The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-11-04
FlexIbIeness Of american IngenuIty.

The remarkable einventiveness of Amer.
Jean genius hRs often been commented
upon with wonder and applause by OBJ.
servers from every land, and 1t deserves
TO be admired. Last year, for instance,
In Great Britain, 3,40G patents were
granted oat Of $500 applications, whils
IN the United States of 10000 applicants
l2,40O received patents. This is nearly
four to one, both of applications made
and patents granted. But the flexible
ness of American invention, lis peculiar
capacity of adjusting itself to surround
Ing circumstances, it's "pliability to tire
environment" as the evolutionists would
say, Is q much more valuable property
than were its fecundity.i This quality
makes every resource of the American
fnind instantly available for each occa.
sion as soon as 1t crises. and contrasts
strikingly with the rustiness, the slowness
mind. Examples abound of this differ.
more forcible than those afforded by tho
comparative history of railroad construc.
ticn ia this country and in Europe. The
first locomotive engine was put on the
Liverpool and Manchester Railroad in
1929. 1t was built for, straight, stone.
ballasted road, with .stone and iron
bridges. roadway solid nc Roman
road, aud costing enormous sums per
mile. Under such conditions, with our
inferior amount of available capital, ex.
tensive railroad construction could not
have been entered upon in this country.
The English roads are still built in the
same solid way, and the English engines
are simply improvements upon Stephen.
sons original model. But in this coun.
try, from the first, our railroads were con-
trived TO turn almost impossible curves,
to wind up almost impossible SUBMITS. to
descend perilious grades, aad to cross
great ravines on spider. tracery Of
trestlcwork. A British engine could not
have been driven on any such road, and
IT it could It's weight and massiveness
would have crushed the track. But the
onginecrs who adapted their roads to the
face, of the country and the stale Of the
public purse might be trusted to adapt
their engines to the roads. Indeed, tho
frat locomotive ever built in the country,
MIR. Peter Cooper's, was intended aud
contrived to wheel in and out of the fire..
quent and marvelousfy short and sharp
curves of the original Baltimore and
Ohio railroad to Ellicott's Mills, which it
was thought would look $50 picturesque"
winding along its ambient way and fol.
lowing the bends of Gwynn'a Falls and
the Patapscc. This sort OF pliancy has
continued throughout. j. It gave the
camel back" engine and the v curve to
the Alleganiea, and the light Gotten weed
cheap road. bed 10 the prriries. The
rapidity with which our engineers learn
to adjust means to ends il surprising.
The builders of the Liverpool and Man
| cheater road, in order to make it straight,
ran 1t right across Chat.Moss, great
morass, into which millions Of cubic
yards of rubbish were dumped for ten
years. American engineers began in the
same way. In building The Eric railroad
ninety miles Of it were laid on pilas, as If
1t were pier they were building. But
! engineers soon learned 10 flank such OBJ,
structions, or, if they had to be crossed,
to get over them not by main strength
and awkwardness, but by cheap. ready
made, yet efficient expedients.
Thus again the Erie, when British rails
were not to be had for less than $50 o
| ton, in 1886 founded the Lackawanna
Iron Works, hauled iron and coal over
wagon roads and forged its own rails
the first I rails ever made and laid down
in this country. In tunnelling and
bridging, as we'll as in trestle work and
in climbing steep acclivities, this same
texibloness In invention is constantly
seen, and it was often displayed during
the late war, as when the Confederates
built an arinor- clad vessel out of railroad
iron, or Farragut protected his vessels
| from shot with anchor chains, or. Porter
rescued his feet from the Red River by
constructing boom and wing.dam,
one of tine most ingenious engineering
performances upon record. This capa-
city of establishment in the American
J faculty of invention is the most resource
Jul possession of our people, and r.us.
continue to enrich us more rapidly ~ -
other nations are enriched as long as we
retain it. s., f at