The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1866-03-14
How Machinery OutsrOws ORR.
gimal Calculations.

There is probably not an inventor who
does not believe, at the moment Of perfec-
ting really great discovery, that he has
accomplished much more than he has really
done-secured something nearly approach
ing to perfection, if not quite reaching it !;
this fact being, meanwhile, that he has made
the same approach towards easily attaina-
BILE perfection as presented by the old fire.
lock Of the sixteenth century, which re-
quired second man to carry flint and steel
and strike fire separately every time the
piece was to be discharged, when compared
with the breech-loading repeater Of the
present day, which is itself destined, no
doubt, to be considered clumsy contriv-
ance by some incorporating age when
the fire-arm will load as we'll as discharge
itself. even if it does not carry itself about
and point its direction through the means
Of automatic machinery.
There is not much doubt that Fulton, on
the day when he first saw the Clermont
cleaving (very slowly-say three or four
miles an hour) the waters of the Hudson,
was one of the proudest and best satisfied Of
men; but if he could have looked forward
twenty years and seen what the Clermont
would be looked back to as having been,
certainly he would have experienced some
reduction Of his content. The Stevenses,
when at the end Of that twenty or thirty
years they had made such improvements in
steamboats, rs seemed to be very nearly per-
lection, would have experienced something
of the same belittled feeling if they could
have known how their wonderful craft were
to be eclipsed and thrown aside as antique
oddities at the end of dozen years. Very
fortunately the view ahead is limited; the
inventor goes on to what he conceives to be
perfection, and that encouragement is pre-
vented which would SO certainly palsy his
hands il not turn aside his purpose.
Some Of us remember when Brunel-al-
ready high in reputation as an English en-
gineer-made and published calculation
that railway trains could never possibly be
driven at speed exceeding thirty miles an
hour, because at any speed beyond those
figures the pressure Of air passed through
would fiatten down and demolish the cars !;
and still more Of us remember when that
same Brunei died, few years ago, after
having lived to build railway engines that
ran sixty, seventy, and even eighty miles
an hour, and driven some Of them himself |!
Many men, whose heads are only little
gray, took part in watching and prophecy
ing upon the first attempts ut crossing the
Atlantic by steam. AS an experiment,
this may possibly succeed once, after losing
half . dozen vessels and few hundreds Of
lives; but it can never succeed practically,
Is the weight of machinery, in heavy sea,
must wiring the vessel to pieces" So said
the wiseacres, many thousands Of whom
have lived to see the day when sea-going
steamers have made the Atlantic little else
than ferry-and when it is only crossed
without the aid Of steam. by cargo boats,
emigrant ships, and the yachts Of . few
people who wish to remain ~ long IS pos
sible away from sight Of the land.
Instances might be cited, ad infmtam, if
not Cd nswssam; but lot 10 take one uustra-