INVENTION.
English carriage constructors are certainly not an inventive race, if
we allow that the names by which carriages are known are indicative
of their origin. Coach is derived from the Hungarian _kotsee_,
chariot is French, chaise is French, landau is German, cabriolet is
French, and so on with many other names.
But mere invention—mere original conception—does not constitute
excellence; and if foreigners may fairly lay claim to the greatest
originality, English artists have the merit, perhaps still more
important, of gradually improving the original designs, and so
contriving all the details that, in their state of comparative
excellence, the carriages can be scarcely recognised as constructions
of the same principle as their models.
That English artists are not remarkable for the invention of new
carriages is no proof of their want of talent; they have invention in
abundance if there were sufficient motives to call it forth, and as
a matter of fact invention is but poorly paid for. England possesses
abundance of mind and matter, and there is no country in which a
union of the two is just now more indispensable, and yet there is no
country which throws greater obstacles in the way of the development
of its minds. On an English patent lasting _fourteen_ years the
stamp duties amount to £175, whilst on an American patent lasting
_seventeen_ years the duty is only £7, or ¹⁄₂₅th of the English
stamp duty. Under such a system no one will be surprised to find that
on December 31st, 1879, there were only 15,755 patents in force in
England, as against more than 200,000 in the United States. (These
figures, of course, refer to patents of all kinds.) It has been
calculated that about 10 per cent. of patentees manage to survive
the seventh year of their patents, at which time the £100 duty is
payable; that is to say, as far as their patents are concerned.
English artists and artisans are little more than merchants in
their trades and methods of doing business; they cannot afford to
lose time, and their principal object is to make as large an annual
return as possible, and as large a profit as possible on that return.
Continental men are more enthusiastic lovers of their arts and
sciences. They aim at improvement from mere liking for it, and when
they fail it is mostly from want of efficient workmen to further
their designs. The demand with them is not sufficient to make every
branch of their art a manufacture. In England, on the contrary, the
manufacture of carriages is a work of many trades, and greater skill
is produced in manipulation by the division of labour. If chance
brings in a new fashion, competition is aroused, which does not
subside until some degree of improvement or excellence be obtained.
The ordinary measure of talent is held to be success, _i.e._ the
acquisition of property; though it is quite clear the qualities
which insure success are not those which tend to produce excellence
or improvement in carriages more than in any other arts. The
inventor may produce, but it is for the most part the mere merchant
or tradesman who profits by the inventions. Carriages are made
to sell as plays are written to fill theatres, and the English
carriage-builder takes a French or German carriage to improve
upon because it saves his time and trouble, just as the English
play-writer freely uses a French play to save the labour of his
brains. Improvements are rarely the voluntary productions of English
carriage-builders; they are forced on them by the purchasers—first
individuals and then the mass—who desire some mere novelty, others
greater ease, and others a more rapid rate of motion. Almost all
the changes and improvements in carriages may be traced in their
origin to the carriage users and not the carriage-builders. The
carriage-builders do not lead, but they have always the means of
pressing talent enough into their service whenever a sufficient
demand offers them a remunerating return. Coaches were first invented
on the Continent, but it was in England that they were improved into
public stages, capable of being run 10 miles and upwards per hour for
days and weeks together.
This was not done at once, or by any one man: it was the combined
result of numberless small improvements, forced on by the necessity
of overcoming practical difficulties. Coach-builders have not been
remarkable as a scientific body. They have been, strictly speaking,
“practical men;” and as the knowledge they have gained by experience
has not been carefully hoarded in books, carriage construction
has remained a sort of occult matter, without any specific theory
attached to it. Each one, as he is freshly initiated, gains his
knowledge as best he can—from verbal instruction or from a new
series of experiments—and thus a considerable portion of his time
must elapse ere he can have verified his judgment. Enough of this
knowledge exists in various brains which might suffice for the
construction of a sound theory, but it would be a difficult operation
to gather it together, for many petty feelings would be at work.
Many experimentalists understand the word _theory_ as synonymous
with falsehood or absurdity, as the very opposite of _practice_. It
is clear that practice must be the ultimate verification of theory;
but every true practice must have a true theory belonging to it.
The _theory_ of a subject is the _science_ or philosophy of that
subject; practice is the positive knowledge or proof of the soundness
of the theory. But as theories are more plentiful than practices,
and as many of them are not verified, there are of course many false
ones. On this ground unscientific experimentalists have acquired
the habit of regarding _all_ theory as false, which is about as
reasonable as it would be to assert that because falsehood exists
in the world, all truth must therefore be extinct. This peculiarity
is not confined to carriage-building; engineering and architecture
abound with it; and law and medicine are not wanting in it. The truth
is, that human knowledge is only got together by small portions
at a time in the school of experiment, and when that knowledge is
considerable in any one branch, a true and verified theory may be
constructed from it. And when a great number of subjects have thus
been analysed and theorised, it is comparatively easy to construct
theories by analogy on new subjects by sound principles. Newton’s
theory of the universe was just as true when he first developed it in
thought as after he had verified it by calculation.
