THE MAN WITH AN IDEA
He who wishes to fulfil his mission must be a man of one idea, that is,
of one great overmastering purpose, over shadowing all his aims, and
guiding and controlling his entire life.--BATE.
A healthful hunger for a great idea is the beauty and blessedness of
life.--JEAN INGELOW.
A profound conviction raises a man above the feeling of ridicule.--J.
STUART MILL.
Ideas go booming through the world louder than cannon. Thoughts are
mightier than armies. Principles have achieved more victories than
horsemen or chariots.--W. M. PAXTON.
"What are you bothering yourselves with a knitting machine for?" asked
Ari Davis, of Boston, a manufacturer of instruments; "why don't you
make a sewing-machine?" His advice had been sought by a rich man and
an inventor who had reached their wits' ends in the vain attempt to
produce a device for knitting woolen goods. "I wish I could, but it
can't be done." "Oh, yes it can," said Davis; "I can make one myself."
"Well," the capitalist replied, "you do it, and I'll insure you an
independent fortune." The words of Davis were uttered in a spirit of
jest, but the novel idea found lodgment in the mind of one of the
workmen who stood by, a mere youth of twenty, who was thought not
capable of a serious idea.
But Elias Howe was not so rattle-headed as he seemed, and the more he
reflected, the more desirable such a machine appeared to him. Four
years passed, and with a wife and three children to support in a great
city on a salary of nine dollars a week, the light-hearted boy had
become a thoughtful, plodding man. The thought of the sewing-machine
haunted him night and day, and he finally resolved to produce one.
After months wasted in the effort to work a needle pointed at both
ends, with the eye in the middle, that should pass up and down through
the cloth, suddenly the thought flashed through his mind that another
stitch must be possible, and with almost insane devotion he worked
night and day, until he had made a rough model of wood and wire that
convinced him of ultimate success. In his mind's eye he saw his idea,
but his own funds and those of his father, who had aided him more or
less, were insufficient to embody it in a working machine. But help
came from an old schoolmate, George Fisher, a coal and wood merchant of
Cambridge. He agreed to board Elias and his family and furnish five
hundred dollars, for which he was to have one-half of the patent, if
the machine proved to be worth patenting. In May, 1845, the machine
was completed, and in July Elias Howe sewed all the seams of two suits
of woolen clothes, one for Mr. Fisher and the other for himself. The
sewing outlasted the cloth. This machine, which is still preserved,
will sew three hundred stitches a minute, and is considered more nearly
perfect than any other prominent invention at its first trial. There
is not one of the millions of sewing-machines now in use that does not
contain some of the essential principles of this first attempt.
When it was decided to try and elevate Chicago out of the mud by
raising its immense blocks up to grade, the young son of a poor
mechanic, named George M. Pullman, appeared on the scene, and put in a
bid for the great undertaking, and the contract was awarded to him. He
not only raised the blocks, but did it in such a way that business
within them was scarcely interrupted. All this time he was revolving
in his mind his pet project of building a "sleeping car" which would be
adopted on all railroads. He fitted up two old cars on the Chicago and
Alton road with berths, and soon found they would be in demand. He
then went to work on the principle that the more luxurious his cars
were, the greater would be the demand for them. After spending three
years in Colorado gold mines, he returned and built two cars which cost
$18,000 each. Everybody laughed at "Pullman's folly." But Pullman
believed that whatever relieved the tediousness of long trips would
meet with speedy approval, and he had faith enough in his idea to risk
his all in it.
Pullman was a great believer in the commercial value of beauty. The
wonderful town which he built and which bears his name, as well as his
magnificent cars, is an example of his belief in this principle. He
counts it a good investment to surround his employees with comforts and
beauty and good sanitary conditions, and so the town of Pullman is a
model of cleanliness, order, and comfort.
It has ever been the man with an idea, which he puts into practical
effect, who has changed the face of Christendom. The germ idea of the
steam engine can be seen in the writings of the Greek philosophers, but
it was not developed until more than two thousand years later.
It was an English blacksmith, Newcomen, with no opportunities, who in
the seventeenth century conceived the idea of moving a piston by the
elastic force of steam; but his engine consumed thirty pounds of coal
in producing one horse power. The perfection of the modern engine is
largely due to James Watt, a poor, uneducated Scotch boy, who at
fifteen walked the streets of London in a vain search for work. A
professor in the Glasgow University gave him the use of a room to work
in, and while waiting for jobs he experimented with old vials for steam
reservoirs and hollow canes for pipes, for he could not bear to waste a
moment. He improved Newcomen's engine by cutting off the steam after
the piston had completed a quarter or a third of its stroke, and
letting the steam already in the chamber expand and drive the piston
the remaining distance. This saved nearly three-fourths of the steam.
