CERTAIN IMPORTANT CREATIONS OF INVENTION, AND THEIR BENEFICENT INFLUENCE
In 1843 Charles Thurber invented the typewriter. Few inventions are
more typical. In 1843, the conditions of life were such that the first
stage in inventing the typewriter must have been the conception of an
extremely brilliant and original idea. After that, the difficulties of
embodying the idea in a concrete form must have been very great; for it
was not until about 1875 that instruments of practical usefulness were
in general use. Since then, typewriters have penetrated into virtually
every office in the civilized world.
Though the typewriter is a very simple apparatus in both principle
and construction, yet few machines stand out more clearly as
great inventions. Few inventions also have exerted a greater
influence--though the influence of the typewriter has been auxiliary,
rather than dominant; it has merely enabled a greater amount of
business to be transacted than could be transacted before. If anyone
will go into any business office whatever, and note the amount of work
performed in that office by means of one typewriter that could not be
performed without it, and will then multiply that amount by the number
of typewriters in the world, he will come to a confused but startling
realization of the amount of executive work that is being done in a
single day through the agency of the typewriter, that otherwise would
not be done. If he will then go a step further, and multiply the number
of days that have gone by since the typewriter was first employed, by
one-half, or even one-tenth, of the amount accomplished by means of
all the typewriters in a single day, he may then be able to appreciate
in a measure the enormous influence on progress which the invention
of the typewriter has already had. One would not make an exaggerated
statement if he should declare that if the typewriter had not been
invented, every great business organization in the world today would be
much smaller than it is; the great industries would not exist in their
present vastness; and all the arts of manufacture, transportation and
navigation would be far behind the stage they now have reached.
The electric telegraph was patented by Morse in 1837, but the first
telegram was not sent till 1844, along a wire stretched from Washington
to Baltimore. It is said that the first official message was "What hath
God wrought!" This message shows a realization of a fact which some
people fail to realize: the people who say, "God made the country, but
man made the city." The message showed a realization that God inspires
the thoughts of men, as truly as He provides them with things to eat.
It is inconceivable that it was intended to call attention to the fact
that God wrought the wire along which the message ran, or the wooden
poles that carried the wire, or the material zinc and copper of the
battery. The only new thing evidenced in the telegraph so far as anyone
could know, was the invention itself. God had wrought that through the
agency of Morse. It is a known fact that no human mind, no matter how
fine it may be, or how brilliant and correct its imagination, can have
any images or ideas that are not based in some way on the evidence of
the senses. We can imagine things, and even create things, that have
never existed before; but those things must be composed of parts whose
existence we know of through the evidence of our senses. So Morse,
although he invented a thing that was wholly new, although he created
something--did not create any of the parts that composed it. He used
such well-known things as wire, iron, zinc and copper. Even in the
creation of man, the Almighty himself used common materials: "And the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul." (Genesis,
Chapter II.)
If the Lord God breathed the breath of life into Adam, He inspired him
according to the original meaning of the word inspire. If He inspired
Morse with the conception of the electric telegraph, He inspired
him according to the modern meaning of the word, which is not very
different from the original meaning, and which is not at all different
from the meaning according to which He is said to have inspired the
prophets of old.
To bring before us clearly the whole influence of the telegraph on
history would require a book devoted to no other subject; yet the
telegraph belongs in the same class with the typewriter, in the sense
that its main office is to assist the transaction of business. The
telegraph does not of itself produce results. It is not in the class
with the fist-hammer, or the weaving machine, or the gun, or the steam
engine, or the electric light, or chloroform, or the telescope, or the
discovery of America. It owes its reputation largely to the spectacular
way in which it first appeared, and to the seeming wonderfulness of its
success. Yet the telegraph seems no more wonderful than the typewriter,
to a person who knows even a little of electricity; and the task
of making it practicable was much easier. A very simple and crude
apparatus sufficed for the telegraph: but a highly perfect mechanism
was needed for the typewriter.
It is probably true, however, that the telegraph has had a greater
influence on history than the typewriter, though modern civilization
would not be even approximately what it is, if either had not been
invented. And if by any combination of circumstances, either one
should now be taken from us, the whole Machine would be thrown into
inextricable confusion.
It may be objected that if Morse had not invented the telegraph,
or if any inventor whoever had not invented whatever thing he did
invent, some other man would have done so; and that therefore those
inventors do not deserve to be placed in any especial niche of honor.
There would be considerable reasonableness in such an objection, as
is evidenced by the fact that in many cases two or more men have
invented the same thing at about the same time. It may be pointed out,
however, that while this has often happened in regard to improvements
on basic inventions, it has not happened very often in regard to the
basic inventions themselves; and also that, even if we include all
the inventors the world has ever heard of, we find that there have
been surprisingly few. Therefore, it really makes little difference to
the race as a whole whether Smith or Jones made a certain invention,
or whether Smith would have made it, if Jones had not made it. "The
man who delivers the goods," receives, and as a rule deservedly, the
recognition of mankind. Furthermore, this book, as has been stated, is
not concerned mainly with inventors, but with inventions.
In 1844, the use of nitrous oxide gas (laughing gas) as an anæsthetic
was introduced by Dr. Wells. It cannot be said that this invention has
had any direct influence on history itself, though it has had a great
deal of influence on the history of some individuals. It contributed a
new and distinct part to the Machine, however, and certainly helped to
ameliorate the conditions of living. Besides, it seems to be one of the
lessons of history that most new and distinct creations, even if no use
has been found for them for a long while, have ultimately found a field
of usefulness. Furthermore, every new and useful thing, like nitrous
oxide gas, attracts the attention of men to the advantages that the
study of physical sciences and the prosecution of invention offer, and
gives inspiration for further study and endeavor.
In the same year, Léon Foucault invented the first practical electric
arc-light. Davy had made the basic invention of the Voltaic arc in
1808; but his invention was in the class just spoken of, in that it
was not utilized for many years. Even the arc-light that Foucault
produced in 1844 was not utilized then. In both cases, the cause of
slowness of utilization did not rest so much in the invention as in
the stage of civilization at the time. The world was not yet ready
for the arc-light. In fact, it did not become ready, and it could not
become ready, to use the arc-light in real service, until a cheaper
means of producing electric current had been invented. This did not
happen until the dynamo-electric machine had been invented and had been
brought to such a point of practical development that it could supply
electric current, not only adequately and economically, but reliably.
A necessary step toward the utilization of the arc-light was made in
1845, however, by Thomas Wright, who invented a means whereby the
carbons could be kept automatically at the correct distance apart for
maintaining a continuous and uniform light.
In 1845, Robert Hoe made an important contribution in his
double-cylinder printing press. In the same year, R. W. Thompson
invented the pneumatic tire. This invention belongs distinctly in the
class just spoken of, for the pneumatic tire did not come into general
use until the bicycle did, about 1890. It may be asked if there is any
use in inventing appliances long before they are needed. So far as the
inventor is then concerned--no: so far as the public is eventually
concerned, yes. All inventions made and patented are described and
illustrated in the Patent Office Gazette; and many of them are
described and illustrated in magazines and newspapers, even if they are
not used in actual practice. These records form part of the general
knowledge of mankind, just as much as do the facts of geography and
history and arithmetic; and they can be drawn upon by investigators and
inventors, and made to assist them in their work.
In 1846, an invention was made by Elias Howe, that does not belong
at all in the same category as that of the pneumatic tire, because
it was utilized almost immediately. This is usually spoken of as the
sewing-machine; but the essence of the invention was not a machine, but
merely an instrument; for it consisted of a needle in which the eye was
near the point, instead of at the other end, as in existing needles.
The machine afterwards produced was merely an obvious means for using
the new kind of needle.
The invention of the sewing-machine was one rich in influence on
subsequent progress; and all the story connected with it is interesting
in many ways. But the most wonderful fact connected with the invention
is that it was not made before! Many inventions have not been made
because the conditions at the time did not demand them, or make
their successful utilization possible: and yet some inventions,
like the Voltaic arc, were made despite the unfavorable conditions.
But what conditions were unfavorable to the utilization of Howe's
sewing-machine, even as far back in history as the days when the
pyramids were built? The Howe sewing-machine was not so complicated
an apparatus as the ballista, or the chariot, used by the Assyrians
and the other nations in the "fertile crescent," that curved from
Alexandria to Babylon; and it was much easier and cheaper to make.
Its construction required immeasurably less scientific knowledge and
carefulness than the printing press, the gun, the telescope and the
microscope, and a score of appliances that had preceded it by several
centuries. Why was the sewing-machine not invented before? Why, why?
This question continually presents itself to the mind, when certain
simple inventions appear, that (so far as we can see) could have been
invented and ought to have been invented, long before.
In 1846, the printing-telegraph was invented by House. No such question
as that just discussed is presented to our minds by this invention,
because we realize that it could not have been invented before some
means of generating continuous electric currents had been invented. The
printing-telegraph was not an invention of the same order of influence
as the sewing-machine; but it has assisted the work of the telegraph in
supplying news, especially in reports of stock fluctuations.
In the same year, De Lesseps started his project of building the Suez
Canal, and joining the Mediterranean to the Red Sea; so that ships
could proceed to India from Europe by a direct route. Many centuries
before, a canal had been cut and generally used that ran from the Nile
River to the Red Sea. The canal that De Lesseps proposed was to be
larger, and the engineering difficulties greater. The vast enterprise
was finally carried out, at a cost of about $100,000,000. It seems
to have passed through the three successive stages of conception,
development and production. The idea of building a canal did not
originate in 1846, or in the brain of De Lesseps; for the idea was very
old, probably older than recorded history. But the only man who formed
the mental picture in his mind and afterwards developed it into a
concrete plan was De Lesseps. He did this; and his plan was so complete
and coherent, and so evidently practical, that he finally succeeded in
convincing engineers and capitalists of the fact, and forming a large
company. The execution of the concrete plan was not begun until 1859,
and it was De Lesseps who began it. Thus De Lesseps, though he did
not conceive the basic idea, conceived and combined the various ideas
necessary to embody the basic idea in a concrete plan, then constructed
the concrete plan, and then produced the actual instrument.
This instrument (the canal) was a very useful instrument. An
instrument, according to the _Standard Dictionary_, is "a means by
which work is done." By means of the Suez Canal, the work of direct
water transportation between the Far East and Europe was done; and it
could not have been done, except by means of that instrument. It has
been done by that instrument ever since, and at an increasing rate. The
canal was completed in 1869, and widened and deepened in 1886. It has
shortened the water distance between England and India by about 7600
miles, and has had a tremendous influence on history, especially on
Great Britain's history. One of the largest stockholders is the British
Government; three-fourths of the ships passing through it have been
British; and though the whole world has benefited, the greatest single
beneficiary has been Great Britain.
Yet De Lesseps was a Frenchman! This calls to our minds the fact
that although some of the greatest names in History are French, yet
the French nation, as a nation, has never shown the same concerted
national purpose as the British. In this respect, the French seem to
have borne somewhat the same relation to the British, as the Greeks
did to the Romans: and yet the French are more nearly allied by blood
and language to the Romans than are the British. The Greeks and the
French aimed to make life pleasant, by the aid of the fine arts and a
general utilization of all that is delightful; while the Romans and
the British, early in their careers, conceived the idea of dominion,
embodied the idea in a concrete plan, and proceeded to carry the plan
into execution. The plan was continually accommodated to the changing
conditions of the times, and the means of execution were continually
accommodated also. The result has been that Greece and France never,
as nations, acquired dominion even approximately; while Rome did
completely, and Great Britain did, approximately.
The author does not wish to be understood as approving of the idea of
acquiring dominion, or as failing to realize the sordidness of such
an ambition, and the evil that men and nations have done, in order to
achieve it. He begs leave to point out, however, that the Machine could
not have been built, except under the stable conditions that large
nations permit better than small nations do; and that it has been the
endeavor to achieve dominion by aspiring tribes and nations, and the
consequent endeavor to gain strength in order to prevent it, by other
aspiring tribes and nations, which have caused the gradual building up
of the great nations of today, with the comfort, security and culture
that their existence permits.
In the same year, 1846, artificial limbs were invented, and so was the
electric cautery. Neither of these inventions had a profound influence;
but each was a new creation, and each formed a useful and distinct
addition to the Machine. But another invention was made in 1846, that
has had great influence.
This was the invention of gun-cotton, made by Schonbein in Germany
by the action of nitric and sulphuric acids on cotton, or some other
form of cellulose. It was the first practical explosive that depended
for its usefulness on the decomposition of a chemical compound, and
not on the combustion of a mechanical mixture, like gunpowder. The
explosive power of gun-cotton was declared by the chemist Abel to be
fifty times that of an equal weight of the gunpowder of that day; but
this does not mean that it possessed fifty times the energy. The action
of gun-cotton is very much more sudden than that of gunpowder; and for
that reason, it exerts a much greater force for an instant, and has
much greater efficacy for such purposes as breaking into structures,
bursting shells, etc. On the other hand, the very fact that its energy
is developed with such suddenness, causes its force to fall to zero
very soon, and makes it useless for such purposes as gunpowder fulfils
in firing projectiles from guns. In a gun, especially in a long gun,
the endeavor is made to keep down the pressure of the gas and prolong
its continuance; so that the projectile will receive a comparatively
gentle but prolonged push, that will start it gradually from its seat,
and will continue to push it, and therefore to increase its velocity,
all the way to the muzzle.
Gun-cotton does not belong in the class with the typewriter and the
telegraph, that merely assist men to transact business: gun-cotton
transacts business "on its own account." Gun-cotton belongs in the
class with the gun; and its main influence has been to increase the
self-protectivity of the Machine. It has done this mainly by increasing
the power of the submarine torpedo against the hulls of warships. It
may be objected that both sides in a war between civilized nations
would use torpedoes, that no persons except organizations controlled by
civilized nations (such as those in warships) would use torpedoes, and
that therefore, whatever effect the torpedo might have on the Machine
is neutralized by the fact that two civilized bodies use it against
each other. True; but the fact that the torpedo and the gun-cotton
in it require a high degree of civilization in the people who use
it, gives civilized people an immediate and tremendous advantage
over uncivilized people; and furthermore, the fact that the torpedo
and the gun-cotton in it depend for their ultimate effect not only
on their being used, but on the degree of knowledge and skill with
which they are used, gives an advantage to which every nation in any
war is willing and able to utilize the most knowledge and exert the
most skill. That is, the torpedo and the gun-cotton in it combine to
give the advantage to the nations possessing the highest degree of
civilization and willpower. They enable the Machine of the most highly
civilized nation to protect itself if it will against the Machines of
less highly civilized nations.
