As you look about and see all the different materials, apparatus and machines that have been invented to make work easier, to save time or goods and to increase safety and comfort you may on first thought conclude that everything the human race really needs has been invented and this is in a large measure true.
But the secret of present day inventing was let out of the bag by Edison when he said that “hardly any piece of machinery now manufactured is more than 10 per cent. perfect.” Certainly the electric lights we now have are good enough as far as the light goes but light costs us ten times as much as it ought to cost for the reason that 90 per cent. of the energy there is in a ton of coal is wasted and only 10 per cent. of it is transformed into actual light.
Oliver Lodge, England’s greatest electrician, once said that if we knew how the glow worm makes his light then a boy could turn a machine that would develop enough electricity to light a factory. The problem for you to tackle then is not to make a better light but to make a cheaper light.
And what Edison has said about machines and Lodge has said about light, I say is just as true of everything else we have for lessening labor, for saving time and materials, making for safety and adding to comfort. Everything that has been invented up to the present time, with very few exceptions, such as the electric motor which is 98 per cent. efficient, can be made nearly 90 per cent. better.
This gives you your cue for inventing, that is to conceive and improve upon what has been done rather than to sap your life’s blood and waste time, which is just as precious if you only know it, in trying to invent something entirely new and original under the shining sun.
Nor do you need to undertake to improve upon the big things—unless, of course, you get a great idea and you feel that the world can’t get along without it and that you would lose a fortune unless you straightaway developed it. Otherwise just keep your eagle eye on the lookout and your inventive brain cells on the alert and it will not be long before you will see something where there is room for improvement.
Some Little Things Needed.—For the Person.—There isn’t a thing you wear, or carry in your pockets, or use in making your toilet but which can be improved upon.
Your suspenders, your corset, cuff buttons, dress-shields, necktie clasp, hose supports, garters, hat pins, collar buttons, eye glasses and eye-glass guards, hair curlers or straighteners according to the dictates of fashion, jewelry guards, fasteners for clothing, clothes hangers and clothes presses ought all to be done over and re-invented.
Fig. 103a. OLD STYLE TOOTH BRUSH
Fig. 103b. AN IMPROVED TOOTH BRUSH