Schools of Invention.
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.