In the year following the invention of gun-cotton, came Sobrero's
invention of nitro-glycerin, made by the action of nitric acid on
glycerin (1847). The new explosive was more powerful than gun-cotton,
but much more dangerous to handle. By reason of its extreme
sensitiveness and the consequent danger of handling it, the use of pure
nitro-glycerin has never been great.
In the same year, 1847, the time-lock was invented by Savage. This
invention was in the class with the gun and gun-cotton, in the sense
that it enhanced the self-protectiveness of the Machine. It did not
enhance its self-protectiveness against a few great, open, external
foes, however, but against a myriad of small, secret, internal foes.
The Machine is very expensive to maintain in operation, and so is
every one of the little mechanisms of which it is composed. And each
one of these little mechanisms, each bank, its business corporation,
each company, each department store, each little shop, requires that
its money be kept safe from the burglar and the pilferer. Inasmuch as
the time-lock assists in doing this, the time-lock has been a valuable
contribution to the Machine, and has exerted a good influence on
history since it was invented.
In the same year, 1847, R. M. Hoe invented his great printing press,
that could make 20,000 impressions per hour. As it was a long step
forward in the improvement of printing, this invention deserved the
applause which it received; and the inventor deserved the financial
reward which he received.
In 1848, Dennison invented a machine for making matches. This was a
most useful contribution; but one is inclined to wonder why twenty
years elapsed between the invention of matches and the invention of a
machine for making them. Inventing was not going ahead so fast then as
it is now. Surely, no such interval is allowed to pass unutilized, in
the present inventing days.
In 1849, the "interrupted thread" screw, for use in closing the
breeches of guns was invented. Many men have claimed the honor of
this invention. Regardless of who the particular inventor was, the
invention itself must be regarded as one of a very high order, from the
standpoints of originality, constructiveness and usefulness. Though the
screw itself was a very old contrivance, the idea of cutting a long
slot lengthwise, so that the screw could be pushed forward quickly
without the slow process of continuously turning it around, yet so
arranged that the screw could be turned when near the end of its
travel, and the force-gaining power of the screw-thread thus secured,
seems to have been entirely new. Certainly the idea was original and
brilliant and useful. To develop the idea into a concrete plan was not
difficult, and neither was it difficult to carry the concrete plan
into execution. This invention falls into the happy class of which the
stethoscope is typical, in which the idea originally conceived was so
perfect, that little else was needed. The main use of this invention
has been that for which it was first intended, to close the breeches of
guns. It is used in most of the navies and armies. Its principal rival
is the famous sliding breech-block of Krupp.
In 1849, came an invention in the gun class, the magazine gun, made by
Walter Hunt. This invention also seems to fulfil all the requirements
of a real invention, in originality of conception, constructiveness of
development and ultimate usefulness. But in this case, the original
idea can hardly be declared as brilliant and spectacular as that of
the "interrupted thread"; and certainly the labor of developing it was
incomparably greater. The author feels the temptation of declaring
that the more brilliant and valuable a conception is, the less will be
the difficulty of developing it. He refuses to declare it, however,
realizing that it would not be wholly true; and yet he wishes to point
out that if a conception be wholly erroneous, it cannot be developed
into any concrete plan whatever; and that many of the most brilliant
conceptions, such as the fist-hammer, the flute, the telescope, the
telegraph and the telephone were very easily developed into forms
sufficiently concrete to make them practically usable. An idea itself
is an extremely simple thing, even if it be developed ultimately into
a highly complex machine. The idea of the steam engine, for instance,
the idea which Hero conceived was, of itself, extremely simple; but see
into what complex forms it has been developed! The original idea of
Hero was easily developed into "Hero's engine." The improvements that
have been made upon it have been the developments of separate ideas
that were conceived later. Not one of these ideas has been nearly so
brilliant as Hero's, and few of them have been so easily developed.
In 1849, Bourdon invented the steam pressure gauge that still bears
his name, and made a contribution of distinct and permanent value,
by which ability to keep track of the steam pressure in boilers was
increased, and safety from explosion increased proportionately. In the
same year, Sir David Brewster invented his lenticular stereoscope. In
this beautiful instrument two separate pictures of the same object
are put on one card, one picture showing the object as it would
look to the left eye from a given distance, and the other picture
showing the object as it would look to the right eye. The two eyes of
an observer look at the two pictures through the two halves of two
convex lenses, that are so shaped that the two pictures are seen as
one picture, but so superposed as to represent the object in relief,
as the actual object appears to the two eyes. Like the kaleidoscope,
this later product of Sir David Brewster's brilliant imagination has
had little influence thus far, except possibly to lead the way toward
stereo-photography and the stereopticon: but it seems hardly probable
that an important field will not be found some day for an invention so
suggestive.
In the same year, Hibbert made an important improvement on the
knitting machine, and Corliss invented his famous engine cut-off,
which vastly economized fuel. Neither invention was especially novel
or brilliant, but both were highly practical and useful contributions
to the improvement of the Machine. In the same year also came Worm's
improvement on the printing press, that concerned the making of
"turtles" which held type in a curved shape, so that they could be
secured to the cylinder of the press.
In 1850, Scott Archer succeeded in using collodion to fix silver salts
on the surface of glass plates in photography. He cannot be credited
with the basic invention, because the idea of doing this had been
suggested long before. The invention made an important contribution to
the growing art of photography, mainly by supplying a stepping stone
for further advances. In the same year, an important improvement was
made in watch-making by inventing a watch-making machine. This was
one of the first of those distinctly American inventions, by which
machine-work replaced hand-work, with great increase in speed of
production and lessening of cost, but without decrease in accuracy of
workmanship.
The influence of this invention has escaped the notice of many of us,
for the reason that it has spread so gradually, and has been of such
a character as to fail to strike the imagination from its lack of
spectacularity. But the idea of what we now call "quantity production"
has spread to all the fields of the manufacturing world, and is the
basis of much of the enormous industrial progress of the last half
century. It is rendered possible mainly by making the machinery
automatic, or nearly so. Without such exaggeration, America may justly
claim the contribution of automaticity to the Machine of Civilization.
In 1851, Dr. Charles G. Page produced the first electric locomotive.
Like many pioneers, it did not achieve practical success itself,
but it supplied a stepping stone to further progress. In the same
year, Seymour produced his self-rakers for harvesters, and Gorrie
invented the ice-making machine. Two more important inventions were
the ophthalmoscope, invented by Helmholtz, and the "Ruhmkorff coil,"
invented by the man whose name still clings to it.
The ophthalmoscope reminds one of the stethoscope; so simple it is,
so perfect and so useful. It consists merely of a small concave
mirror with a hole in it, a lamp and a small convex lens: the mirror
being held so that one eye of a physician can look through it, and
the lens being placed conveniently by the physician near the eye
of a patient. The mirror reflects light from the lamp towards the
patient's eye, and the convex lens concentrates them on whatever is to
be examined--usually the interior of an eye. This instrument belongs
in the small class of inventions already spoken of, in which the
original conception was so perfect, that the acts of developing it into
a concrete instrument and then producing the instrument were easily
performed.
The Ruhmkorff coil is in the same class; for it consists merely of two
coils of wire; one "primary" coil being of coarse wire and connected
with a source of electric current, and the other "secondary" coil of
fine wire placed around the coil of coarse wire. If the current in
the primary coil be made or broken or changed in force or direction,
currents are "induced" in the secondary coil; the strength of the two
currents varying relatively according to the sizes and lengths of the
wires in the two coils. This invention has an interest apart from
its usefulness, in the fact that Ruhmkorff invented it for purposes
of scientific study, and that no utilization of it for everyday life
occurred until nearly half a century later. Then Ruhmkorff coils were
made into "transformers" for use in "stepping down" the small high
voltage currents needed for transmitting electric currents over long
distances, into the larger but lower voltage currents needed for
actuating electric lights and motors.
In the following year, 1852, Channing and Farmer invented the
fire-alarm telegraph, an important contribution to the safety of the
Machine, though it did not come into general use for several years. In
the same year, Fox Talbot made another of his epochal contributions to
photography, by inventing a process by which photographic half-tones
could be produced. In the following year, a process was invented for
making from wood a pulp that was very valuable as the basis of making
paper,--and Faraday made three important discoveries. These were the
laws of electro-magnetic induction, the relations of the dielectric
to the conducting bodies in electro-static induction, and the laws of
electrolysis.
These discoveries of Faraday were all inventions, in the sense in which
the word invention is used in this book. Each one was the outcome
of a series of careful and mathematically guided experiments, and
the outgrowth of an idea. In the following year, Melhuish invented
photographic roll films, and Herman invented the rock drill. The latter
invention has been of the utmost practical value in blasting operations
of all kinds, and must be regarded as a very distinct addition to the
Machine.
In the same year, appeared the Smith & Wesson revolver; not a great
invention, but an improvement in many ways over Colt's; Mr. A. B.
Wilson brought out his four-motion feed for sewing-machines, and R. A.
Tilghman invented his process for decomposing fats by hot steam. In the
following year (1855), Lundstrom made the highly important invention
of safety matches. When one reflects (as every one must at times) how
great and absolutely irretrievable are the losses caused by fire each
year, how the amount of possible destruction grows each year exactly as
fast as the Machine grows, and realizes how large a fire many a small
match has caused, he feels inclined to give a mental salute to Mr.
Lundstrom of Sweden.
In the same year, iron-clad floating batteries were used in the Crimean
War. This was not the first time that iron-clad vessels had been
employed, for vessels protected on the sides with sheets of iron and
copper had been used by the Coreans in their victorious war against
the Japanese about three hundred years before; but it was the first
time that such vessels had appeared in Europe. Cocaine was invented the
same year, and one of the most valuable anæsthetics yet known was then
produced.
But the most valuable contribution to the Machine in 1855 was Henry
Bessemer's epochal invention of making steel by blowing air through
molten cast iron, until enough of the carbon had been burnt off to
leave a steel of whatever quality was desired. This invention reduced
the cost of making steel, and the time required, in so great a degree
as to place the manufacture of steel on a basis entirely new, and to
extend its field of employment greatly. And, as with many previous
great inventions, this one paved the way for still other inventions, by
indicating the possibility of still wider fields. The Bessemer process
is not in the class with the typewriter or the telegraph, but in the
class with the gun; for it does things itself. It would be difficult
to specify any invention (except one produced at a much earlier time)
that has had more influence, and more good influence, on history than
Bessemer's. No one can look out of his window in any town or city,
without seeing some of the innumerable products of Bessemer's idea.
* * * * *
Our record has now brought us to the middle of the nineteenth century.
The conditions of living in 1850 were greatly different from those
of 1800. In fifty years, the physical conditions of living and of
carrying on business of all kinds, had improved more than in the
century between 1700 and 1800, more than in the two centuries preceding
1700, and more than in the ten centuries from 500 and 1500. Rapid
transportation over the land in railroad trains for both passengers
and freight had largely replaced the slow transportation methods of
1800; and, in an almost equal degree, steam transportation at sea had
replaced transportation by sails. The printing press had been developed
from a crude and slow contrivance, worked by a hand, to a magnificent
mechanism worked by steam: the electric battery had been improved
into an appliance of the utmost reliability and usefulness; telegraph
lines stretched over the continents, and messages were sent surely
and instantaneously over hundreds of miles of land; and the science
of chemistry had arisen from the ashes of alchemy. As a result of
this, the science of photography had been born, and had already begun
its work, so varied and so useful. Physics had grown so surely and so
greatly, that it had been divided into the separate but allied sciences
of heat, light and electricity--including magnetism: the science of
engineering had expanded so widely, that it also had been divided into
other sciences--civil engineering, mechanical engineering, hydraulic
engineering and electrical engineering: the science of medicine,
because of the advances in chemistry and physics, had advanced at
an equal rate: the gun had been so greatly improved, and gunpowder
also, that such a degree of precision and range had been attained
as to make the gun of 1800 seem crude indeed; and the improvement
had been inevitably caused by the greater knowledge placed at the
disposal of ordnance officers, by the advances in chemistry, heat,
light, electricity, magnetism and the various engineering arts. The
introduction of illuminating gas, the improvements in forging, casting
and turning metals, had made possible the building of edifices, and the
fabrication of better and cheaper utensils of every kind: improvements
in the means and methods of spinning, knitting and weaving had bettered
the materials that people wore upon their persons: improvements in
rubber manufacture had made possible the use of waterproof garments;
crops could be gathered more quickly and surely: safety from fire had
been increased: methods of heating houses had been vastly improved: and
the discovery of anæsthetics had relieved civilized man in great degree
from his most distressing single enemy. As a result, the people of
every civilized country lived under conditions of comfort far greater
than had ever been known before in similar climates.
The facts and conditions detailed above relate almost wholly to the
material conditions of living, and show that, for most people, they
had been enormously improved: though it is noteworthy that for the
very poor, they had not improved in many cases, and had been altered
for the worse in other cases. The unfavorable changes were mainly
those produced by "factory life" which in 1850 must have been worse
than country life for the same class of people. These cases were so
greatly in the minority, however, as not to affect the main proposition
that the advance in civilization from 1800 to 1850, caused by new
inventions, had improved the material conditions of living for the
great majority of the people affected by them.
That it was desirable that these conditions should be improved, some
people may be disposed to deny; pointing out that the improvement
tended to develop "luxury, thou cursed of Heaven's decree." One of the
effects of increasing material prosperity is undoubtedly a tendency
toward luxury. But the number of people thus affected was so very small
in the period from 1800 to 1850, and the degree of luxury attained
then was so slight, that this question need hardly be discussed, at
this point.
