large ones ran aside
to the ears. These were the optic and the auditory nerves, respectively.
These are the means which the Ruling Genius of the universe has
established by which the person may maintain his contact with the outward
world. One of these sets takes up vibrations and reports them in terms of
light. The other takes vibrations and reports them in terms of sound. The
two sets look almost precisely alike. The means by which they are made to
distinguish vibrations into these two different forms of interpretation
remains a mystery, unless it be that they are made sensitive only to given
lengths and types of waves.
The eye was the first camera, and the inventor of the photographic process
necessarily had to base his work on precisely the same principle. A
sensitive surface had to be provided; a means had to be established
whereby it might receive and be affected by ether vibrations of given
lengths; then the result, which in the case of the eye is so temporary,
had to be chemically fixed and thereby rendered permanent.
The phonographic process is related to the vibration theory of sound just
as the photographic process is based upon the wave theory of light. A
phonographic record is simply the photograph of a sound. A surface had to
be provided which was capable of receiving the record of the vibrations
which make a given sound. The means had to be provided by which they could
be permanently recorded there. Then a mechanism capable of reproducing
them made the phonograph complete. The same effect was produced upon the
ear as would have been produced by the original vibrations themselves.
Thereby the thing which is fleeting and temporary to the ear was rendered
more or less permanent. These two inventions proved once and for all the
truth of the theories on which they were based.
Telegraphy and telephony, both ordinary and wireless, are likewise based
upon phases of the vibration principle. Each in its day has been
revolutionary. We are, however, only upon the threshold of achievement in
these vibratory means of communication. Each is simple, when once
achieved, because each is based on ordinary and everyday laws of nature.
Those who are improving upon the processes already established are not
those who are trying to find different paths. They are those who are
seeking a closer acquaintance with natural laws as they are, and who are
seeking better ways of relating ourselves to those laws. We cannot alter
natural forces. We can only improve upon their use.
There is a great field for scientific and inventive progress of an
intensive nature. As we move forward in the effort to gain a little firmer
hold upon natural processes, we find ourselves able to throw away today
equipment which was very necessary yesterday. First, we could carry
communication farther and better with metal media between the
communicating points. Now we do it equally well without the
artificial media.
A few years ago a scientist announced that he could accumulate,
concentrate, and unloose a vibratory force sufficient to wreck the planet
on which we live. Should anyone want to do such a thing, and should the
rest of the world be willing, there is little doubt that such a thing
would be possible. There is probably no limit to the harm that could be
done by harnessing up the ever-present vibrations to an evil end. Neither
is there any limit to the good they can be made to do when intelligently
turned to worthy purposes.
Probably the statement of the scientist mentioned above was, after all,
only a part of the truth. Someone has said that one cannot move his
finger without displacing the elements of the universe all the way to the
farthest star. Vibration is not only here but everywhere. It carries
light to us from so far that years are required for the journey. It is
not inconceivable that it might be made to do the same with sound.
Certainly it could be made to do the same with ideas if two conditions
could be fulfilled. First, there would have to be living and intelligent
beings elsewhere in the universe. Second, there would have to be a common
code or basis of interpretation between ourselves and them. About the
first, we do not know. As to the second, no one yet sees how to accomplish
such a thing. Archimedes could have moved the world with a lever if he had
only had a place to stand, but of course he did not have it, so the
possibility was spoiled. The principle of the lever, however, held just as
good as though the impossible condition could have been fulfilled.
Likewise, the law of vibrations would permit of a system of wireless out
into the reaches of space. The difficulty is not with the law.
Nature probably holds some provision for our every want. We need only to
establish the means by which she can deliver her gifts to us. The universe
thrills with life and action. Out of its heartthrobs we shall be able to
gather many a blessing.