Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-04-10

In fact he had brought the highest mathe-
matical talent in this couutry to bear in
! the solution of the problem. And if the
mechanics of this city would succeed in
the race, they must compete with this
knowledge as we'll as skill. Can we re-
main in the tracks of our fathers and still
compete successfully! | need not ask the
question. ... ...
y common mistake al the present time,
into which we are most apt 10 fall, is that
science and practice are antngoHistic; the
scientific man is considered n dreamer or
theorst, the prGcticGE man one who APP
plies science without knowledge of its
principles. No idea can be more com
pletely mistaken one; nor mistake more
fatal to every department of industry. 1t
is fact that cannot be questioned, that
the practical applications only follow thu
study of the pure sciences
The steam engine was only invented at-
ter the laws of heat had been developed,
the telegraph devised after the laws of
electricity had been laboriously investign-
ted. nor the manifold contubitiOns of Chem
istrv to the arts until after the idrS of
chemistry had occupied much invcstign-
ton; they were the legitimate fruits of the
seed sown during laborious and toilsome
years spent amid the fumes of the labOra-
tory.
Plavflir has said "that tits but the over
flowings of science that thus enter into
and animate industry"
To illustrate by an example or two, the
steam engine and telegraph have been AL
luded to, we can find multitudes of others.
The genius of q Lie6iy, sent fleets to the
distant islands for guano to fertiliZe our
soil, not the so-called '.practicaL, man. 1t
was left for the chemist to do this. The
experience of the power was not sufficient.
After the experience of twenty centuries
we find the practical man of Italy and
South France using the same tools in their
agricultural operations, which were used
by the ancient Romans, and the hard
earned experience of twenty-five centu-
ries of the Chinese in the art of making
Porcelain has been more than surpassed in
Europe in the last fifty years by the help
of science. We become so accustomed to
the luxurious applications of science that
we forget the searcher of abstract truth
whose discoveries led to them. While
using that most useful invention, the fric-
tion match, we may still retain lively
recollection of the vexations attending the
production of fire in olden time by the
Undertook and flint, but we forget him
whose labors in the laboratory led to the
discovery of the present match.
IL is this idea that l wish so especially
to enforce, that not only scientific knowl-
edge, but also pure science, must be widely
disseminated. There was never before "a
period when it was so necessary as now
that science should combine with skill for
the promotion of the useful arts. Hum
bolt says: SAN equal appreciation Of all
parts of knowledge is m especial require
ment of the present epoch, in which the
material wealth and the increasing pros
perity of nations are in great measure
based on q moro enlightened employment
of natural forces"
1t may be interesting to look abroad for
the effects on nations. England has so
far distanced France, Germany, Spain and
Italy simply because she has better applied
science to aid her industry. She has con-
sidercd carefully both of the great elements
which enter into successful prosecution
of the arts, manufactures and commerce.
The first element is raw material, the sec
ond is the skill and knowledge used in
manufacturing it. 1t is in the last of these
that England shows her great superiority
over other nations. On that restricted
territory, scarcely two-thirds as large as
the Old Dominion, are fed and clothed
Mt least sixteen or seventeen millions
Of population, and there is cOncentra-
ted more wealth than in any other
|
let us consider her greatest element of
power, her coal. If we consider the abso-
| lutte amount of labor q man can perform
! and observe how much coal burned in the
steam engine will perform the same work.
We find, in the best cornist engines,
| single pound of coal will produce Just the
same results as days work of q laborer.
A pound of coal is then worth days
wages, and if we estimate mans lifetime
| of labor to be twenty years, this labor can
be performed by three tons of coal. 1t
can be demonstrated that the steam
engines of Great Britain are doing the
work of over four hundred millions of able
| bodied men, or more than there are on the
globe, but it requires intelligence to both
mine this coal, and to work the engines,
and she feeds, to-day, sixteen or eighteen
millions of her population from her soil
better than she did five and half
millions in the times of James H.,
scarcely $50 years ago. We have al
the elements of wealth in vastly great
er profusion than England, shall we fall
| behind because we neglect the other fac
| ton, the dissemination of knowledge!-
| We must not. The nation, the city, or the
| individual who would win in the race at
the present time, must bring to his aid all
| the helps of modern science, and let US,
in this city be wise.
We have not considered the other i'm
portant element in this question, the effect
on morals, intellect or happiness, We
have only looked at the pecuniary and ma
terial interests; but let it not be thought
that this is really the most important part.
It is in fact the least important. Science
is too lofty formcasurement by the yard of
utility, too inestimable for expression by
money standard. Ha
We cannot in this report, glance at all
the facts, each weighty and important,
which were adduced, nor even sketch all
the subjects treated in the hour.