But the mental condition of the people had changed as greatly as the
physical conditions of their environment. The immediate cause of
this change was, of course, the printing press, which disseminated
the thoughts of thinking men broadcast, and told of events that were
occurring not only in places near, but also in places distant. This
gave an enormous stimulation to the minds of the people by exciting
their interest: and it also gave to their minds both "food for thought"
and almost unlimited opportunity for exercise. Before this period, only
a small part of the population had a wide range of knowledge, or a
large number of subjects to think about. Their lives were exceedingly
monotonous, and would have been exceedingly dull, had it not been for
the continuous necessity of combating the inconveniences of every-day
life by continual toil of one kind or another. There were very few
subjects of conversation.
But the printing-press told the people of other things besides the
events that were taking place; it told them also of new discoveries
and inventions that were being made, and of the effects they would
produce. The news of a great discovery or invention must have created
more excitement in 1831 when the discovery of chloroform was announced,
than almost any discovery would now, because we are so accustomed
to new discoveries as almost to be sated. We know what excitement
the first successful railway trips created. The coming of these new
discoveries and inventions gave mental exercise in four ways:--first by
stimulating the imagination with a picture it had never seen before,
and whose possibilities reached no one could guess how far; second
by stimulating the logical powers to reason out and understand the
principles underlying each discovery or invention; third by stimulating
the memory to engrave upon its tablets certain new and important facts;
and fourth, by stimulating the inventive faculties, to carry inventions
further.
Thus, the influence of new inventions was to change a man's
environment, both physical and mental. Now every man is said to be the
product of his environment and his heredity; so that the influence
of these new inventions was to change men to a degree proportional
to the degree by which they changed their environment. This does not
mean that inventions have changed man biologically, or even changed
him so much that he will act very differently from a savage, under
abnormal conditions. It does mean, however, that they have caused men
so to adapt themselves to the new environment which inventions have
created, that, while in that environment, they will for all practical
purposes, be very different from savages. It means that under nearly
all the conditions of living, a gentleman in civilized society will
be a gentleman--courteous, refined, law-abiding and moral. It does
not mean that he will be perfect, but that he will be very much more
courteous, refined, law-abiding and moral than a savage; and it means,
in consequence that the society of civilized people in general will
possess these characteristics much more than any society of savages
does.
Not only, however, have these inventions changed the environment of
civilized man, they have changed his heredity also; because they had
previously changed the environment of his parents, grandparents and
other ancestors. The graduate of Oxford of 1850, the son of an Oxford
graduate who was also the son of an Oxford graduate, though he was
biologically the same as his barbarian ancestors of ten thousand
years before, was nevertheless a much more refined, intelligent and
courteous gentleman. Under certain abnormal conditions, such as
intense thirst, hunger, jealousy, passion or unlooked-for temptation
he might act as badly as a savage:--in fact such men sometimes do.
But nevertheless, the fact that in 99% of the conditions under which
he lives he acts as a gentleman and not as a savage makes him 99% a
gentleman, and only 1% a savage, during his mortal life.
Thus inventions, while originating (or seeming to originate) in the
minds of men, change the environment of men, and this changes the
men. Of the two changes, it would be easy to say that the change made
in the men is the more important; but would it be truthful to say
so? We have already noted the curious fact that inventions have the
faculty of self-improvement to a degree far greater than men have it;
for the reason that each new man must begin where his last ancestor
began, whereas each new invention begins where his last ancestor
finished. This suggests that the changes produced in environment are
more profound than the changes produced in men; that in fact the
changes in environment are very profound, and the changes in men quite
superficial. That this is really the case is indicated by the very long
time needed to build up the environments of civilization, and the very
short time needed for men to adapt themselves to those environments,
or to any changed conditions. The fact has often been noted (sometimes
with chagrin) that highly refined gentlemen adapt themselves with
extreme facility to the often primitive environments of hunting or
campaigning, and history shows in many instances how quickly barbarians
have adapted themselves to civilization.
This leads us to suspect that the Machine which inventions have built
up may not be of so much permanence as we are prone to think, and
makes us realize that it is not a natural production but one wholly
artificial. Now nothing that is wholly artificial can reasonably be
expected to be permanent, unless adequate and timely measures are taken
to insure it.
CHAPTER XI
INVENTION AND GROWTH OF LIBERAL GOVERNMENT, AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
While the period from 1800 to 1850 was alive with inventions of many
sorts, it was alive also with the economic changes which the inventions
caused and with political changes also. It was in the United States
of America that the greatest changes of all kinds came. This was to
be expected from the fact that before 1800 the United States were
considerably behind the countries of Europe from which their own
civilization had been derived; whereas in 1850, they had been able to
get abreast of them, by reason of the quickness of transportation and
communication that ocean steamers gave, and the energy and enterprise
of the new American nation. During the period from 1800 till 1850,
the United States went through three successful wars; one with Great
Britain, one with Algiers and one with Mexico. They expanded also over
a considerably greater territory, acquired a much greater population,
added new states, and showed such aptitude in scientific discovery and
invention as to achieve a place in the first rank of nations in this
particular.
The Constitution of the United States may be characterized as a great
invention, in the meaning of the word which is used in this book;
and until 1850, it had worked with a success that surprised many of
the statesmen and scholars of Europe. The problems placed before the
nation had been many, various and difficult; but all had been solved
with a sufficient degree of success for practical purposes; and the
resulting situations had, on the whole, been met with courage, energy
and intelligence. The Monroe Doctrine had been treated with respect,
if not with entire acquiescence; the conduct of the Navy in the War of
1812 had demonstrated to Europe the fighting ability of our people;
our scientific men, such as Franklin and Henry, ranked as high as any
who had ever lived in any country; certain of our statesmen such as
Franklin, held equal rank with statesmen anywhere; and the invention
and first use of the electric telegraph had put America ahead of every
other country in inventions of a basic kind.
When we realize the rapid growth of the United States in the half
century 1800-1850, and realize also that it was a growth almost _ab
initio_, and note that the engineering materials of all kinds and
all the knowledge of science in the country had come from Europe, we
must admit that it is to the influence of invention, more than to any
other one thing, that we owe the rapid progress of our country. As
is the case with individuals, nations are prone to extol their own
successes, and to take the entire credit for them. Americans are apt
to thank themselves only for their amazing progress; but, in fairness,
they should admit that without the inventions made in Europe and by
Europeans, they would have had no means for even starting. The first
locomotive used in the United States was brought from England.
In Great Britain, the wars with France were under full headway in 1800,
and her statesmen knew that she was faced with a danger so great that
only the most strenuous exertions, and the utmost naval and military
skill could overcome it. This danger was not overcome till the Battle
of Waterloo in 1815. Thereafter, the progress of the nation was fairly
quiet and assured, the main difficulties centering in the deplorable
condition of the working classes, serious disturbances in Ireland and
the mutiny in India.
In few matters has the influence of invention been greater than in the
relations between Great Britain and India. In 1564 a company called the
Merchant Adventurers had been formed for competing with the merchants
of Spain, Venice, Holland and other countries. A company coming into
existence shortly afterward was the East India Company, formed for
trading with India, Persia, Arabia and the islands in the Indian
Ocean. The company was chartered by the Crown and had a monopoly of
a certain territory. The object was that the company should not only
make money for itself, but promote the welfare of Great Britain and
her subjects, by taking out manufactured goods, and bringing back raw
materials and coin. During the seventeenth century, naval wars took
place with Holland, and in the eighteenth century with France; both
originating in commercial and colonial rivalry--especially in regard
to India. Both wars were won by Great Britain. The Seven Years' War in
particular ended to the advantage of Great Britain, as regards India;
for France was left with only a few trading stations. By 1773, the East
India Company was in virtual control of India; but in 1784 William Pitt
secured political control of it by the Government. Napoleon realized
the importance of India and sent an army there to recover control, but
without success. The Crimean War that began in 1853 between Russia and
Turkey was joined by Great Britain in 1854 because she feared that
Russia would flank the British route to India through the projected
Suez Canal. This war ended to the advantage of Great Britain, and the
danger to India was removed.
Now the whole area of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
is only about 121,000 square miles, while that of India is about
1,803,000, nearly fifteen times as great. The population of the United
Kingdom in 1917 was about 45,370,000, while that of India was about
315,156,000, or nearly seven times as great. Yet Great Britain has
secured the complete mastery of India! How has she been able to do
it? The easiest answer would be that the British are a "superior"
people. Even if they are, such an answer would explain nothing, unless
the means be indicated by which the superiority was made effective
in conquering India. The superiority evidently did not consist in
courage or physical strength, which were obvious factors in achieving
the victories in the field that were necessary, for those qualities
were shown equally by the Indians. But if we should answer that the
British succeeded for the reason that they could bring to bear superior
weapons, equipments, means of transportation, means of communication,
methods of organization and methods of operation, we evidently would
explain what happened adequately and convincingly. Now all these
facilities the British had available; they had been invented and were
ready.
One of the important influences of invention on history therefore, has
been to give Great Britain control of India.
In France, the changes in economic and political conditions rivaled the
changes that one sees take place in Sir David Brewster's kaleidoscope.
In 1800 Napoleon had been First Consul, in 1804 emperor, in 1814 an
emperor and then an exile, in 1815 an emperor and then an exile. France
was a kingdom from then until 1848, and then a republic till 1852, when
she again became an empire, under Napoleon III. The virtual anarchy
following the Revolution had been crushed out and replaced with order;
and the menace to republican institutions had been removed by the
genius of Napoleon I, who then established an autocracy of a kind that,
though arbitrary, was so wise and broad-viewed as to be beneficent
on the whole. The result of all was that in 1850, France was in a
condition of civilization and prosperity that was amazing to one who
remembered the conditions of 1800.
When we analyze the causes of the evolution of order and prosperity out
of the conditions of 1793, and the later conditions of 1800, we can
hardly fail to realize the greatest single cause was the same cause
as that of Napoleon's victories. It was the mind that conceived and
developed and brought forth; the mind that invented so amazingly.
That many other causes may be named need hardly be pointed out. In
the complex affairs of human life, every result is the resultant of
many causes; but in most of those affairs, most of those causes are
always present; so that we have to find an unusual cause to explain an
unusual condition or event. It would be easy to say that the cause of
France's return to a condition of law and order was that the condition
of anarchy was abnormal; and that France simply returned to her normal
state, as a wave does after it has risen above or fallen below the
level of the sea. But would this be true? Is the condition of anarchy
more abnormal than the condition of law and order? Which was the
condition of primitive man? Which is an artificial product of man's
invention? Is it not logical to conclude from the record of invention's
influence that it was man's inventions that brought into existence the
artificial condition of law and order which existed in France prior to
1793, and that it was also man's inventions that restored it afterward?
Three ideas were conceived in France and developed into the Revolution:
these ideas were the principles of equality, of the sovereignty of
the people and of nationality. After the overthrow of Napoleon, the
Congress of Vienna met to readjust the affairs of Europe. The Congress
seems to have conceived the idea of preventing the carrying out of
those principles as their first starting point, and to have developed
that idea with fixed determination. The Commissioners endeavored
to restore everything to its condition before the Revolution, and
to discredit the principles conceived and developed in France.
They succeeded in accomplishing their intent, so far as remaking
political boundaries, etc., was concerned; but they did not succeed in
discrediting the principles. A great picture had been made in the minds
of men, and the Commissioners could not wipe it out. As a result, three
revolutions took place in 1820, 1830 and 1848, of which the second was
more important than the first, and the third was more important than
the second.
Shortly after the fall of Napoleon, the Czar Alexander, with the
emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia, invented the Holy Alliance.
It was in pretense an alliance to advance the cause of religion, and to
reduce to practice in political affairs the teachings of Christ; but
it was in intention a league against the spread of the ideas embodied
in the French Revolution. The League was not successful in the end,
for the picture of liberty made in the minds of men was too brilliant
and too deeply printed to be wiped out. One of the results of the Holy
Alliance was the invention by the United States of the Monroe Doctrine
which was made to prevent that intervention in affairs on the American
continent which the proceedings of the Alliance foreshadowed.
Italy was very harshly treated by the Congress of Vienna, two of her
largest provinces in the north being given to Austria, who forthwith
proceeded then to try to control the entire peninsula. In 1820, a
revolution broke out in Italy, but it was soon suppressed. Another
broke out in 1830, simultaneous with that in France; and this was also
suppressed. The third, in 1848, met a similar fate. But the revolutions
in France were successful; the one of 1848 resulting in the formation
of a republic. At the same time, a sympathetic revolution in Germany
was in a measure successful also.
In Germany, the formation of the German Confederation in 1815 by the
Congress of Vienna was the formation of a kind of political body that
has never lasted long; for no political body has ever lasted long,
except an actual and definite nation. The various components of the
German Confederation were too loosely bound together. This invention,
like others of mechanical machines, was not a practical invention
because the machine invented was too easily thrown out of adjustment.
The Customs Union was invented in 1828 to supply the necessary element
of coherency. It was hardly adequate for its task, at the time; but
it made the people think of national union; an idea that was finally
developed in 1871.
In Russia, considerable progress was made from 1800 to 1850, though
not so much as in the countries farther west. An adequate reason would
seem to be that there were too few minds, in proportion to the entire
population, that were able to conceive and develop the ideas that are
needed to make progress.
During this half-century, while the names of many men stand out as
having done constructive work in invention and discovery, and while
many great statesmen existed, the names of three statesmen stand out
more brightly than the rest: Pitt, Talleyrand and Metternich. Each
had the mind to conceive, develop and produce; and each did conceive,
develop and produce. Of the three, William Pitt was, according to
almost any accepted standard by far the greatest, and Talleyrand was
second. Without the force and guidance of such a mind as Pitt possessed
and utilized, it is hard to estimate what would have been the rôle of
England in the Napoleonic wars, and what would have been her fate. In
the actual course of events, it was England that announced the "mate in
four moves" to Napoleon at Trafalgar, and that finally checkmated him
at Waterloo. True, Pitt died long before Waterloo; but the policy which
he conceived and developed was the policy which was followed; and the
influence of his mind lived in almost unabated strength after his poor,
frail body had ceased to live.
Talleyrand seems to have been what I have asked permission to call
an "opportunistic inventor"; quick to conceive, develop and produce
plans for meeting difficult situations as they arose, but without
any ultimate objective, or any moral or other principles of any
kind. Metternich, on the other hand, though lacking the brilliancy
of Talleyrand, exerted his talents devotedly to the interests of his
country, as he saw them. But he failed to realize how deep the ideas
of the French Revolution had been engraved in the minds of men, and
finally saw the Machine of the Austrian Government almost destroyed
in 1848. He himself was forced to flee; and the Emperor was forced to
abdicate in favor of his nephew, who granted the people a Constitution,
in order to save the Machine. In Prussia, affairs went almost as far
as in Austria, though not nearly so far as in France. The Machine in
Prussia was saved by the promise of the granting of a constitution.
The main ultimate political result of the agitations of all kinds
during the half century 1800 to 1850, was the granting to greater
numbers of people of a part in directing the affairs of State. In
France, the whole Machine of Civilization had been menaced with
destruction in the years just previous to 1800; but destruction had
not resulted, and actual improvement had been begun by 1800, though in
an experimental and tentative way. During the fifty years now under
consideration, the idea conceived and developed in France spread to all
other civilized countries; and in all those countries it exercised its
benignant influence, especially in the new nation across the Atlantic,
the United States of America. Reciprocally, the news of the formation
of that republic, and the adoption of its Constitution in 1787, had
exercised considerable influence in giving support to the idea of the
people of France, although the United States of America was very far
away indeed, and her experiment in government was as yet untried.
Then, as the years went by, between 1800 and 1850, and as the American
experiment became increasingly successful, and as the ocean steamships
brought prompt and adequate information about all of its developments,
the American idea joined with the French idea, to advance the cause of
government by the people.
It may be pointed out here that the discoveries in the physical
sciences and the utilization of those discoveries in the invention of
material instruments and mechanisms were more fruitful in creations
of a permanent and definite character than were the achievements of
statesmen, generals, admirals and "opportunistic inventors" in general.
The same remark is true of discoveries and inventions in systems of
government, ethics and religion. These also have developed monuments
of extraordinary permanency; witness, for instance, the inventions
of the kingdom, of democracy and of the Buddhist, Shinto, Taoist,
Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan religions. The distinctive feature in
securing permanency seems to have been the intent to secure it. The
sudden conception, development and production of a campaign, political
maneuvre or business enterprise, seems to have produced a creature
that was merely a temporary expedient, adapted only to meet emergencies
that themselves were temporary.
This does not mean that the influence of these temporary expedients
has not sometimes been great: it does not mean, for instance, that the
influence of the victory at Salamis was not great. It does not mean
to deny the plain fact that it has been the succession of the results
of temporary expedients that has brought affairs to the condition in
which they are today. It does mean, however, that the actual pieces
of the existing Machine of Civilization are the permanent inventions
which have been made; while the opportunistic inventions have in some
cases prevented, and in other cases have furthered, the making of
those inventions, and the incorporation of them in the Machine. The
invention of printing, for instance, produced an actual part of the
Machine; while the successful wars waged by civilized nations with
the gun against savages, barbarians and peoples of a lower order of
civilization, made possible the further development of printing,
and its continual use in upbuilding the Machine. The use of the
opportunistic inventions seems to have been in assisting the inventors
of permanent creations and in directing the efforts of the operators of
the Machine.
An analogue can be found in the case of the invention, development and
operation of the smaller machines of every-day life: the inventor of
each machine merely invents that machine; when he has done this his
work is virtually finished. When his machine is put to work (say, an
electric railroad) the operators carry on the various routine tasks;
just as the president of a bank operates his bank, or the president
of a nation administers the affairs of the nation. But there arise
occasions when something goes wrong, when something besides supplying
coal and oil and electricity is necessary for the successful running
of the railroad, when something more than routine administration is
required of the president of the bank, or the president of the nation.
Then the ingenious and bright mechanic or electrician invents a
practical scheme for circumventing the difficulty with the railroad; or
Napoleon invents a campaign to save the French Republic.
In 1855 Taupenot made the important invention of dry-plate photography,
by which dry plates can be prepared and kept ready for use when needed,
and Michaux invented the bicycle. Both of these were fairly important
contributions of a practical kind; so was Woodruff's invention of the
sleeping-car, and so was Perkins's discovery of aniline dyes, both of
which came in 1856. None of these was a brilliant invention, though
each was a useful one. But they were immediately followed by one of
a high order of brilliancy and usefulness, Siemens's regenerative
furnace, in which the waste heat of the combustion gases was utilized
to heat the air or gas just entering. In the same year, Kingsland
invented a refining engine for use in making paper pulp. In the
following year the first ocean-going iron-clad ship of war, _La
Gloire_, appeared, and in 1858 the first cable car, invented by E. A.
Gardner.
In the same year Giffard invented his famous injector, which performs
the feat (seemingly impossible at first thought) of using steam at
a certain pressure in a boiler to force water into that same boiler
against its own pressure! The explanation of course is that the area
of the stream of water that enters the boiler is less than the area of
the stream of steam that leaves the boiler. This invention was one of a
very high order of brilliancy of conception, excellence of construction
and usefulness of final product. It was a valuable contribution to the
Machine.
In the same year Cyrus Field of New York succeeded in laying the first
Atlantic cable between Ireland and Newfoundland. It is difficult to
declare whether this achievement constituted an invention or not, and
it may not be so classed by many people. Nevertheless, it created
something that had not existed before, and it progressed by the same
three stages of conception, development and production by which all
inventions progress. It was a contribution of enormous value to the
Machine, moreover; for though the first cable was not a practical
success, and though the second cable broke while being laid in 1865, it
was recovered and re-laid and afterward operated successfully. Since
that time, submarine cables have been multiplied to such an extent
that there were more than 1800 in operation in 1917, and they formed
a network under all the seas. Such important parts of the Machine of
Civilization have these submarine cables become that the Machine as it
is could not exist without them. That is, it could not have existed
before the wireless telegraph came. The wireless telegraph has made the
Machine less dependent on submarine cables than it was before, and yet
not wholly independent.
In 1858 the _Great Eastern_ was launched, the largest steamship built
up to that time. The case of the _Great Eastern_ is interesting from
the fact that she was too large to fit in the Machine as it then
existed, and that by the time that the Machine had grown large enough
the _Great Eastern_ was obsolete!
About 1859, Kirchhoff and Bunsen invented the spectroscope, an optical
instrument for forming and analyzing the spectra of the rays emitted
by bodies and substances. In 1860 Gaston Planté invented his famous
"secondary battery," formed by passing an electric current through
a cell composed of two sheets of lead immersed in dilute sulphuric
acid, the two sheets separated by non-conducting strips of felt. The
acid being decomposed, hydrogen formed on one plate, while oxygen
attacked the other plate and formed peroxide of lead. There being
now two dissimilar metals in an acid solution, a Voltaic battery had
been created, that gave a current which passed through the liquid in
a direction the reverse of the current ("charging current") that had
caused the change. Planté's secondary battery was an important and
practical contribution to the Machine; but the credit for the basic
invention does not belong to Planté, but to Sir William Grove, who
had invented the "Grove's gas battery." In this battery, two plates
of platinum were immersed in dilute acid, and submitted to a charging
current that decomposed the liquid and formed an actual though
practically ineffective "secondary battery"; the two elements being
oxygen and hydrogen.
In the next year Philip Reis invented the singing telephone, by which
he could transmit _musical tones_ over considerable distances. Whether
or not Philip Reis invented the speaking telephone has been a much
controverted question, for the reason that speech was occasionally
transmitted over Reis's telephone,--though not by intention. The
invention that Reis conceived, developed and produced was a singing
telephone only; the apparatus by which he sometimes transmitted speech
was his singing telephone, slightly disadjusted. That Reis should have
failed to invent the telephone is amazing, in the same sense that it is
amazing that Galileo did not invent the thermometer and the barometer;
and the fact is extremely instructive in enabling us to see distinctly
what constitutes invention. To make an invention, a man must himself
create a thing that is new, and produce it in a concrete form, such
that "persons skilled in the art can make and use it." Reis did not
do this: and yet Philip Reis's telephone could be made to speak in
a few seconds, by simply turning a little thumb-screw! Reis did not
know this, and consequently could not give the information to "persons
skilled in the art." Reis did not invent the speaking telephone,
for the fundamental reason that his original conception, although
correct for his singing telephone, was wholly incorrect for a speaking
telephone; because the speaking telephone requires a continuous
current, while Reis's conception included an intermittent current.
Apologies are tendered for going into what may seem a technicality
at such great length; but the author wishes to utilize this example
to emphasize the importance of the original conception, the image
pictured on the mind by the imagination. This original conception is
of paramount importance in making inventions, not only of material
mechanisms, but of all other things that can be invented, such as
religions, laws, systems of government, campaigns, books, paintings,
etc., etc. The final product cannot be better than the original
conception, except by chance; for even if the development be absolutely
perfect, the invention finally brought forth can be only equal to the
original conception. It is obvious that the simpler the invention
is the more easily it can be made equal to the original conception,
and vice versâ. For this reason the stethoscope is a more efficient
embodiment of the original conception than is that very inefficient
product--the steam engine.
The fact that the final product cannot be better than the original
conception (except by chance) is the bottom reason for placing men
of fine minds at the head of important organizations. It is the
ideas conceived by the man at the head in any walk of life, that are
developed by his assistants: at least, this is the intention, in all
organizations, and the only efficient procedure. We see an analogue in
the actual life of every individual. Now the conception is the work
of the imagination, and not of the reasoning faculties: the reasoning
faculties develop and construct what the imagination conceives. It
is because of this that men of fine mentality sometimes devote their
talents to evil ends: their imaginations have conceived evil pictures.
Sometimes this is the result of a bad environment in childhood. The
environment of Talleyrand's childhood, for instance, caused the
conception in his imagination of evil aims.
In 1860 Carré made the important invention of the manufacture of ice
with the use of ammonia. In 1861 Craske improved stereotyping by
making it possible to reproduce curved printing plates from flat forms
of type. Green invented the driven-well in the same year, and McKay
invented the shoe-sewing machine.
The most important event of 1861 was the outbreak of the Civil War in
America, when the invention of the American Constitution was put to
its severest test. It had been known ever since the adoption of the
Constitution that the instrument was faulty in not defining clearly the
relative rights of the Federal Government and the separate states; but
it had been found impossible to secure the assent of a sufficiently
large body of citizens to any proposition that defined them clearly;
and so the machine of Government had operated for nearly three-quarters
of a century, with the disquieting knowledge in the minds of its
operators that conditions might put it to a test that would break it
down, and perhaps destroy it totally. The most dangerous condition
was seen to be the one associated with the question of slavery in
the Southern States. This question, and the consequent condition of
antagonism between the North and the South, became rapidly worse during
the period from 1846 to 1861, when war between them finally broke out.
The war was ultimately decided in favor of the North, despite the fact
that the South was much the better prepared; in fact, that the North
was wholly unprepared. The main weakness in the Confederate situation
was the fact that cotton was virtually the only product with which she
could raise money for feeding and equipping her army, that she had to
get the equipments from Europe, and that the line of communication to
Europe was across the Atlantic Ocean, 3000 miles wide. The weakness
seemed, during a period of about twenty-four hours, to be removed by
the invention of the iron-clad _Merrimac_; for the _Merrimac_ destroyed
the _Cumberland_ and _Congress_, two of the finest warships on the
Union side, without the slightest difficulty in one forenoon, and
threatened the destruction of all the other Union ships. The Union
ships having been destroyed or made to flee to port, complete freedom
from blockade of the Confederate coast would follow immediately. The
_Monitor_ had been invented years before; but no steps had been taken
to build her, despite the insistence of the great inventing engineer,
John Ericsson. News of the work of constructing the _Merrimac_ had
reached the North, however, and stimulated the northern imagination
to the extent that it was able to see in the _Monitor_ a savior (and
the only savior) from the _Merrimac_. By the exercise of amazing
engineering skill, Ericsson constructed his invention with such speed
and precision that the _Monitor_ was able to meet and defeat the
_Merrimac_ the very day after she had destroyed the Union ships.
The result was an immediate and absolute reversal of conditions. It
was the North now that controlled the sea and the South that was to be
blockaded. And not only this; for the fact that the North possessed a
warship that was not only the most formidable in the world, but was of
such simple construction that many of them could be launched in a very
short time, showed to those European powers who were deliberating as to
whether or not they should recognize the Confederacy, the futility of
their attempting to carry into effect on the American coast any naval
policy of a character unfriendly to the United States. The victory of
the _Monitor_ was the announcement of the "mate in four moves." Victory
for the South became immediately impossible, no matter how long the
final checkmate might be delayed. We know, of course, that checkmate
was delayed until April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered to Grant at
Appomattox.
In few cases has the influence of invention on history shone more
clearly than in the case of the _Monitor_. The _Monitor_ was the
deciding factor in the Civil War. This does not mean that the _Monitor_
alone won the Civil War. No one event or person or maneuver won the
Civil War: for the Civil War was won by the resultant effect of many
events, persons and maneuvers. It does mean, however, that the victory
of the _Monitor_ made it virtually impossible for the issue to be
otherwise than it eventually was; provided, of course, that a course of
conduct not wholly unreasonable was pursued by the North. All the other
factors in the war were what might be called usual: the _Monitor_ alone
was unusual. The _Monitor's battle was the only battle in which the
light of genius shone, on either side_.
The _Monitor's_ victory emphasizes a truth previously pointed out
in this book: the truth that the influence of invention has been to
advance the cause of civilization, by giving victory in wars, as a
rule, to the side possessing the higher civilization. This was clearly
the case in our Civil War; for the South was far more an agricultural
and primitive community than the North. It was for this reason that
Ericsson lived in the North. We can hardly imagine Ericsson coming
from England and going to live in the South; for the simple reason that
Ericsson, the dynamic, inventive Ericsson, could not possibly have
lived a life even approximately satisfying to him in the South. There
was no opportunity in the South for him to exercise his powers. It has
been said sometimes that the _Monitor_ might have been produced by the
South, and the _Merrimac_ by the North. Of course, anything is possible
that is not wholly impossible; but history shows that inventions have,
as a rule, been produced by people like those of the North, and not by
people like those of the South.
