The frontier history of our country abounds in such examples down to the period of the Civil War, when the Germans of New Ulm, Minnesota, again, practically for the last time as settlers, were exposed to Indian massacres in their march to extend our far-flung battle line of civilization into the regions of the primeval wilderness. This border history is dominated by the names of the German, Dutch and English race. No Frenchmen, Russians, Italians or any of the races of southwestern Europe have any share in the reduction of the forests and prairies to the spirit of American sovereignty. French and Spanish settlements remained always a thing apart with never diminishing attachments to Europe, and before and after the Revolution the French were our enemies.
Inventions.
Inventions.—Among the many evidences of German moral and intellectual obliquity cited to justify our indignation was their lack of inventive genius, Prof. Brander Matthews in particular alleging that the Germans had contributed nothing to making possible the automobile, the aeroplane, the telephone, the submarine, the art of photography, etc.
The aeroplane, the automobile and the submarine were each made possible by the invention of the gas engine, and the gas engine was invented by Gottlieb Daimler. By combining Lillienthal’s “glider” with Daimler’s gas engine, the aeroplane became feasible. The first employment of the modern gas engine was by Daimler in running a motorcycle.
Wilhelm Bauer, a Bavarian corporal, in 1850 constructed a submersible craft at Kiel, which though it eventually came to grief, was practically operated and served to spread terror in the Danish navy, which discreetly withdrew from its blockading operations. It was equipped with torpedoes but was navigated by manual operation, noother power being available at that early period. (Boston Transcript.)
The first man to speak over a wire with the aid of electric power and to call his instrument a “telephone,” was Philipp Reis, of Frankfort. In 1868 the inventor wrote as follows: “Incited thereto by my lessons in physics in the year 1860, I attacked a work begun much earlier concerning the organs of hearing, and soon had the joy of seeing my pains rewarded with success, since I succeeded in inventing an apparatus by which it is possible to make clear and evident the functions of the organs of hearing, but with which one can also reproduce tones of all kinds at any desired distance by means of the galvanic current. I named the instrument ‘telephone.’” In Manchester, before the Literary and Philosophical Society, Reis’ telephone was shown in 1865 by Professor Cliften. The invention was however too soon for the world. To Reis’ great disappointment, the Physical Society of Frankfort took no further notice of the invention, the luster of which shone upon them. Other societies treated it as a scientific toy. The Naturalists’ Assembly, including all the leading scientific men of Germany, had, indeed, welcomed him at Giesen; but too late. His sensitive temperament had met with too many rebuffs, and the fatal disease with which he was already stricken told upon his energies. In 1873 he disposed of all his instruments and tools to Garnier’s Institute. To Herr Garnier he made the remark that he had shown the world the way to a great invention which must now be left to others to develop. On January 14, 1874, he was released by death. In December, 1878, a monument was erected to him in the cemetery of Friedricksdorf with the inscription under a medallion portrait: “Here rests Philipp Reis, born January 7, 1834; died January 14, 1874. To its deserving member, the Inventor of the Telephone, by the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-Main. Erected 1878.” (See “Philipp Reis, Inventor of the Telephone; a Biographical Sketch with Documentary Testimony, Translation of the Original Papers of the Inventor and Contemporaneous Publications,” by Sylvanus Thompson, B. A. DSc., Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol.)
The first modern photographic lens was invented by J. Petzval, of Vienna; the rectilinear lens by Steinheil; the Jena glass and anastigmatic lens by Abbe and Schott, of Jena, Prussia.
English View of Paul Jones.
English View of Paul Jones.—In the process of rewriting the history of the United States, as now in progress, in what light will American school children be taught to regard their great naval hero, John Paul Jones, whose remains in a Paris cemetery were exhumed about twenty years ago by order of our government and brought back to America with all the solemn pomp paid to the greatest of men? England’s estimate of him is evidenced by clippings of the contemporary English press, which Don C. Seitz a few years ago compiled into “Paul Jones, His Exploits in English Seas.” It contains clippingsof three types: first, slanders on Jones’ personal character; secondly, false reports as to his activities and capture; thirdly, editorial comment in which political morals are deduced or the consequences of his raids are touched upon.
In the first category come such passages as the following: