Invention: The Master-key to Progress

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 186 °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?