The influence of invention on history has been to bring about such
victories as that of the _Monitor_ over the _Merrimac_; and the
influence of those victories has been to enhance the advantages
possessed by the more highly civilized. Furthermore, the victory of the
more civilized has given civilization greater assurance in its struggle
to go still higher, just as defeat has made it pause and sometimes
retreat. The issue of the Civil War, for instance, was more than a
victory over slavery and the tendency to dissipation of energy by a
division into two parts of the forces of the country; for it removed
permanently a highly injurious obstruction and started the rejuvenated
republic along that career of progress which it has followed since so
valiantly.
In 1861 E. G. Otis invented the passenger elevator. Possibly this was
not an invention of the first order of brilliancy, but certainly it
was an invention of the first order of utility. Can anyone imagine
the New York of today without passenger elevators? The Otis elevator
has not made it possible to grow two blades of grass where one
blade grew before; but it has made it possible to operate hotels
and office buildings of more than twice as many stories as could be
operated before. Few inventions have had more immediate influence on
contemporary history than the passenger elevator.
In the same year was invented the barbed-wire fence. The production
of carbide of calcium followed in 1862, and also the invention of
the Gatling gun. This was the first successful machine gun, and an
invention of a high order of brilliancy of conception, excellence of
construction and practical usefulness. Few inventions have been more
wholly unique than this machine: so beautiful and harmonious and simple
in principle--though devoted superficially merely to the killing and
wounding of men. Like all inventions in the gun class, it contributed
to the self-protectiveness of the Machine.
An invention in a similar class, smokeless gunpowder was invented by
Schultze in 1863, for use as a sporting powder. Being based on the
action of nitric acid on cellulose, it was somewhat like gun-cotton,
and therefore a chemical compound; rather than a mechanical mixture
like the old gunpowder. It gave out but little smoke when fired.
Smokelessness would be such an obvious advantage in military
operations, that the study of this powder was prosecuted carefully,
with a view to obtaining a smokeless powder suitable for military
purposes. This was accomplished in 1886 by Vieille in France. The
invention of smokeless powder was not one of a high order of brilliancy
for the reason that it was the result of a long series of painstaking
investigations and not of any luminous idea. It was nevertheless a
contribution of the highest usefulness to the self-protectiveness of
the Machine, and therefore to Civilization.
In 1864 Behel invented the automatic grain binder, an invention of the
same class of practical and concrete usefulness as McCormick's reaper,
and a distinct contribution to the Machine. It expedited the binding
of grain, tended to insure accuracy and efficiency, and stimulated
the agricultural classes to a study of mechanism, and therefore of
physics and the arts depending on it. In other words, this invention
performed the double service that many other inventions have performed,
of contributing to the material necessities of men, and inspiring their
intellects as well. In the following year, Martin invented his process
for improving the manufacture of fine steel.
In the same year (1865) Lister brought out his method of antiseptic
surgery. It would be difficult to specify any invention which has
contributed more in half a century to the direct welfare of mankind.
It has effected such a change in surgery as to make the surgery before
Lister's time seem almost barbarous. It made a greater change in
surgery than any change ever made before: one is tempted to declare
that it has brought about a greater change in surgery than all the
previous changes put together. Now, it is interesting to realize
that all these changes, extending over all the civilized world, and
affecting countless human beings, were caused by "a mere idea." They
were caused by a picture made by the imagination of Lister on his
mental retina, that must have covered a very small area of his brain.
It is interesting also to realize that if that part of his brain
had become impaired from any cause, the picture could not have been
imprinted there. And was his brain always in condition to receive
such a picture, or only seldom? Knowing as we do that even the most
brilliant minds are brilliant only rarely, may we not infer that
conditions of the brain permitting such pictures as this of Lister
occur but rarely?
It was also in 1865 that Bullock invented his web-feeding printing
press, and Dodge invented the automatic shell-ejector for firearms.
In 1866 Siemens and Martin invented the open-hearth process for steel
making, Burleigh the compressed air rock-drill, and Whitehead the
automobile torpedo.
The Whitehead torpedo was an invention of the highest order of
brilliancy of conception; but, unlike many other inventions of this
class, it has been a matter of the utmost difficulty to develop it. The
possible usefulness suggested was so great that the principal European
nations, especially the Germans and English, went about its development
at once; but the practical difficulties encountered were so many and so
great, and the opportunities of testing out its usefulness in actual
warfare were so few, that it was not until after its successful and
important use in the war between Russia and Japan in 1904-1905, that
the torpedo was accepted as a major weapon. This invention is one of
the most important contributions ever made to the self-protectivity
of the Machine of Civilization; not only because of its immediate
usefulness in war, but because its complexity necessitates such skill
and knowledge in the operators, and its cost is so great, that only
the most wealthy and highly civilized nations are able to use it
successfully. As has been pointed out repeatedly in this book, one of
the influences of invention on history has been to urge nations to a
high degree of civilization, under pain of greater or less subjection
to nations more highly civilized.
In 1866 Wilde in England and Siemens in Germany invented dynamo
electric machines, in which the magnetic field was made, not by
permanent steel magnets, but by electro-magnets of soft iron that were
energized by the current which the machine itself produced. This was
an invention of the utmost practical value; but who was the actual
inventor does not seem to be exactly known. Its main value is in its
ability to produce a much more powerful current than could be produced
when using permanent magnets; caused by the fact that electro-magnets
can create a "magnetic field" much stronger than steel magnets can.
In 1867 Tilghman invented his sulphite process for pulp making, and in
1868, Moncrief invented his famous disappearing gun-carriage. This was
an invention requiring a high order of conception and constructiveness;
it resulted in a considerable improvement in the art of sea-coast
defense, and therefore in the self-protectiveness of the Machine, by
keeping the guns safe behind fortifications except when actually being
fired. Moncrief's carriage, although originally very good, has been
improved upon from time to time; whenever the progress of the mechanic
arts has made it possible, and some inventor has realized the fact.
Attention is here requested to the last clause in the last sentence. As
civilization has progressed and various inventions have been made, the
whole field of possible future invention has been narrowed, but a field
of clear though limited opportunity has been mapped out. Each invention
narrows the field by removing the opportunities for making that
especial invention: after the printing press had been invented, for
instance, the number of possible inventions was reduced by one; but see
what a field for future invention was mapped out, and what immeasurable
opportunities were suggested! Nevertheless, opportunity does not
produce inventions, it merely invites them; and we have occasionally
noted in this book that the opportunity to make a certain invention
had existed for ages before it was realized: for instance, the
sewing-machine and the little stethoscope.
In 1868 Sholes invented what is usually considered the first practical
typewriting machine. The machine that Thurber had invented in 1843 had
never been developed to a practical stage, and, consequently, it was
not itself a direct contribution to the Machine. Whether it paved the
way for Sholes's is a debatable point; if it did, it was an indirect
contribution, like Hero's engine. Not for several years after 1868
did the typewriter take its place in the Machine: but now it plays an
exceedingly useful, if not conspicuous, part in making it operate day
after day.
In the same year Nobel contributed another of his notable inventions,
and called it dynamite. It was the development of an exceedingly
brilliant and original idea; and, as often happens with conceptions
of that kind, it was easily developed into a concrete, usable and
useful thing. It consisted merely in mixing nitro-glycerin with
about an equal quantity of very finely divided earth. The resulting
mixture was much less sensitive to shock and therefore much safer to
handle than nitro-glycerin. It supplied the factor needed to render
the utilization of nitro-glycerin possible, and therefore it was a
valuable contribution to the Machine. In the same year, Mege invented
oleomargarine, a comparatively inexpensive substitute for butter, and
therefore an important factor in furthering the health and comfort of
the poorer classes and a considerable forward step.
Shortly after 1866, Mrs. Eddy declared to many people that she had made
a discovery which enabled her to cure the sick with Divine aid, and
without the use of drugs. She healed many people and gradually gathered
followers. In a few years, she developed a religion that is now called
Christian Science; and in 1875 she published a book called "Science
and Health, with Key to the Scriptures." Since then, the number of her
followers has increased enormously, and Christian Science Churches
have been erected in all the civilized countries of the world. Though
the doctrines of Christian Science have not been accepted by many
Christians, the great opposition directed toward them at first has now
been largely overcome; and it is admitted by most fair-minded people
that Christian Science seems to have made an important contribution to
the spiritual, mental and physical welfare of mankind.
In 1868, Westinghouse made his epochal invention, the railway
air-brake. It was the result of a brilliant mental conception that
was put into practical form without very serious difficulty. At first
sight, this invention might not be considered of very great importance,
because one might assume that its only office was to prevent collisions
and consequent loss of life and property. Doubtless that was its only
direct effect; but its indirect effect was to increase the confidence
of the people in the safety of railway travel, consequently the number
of people who traveled, consequently the prosperity of the railway
companies, consequently the faith of people in railway investments,
consequently the number and magnitude of railway projects, consequently
the number and length of railways, consequently the speed and general
excellence of transportation and communication over the land in every
civilized country, and consequently the coherency and operativeness of
the entire Machine.
CHAPTER XII
INVENTION OF THE MODERN MILITARY MACHINE, TELEPHONE, PHONOGRAPH, AND
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
In 1866, one of the most important inventions of history was put to
test, in a war between Austria and Prussia. The invention was the
Prussian Military Machine, of which the inventor was von Moltke, the
Chief of Staff of the Prussian Army. Moltke was not the original
inventor of the Military Machine, any more than Watt was the original
inventor of the steam engine; but he was the inventor of the modern
Military Machine, just as Watt was the inventor of the modern
reciprocating steam-engine.
Moltke had been made Chief of Staff in 1858, and had proceeded at once
to embody an idea that his mind had conceived some years before. This
idea was to utilize all the new inventions of every kind that had
been made, especially in weapons, transportation and communication;
and to continue to utilize all new inventions as each reached the
useful stage, in such a way that the Prussian Army would be an actual
weapon, which could be handled with all the quickness and precision
that the products of modern civilization could impart to it. Philip of
Macedon, Julius Cæsar, and Frederick William of Prussia evidently had
had similar ideas; but no one after them, save Moltke, seems to have
realized fully that armies and navies must utilize all the new methods
and appliances that can be made to assist their operations, if those
armies and navies are to attain their maximum effectiveness. It is
true that no very great changes in arms or in methods of transportation
and communication had recently taken place, at the time when Napoleon
went to war; but this only emphasizes the new conditions with which
Moltke was confronted, and the courage and resourcefulness with which
he met them.
Moltke's Machine was, of course, much more comprehensive and detailed
than the paragraph above would indicate; but almost every machine,
after it has been perfected, is comprehensive and detailed, even if
the original idea was simple. It is true also that the direct means
which Moltke employed to perfect his Machine was to train officers to
solve independently certain problems in strategy and tactics, just as
children at school were taught to solve problems in arithmetic. It
is true also that more attention has usually been fixed on Moltke's
system of training than on his utilization of inventions, and it may
be true that Moltke himself fixed more attention on it. But the idea
of training officers as he did, seems also to have been original with
Moltke; and it is certain that Moltke was the first to develop such a
system, and therefore, that he was the inventor of that system.
We see, therefore, that Moltke made two separate inventions, and
combined both in his machine. Both inventions were condemned and
ridiculed, but both succeeded. The result was that, when war was
declared in 1866 between Prussia and Austria, a reputedly greater
nation, the Prussian machine started smoothly but quickly when the
button was pressed, advanced into Austria without the slightest delay
or jar, collided at once with the Austrian machine, and smashed it in
one encounter. This encounter was near Sadowa and Königgrätz, and took
place only seventeen days after war began. The most important single
invention that Moltke had utilized was the breech-loading "needle
gun," a weapon far better than the Austrians had, not only in speed of
loading, but in accuracy. The two armies were not very different in
point of numbers: so that, even if von Moltke's other measures had not
been taken, the superiority of the Prussian musket over the Austrian
must of itself have caused the winning of the war, though not so
quickly as actually was the case.
But in the war with France, Moltke's machine demonstrated its
effectiveness even more completely, because its task was harder. For
France was esteemed the greatest military nation in the world; it was
the France of Napoleon the Great, then ruled by his nephew Napoleon
III. In the usual sense of the word, the French were a more "military"
people than the Prussians. The Empire of Napoleon III was much more
splendid than the poor little Kingdom of Prussia, the army was more
in evidence, there were more military pageants, the people were more
ardent. But the military leaders of the French included no such
inventor as von Moltke, there was no one who conceived any such ideas
as were pictured in Moltke's imaginative brain; and consequently it
never occurred to anyone to utilize strenuously all the new inventions,
or to train officers like school boys, in the practical problems of
war. The result was that Moltke's machine got into France before the
French machine had been even put together. The pieces of the French
machine had not been got together even when the war ended. When war
was declared by France, her military machine was in three parts. Two
of them got together fairly quickly, so that the French machine was
soon divided into only two parts; one under Marshal Bazaine, and the
other under Marshal McMahon. But Moltke's machine was together at the
start, and it stayed together throughout the war. This does not mean
that all its parts stood in the same spot; but it does mean that the
parts were always in supporting distance of each other. The two parts
of the French machine were not in supporting distance of each other,
and the German machine prevented them from uniting. When McMahon and
Bazaine tried to unite, McMahon was defeated at Wörth, and Bazaine at
Gravelotte. McMahon was forced to surrender his entire force, including
the emperor at Sedan; and Bazaine was shut up in Metz. Paris was then
besieged. Bazaine was soon forced to surrender and Paris to capitulate.
The main immediate result was the establishment of the German Empire.
A later result was the establishment of what is sometimes called
militarism. Of the two, the latter was probably the more important
in future consequences; for the influence of Moltke's conception of
military preparedness has been to make all civilized nations keep up
enormous and highly organized military and naval establishments, under
pain of being caught unprepared for war and beaten to subjection.
The German Empire has vanished, but militarism has not vanished. There
seem to be no signs that it will soon vanish, for it is simply part
of a general preparedness movement that embraces many fields of life,
that is necessitated by the existence of this cumbrous Machine of
Civilization, and that is advanced by the realization that everyone
must cultivate foresight. The physicians tell us, the financiers tell
us, the lawyers tell us, the clergymen tell us, even the business men
of every day and the housewives tell us that we must continually look
ahead and continually prepare to meet what may be coming. Now this is
what Militarism urges as applied to the coming of war. Militarism is
the doctrine of preparedness for war; it holds the same relation to
national health that preventive medicine does to individual health.