Watt suffered from pinching poverty and hardships which would have
disheartened ordinary men; but he was terribly in earnest, and his
brave wife Margaret begged him not to mind her inconvenience, nor be
discouraged. "If the engine will not work," she wrote him while
struggling in London, "something else will. Never despair."
"I had gone to take a walk," said Watt, "on a fine Sabbath afternoon,
and had passed the old washing-house, thinking upon the engine at the
time, when the idea came into my head that, as steam is an elastic
body, it would rush into a vacuum, and if a communication were made
between the cylinder and an exhausted vessel, it would rush into it,
and might be there condensed without cooling the cylinder." The idea
was simple, but in it lay the germ of the first steam engine of much
practical value. Sir James Mackintosh places this poor Scotch boy who
began with only an idea "at the head of all inventors in all ages and
all nations."
See George Stephenson, working in the coal pits for sixpence a day,
patching the clothes and mending the boots of his fellow-workmen at
night, to earn a little money to attend a night school, giving the
first money he ever earned, $150, to his blind father to pay his debts.
People say he is crazy; his "roaring steam engine will set the house on
fire with its sparks"; "smoke will pollute the air"; "carriage makers
and coachmen will starve for want of work." For three days the
committee of the House of Commons plies questions to him. This was one
of them: "If a cow get on the track of the engine traveling ten miles
an hour, will it not be an awkward situation?" "Yes, very awkward,
indeed, for the coo," replied Stephenson. A government inspector said
that if a locomotive ever went ten miles an hour, he would undertake to
eat a stewed engine for breakfast.
"What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the prospect held
out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as horses?" asked a writer
in the English "Quarterly Review" for March, 1825. "We should as soon
expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be fired off upon
one of Congreve's rockets as to trust themselves to the mercy of such a
machine, going at such a rate. We trust that Parliament will, in all
the railways it may grant, _limit the speed to eight or nine miles an
hour_, which we entirely agree with Mr. Sylvester is as great as can be
ventured upon." This article referred to Stephenson's proposition to
use his newly invented locomotive instead of horses on the Liverpool
and Manchester Railroad, then in process of construction.
The company decided to lay the matter before two leading English
engineers, who reported that steam would be desirable only when used in
stationary engines one and a half miles apart, drawing the cars by
means of ropes and pulleys. But Stephenson persuaded them to test his
idea by offering a prize of about twenty-five hundred dollars for the
best locomotive produced at a trial to take place October 6, 1829.
On the eventful day, thousands of spectators assembled to watch the
competition of four engines, the "Novelty," the "Rocket," the
"Perseverance," and the "Sanspareil." The "Perseverance" could make
but six miles an hour, and so was ruled out, as the conditions called
for at least ten. The "Sanspareil" made an average of fourteen miles
an hour, but as it burst a water-pipe it lost its chance. The
"Novelty" did splendidly, but also burst a pipe, and was crowded out,
leaving the "Rocket" to carry off the honors with an average speed of
fifteen miles an hour, the highest rate attained being twenty-nine.
This was Stephenson's locomotive, and so fully vindicated his theory
that the idea of stationary engines on a railroad was completely
exploded. He had picked up the fixed engines which the genius of Watt
had devised, and set them on wheels to draw men and merchandise,
against the most direful predictions of the foremost engineers of his
day.
In all the records of invention there is no more sad or affecting story
than that of John Fitch. Poor he was in many senses, poor in
appearance, poor in spirit. He was born poor, lived poor, and died
poor. If there ever was a true inventor, this man was one. He was one
of those eager souls that would coin their own flesh to carry their
point. He only uttered the obvious truth when he said one day, in a
crisis of his invention, that if he could get one hundred pounds by
cutting off one of his legs he would gladly give it to the knife.
He tried in vain both in this country and in France to get money to
build his steamboat. He would say: "You and I will not live to see the
day, but the time will come when the steamboat will be preferred to all
other modes of conveyance, when steamboats will ascend the Western
rivers from New Orleans to Wheeling, and when steamboats will cross the
ocean. Johnny Fitch will be forgotten, but other men will carry out
his ideas and grow rich and great upon them."
Poor, ragged, forlorn, jeered at, pitied as a madman, discouraged by
the great, refused by the rich, he kept on till, in 1790, he had the
first vessel on the Delaware that ever answered the purpose of a
steamboat. It ran six miles an hour against the tide, and eight miles
with it.
