Invention: The Master-key to Progress

by Bradley A. Fiske

Though the typewriter is a very simple apparatus in both principle and construction, yet few machines stand out more clearly as great inventions. Few inventions also have exerted a greater influence—though the influence of the typewriter has been auxiliary, rather than dominant; it has merely enabled a greater amount of business to be transacted than could be transacted before. If anyone will go into any business office whatever, and note the amount of work performed in that office by means of one typewriter that could not be performed without it, and will then multiply that amount by the number of typewriters in the world, he will come to a confused but startling realization of the amount of executive work that is being done in a single day through the agency of the typewriter, that otherwise would not be done. If he will then go a step further, and multiply the number of days that have gone by since the typewriter was first employed, by one-half, or even one-tenth, of the amount accomplished by means of all the typewriters in a single day, he may then be able to appreciate in a measure the enormous influence on progress which the invention of the typewriter has already had. One would not make an exaggerated statement if he should declare that if the typewriter had not been invented, every great business organization in the world today would be much smaller than it is; the great industries would not exist in their present vastness; and all the arts of manufacture, transportation and navigation would be far behind the stage they now have reached.

The electric telegraph was patented by Morse in 1837, but the first telegram was not sent till 1844, along a wire stretched from Washington to Baltimore. It is said that the first official message was "What hath God wrought!" This message shows a realization of a fact which some people fail to realize: the people who say, "God made the country, but man made the city." The message showed a realization that God inspires the thoughts of men, as truly as He provides them with things to eat. It is inconceivable that it was intended to call attention to the fact that God wrought the wire along which the message ran, or the wooden poles that carried the wire, or the material zinc and copper of the battery. The only new thing evidenced in the telegraph so far as anyone could know, was the invention itself. God had wrought that through the agency of Morse. It is a known fact that no human mind, no matter how fine it may be, or how brilliant and correct its imagination, can have any images or ideas that are not based in some way on the evidence of the senses. We can imagine things, and even create things, that have never existed before; but those things must be composed of parts whose existence we know of through the evidence of our senses. So Morse, although he invented a thing that was wholly new, although he created something—did not create any of the parts that composed it. He used such well-known things as wire, iron, zinc and copper. Even in the creation of man, the Almighty himself used common materials: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul." (Genesis, Chapter II.)

If the Lord God breathed the breath of life into Adam, He inspired him according to the original meaning of the word inspire. If He inspired Morse with the conception of the electric telegraph, He inspired him according to the modern meaning of the word, which is not very different from the original meaning, and which is not at all different from the meaning according to which He is said to have inspired the prophets of old.

To bring before us clearly the whole influence of the telegraph on history would require a book devoted to no other subject; yet the telegraph belongs in the same class with the typewriter, in the sense that its main office is to assist the transaction of business. The telegraph does not of itself produce results. It is not in the class with the fist-hammer, or the weaving machine, or the gun, or the steam engine, or the electric light, or chloroform, or the telescope, or the discovery of America. It owes its reputation largely to the spectacular way in which it first appeared, and to the seeming wonderfulness of its success. Yet the telegraph seems no more wonderful than the typewriter, to a person who knows even a little of electricity; and the task of making it practicable was much easier. A very simple and crude apparatus sufficed for the telegraph: but a highly perfect mechanism was needed for the typewriter.

It is probably true, however, that the telegraph has had a greater influence on history than the typewriter, though modern civilization would not be even approximately what it is, if either had not been invented. And if by any combination of circumstances, either one should now be taken from us, the whole Machine would be thrown into inextricable confusion.

It may be objected that if Morse had not invented the telegraph, or if any inventor whoever had not invented whatever thing he did invent, some other man would have done so; and that therefore those inventors do not deserve to be placed in any especial niche of honor. There would be considerable reasonableness in such an objection, as is evidenced by the fact that in many cases two or more men have invented the same thing at about the same time. It may be pointed out, however, that while this has often happened in regard to improvements on basic inventions, it has not happened very often in regard to the basic inventions themselves; and also that, even if we include all the inventors the world has ever heard of, we find that there have been surprisingly few. Therefore, it really makes little difference to the race as a whole whether Smith or Jones made a certain invention, or whether Smith would have made it, if Jones had not made it. "The man who delivers the goods," receives, and as a rule deservedly, the recognition of mankind. Furthermore, this book, as has been stated, is not concerned mainly with inventors, but with inventions.

In 1844, the use of nitrous oxide gas (laughing gas) as an anæsthetic was introduced by Dr. Wells. It cannot be said that this invention has had any direct influence on history itself, though it has had a great deal of influence on the history of some individuals. It contributed a new and distinct part to the Machine, however, and certainly helped to ameliorate the conditions of living. Besides, it seems to be one of the lessons of history that most new and distinct creations, even if no use has been found for them for a long while, have ultimately found a field of usefulness. Furthermore, every new and useful thing, like nitrous oxide gas, attracts the attention of men to the advantages that the study of physical sciences and the prosecution of invention offer, and gives inspiration for further study and endeavor.

In the same year, Léon Foucault invented the first practical electric arc-light. Davy had made the basic invention of the Voltaic arc in 1808; but his invention was in the class just spoken of, in that it was not utilized for many years. Even the arc-light that Foucault produced in 1844 was not utilized then. In both cases, the cause of slowness of utilization did not rest so much in the invention as in the stage of civilization at the time. The world was not yet ready for the arc-light. In fact, it did not become ready, and it could not become ready, to use the arc-light in real service, until a cheaper means of producing electric current had been invented. This did not happen until the dynamo-electric machine had been invented and had been brought to such a point of practical development that it could supply electric current, not only adequately and economically, but reliably. A necessary step toward the utilization of the arc-light was made in 1845, however, by Thomas Wright, who invented a means whereby the carbons could be kept automatically at the correct distance apart for maintaining a continuous and uniform light.

In 1845, Robert Hoe made an important contribution in his double-cylinder printing press. In the same year, R. W. Thompson invented the pneumatic tire. This invention belongs distinctly in the class just spoken of, for the pneumatic tire did not come into general use until the bicycle did, about 1890. It may be asked if there is any use in inventing appliances long before they are needed. So far as the inventor is then concerned—no: so far as the public is eventually concerned, yes. All inventions made and patented are described and illustrated in the Patent Office Gazette; and many of them are described and illustrated in magazines and newspapers, even if they are not used in actual practice. These records form part of the general knowledge of mankind, just as much as do the facts of geography and history and arithmetic; and they can be drawn upon by investigators and inventors, and made to assist them in their work.

In 1846, an invention was made by Elias Howe, that does not belong at all in the same category as that of the pneumatic tire, because it was utilized almost immediately. This is usually spoken of as the sewing-machine; but the essence of the invention was not a machine, but merely an instrument; for it consisted of a needle in which the eye was near the point, instead of at the other end, as in existing needles. The machine afterwards produced was merely an obvious means for using the new kind of needle.