It is a common notion that a mechanical inventor must necessarily be
a man of genius; but, if the matter be analysed, it will be found
that though inventors are occasionally men of genius it is not by
any means a general rule. _Invention_, in its ordinary sense, as the
word implies, is the art of _finding out_. By _genius_ is meant a
species of creative power, like that of the poet, for example, in his
highest state of excellence. Invention is of two kinds—one resulting
from a quick habit of observation, which detects the applicability of
various forms of matter to similar objects. Of this an example may
be given in the case of Dr. Wollaston, who, in a hurried experiment
needing some lime which was not at hand, suddenly cast his eye on
his ivory paper-cutter, and with some scrapings from its surface
accomplished his object. This quick habit of observation, when
it goes to the production of beautiful forms, is akin to fancy.
The other and higher kind of invention is that which results from
bringing a theory into practice—from first imagining a desirable
result, and then bringing it to bear by the exercise of the judgment
and constant persevering efforts steadily directed through a long
period of time. The names of Brindley and Watt are examples of this
quality. When Brindley set to work upon canals he did not create, he
merely formed the plan of levelling the surfaces of natural streams
by drawing off the water into new channels of sufficient depth,
and thus preventing the water from being wasted. The process of
forming locks was a continued series of mechanical contrivances with
purpose aforethought. When Watt first imagined the steam engine he
did not invent the power of steam; that was known long before, and
had existed from the time that fire and water had existed. But he
formed to himself the plan by which he hoped to realise the result
of making steam an efficient human servant through the agency of a
perfect machine. The general idea of this machine existed in his
mind a long time before he brought it into practice; and the slow
process by which this was accomplished is evidenced by the fact that
the term of his patent right was extended by Act of Parliament, on
the ground that he had not had sufficient time to reap benefit from
it. An anecdote of Watt serves not only to prove this, but also his
high-minded philosophy, which was far beyond the miserable vanity
of ordinary inventors, who aim at astonishing their fellows rather
than instructing or benefiting them. After success had elevated
Watt to the public eminence he so deserved, a nobleman who dined
in his company expressed himself in terms of wonder on what Mr.
Watt had accomplished. Watt coolly remarked, “The public look only
on my success, and not on the intermediate failures and uncouth
constructions which have served as steps to climb to the top of the
ladder.”
The power of mechanical conception is very widely extended; it is a
modification of the same power which composes romances. The magic
horse in the fairy tale, which turned and was guided by means of a
pin in the neck, was a mechanical conception. If the same person
who conceived that had worked it out into practice it would have
been an evidence of genius, viz. imagination discovering truth by
analogical inference. Invention, then, of the highest kind must
be composed of four qualities—imagination, to conceive a new and
complicated machine; knowledge, to gather materials; judgment, to
select and combine them; and perseverance without wearying till the
truth be obtained. Those things which commonly go by the name of new
inventions are very often mere modifications of what has been done
before. “Improvements” is the technical term applied to them.
The task a man has to go through in conceiving, designing,
perfecting, and patenting a complicated mechanical invention is by no
means inviting. Even when he possesses the hand to execute what the
head has contrived, only a portion of his difficulties are overcome.
A first idea is fascinating, and apparently easy of execution. It
is thought over again and again; all difficulties are apparently
surmounted and all obstacles removed; it is, in the imagination of
the inventor, perfect. He may, perchance, know how to draw; but if
not, he must employ some one to make his drawings for him. In this
case, to avoid piracy, he must take out a provisional patent. For
this he has to pay some considerable sum, and for a purpose whose
success is uncertain.
Having secured his patent, our inventor sets his draughtsman to
work and the drawings are made. Then follows the model, and ere
that is completed it is discovered that there occur unexpected
difficulties in the material construction which did not present
themselves on paper. New contrivances must be resorted to, and
the model is made and re-made many times over. It is at last
completed, perhaps within a very few days of the time allowed for
depositing the specifications, and fresh expenses are incurred by
the necessity of paying highly those whose business it is to work
against time. When all is ready the specification is deposited, and
the inventor, perhaps, discovers that the title he has first taken
will not cover his invention on account of its being different from
his first contemplation. The title must, therefore, be altered,
and the fees paid over again. He now sets to work to construct a
full-sized sample of his invention, and all his patience is needed.
At length the invention is in a state for practical trial. Up to
this point all seems well; but practice soon discovers a defect, not
in principle, perhaps, but in detail. A second experiment is made
without success; and many more follow ere the invention is completed
alike in principle and execution. Then begins the task of getting it
before the public. Perhaps the inventor has been sanguine, and has
attempted to introduce it to the public in an imperfect state, and
the consequent failures have excited a prejudice unfavourable to his
object. This prejudice has to be overcome by repeated and unceasing
exertions, and at length, perhaps when half the period of the patent
right has expired, the inventor begins to reap the fruits of his
skill and industry. Public rumour is ever fond of exaggeration,
and he is soon supposed to be realising a large fortune, though
most likely he is only beginning to pay his expenses. Competition
is then at work, and rivals who have been at no expense or trouble
imitate his invention, or make just so much alteration in it as they
think necessary to evade his patent right. He goes to law with the
pirates, and then, perhaps, makes the discovery that his title or
specification is imperfect, and that he has been labouring for years
to bring to perfection an invention from which he can reap no more
pecuniary advantage than if he had confined himself to an ordinary
trade in which imitation alone was necessary.
