CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES.

Inventions and Discoveries.--Distinctions and Contrast.--The One, Useful Contrivances of Man; the Other, New Things Found in Nature.--Galileo and the Telescope.--Newton and the Law of Gravitation.--Often United as Soul and Body.--Inventions and Discoveries do not Precede or Succeed in Order.--Inventions-- Alphabetical Writing; Arabic Notation; The Mariner’s Compass; The Telescope; The Steam Engine.--Discoveries;--Attraction of Gravitation; Planetary Motions; Circulation of Blood; Velocity of Light.--Nineteenth Century Inventions and Discoveries.-- Further Definitions.--Law of Development.--Contrivances, not Creations.--Man Always an Inventor.--Prof. Langley on Slow Growth of Inventions.--Inventions of this Century Outgrowth of Past Ones.--Egyptian Crooked Stick, Precursor of Modern Plough.--Hero of Alexandria and James Watt.--David’s Harp and the Grand Piano.--Electrical Science in 1600 and the Present Day.--Evolution and Interrelation of the Arts.--Age of Machine Inventions.--Its Beginning.--The Inducements to Invention.-- Necessity not Always the Mother.--Wants of Various Kinds.-- Accident.--Governmental Protection the Greatest Incentive.-- Origin and Growth of Patent Laws.--Influence of Personal, Political and Intellectual Freedom and Education.--Arts of Civilization Due to the Inventor.--Macaulay’s Estimate.-- Will Inventions Continue to Increase or Decrease.--Effect of Economic, Industrial and Social Life upon Inventions.--What Inventions have Done for Humanity.--Thread of the Centuries.-- The Roll of Inventions too Vast for Enumeration. 1