The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-09-03

Inventors, like other men Of genius, are apt to
be either very ill-requited or very munfcently re-
warded for their work. They have seldom the
good fortune to enjoy that golden mean between
poverty and riches, which is reached by most of
those whose aims are less ambitious and who toll
in the more familiar fields Of labor. The MAORI
ty of them draw blanks and 10 the few are allotted
splendid prizes. The disappointed usually attri-
butte their want of success 10 the worlds injustice
or indifference, and however true this may be in
individual instances, we cannot but think the
charge, in the main, unfounded. In the first
place, many of these men who have spent long
years and perhaps their whole lives, in endeavor-
ing to reduce to form and substance some shadowy
conception of the brain, have too often untitled
themselves by the nature Of their employment for
the struggle which necessarily awaits them when
they come forth to assert their claim to rank and
reward. Through the intensity with which they
have devoted themselves TO pursuits which the mass
of mankind could have little or no sympathy WITH
they have TOO often lost the capacity to understand
the world they live in. Ignorant Of its ways, and
falling 10 appreciate their uncongeniality with
these, they bluntly demand an instant recognition
of the value Of their services and unless this is
yielded without delay or demur they are dissatisfied
and accuse the world of being ungenerous and I'M
fair. Again, it seldom happens that any invention
comes IN perfect shape from the hands of him
who first conceived it. Only the brain of COP
could produce a MINERVA. The principle on which
a new machine, for instance is to be con-
structed may have been suggested by one,
and the rudimentary outline of it sketched
out by another, and improvement after i'm
provement may still be added by as many sue
cessive individuals before it can be regarded as of
any practical utility. Steamboats, had been built
and abandoned long before Fulton began his
experiments, and locomotive engines had been
unsuccesfully tried before STEPHENSON constructed
the "Rocket.n Nevertheless, these two men are
looked upon as the inventors of steamboats, and
locomotives The world readily understands and
accents the inventions which can be turned at
once to some profitable purpose, and while it re-
wards those through whose ingenuity some de-
sired object has been attained it generally overooks
the labors of those who were more remotely in
strumenta in bringing about the result. But the
latter have right to complain that they are ill
treated, because mankind does not take into con-
sderation all the immature ideas and imperfect
designs which they may have originated, but
which, practically, came to nothing, or which
only led them to point beyond which step still
urther in advance was Immediately taken by
some one else. That men are disposed to be just
towards those whose discoveries or inventions tend
materially to Tighten their labors or facilitate bu
man progress, is proved by the care now taken in
all civilized countries to assure to those who do
the FRAMEWORK, the fruits of their toll. So anx
;ously are their rights guarded that they are NOT
merely permitted to secure them by patents for a
limited PERIOD but the time for which they are en-
titled to such protection may be extended, if they
can show they have not been sufficiently remuner
ated. Indeed it may be questioned whether, as
between inventors and the public, the former are