It would make us do many unpleasant things, and refrain from doing
many pleasant things. But to do many unpleasant things and to refrain
from doing many pleasant things is necessary, in order to lead even a
moderately virtuous and prudent life. Militarism may be pushed to an
undue extreme; but so may any course of conduct.
It may be interesting to note that Moltke was not an "opportunistic
inventor," like most men of action typified by Napoleon, but that
Bismarck was. Moltke made inventions of a permanent nature, but
Bismarck did not. Yet Moltke was a soldier and Bismarck was a
statesman. Bismarck's German Empire has already passed away, but
Moltke's method of preparedness is with us still, and is gathering
more and more prestige as the years go by. Judged by the standard of
permanent achievement, Moltke was a greater man than Bismarck; though
a belief to the contrary was held during their lifetimes, and is
generally held by most men now.
In 1870, Gramme invented the famous Gramme dynamo-electric machine,
which was so excellent a machine for producing a smooth and
unidirectional electric current, that it gave the start to that
wonderful succession of electrical inventions which established the Age
of Electricity. The main part of Gramme's machine was a modification
of the Pacinnoti ring, invented by Pacinnoti in 1862, which seems
never to have been put to practical use, and never to have been heard
of by Gramme. The Pacinnoti ring consisted of a ring around which
a continuous coil of wire was wound. This ring being rotated in a
magnetic field, the various parts of the wire at any instant lay at
different angles to the lines of force, instead of at the same angle to
them, as was the case with the flat coil of previous dynamo machines.
The result was that some coil was always cutting the magnetic
lines-of-force at the maximum speed, while others were cutting them
at varying speeds, down to zero; so that the aggregate of all was
approximately the same at all instants. The result was that the current
was nearly uniform in strength. The influence of this invention on
subsequent history need hardly be pointed out; for it is impressed on
us every day and every night, in every part of the civilized world.
In the same epochal year that ushered in the Franco-Prussian War and
the Gramme machine, the Hyatts invented celluloid. The invention was of
the simplest character, involving mainly the compression of camphorated
gun-cotton by hydraulic or other force. This was not a great invention,
but a useful one; making it possible to fabricate many useful articles
at low cost.
In the following year of 1871, Goodyear invented his welt shoe-sewing
machine and Maddox made his epochal discovery. This was that when
nitrate of silver was added to a solution of gelatine in water
containing a soluble bromide, silver bromide was formed, which did
not subside even after long standing; that the emulsion could be made
quickly and in large quantities, and that by thus substituting gelatine
for collodion on the surface of glass plates used in photography,
greater sensitiveness, and therefore, greater speed could be obtained.
This led to an important improvement, and paved the way to others, and
thus became the basis of rapid photography.
By 1871 the work of several inventors had produced a press that printed
an endless sheet of paper on both sides and folded it automatically.
In the same year Ingersoll invented his compressed air rock drill.
In 1872, Lyall invented his positive-motion weaving loom, and Clerk
Maxwell propounded his electro-magnetic theory of light. According
to this theory, luminous and electric disturbances are the same in
kind, the same medium transmits both, and light is an electro-magnetic
phenomenon. This was a most important invention in the field of
physical science, and is now accepted by the majority of scientists. It
is not so applicable to the needs of men at the present moment as the
weaving loom; but in the future, it may be more so.
In the same year, Westinghouse invented an improvement on his original
air-brake that made it automatic under some conditions, and in the
following year Janney invented the automatic car-coupler. Both of these
were brilliant inventions, though not nearly so brilliant as Clerk
Maxwell's. They were immeasurably more important, however, from the
standpoint of material contributions to the Machine. One result was
that the inventors were immeasurably more rewarded in a material way
than was that great mathematical physicist, Clerk Maxwell.
In the same year of Our Lord, 1873, Willis invented his platinotype
photographic process, in which finely divided platinum forms an image
virtually permanent, and Edison invented his duplex telegraph. This
was the first of those wonderful inventions that made Edison famous;
and it embodied possibly as brilliant an idea as he ever conceived.
The principle was exceedingly simple, and consisted merely in using
currents that increased in strength as the key was pressed to actuate
an ordinary electro-magnet for one message, and using currents whose
direction was reversed when the key was pressed, to actuate a polarized
relay for another message. By combining this scheme with one long
before proposed, of putting the receiving instruments across the arms
of a Wheatstone Bridge, the entire system could be duplicated, and two
messages sent at the same time in each direction. This, of course,
constituted quadruplex telegraphy.
In the same year, Gorham invented the twine-binder for harvesters,
Bennett improved the gelatine-bromide process of Maddox; and Locke and
Wood invented the self-binding reaper. In 1874, Glidden and Vaughan
invented a machine for making barbed wire, and Sir William Thomson
invented his super-excellent siphon-recorder for receiving messages
over the Atlantic cable. This invention combined the three elements
that constitute a great invention; brilliancy of conception, excellence
of construction and concrete product. It was of immediate usefulness
also, which a great invention may not necessarily be. But Sir William
Thomson was a "canny Scot," a good mechanic, and a man of the world,
as well as a mathematical physicist of the highest order; with the
result that even on his loftiest flights, he held tight to a string
that connected him to the earth, and that kept his flights within
the regions of the practical and immediate. His siphon-recorder was
very much more sensitive to electric currents than any recorder ever
invented before; a quality which made feebler currents utilizable,
decreased induction and therefore increased speed. Coming when it
did, and coming because Sir William Thomson saw a need for it, it
was a great and important contribution to submarine telegraphy, and
therefore to the Machine; for the Machine has now become very large
and complicated, and needed the best possible communication among its
various parts. Some of these parts were far distant from each other.
In the following year, 1875, Brown invented his cash-carrier. This
was not so brilliant or important an invention as Sir William
Thomson's; but it can hardly be doubted that a hundred thousand
times as many cash-carriers and their children, cash-registers, have
been made as siphon-recorders. In the same year, Lowe invented his
illuminating water-gas; Wegmann his roller flour mills; Smith his
middlings purifier for flour; and Pictet his ice-machine. The last
four inventions were of that distinctly practical kind that contribute
directly to the operativeness of the Machine, by facilitating the
conditions of living in large communities, and make great cities
possible. Of the four, the invention of Pictet was the most brilliant
and scientific, and the least directly useful.
In 1876, Bell made an invention that is usually conceded to be the most
important of modern times, and that was also of the highest order of
brilliancy of conception, excellence of construction and concreteness
of result. The invention was that of the speaking telephone.
The telephone is not in the class with the actual doers of things,
like the weaving machine and the gun, but rather in the class with
the telegraph and the typewriter, in being an assistant to the doers
of things: that is, it is an instrument rather than a machine. This
does not mean that a machine is more important than an instrument,
though possibly machines have done more work directly in furthering
civilization than instruments have. A machine does something itself;
an instrument is a means or agency or implement with which men do
something. As a class, machines have probably been more directly useful
than instruments; but this does not mean, of course, that any machine
that one may name has been more useful than any instrument. A machine
(generally speaking) does only one class of work; the sewing-machine,
for instance, does no work save sewing; while such an instrument as
the telephone is an aid to men in directing the work of thousands of
machines.
It may be pointed out here that, in the broad meaning of the word
instrument, every machine that does actual work is an instrument in the
hands of men for doing that work; but that every instrument is not
necessarily a machine. A machine, by definition, is composed of various
parts that work together to a common end, and it carries with it the
ideas of movement and of power. An instrument, on the other hand, need
not be composed of more than one part; it may of itself be incapable of
moving or exerting power; and yet, in the hands of men and women, it
may be the means of doing the most useful work. A familiar illustration
among many is the needle.
Now the telephone can hardly be called a machine: it can of itself do
nothing. It is not like an engine that can do work hour after hour,
without external interposition, supervision or assistance. Yet, for
the reason that the only value of a machine lies in the fact that it
is an instrument whereby men can get results, an instrument is not
necessarily in a lower class than a machine.
The essential value of the telephone seems to lie in the fact that the
Machine has become so complicated, and composed of so many separate
parts, that, without the telephone, those parts would not be adequately
linked together. The telephone, like the telegraph, acts in the Machine
of Civilization as do the nerves in the human organism. The human
organism could not be an organism without the nervous system; and
the present Machine could not exist in its present form without the
telegraph and the telephone. These two instruments have so greatly
improved the Machine as to raise it toward the dignity of an organism.
They have not made it an organism, because they have not endowed it
with life. They have, however, raised it to the dignity of an automatic
machine, by supplying such a ready and sure means of conveying
information and instructions, that a blow to the Machine anywhere is
felt everywhere, and assistance to the part attacked can be summoned
from everywhere.
Illustrations of this can be seen the most clearly in our large cities,
in which information concerning a fire, or a riot, or an accident is
transmitted instantly to all parts of the city; and fire engines,
police or ambulances are sent in response thereto. Illustrations
covering wider fields come to mind at once; but they are of the same
character, whether the fields comprise single states or continents
or seas, or the whole surface of the earth. Possibly the best single
illustration is that supplied by the events of the recent World War, in
which the nerves of civilization in every land were kept on the tingle
by the news continually received from the fighting fronts, and measures
were continually taken to meet each situation as it occurred. Australia
and New Zealand and America and Canada and South Africa assisted France
to repel the invader from her soil.
The influence of the telephone on history has been so great that
history would not be at all as it has been, if the telephone had not
been born. Has this influence been beneficent? Probably, because it
has tied the parts of the Machine together, and made it more coherent.
But it may be well to realize that this very fact has had the effect
of permitting other additions to the Machine; with the result that the
Machine is perhaps no more coherent now than it was when the telephone
was added to it. Furthermore, we must not forget that, although the
influence of each new invention is usually to assist civilization
rather than to assist its enemies, yet we cannot assume that 100%
is exerted on that side, for a considerable percentage is always
exerted on the other side. For instance, the printing press is used to
disseminate harmful teachings, as well as beneficent teachings, the
telephone is used for bad purposes as well as good ones, etc.
We must not restrict our appreciation of the influence of the telephone
by ignoring the stimulation which it has given to study and experiment,
especially in the physical sciences. People of the present day do not
realize the amazement and excitement caused throughout the world by the
sudden realization of the fact that human speech could be transmitted.
Coming as it did so soon after the invention of the Gramme dynamo,
it waked the minds of men with a sudden start, and opened a dazzling
avenue of anticipation of discoveries and inventions yet to come. Young
men, and especially young men of fine ambition, saw ahead a clear
line of useful and brilliant work; and the colleges and technical
schools were soon thronged with eager youth. A new epoch--the electric
epoch--was at hand.
The most generally noticed herald of the new epoch was not the
telephone, however, but the "electric candle" invented by Jablochkoff
in 1876, which soon afterward came into use in Paris. This candle
consisted of two parallel sticks of carbon separated by an insulating
substance, made of some refractory material, that fuzed as the carbons
gradually burned away. The two carbons were connected to an electric
circuit that passed from the tip of one carbon to the tip of the other,
causing a brilliant electric arc. To prevent one carbon wasting away
more rapidly than the other, an alternating current was employed. This
great invention is now almost forgotten, because it was soon supplanted
by the present arc-light that is better in many ways. Nevertheless, to
Jablochkoff must be accorded the distinction of being the first to make
electric lighting on a large scale practicable, and to demonstrate the
fact.
In the same year, an invention of more than doubtful beneficence was
made, a machine for continuously making cigarettes; but this was
balanced in the same year by the inventions of the steam saw-mill and
of Portland cement.
In the following year came an invention fully as brilliant as the
telephone, though not so useful, the phonograph. It is usually
considered as more brilliant; certainly it was more unexpected. The
idea of transmitting speech was very old, many men had worked on it,
and many were working on it at the time when Bell accomplished it;
but the idea of recording speech was almost undreamed of. Up to the
present moment, it can hardly be said that the phonograph has had great
influence on history; for its main work has been in giving pleasure by
the music it has rendered. We can easily imagine the present Machine,
without the phonograph, but not without the telephone.
And we cannot imagine the present Machine to exist without the gas
engine, invented the same year by Dr. Otto, that made possible the
use of large units of mechanical power, without the need of boilers
or condensers or other external appliances; for the combustion of the
fuel was carried on inside the engine itself. This invention has been
followed by many others during the forty-five years that have since
gone by, in which oil has taken the place of gas. Petrol or gasolene
has been the oil (or spirit) most used; but engines of the Deisel type,
employing heavy oils, have now come into being in large numbers.
It is easy to underestimate the influence of the gas-engine, or
oil-engine (usually called the internal combustion engine), as is
proved by the fact that most people do so; despite the evidence of its
importance on all sides, in the shape of submarine vessels, automobiles
and similar vehicles. Its most important single effect has been to
make possible the aeroplane, and all the science and art of aviation,
and the consequent conquest of the air.
In the same year of 1877, Edison made his great invention, the carbon
telephone transmitter, which increased enormously the effect of the
voice in varying the resistance of a telephone circuit, and thereby
increased the loudness of telephone speech. In the same year, Berliner
invented the induction transmitter, which consisted of a primary coil
of small resistance in circuit with the transmitter and the secondary
coil connected to the outside circuit. These two inventions, added
to Bell's original invention, made the telephone of today--in its
essential features.
In 1878, Edison produced his incandescent lamp, in which a carbon
filament, enclosed in a bulb exhausted of air, was heated to
incandescence by an electric current. The importance of this invention
need hardly be even mentioned. As to the originality of the conception,
there are many opinions; for several experimenters had been working in
this field, and many brilliant results had been achieved. Important as
this invention was, we can imagine the Machine to exist without it,
though not in quite so perfect and complete a form. Its main use is
its obvious use; though there can be no doubt that the improvement it
wrought in the conditions of comfortable living, and the attractions it
offered to ambitious youths enlisted a large army in the study of the
physical sciences, gave impetus to all the mechanic arts, and assisted
in many important ways the upbuilding of the Machine.
