How to Succeed as an Inventor / Showing the Wonderful Possibilities in the Field of Invention; the Dangers to Be Avoided; the Inventions Needed; How to Perfect and Develop New Ideas to the Money Making Stage

by Goodwin Brooke Smith

Our grandparents thought they were as comfortable as possible, and they were, because they did not know any better. Do we know better? One hundred years from now, possibly, our great, great-grandchildren will consider us as having lived in the "stone age." The field of invention has no bars up,—you, all of us, are free to enter.

"The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and to possess the aptitude and perseverance to attain it."

CHAPTER II.
LOOKING BACKWARD

"Intelligent study and the application of unremitting effort to a definite purpose are the factors that overcome obstacles."

Here follows a list of the principal inventions chronologically arranged, with the names and nationalities of their inventors.

Year.	Name of Invention.	Name of Inventor.	Nationality.
1620	Spirally grooved rifle barrel	Blaew	German.
1643	Barometer	Torricelli	Italian.
1660	Discovery of Electrical Phenomena	William Gilbert	English.
1663	Steam engine	Thos. Newcomen	English.
1690	Steam engine with piston	Denis Papin	French.
1702	First practical application of steam engine	Thos. Savory	English.
1709	Thermometer	Fahrenheit	Danzig.
1725	Franklin printing press	Benj. Franklin	U.S.
1731	Stereotyping	William Ged	Scotch.
1733	Weaving flying shuttle	John Kay	English.
1745	Leyden Jar	Kleist	German.
1752	Lightning conductor	Benj. Franklin	U.S.
1763	Spinning jenny	Jos. Hargreaves	English.
1767	Piano		England.
1775	Cut nails	Jere. Wilkinson	U.S.
1777	Circular wood saw	Miller	English.
1782	Steam engine	Jas. Watt	Scotch.
1783	Balloon inflated with gas	Montgolfier	French.
1784	Puddling iron	Henry Cort	English.
1784	Cast iron plow	Jas. Small	Scotch.
1786	Steamboat	John Fitch	U.S.
1787	Steam road wagon, first automobile	Oliver Evans	U.S.
1788	Threshing machine	And. Meikle	English.
1791	Wood planer	Sam'l Bentham	English.
1794	Cotton gin	Eli Whitney	U.S.
1800	Electric battery	Volta	Italian.
1801	Fire-proof safe	Richard Scott	English.
1803	Steel pen	Wise	English.
1804	Malleable iron castings	Lucas	English.
1808	Band wood saw	Newberry	English.
1808	First sea-going steamboat	John Stephens	U.S.
1810	Revolving cylinder printing press	Fred'k Koenig	German.
1811	Breech-loading shot gun	Thornton & Hall	U.S.
1814	First locomotive, U.S	Geo. Stephenson	English.
1815	Miner safety lamp	Sir Humphry Davy	English.
1815	Gas meter	Clegg	English.
1823	Discovery of water gas	Ibbetson	English.
1825	Portland cement	Aspdim	English.
1827	Friction matches	John Walker	U.S.
1828	Hot blast for iron furnaces	Neilson	Scotch.
1829	Washington printing press	Sam'l Rust	U.S.
1831	Chloroform	Guthrie	Scotch.
1832	Electric telegraph	Prof. Morse	U.S.
1832	Rotary electric motor	Sturgeon	English.
1832	"Old Iron Sides" locomotive	Baldwin	U.S.
1833	Steam whistle	Geo. Stephenson	English.
1834	Reaper	Cyrus H. McCormick	U.S.
1834	Carbolic acid	Runge	German.
1835	Horse-shoe machine	Burden	U.S.
1836	Acetylene gas	Davy	English.
1836	Revolver	Sam'l Colt	U.S.
1836	Screw propeller for steam navigation	John Erickson	U.S.
1837	Galvanizing iron	Craufurd	English.
1839	Babbitt metal	Isaac Babbit	U.S.
1839	Vulcanizing rubber	Goodyear	U.S.
1839	Daguerreotype	Louis Daguerre	French.
1840	Artesian wells		French.
1842	Automatic piano	Seytre	French.
1844	First telegram sent	Prof. Morse	U.S.
1845	Double cylinder printing press	Richard Hoe	U.S.
