The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1867-06-07
GREAT INVENToRs---THEIR SUI
FERING AND SUCCESS.

Once or twice in a generation it hap
pens that great patent, like the seWins
machine, meets with success and Yields
return prompt enough to enrich the in
ventor himself. More usually it happens
that the inventor perishes in if not of tn
poverty to which his self-devotion con
signs him, leaving to lucky rather thar
worthy purchasers The lucrative produc
of his genius and of his sufferiugs. Pos
thumous gratitude and honor may then b,
his reward; but if fortunate enough on
the other hand to enjoy a small percen.
tage of the pecunisry benefit be has con.
ferred upon his own generation alone, men
too commonly think him greatly overpaid
without any acknowledgment as a public
benefsctor, and rather make it point to
embitler his too good fortune with envy,
detraction, and plenty Of litigation for his
rights.
In this grudge that some men feel, they
wholly forget the life cost of great iuveu :
ton. There are few lottery prizes in
| life; but most men KAYE to pay for all
they get, and Inventors are not exceptions
to the rule. The life of Charles Good
year is one of the most pathetic histories
under the sun, and now that the reality
aud wisdom of his work have redeemed it
! from the contempt that was long its bit
tere5t ingredient, appears one of the most
heroic and admirable.
Great power is required for great work,
in men just as vigorously as in steam en- =
gines; and Charles Goodyear and Elias
Howe, judged by their histories and works
have the same title to our admiration as
great men, and by the same rule, as Gen
ersl Grant.
The last-named inventor (Howe) has
history somewhat resembling that of
Goodyear. in it's desperate (though less
protracted) struggle but happily contrast
ed with Ii in its sequel and reward. 1t
Is well to look back upon the price of his
fortune while looking at its amount. The
story is we'll told 10 the last Atlantic
Monthly by that lively biegrapher, Mr..
Parton. and is worth recalling in its main
features here.
Elias Howe was born in 1919, the sor
of a Massachusetts farmer and miller
whom he assisted in both capacities from
very small beginning until the age Of
| 16, when be went to Lowell and began
! life on his own account in a machine shop
At the age of 90, then journeyman ma
chnist in Boston, the conception of the
sewing first presented itself to his mind,
and three or four years later he applied
himself earnest to Tealizs in a machine
the plan which had been gradually
wrought out in his Imagination.
Here the rare faculty by which he bad
been ordained an Inventor exhibited itself
triumphautly. II is faculty possessed
by the feWssI Of men, where the visule
image in the brain is so true to reality as
to require only an embodiment to work
successfully in every form foreshown.
| Within FIVE months, commencing in De-
cember 1914, the sewing machine was an
accom- plished fact, made two suits Of
clothes, sewing at the rate of 900 stitches
minute, and was patented. The first
machine is still in the Howe Compauy's
| Office on Broadway and doubtless will be
preserved to all time, as one of the most
! interesting mementoes connected with ma
/ terial progress. II is said to have recent
| ~ proved its capacity, making 300 stitch
es minute, and making them as we'll as
any of its successors; a fact among the
most remarkable, even if exaggerated, in
the annals of invention.
Sngularly indeed, the trials of the in =
ventor were but commenced with the
completion of his machine. Nine long
and distressful years were consumed iu
unavailing efforts to start the manufac
ture and sale, before the business began
to yield modest support to his family
| At the end of the two first years not a
machine had been sold. Two years more
were spent in extreme poverty and trial
in England, during which time his straits
sometimes borderd on starvation
Against the opposition and through the
difficulties which he encountered, few
men would ever have perseVered, or per-
severing would have succeeded. The
present generation owes as much to the
Iinvincible determination of the patentee as
to the ingenuity of the inventor. GreaI
as his success has been, il is one of those
prizes which are only for the wise and
valient who endure unto the end"
Scientific american.