In 1879, Appleby invented the automatic grain-binder, and Sir William
Crookes made his epochal discovery of cathode rays. This discovery,
like many others of a highly scientific character, was not of immediate
practical value; consisting as it did in the fact that if the poles
of the secondary circuit of a Rhumkorff coil were connected to the two
ends of a glass tube from which nearly all the air (or other gas) had
been exhausted, a stream of electrified particles was projected from
the cathode, or negative pole. These particles were evidently projected
with great violence; for if they struck the side of the tube, they
produced a brilliant illumination there; while if they struck a piece
of metal they developed heat. If the metal were sufficiently thin, it
was melted. Later study of these cathode rays developed the fact that
the stream of charged particles could be deflected by magnetic and
electric fields, thus showing that they had actual physical mass; and
still later studies resulted in that mass being determined, and also
the amount of the electric charges on them. To an individual particle
the name electron was given; and the interesting fact developed that
the mass of an electron is only about one-thousandth that of an atom of
hydrogen.
This is not very exciting news to men whose time is consumed in the
engrossing occupation of earning a living; but scientific facts have
a curious habit of lurking in the background, sometimes a long while,
and then suddenly stepping up to the footlights in the form of facts
or inventions of a kind that are exceedingly important,--even from the
standpoint of making a living, or at least of enduring the conditions
of living. The study of electrons, for instance led the way to the
discovery of the beneficent X-rays, made in 1895 by Röntgen.
The first electric railways, like the first railways of any kind, were
laid in mines; for the superiority of electricity over steam for use in
the unventilated spaces of mines was obviously greater than in the open
spaces on the surface. The first one was in the mines at Zankerode in
Germany and was constructed by the famous Siemens Brothers. The first
electric surface railway was built at Berlin in 1879. It was about
three hundred and fifty yards in length, and laid upon wooden sleepers;
an auxiliary rail being fixed midway between the two main rails. The
auxiliary rail carried the electric current, which was taken off by a
brush connected to the electric motor on the car, from which it went
to the rails that acted as the "return." The similarity between this
system and that now used in all our cities is striking, and shows how
practically and scientifically good the first electric railway was.
To estimate correctly the influence of the invention of the electric
railway would be, of course, impossible, especially on partially
developed countries; for the electric railway assisted greatly in
developing them. It seems possible, however, that the electric
railway may be of not very long life, for the reason that the
internal-combustion-engine possesses the same great advantage of
smokelessness that the electric motor does and makes possible the use
of a much simpler system than electric railways necessitate. The fact
that any invention is displaced by a later one does not, of course,
detract from the merit of the invention displaced, in having supplied
the needed stepping-stone for the other one to rise from.
In the same year, Foy invented the steam plow, and Lee invented his
magazine rifle. In the following year (1880) Blake invented his
telephone transmitter, an improvement of a practical character over
preceding ones, Greener invented his hammerless gun, and Faure invented
his electric storage battery.
The Faure storage battery was a very important invention, but not
nearly so important a one as was at first supposed. It was an
improvement on Planté's battery, and consisted mainly in applying red
lead and litharge directly to the positive and negative lead plates,
before sending any charging current through the liquid; thus expediting
the making of the battery very greatly. The invention was hailed with
extravagant rejoicings, even Sir William Thomson being carried away
from his habitual equanimity; but serious practical difficulties soon
developed that are familiar to most of us, and that have never yet been
overcome.
In 1880, Koch and Eberth isolated the typhoid bacillus, and Sternberg
the pneumonia bacillus. The importance of these two discoveries is not
usually appreciated by any but physicians and those who have suffered
from these diseases and been cured. Even those who have been saved from
having them, especially those in armies who have been saved from having
typhoid fever, fail to realize their debt. But the almost perfect
immunity from typhoid fever enjoyed by all the enormous armies of the
vast World War, compared with the frightful distress and mortality
caused by typhoid fever in previous wars, bears eloquent witness to the
influence of the great discoveries of those tireless investigators.
It may be pointed out here that of all the inventions and discoveries
ever made, those made in medical and surgical science, especially in
preventive measures, have had more direct and immediate influence on
history than contemporary inventions in any other field, save possibly
religion. For what is history but the life-story of the human race; and
what greater influence can be had than influence upon the health of its
component members? The discoveries and inventions made in the field of
bacteriology especially, by gaining knowledge concerning the unseen and
unheard foes that attack us from within, have lifted civilized man up
to a condition of cleanliness and purity, in comparison with which the
conditions under which our forefathers lived seem almost repulsive.
It is true that many of these conditions were outcomes of civilization
itself, and that for some of them medicine has merely found the
antidotes. Yet the fact that medicine has found antidotes shows
that medicine has been keeping pace with progress and has invented
measures for preventing the Machine from poisoning itself by a sort
of auto-intoxication. That the Machine is in danger of disruption
by outside and inside forces has been suggested frequently in this
book; so that what seems to be indicated as desirable is a series of
discoveries and inventions that will prevent it. But, in attempting
this, we must not forget that each new discovery or invention adds
another part, that safety devices are sometimes so intricate as to
increase the danger element rather than lessen or prevent it, and that
safety appliances themselves are apt to get out of order, and thus lead
to a false sense of security. These reflections force on our attention
the fallibility of the human, the necessity for continuous study of
all situations as they successively develop, and the solemn fact that
progress is not beneficial of itself; for it may be in the wrong
direction.
One obvious fact that we have always realized, startles each one of
us occasionally; the fact that "people do not know what is good for
them." The appetites and instincts of undomesticated brutes are said to
be much more trustworthy as guides than those of domesticated brutes
and human beings. We, by cultivating our imaginations and reasoning
powers, and the brutes by being given food and shelter that they
themselves do not have to get, seem to have lost a considerable part
of the instinctive abilities with which we were originally blessed.
With human beings, many objects that most of us aim for are extremely
artificial, and some of them are extremely harmful. An illustration is
the craving for much food and little physical labor,--a craving that is
gratified almost at once by most people suddenly achieving wealth, with
consequences that are always deplorable and are frequently distressing.
Of course this comes from excessive yielding to our appetites; but
the brutes seem to feel no temptation to excessive yielding; an
undomesticated brute seems to know when he has had enough. We not only
yield, we go further and force our appetites. Possibly this is only
an illustration of the fact that our minds have a sort of inertia,
comparable to the inertia of physical objects; so that when we move
in any direction, we are apt to go too far. That it is a tendency of
human nature to go too far in any line of conduct, when once it is
entered on, the facts of daily life continually testify. What reformer
in public or private life ever knew when to stop; what money maker ever
realized that he had enough money and ceased his efforts to get more? A
small percentage have, but only a small percentage.
For this reason and others, the human machine and the Machine of
Civilization do not get along together as harmoniously as might be
wished. Though many inventions, especially the basic ones, have been
actually uncontrollable acts of self-expression, many others have been
inspired by motives largely selfish, such as the wish to gain fame, or
power or money (or fame _and_ power _and_ money); and the result is a
Machine that contributes more to man's material well-being than to his
moral, mental or spiritual well-being, and a consequent civilization
that is necessarily artificial. The net effect, however (unless all our
standards are wrong), has been beneficial; for it cannot truthfully
be denied that physically, mentally, morally and spiritually, the
civilized man is better than the savage, and to a degree commensurate
with the degree to which he is civilized.
Probably most civilized men would agree to this proposition. Probably
most of them would also agree that civilization brings its evil
influences as well as its good influences, that the Machine has been
found vulnerable to destructive influences in the past, that the
ultimate effect must be judged from its influences on human beings, and
that the most beneficent inventions and discoveries have been those
that tend to the safety of the Machine itself and the spiritual, moral,
mental and physical health of the individual humans who comprise its
principal parts. They will therefore applaud such discoveries as those
of Eberth, Koch and Sternberg of 1880, and also another one of Koch and
one of Pasteur two years later. Both of these benefactors then isolated
deadly microbes of disease: Koch the bacillus of tuberculosis, and
Pasteur that of hydrophobia.
In 1881, Reece invented a button-hole machine and Schmid a hand
photographic camera. Both of these were useful inventions if not
brilliant. It would be interesting to know the amounts of money
realized by their inventors, compared with the amounts received by
Koch, Pasteur and Sternberg. In 1884, by the way, Koch made another
epoch-making and beneficent discovery, and isolated the bacillus of
cholera. Loeffler did the same thing, in the same year for diphtheria,
and Nicolaier for lockjaw; while Kuno produced antipyrene.
In reflecting on what these great men accomplished, it is interesting
to point out to ourselves that the consensus of opinion seems to be
that, for most people, "the pursuit of happiness" is the main business
of life. Whether this ought to be or not, should not distract our
attention from the fact that it really is. To most of us--at least
to those of us who are young--happiness seems to lie in the thing
pursued, provided the pursuit succeeds. We all seek the crock of gold
at the end of the rainbow, and imagine that if we get it, we shall
get the _summum bonum_ of everything--happiness. Yet all one has to
do is to remember how happy he was one day when he was feeling well
physically, morally, mentally and spiritually (as we all have at rare
intervals), to realize that happiness is merely a condition,--and
that it is a condition that depends more on _the condition of his own
machine than on all other things put together_. When one observes the
action of a fine trotting horse, the smooth and noiseless motion of
a large steam-engine, or the majestic setting of the sun; or when he
hears the harmonies of some great musical composer, or the grander
harmonies of the ocean-breakers on the beach; or when he ponders on the
inconceivably swift but God-like regularity of the stars and planets,
he may get a faint and brief conception of what it means for a machine
to be in order. Our human machines are rarely in this condition: but
sometimes, without any assignable cause whatever, one takes a deep,
full breath, and says, "It is good to live."
The men just spoken of, and the great teachers of truth in all ages, in
even a higher degree, admonish us to keep our machines in order, and
tell us how to do it.
How not to do it, the world and the flesh and the devil tell us
unceasingly; beguiling us, as the serpent beguiled Eve, to eat; to
gratify one and all the appetites of the senses, regardless of the
effect on the machine inside. For we know those senses ought to guard
our intake valves, but do not.
Why cannot some one invent a device that will automatically regulate
our intake valves? Such an invention would prevent us from eating too
much, drinking too much, and smoking too much, and also from eating,
drinking and smoking things detrimental to the machine, and injurious
to our happiness; and even from taking in sights and sounds and
thoughts of an unhealthful kind. This might be followed by another
invention that would regulate our outgo valves, and put a brake on our
speech, our ambition, our acquisitiveness, etc. But would not these
take from us our God-granted free will? Yes, in great measure. But
such is the effect of the Machine of Civilization. The primeval savage
lived--(and the primeval savage still lives) in a condition of almost
perfect liberty, as do the beasts that perish: but in the vast Machine
of Civilization, we are only tiny parts. Each of us, it is true, has a
little freedom of motion; but it is like the "lost motion" of a loose
part in a crude or ill-constructed engine; and it seems to be growing
smaller and smaller, as the Machine grows larger and improves.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CONQUEST OF THE ETHER--MOVING PICTURES--RISE OF JAPAN AND THE
UNITED STATES
In 1884, Mergenthaler invented the linotype machine, in which matrixes
for casting different type were moved successively into line, by
pressing the corresponding alphabetically marked keys on a keyboard,
and the whole line then moved to the casting mechanism and cast. This
was an invention of the most clean-cut and perfect character; following
clearly the processes of conception, development and production, and
resulting in an improvement in the art of printing of a most important
kind. Few inventions embody such a brilliant and original conception,
such excellent constructiveness and such a useful product. So perfect
was the result, and so clear was the conception that preceded it,
that one marvels that some one had not invented it before. Why make
matrixes for type, then cast the type, then space the type individually
one after the other in line, and then stereotype them as they stand
in line, when it is so much easier simply to place the matrixes in
line and then stereotype the matrixes? The influence of this invention
is of the same kind as the influence of the invention of the art of
printing from movable type, because it is an improvement in that art.
All over the world this invention, or inventions suggested by it, are
used by the newspaper and book publishers, with the result that the
quickness and accuracy of printing are much enhanced, and the work of
co-operating the parts of the Machine thereby facilitated.
In the same year Marble increased the safety of the bicycle by his
invention of the rear-driven chain, and Schultz invented his chrome
process of tanning leather. Both of these were important in their way;
but in 1885 Cowles made a more important invention, that of reducing
(and thereby producing) the metal aluminum from its oxide, called
alumina, the chief constituent of clay. The usefulness of aluminum lies
largely in its extreme lightness, and in the fact that when combined
with certain metals, notably copper, it forms important alloys.
During the same year, Welsbach invented his gas mantle, a valuable
contribution to gas-lighting, and Bowers invented his hydraulic dredge,
in which the act of dredging a channel or harbor was accomplished by
hydraulic power. In the same year, Van Depoele invented a practical
contact appliance for use in taking off the current from the overhead
wires of electric railways. In 1886, Bell and Tainter invented the
graphophone, an important improvement on the phonograph, and Elihu
Thompson invented electric welding. This was an epochal invention,
inaugurating as it did an entirely new art, and contributing enormously
not only to the quickness of welding, but to its accuracy and strength.
Many improvements have been made on this invention during the past few
years, that have increased its scope and value. Many articles are now
made in one piece that is really solid, though composed of several
parts: for those parts are so firmly welded together that the joints
cannot be seen and are as strong as any other parts.
In the same year, Matteson invented his combined harvester and
thresher. In the following year, Prescott invented his band wood saw,
and McArthur and Forrest invented their process of extracting metals
(especially gold and silver) from ores by the use of a solution of
potassium cyanide, and greatly cheapened the work. In the same year,
Tesla invented his system of multi-phase electric currents, which
rendered possible the economical transmission of power over long
distances, of which the first use was made in transmitting power
derived from Niagara Falls. This was another invention of the first
order of merit in brilliancy and originality of conception, excellence
of constructiveness and usefulness of result. Its value has been only
dimly appreciated by most men, because the invention does not stand
continually before our eyes, like the telephone and electric light; for
it cannot be seen at all. It is not a machine or instrument (in the
common use of those words) but a system, actually invisible of itself,
that governs the method of design, construction and operation of the
visible dynamos, motors and conductors. Like the germ of life, we see
not it, but only its manifestations.
