Invention: The Master-key to Progress

by Bradley A. Fiske

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?