Group Attack.
In such fields as those of the cheapening of light and motive power, the utilization of electricity, the production of metals, it would seem that the day of the solitary researcher or inventor is drawing to a close. To-day the man of original ideas, of combining faculty, of uncommon deftness, of rare visual accuracy, is mated with his peers for a group attack on a many-sided problem where each man’s resources will find their special play. In untiring labor at the bench and lathe, at the muffle and the test tube, one experiment follows another, all duly compared, judiciously varied and advanced as indication may suggest. Thus the fences which extreme specialization have set up are surmounted, each worker supplements the deficiencies of his fellows, and all join hands to take by assault a citadel that might forever defy single attack.
CHAPTER XXVIII
COMPRESSED AIR
An aid to the miner, quarryman and sculptor . . . An actuator for pumps . . . Engraves glass and cleans castings . . . Dust and dirt removed by air exhaustion . . . Westinghouse air-brakes and signals.
Some recent noteworthy advances of invention have been due to co-operation by many workers, not however on such lines of definite group attack as have just been remarked. Among these advances may be chosen for rapid survey the applications of compressed air, of plain and reinforced concrete, the economy of power-production and of fuel for whatever purpose employed. Let us begin with compressed air.