The school of invention has not yet been established, but its germ is
growing in the mechanical schools. This school, according to Hon. W. H.
Ruffner, in _Va. Ed. Journal_, will educate men, and women too, for the
special career of inventing new things. Why not? We already have
something closely analogous in schools of design, where the pupil is
trained to invent new forms or patterns, chiefly of an artistic or
decorative character. The same idea will be applied to the invention of
machinery, or improvements in machinery, or the adaptation of machinery
to the accomplishment of special ends. Inventions usually spring from
individuals striving to lighten their own labor, or from some idea
entering the brain of a genius. But we shall have professional inventors
who will be called on to contrive original devices, and his success will
depend on the sound and practical character of his prescriptions.
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