At noon, on Friday, August 4, 1807, a crowd of curious people might
have been seen along the wharves of the Hudson River. They had
gathered to witness what they considered a ridiculous failure of a
"crank" who proposed to take a party of people up the Hudson River to
Albany in what he called a steam vessel named the _Clermont_. Did
anybody ever hear of such a ridiculous idea as navigating against the
current up the Hudson in a vessel without sails? "The thing will
'bust,'" says one; "it will burn up," says another, and "they will all
be drowned," exclaims a third, as he sees vast columns of black smoke
shoot up with showers of brilliant sparks. Nobody present, in all
probability, ever heard of a boat going by steam. It was the opinion
of everybody that the man who had tooled away his money and his time on
the _Clermont_ was little better than an idiot, and ought to be in an
insane asylum. But the passengers go on board, the plank is pulled in,
and the steam is turned on. The walking beam moves slowly up and down,
and the _Clermont_ floats out into the river. "It can never go up
stream," the spectators persist. But it did go up stream, and the boy,
who in his youth said there is nothing impossible, had scored a great
triumph, and had given to the world the first steamboat that had any
practical value.
Notwithstanding that Fulton had rendered such great service to
humanity, a service which has revolutionized the commerce of the world,
he was looked upon by many as a public enemy. Critics and cynics
turned up their noses when Fulton was mentioned. The severity of the
world's censure, ridicule, and detraction has usually been in
proportion to the benefit the victim has conferred upon mankind.
As the _Clermont_ burned pine wood, dense columns of fire and smoke
belched forth from her smoke-stack while she glided triumphantly up the
river, and the inhabitants along the banks were utterly unable to
account for the spectacle. They rushed to the shore amazed to see a
boat "on fire" go against the stream so rapidly with neither oars nor
sails. The noise of her great paddle-wheels increased the wonder.
Sailors forsook their vessels, and fishermen rowed home as fast as
possible to get out of the way of the fire monster. The Indians were
as much frightened as their predecessors were when the first ship
approached their hunting-ground on Manhattan Island. The owners of
sailing vessels were jealous of the _Clermont_, and tried to run her
down. Others whose interests were affected denied Fulton's claim to
the invention and brought suits against him. But the success of the
_Clermont_ soon led to the construction of other steamships all over
the country. The government employed Fulton to aid in building a
powerful steam frigate, which was called _Fulton the First_. He also
built a diving boat for the government for the discharge of torpedoes.
By this time his fame had spread all over the civilized world, and when
he died, in 1815, newspapers were marked with black lines; the
legislature of New York wore badges of mourning; and minute guns were
fired as the long funeral procession passed to old Trinity churchyard.
Very few private persons were ever honored with such a burial.
True, Dr. Lardner had "proved" to scientific men that a steamship could
not cross the Atlantic, but in 1810 the _Savannah_ from New York
appeared off the coast of Ireland under sail and steam, having made
this "impossible" passage. Those on shore thought that a fire had
broken out below the decks, and a king's cutter was sent to her relief.
Although the voyage was made without accident, it was nearly twenty
years before it was admitted that steam navigation could be made a
commercial success in ocean traffic.
As Junius Smith impatiently paced the deck of a vessel sailing from an
English port to New York, on a rough and tedious voyage in 1832, he
said to himself, "Why not cross the ocean regularly in steamships?" In
New York and in London a deaf ear was turned to any such nonsense.
Smith's first encouragement came from George Grote, the historian and
banker, who said the idea was practicable; but it was the same old
story,--he would risk no money in it. At length Isaac Selby, a
prominent business man of London, agreed to build a steamship of two
thousand tons, the _British Queen_. An unexpected delay in fitting the
engines led the projectors to charter the _Sirius_, a river steamer of
seven hundred tons, and send her to New York. Learning of this, other
parties started from Bristol four days later in the _Great Western_,
and both vessels arrived at New York the same day. Soon after Smith
made the round trip between London and New York in thirty-two days.
What a sublime picture of determination and patience was that of
Charles Goodyear, of New Haven, buried in poverty and struggling with
hardships for eleven long years, to make India rubber of practical use!
See him in prison for debt; pawning his clothes and his wife's jewelry
to get a little money to keep his children (who were obliged to gather
sticks in the field for fire) from starving. Watch his sublime courage
and devotion to his idea, when he had no money to bury a dead child and
when his other five were near starvation; when his neighbors were
harshly criticizing him for his neglect of his family and calling him
insane. But, behold his vulcanized rubber; the result of that heroic
struggle, applied to over five hundred uses by 100,000 employees.
What a pathetic picture was that of Palissy, plodding on through want
and woe to rediscover the lost art of enameling pottery; building his
furnaces with bricks carried on his back, seeing his six children die
of neglect, probably of starvation, his wife in rags and despair over
her husband's "folly"; despised by his neighbors for neglecting his
family, worn to a skeleton himself, giving his clothes to his hired man
because he could not pay him in money, hoping always, failing steadily,
until at last his great work was accomplished, and he reaped his reward.