In the same year, Welsbach brought out an improvement on his
incandescent gas-mantle that was valuable for cases in which a
brilliant illumination was desired, that leaped almost immediately into
public favor. In the following year of 1888, Sprague made the first
installation of street electric railways in the United States, and the
first in the world in which the conditions of operating were difficult.
The success of Sprague's system was largely due to the excellence of
Sprague's electric motor, which had the curious property of being
designed on principles which the scientific men of those days declared
to be wholly wrong. Sprague's reputation rests mainly on his electric
railway; but, from the standpoint of the inventor, Sprague's invention
of his electric motor was of a higher order than that of his electric
railway.
In 1888, Harvey invented his process of making armor-plate. In the
same year, Eastman and Walker invented the kodak camera, in which the
novelty consisted mainly of a continuous roll of sensitized film,
on which photographs could be successively made; and De Chardonnet
invented his process of manufacturing artificial silk from threads that
were made by forcing collodion through very small holes. These were
important in fact; but in comparison with the discoveries in the realm
of the actual ether made in the same year by Hertz, they were quite
trifling.
These discoveries resulted from experiments with electric apparatus
of the simplest and most inexpensive character, in a space near which
sparks were passing between the two terminals of a Rhumkorff coil.
It had been known before that each spark accompanied and therefore
represented an establishment of equilibrium between the two oppositely
charged terminals, and that each discharge was of an oscillatory
character--as any readjustment of equilibrium always is. By means of
a mere single wire, curved into a circle, except that the two ends
were not quite joined, Hertz discovered that the space was filled with
electric waves that were propagated in straight lines from the source
(as light is) and accompanied with vibrations at right angles to the
direction of propagation (also as light is); and also that the electric
rays were refracted, reflected and polarized, as light rays are.
Subsequent experiments with modified apparatus measured the velocity of
the propagation of electric waves, and found that it was virtually the
same as that of light.
To some, this may not seem a very important discovery, "from a
practical standpoint"; and doubtless it is not, from the "practical
standpoint" of some people, because it does not affect the amount of
their worldly possessions, or their ease, comfort and pleasure. It
was hailed with delight by scientific men, however; because not only
did it support the electro-magnetic theory of light, but the course of
Hertz's work had demonstrated the suspected fact that the "receiver"
of electric waves must harmonize in its electric dimensions with the
transmitter, in order that the greatest amount of electric energy
may be developed in the receiver; and it had thus given assistance
to investigations then in progress on what we now call "wireless
telegraphy."
Many investigators were now in the field, among whom was the humble
author of these pages. Little real progress was made until, in 1891,
when Branly announced his amazing discovery and utilized it in his
amazing invention, called the "coherer." His discovery was that, if a
tube containing metal filings be placed in the "field" of the spark of
an electric machine, Leyden jar, or Rhumkorff coil, it (the filings)
will become a conductor of electricity when hit by the electric waves;
and that it will revert to its normal state as a non-conductor, if
smartly tapped: the effect of the waves being to cause the separate
particles to co-here and form a continuous metal conductor; while the
effect of the tapping was to jar the particles apart. The first use
of this coherer was in place of the ring that Hertz had used; but its
value as an instrument of practical usefulness in achieving electric
communication without wires was almost immediately perceived--and
demonstrated.
The career of the wireless telegraph since Branly's great discovery
has been as rapid, widespread and important as any other new agency
has ever enjoyed, and possibly more so. That wireless telegraphy was a
distinct invention may perhaps be questioned. If it was, who was the
inventor? It is true that an invention does not have to be associated
with any one inventor in order to have the right to be characterized
as an invention; but in the case of the wireless telegraph, it seems
safe to say that, although some of the separate steps toward its
achievement were inventions, the final step was merely the adding
together of these separate steps in a way that was perfectly obvious,
and that several men accomplished almost simultaneously. As soon as
Branly produced his coherer, the problem was thereby automatically
solved. Every experimenter realized that it was merely necessary to
use Branly's coherer, in place of any receiver previously used, and to
"tune" the transmitting and receiving circuits into harmony.
The first man to make a practical wireless installation seems to have
been Marconi, in 1896. As is well known, the distances over which
messages can be sent has been increasing rapidly ever since, and so has
been the number and the importance of the organizations using it, of
which the largest are the various national governments themselves. The
vast influence of wireless (or radio) telegraphy on the history of the
great World War is too recent to need detailing, but possibly it may
be well to call to mind the fact that the ocean cables were virtually
all under the control of the Allies, and that "the wireless" was almost
the only means that Germany had for receiving information quickly and
sending instructions quickly beyond her own coast line. It was used by
the Allies, however, almost continually in the controlling of their
multitudinous naval units on the sea, and among those units themselves;
and it made possible that prompt and harmonious action among numerous
widely separated groups, that distinguished this war from all preceding
wars. It would be difficult to determine whether the wireless
lengthened the war by the assistance it gave to Germany, or shortened
it by the assistance it rendered the Allies. In the early part of the
war, when Germany was directing ships that were far away, it helped
Germany more than it helped the Allies; but in the last years, when
the Allies were fighting the submarines in the Mediterranean and North
Seas, it helped the Allies more. In the main, it probably shortened the
war considerably, by accelerating the operations.
This reminds us of the fact that the general effect of invention
has been to make wars more terrible but more brief; and that the
abbreviating effect is especially noticeable in inventions that
increase the speed and safety of transportation and communication.
Another effect of invention has been to make wars more widespread; for
the reason that it links some nations together and creates antagonism
between other nations, even if they are far apart. Larger and larger
organizations are thus brought into being, not only as nations but
as allies and confederates. In this way, Japan fought in Asia, in
co-operation with her allies in France.
On the supposition that the Machine is going to continue to increase
in size and strength and excellence, on the further supposition that
the more highly civilized nations will continue to control the less
civilized nations increasingly, the time may not be many generations
distant when all the nations of the world will be divided into a very
few groups, each dominated by one great nation; as the Middle Europe
nations were dominated by Germany in the last war. As all the known
world was once divided into two groups headed by Assyria and Babylon;
at another time by Assyria and Persia; at another time by Greece and
Persia; at another by Rome and Carthage, etc., and as at various times
Europe also has been divided into two opposing groups of nations, so
the whole known world may again be divided into two opposing groups of
nations:--possibly the white and the yellow nations.
The clash of the fighting machines of two such vast organizations,
perfected in power and speed as they doubtless will be as the years go
by and inventions succeed each other, will surpass in grandeur anything
yet dreamed of. It may never occur. _Never?_ It may never occur; but
something approximating it will occur, if history is to be as much like
past history as history usually has been.
In 1889, Schneider invented his process of making nickel steel, and
thereby effected an improvement in steel that was first utilized in
making armor, and afterward in making other articles of many kinds.
Hall invented a process of making aluminum during the same year. In the
following year, Stephens invented his electric plough, and Mergenthaler
made an improvement on his linotype machine. About the same time,
pneumatic tires were attached to bicycles; and an invention of a most
important kind, that had lain dormant for many years, was put to work
at last. The inventor had long since died. Does he know that his
invention is now used all over the civilized world? If so, does the
knowledge give him pleasure?
One of the most unsatisfactory parts of an inventor's experience is the
difficulty he has in making other men see the value of his inventions,
combined with the fact that when the invention is finally adopted, his
part in it is often forgotten, and sometimes intentionally ignored.
This applies especially to inventions of a high order of originality,
that are a little in advance of the requirements and knowledge of most
men at the time, and that are looked upon as visionary and do not
come into use for a considerable while. Many an inventor has endured
a purgatory while trying to get a hearing for his invention, and yet
been wholly forgotten when it was finally adopted. To make the matter
worse, he has often been branded for life as a visionary, and remained
so branded, even after the invention had been adopted because of which
he had been branded. In other cases, manufacturers have stolen his
invention and denied his claims, knowing that he was too poor to fight
against them with all of their resources. In other cases, business men
and lawyers have combined to induce him to sign papers of a highly
advantageous character to the business men, but contrariwise to the
inventor. In all of these cases, the matter has usually been the worse
for the inventor in proportion to the high order of the invention: for
the real inventor, like the real artist, is usually so absorbed in his
thoughts that he cares but little (too little) for material gain. The
case of the inventor who makes a business of inventing is somewhat
different. He usually confines his efforts to making inventions that
will bring in money, becomes an expert on nice points in patent law,
discerns chances for circumventing existing patents while utilizing
their basic principles, perceives opportunities for making the little
improvements in detail that promote practicability, and becomes the
kind of inventor who owns a limousine.
In 1890, Krag-Jorgensen invented the famous rifle of that name. In the
following year, Branly invented the coherer mentioned on page 305, and
Parsons invented his rotary steam turbine. The steam turbine was an
improvement over the reciprocating steam engine for many classes of
work, great and small. The first steam engine invented by Hero was a
rotary engine, but it was of course, most uneconomical of steam. The
first steam engine that was really efficient was the reciprocating
engine produced by Watt. The greatest single defect of rotary engines
has always been the loss of steam in going by the rotating parts
without doing any work, a defect existing in only a small degree with
the closely fitting pistons of reciprocating engines. In the turbines
invented by Parsons and others about the same time, wastage of steam
was prevented by various means that need not be detailed here, and
smooth motion of the rotary engine at the same time secured. The
greatest benefit accrued probably to ocean steamships, in which the
absence of vibration, and the saving in weight, space and number of
attendants required were features of great practical importance.
About 1890, Edison invented the kinetograph and kinetoscope, after
a long series of investigations and experiments. These followed the
experiments made by Dr. Muybridge some years before, in which he had
taken many successive pictures of horses at very short intervals, by
means of as many separate cameras, (twelve pictures in one stride
for instance), and afterwards reproduced them in such a way as to
show horses in rapid motion. They came also after Eastman's kodak,
in which pictures could be taken successively, on a traveling film.
In the kinetograph, only one object glass was used; and the film was
drawn along behind it in such a way that, at predetermined intervals,
the film was stopped and a shutter behind the object glass or lens
was moved away, and a picture taken. The moving mechanism (at first
the human hand) continuing in motion, the shutter was closed and the
film was moved along a short distance, so as to bring another part
behind the object glass. Then the same operation was repeated--and
so on. In the kinetoscope, the operation was reversed, in the sense
that the pictures taken were presented successively to the eye of the
observer. In the first form, the observer looked at them through a
peep-hole: but in the latter forms, the pictures have been thrown upon
a screen--somewhat as from a magic lantern, and become the "movie" of
today.
Here, again, we see an invention of the highest order in each of
the three essentials--conception, development and production. No
invention exists of a higher order. As to their use and usefulness,
we are most familiar with them in moving pictures. Whether it is for
the public good to produce so many shows for idly disposed men and
women to spend their time in looking at, is perhaps a possible subject
for enlightening discussion. But the moving picture is used for many
purposes, especially for purposes of education and research, besides
that of mere amusement, and will unquestionably be so used, more and
more as time goes on. One of its most obvious spheres of usefulness
is in making photographs of movements that are very rapid, and then
analyzing and inspecting those photographs when presented very slowly,
and when stopped. Another is in taking photographs of successive
situations that have occurred at considerable intervals of time, and
then presenting the pictures quickly, and thus showing a connected
story. By dealing in this way with historical incidents, we can get
a realization of the interdependence of those incidents that we
cannot get in any other way, and see how cause has produced effects,
and effects have come from causes. Similarly, the work of building
any large structure can be shown by presenting rapidly a series of
photographs taken at different stages; and so can the growth of a plant
or animal, and almost any kind of progress.
Let us impress on our minds the fact that if we read any book, or
witness any occurrence, or listen to any argument, or receive any
instruction of any kind, the only value comes to us from the pictures
made on our mental retinas and the permanence and clearness of the
records impressed. Thus, any means that can impress us quickly with
the most important pictures must be of the highest practical value,
both in prosecuting studies of events, and in gathering conclusions
from them. In fact, the kinetograph and the kinetoscope are simply
Edison's imitation of the operations carried on inside the skull of
each of us; for we are continually taking moving pictures of what
we see and hear and read and feel; recording them on our own moving
sensitized films, and bringing them before our mental gaze at our own
volition and sometimes in spite of it.
In 1890, the author of this book patented "A Method of Pointing Guns
at Sea" that has been adopted in all the great navies, under the name
"Gun Director System." In 1891 he patented a modification under the
name "Telescopic Sight for Ships Guns." These two inventions are used
in every navy in the world, have increased the effectiveness of naval
gunnery immeasurably, and have, therefore, been important contributions
to the self-protectiveness of the Machine.
In 1893, Acheson invented his process for making carborundum, a
compound of carbon and silicon, made in the electric furnace, and
used for abrasive purposes; and in the same year Willson made carbide
of calcium from carbon and quick-lime, also in the electric furnace.
In 1895, Linde invented his process of liquefying air, and the first
installation of great electric locomotives was effected: this was in
the Baltimore and Ohio tunnel. In the same year, Röntgen made the
epochal discovery of what he called by the significant name "X-rays," a
name that still clings to them.
They were discovered by Röntgen in the course of his researches with
cathode rays. His discovery was in effect that electric rays emanated
from the part of the tube struck by the cathode rays. They were not
cathode rays, though produced by them, and had the amazing property
of penetrating certain insulating substances, such as ebonite, paper,
etc., while not penetrating metals, except through short distances.
Unlike the cathode rays, they were not deflected by magnets; and
neither did they seem to be reflected or refracted similarly. Their
most important property was that of acting photographically on
sensitized plates, even when in closed slides, and wrapped carefully in
black paper.
The greatest usefulness of the X-rays thus far made has been in
photographing internal parts of the human body; for the rays pass
through certain parts less readily than through other parts; through
bones for instance, less readily than through soft parts. Fractures
or displacements of bones can therefore be readily detected. So also
can the formation of pus in cavities, and the appearance of abnormal
products of many kinds. To this discovery we must give a rank as
high as almost any other that we have noted in this book, though we
cannot tell, of course, how long it will hold it. With mechanical and
scientific inventions, as with books and poems and inventions of other
kinds, the question of permanence of value or of usefulness cannot be
decided until after many years.
One of the curious properties of X-rays is that of rendering the air
through which they pass a conductor of electricity. So far as the
author is aware, no invention of practical usefulness has yet been
made, based upon this property.