1845	Pneumatic tire	Thompson	English.
1846	Sewing machine	Elias Howe	U.S.
1846	Ether as an anaesthetic	Dr. Morton	U.S.
1847	Nitroglycerine	Sobrero
1847	Improved Hoe printing press	Richard Hoe	U.S.
1849	Steam pressure gauge	Bourdon	French.
1849	Corliss engine	George H. Corliss	U.S.
1850	Mercerized cotton	John Mercer	English.
1851	Breech-loading rifle	Maynard	U.S.
1851	Ice-making machine	Gorrie	U.S.
1852	Telegraph fire alarm	Channing & Farmer	U.S.
1854	Diamond rock drill	Herman	U.S.
1854	Revolver	Smith & Wesson	U.S.
1855	Cocaine	Gaedeke	German.
1855	Bessemer steel	Sir Henry Bessemer	English.
1855	Bicycle	Michaux	French.
1856	Sleeping car	Woodruff	U.S.
1858	Cable car	Gardner	U.S.
1858	First Atlantic cable	Cyrus Field	U.S.
1859	"Great Eastern" launched		U.S.
1861	Passenger elevator	E. G. Otis	U.S.
1861	Barbed wire fence		U.S.
1862	Gattling gun	Dr. R. J. Gattling	U.S.
1865	Antiseptic surgery	Sir Jos. Lister	English.
1866	Open hearth steel process	Siemens-Martin	English.
1866	Torpedoes	Whitehead	U.S.
1868	Typewriting machine	C. L. Sholes	U.S.
1868	Dynamite	Nobel	French.
1868	Oleomargarine	Mege	French.
1868	Sulky plow	Slusser	U.S.
1869	Spring tooth harrow	Garver	U.S.
1870	Celluloid	Hyatt	U.S.
1872	Automatic brake	Geo. Westinghouse	U.S.
1872	Car coupler	E. H. Janney	U.S.
1873	Quadruplex telegraph	Thos. A. Edison	U.S.
1873	Twine binder harvester	Gorham	U.S.
1873	Self-binding reaper	Loche & Wood	U.S.
1875	Roller flour mills	Wegmann	U.S.
1875	Ice-making machine	Pictet	Switzerland.
1876	Telephone	Dr. Alex. Graham Bell	U.S.
1877	Phonograph	Thos. A. Edison	U.S.
1877	Gas engine	N. A. Otto	U.S.
1877	Telephone transmitter	Emile Berliner	U.S.
1878	Carbon filament for electric lamps	Thos. A. Edison	U.S.
1878	Rotary disc cultivator	Mallon	U.S.
1880	Telephone transmitter Blake	U.S.
1880	Hammerless gun	Greener	U.S.
1880	Typhoid bacillus	Robert Koch	German.
1880	Pneumonia bacillus	Sternberg	U.S.
1881	Buttonhole machine	Reece	U.S.
1882	Tuberculosis bacillus	Robert Koch	German.
1882	Hydrophobia bacillus	Louis Pasteur	French.
1884	Cholera bacillus	Robert Koch	German.
1884	Diphtheria bacillus	Loefler	German.
1884	Lockjaw bacillus	Nicolaier	French.
1884	Antipyrene	Kuno	U.S.
1884	Linotype machine	Ottmar Mergenthaler	U.S.
1885	First electric street railway in the U.S.		Baltimore, Md.
1885	Overhead electric trolley	Van Depole	U.S.
1886	Graphophone	Bell & Tainter	U.S.
1887	Cyanide process	McArthur & Forest	U.S.
1887	Incandescent gas light	Carl Welsbach	German.
1888	Harveyized armor plate	Harvey	U.S.
1888	Kodak snapshot camera	Eastman & Walker	U.S.
1890	Bicycles equipped with pneumatic tires		U.S.
1890	Magazine rifle	Krag-Jorgensen	U.S.
1891	Rotary steam turbine	Parsons	English.
1893	Kinetoscope	Thos. A. Edison	U.S.
1893	Carborundum	E. G. Acheson	U.S.
1893	Calcium carbide electrically produced	Thos. L. Wilson	U.S.
1895	Liquifying air	Carl Linde	German.
1895	X-rays	Prof. Roentgen	German.
1895	Acetylene gas from calcium carbide	Thos. L. Wilson	U.S.
1896	Wireless telegraphy	G. Marconi	Italian.
1896	Finsen rays	Finsen	Danish.
1898	Non-whittling lead pencil	F. H. Lippincott	U.S.
1900	Mercury vapor electric light	Peter Cooper Hewitt	U.S.
1901	Airship	M. Santos-Dumont	French.
1901	Automobile mower	Deering Harvester Co.	U.S.

From the Encyclopedia Americana.

"There are no elevators in the house of success."—Silent Partner.

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Since the above list (taken from the Encyclopedia Americana) was published, there have been a large number of very important inventions brought out.