German unity was the idea engraven upon Bismarck's heart. What cared
this herculean despot for the Diet chosen year after year simply to
vote down every measure he proposed? He was indifferent to all
opposition. He simply defied and sent home every Diet which opposed
him. He could play the game alone. To make Germany the greatest power
in Europe, to make William of Prussia a greater potentate than Napoleon
or Alexander, was his all-absorbing purpose. It mattered not what
stood in his way, whether people, Diet, or nation; all must bend to his
mighty will. Germany must hold the deciding voice in the Areopagus of
the world. He rode roughshod over everybody and everything that stood
in his way, defiant of opposition, imperious, irrepressible!
See the great Dante in exile, condemned to be burnt alive on false
charges of embezzlement. Look at his starved features, gaunt form,
melancholy, a poor wanderer; but he never gave up his idea; he poured
out his very soul into his immortal poem, ever believing that right
would at last triumph.
Columbus was exposed to continual scoffs and indignities, being
ridiculed as a mere dreamer and stigmatized as an adventurer. The very
children, it is said, pointed to their foreheads as he passed, being
taught to regard him as a kind of madman.
An American was once invited to dine with Oken, the famous German
naturalist. To his surprise, they had neither meats nor dessert, but
only baked potatoes. Oken was too great a man to apologize for their
simple fare. His wife explained, however, that her husband's income
was very small, and that they preferred to live simply in order that he
might obtain books and instruments for his scientific researches.
Before the discovery of ether it often took a week, in some cases a
month, to recover from the enormous dose, sometimes five hundred drops
of laudanum, given to a patient to deaden the pain during a surgical
operation. Young Dr. Morton believed that there must be some means
provided by Nature to relieve human suffering during these terrible
operations; but what could he do? He was not a chemist; he did not
know the properties of chemical substances; he was not liberally
educated.
Dr. Morton did not resort to books, however, nor did he go to
scientific men for advice, but immediately began to experiment with
well-known substances. He tried intoxicants even to the point of
intoxication, but as soon as the instruments were applied the patient
would revive. He kept on experimenting with narcotics in this manner
until at last he found what he sought in ether.
What a grand idea Bishop Vincent worked out for the young world in the
Chautauqua Circle, Dr. Clark in his world-wide Christian Endeavor
movement, the Methodist Church in the Epworth League, Edward Everett
Hale in his little bands of King's Daughters and Ten Times One is Ten!
Here is Clara Barton who has created the Red Cross Society, which is
loved by all nations. She noticed in our Civil War that the
Confederates were shelling the hospital. She thought it the last touch
of cruelty to fight what couldn't fight back, and she determined to
have the barbarous custom stopped. Of course the world laughed at this
poor unaided woman. But her idea has been adopted by all nations; and
the enemy that aims a shot at the tent or building over which flies the
white flag with the red cross has lost his last claim to human
consideration.
In all ages those who have advanced the cause of humanity have been men
and women "possessed," in the opinion of their neighbors. Noah in
building the ark, Moses in espousing the cause of the Israelites, or
Christ in living and dying to save a fallen race, incurred the pity and
scorn of the rich and highly educated, in common with all great
benefactors. Yet in every age and in every clime men and women have
been willing to incur poverty, hardship, toil, ridicule, persecution,
or even death, if thereby they might shed light or comfort upon the
path which all must walk from the cradle to the grave. In fact it is
doubtful whether a man can perform very great service to mankind who is
not permeated with a great purpose--with an overmastering idea.
Beecher had to fight every step of the way to his triumph through
obstacles which would have appalled all but the greatest characters.
Oftentimes in these great battles for principle and struggles for
truth, he stood almost alone fighting popular prejudice, narrowness,
and bigotry, uncharitableness and envy even in his own church. But he
never hesitated nor wavered when he once saw his duty. There was no
shilly-shallying, no hunting for a middle ground between right and
wrong, no compromise on principles. He hewed close to the chalk line
and held his line plumb to truth. He never pandered for public favor
nor sought applause. Duty and truth were his goal, and he went
straight to his mark. Other churches did not agree with him nor his,
but he was too broad for hatred, too charitable for revenge, and too
magnanimous for envy.
What tale of the "Arabian Nights" equals in fascination the story of
such lives as those of Franklin, of Morse, Goodyear, Howe, Edison,
Bell, Beecher, Gough, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Amos Lawrence, George
Peabody, McCormick, Hoe, and scores of others, each representing some
great idea embodied in earnest action, and resulting in an improvement
of the physical, mental, and moral condition of those around them?
There are plenty of ideas left in the world yet. Everything has not
been invented. All good things have not been done. There are
thousands of abuses to rectify, and each one challenges the independent
soul, armed with a new idea.
"But how shall I get ideas?" Keep your wits open! Observe! Study!
But above all, Think! and when a noble image is indelibly impressed
upon the mind--_Act_!