It is evident, therefore, that a man who possesses a good trade as a
coachmaker has little inducement to embark in the perilous field of
invention. His time is mostly taken up with his ordinary business,
and unless under very peculiar circumstances he has little or no
time to study improvements. Those who have too little business to
fill up their time are interested in producing new things in order
to attract public attention. First ideas very often originate with
mechanics and artisans, who have not the means of putting them into
practice, unless in comparatively trifling improvements. Established
tradesmen generally consider it their interest to discourage such
things, as interfering with their plans and giving them more trouble
without extra profit. Thus, when under-springs were first adapted
to carriages, it was prophesied that they would be the ruin of the
coach-making trade, by making carriages too durable. When the streets
were Macadamised, wheelwrights and coachmakers alike complained that
it was destruction to their trade. It is the same in other things.
The Manchester cotton-spinner, who has a mill and machinery already
erected, does not feel very benevolently disposed towards an inventor
who contrives new machinery of a better class, by which he can
underwork him and take away his trade. It may be taken as a general
rule that new inventions are viewed with jealousy by all established
tradesmen, on the ground that they are an individual advantage, and
not in the outset advantageous to the trade in general. Therefore,
they keep them down all in their power, and when they succeed it is
by the circumstance that they are valuable in themselves, and that
the customers of the tradesmen insist on having them.
Sound mechanical knowledge is less necessary to the fashionable
coachmaker than taste. Taste is the one requisite, without which he
cannot thrive, and which therefore constitutes his real business
qualification. Taste is exhibited in form, colour, and proportion,
and having this he can employ other persons to fill up the details.
The general mechanism of carriages does not vary, and the mechanism
serves as a skeleton framework which may be clothed according to
fancy. Therefore, to produce what is commonly called a new carriage
is a work of composition, and not invention. It is a combination
of already existing parts to form a new arrangement. The tasteful
combiner may know nothing of his wheels or axles, or their due
proportion of strength, but he has the wheelwright to take the
responsibility for him. He may know nothing of the construction of
springs, but the spring-maker is at hand ready to calculate the
requisite strength according to an estimated weight; and if the
weight should prove more than was expected it is easy to apply an
extra plate. He gives a general drawing of the framework, and a
skilful workman knows how to apportion the scantling, and build it
strongly together. A skilful smith makes his ornamental ironwork
to a given form, and takes all the responsibility of understanding
and duly working the metal. The employer directs the painter what
portions to put in colours and what in ground colours; what to make
conspicuous and what to hide; what to lighten by lines and what to
leave heavy. The preparation of the colours and the laying of them
on are the work of the painter alone. The enterprising maker also
directs the trimmer as to the general effect of the lining, and
arranges the harmony of the colours; but the trimmer has to study the
best mode of performing his work. The braces and other leather work
are left to the skill of the workman, who is mostly left to select
his own materials and apportion their strength; and the ornamental
metal-work is the province of the plater, who is responsible for
its wear. It is clear, however, that in addition to taste, it is
necessary that the carriage constructor should know how to draw,
in order to effectually direct those whom he employs, and also to
facilitate operations with the purchasers who may employ him to build
for them.
To be a complete carriage constructor a man ought to be familiar
with all the branches before alluded to. But there are few mechanics
of such universal knowledge, and still rarer is it that they combine
such knowledge with taste. Even it would be scarcely possible for
a single individual to carry on a large business and do everything
in his own factory. It would require a very large capital and very
large premises, and also an extensive mercantile knowledge and
skill—which last is based on qualities the direct opposite of those
which nourish the faculty of taste. Mercantile skill depends on
calculation; taste is a combination of imagination and observation.
There are three modes in which carriage-building on a large scale
may be successfully conducted: first, by a single individual whose
only business is to combine parts, and who employs tradesmen for
every separate branch; secondly, by a single individual, who employs
responsible superintendents in every branch at high salaries; and,
thirdly, by a combination of partners, one possessing taste, another
mechanical knowledge, a third mercantile knowledge, and so on. This
last mode would assuredly produce the most certain result, provided
the partners possessed the necessary moral qualities to assure the
absence of suspicion, jealousy, &c., amongst themselves. If these
evil qualities existed they would destroy unanimity, and thus render
the business unproductive by preventing efficient arrangements.
It is probable that at a future time the workmen themselves will
enter into some such combination, but it must be after the lapse
of many years, as the principle of caste must be first eradicated
amongst them, which is at present so fruitful a source of jealousy
amongst the different branches. Ere that takes place the increasing
plenty of capital will probably induce many capitalists to invest
money in carriage-building, as they now do in house-building, giving
shares and salaries to men of undoubted skill and probity in order to
insure efficiency and perseverance.