Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-05-26
THE PRosnEsy OF INVENTION.

detail, however minute, that they do not
scrutinize. There is no phenomenon, how
ever vast, that they do not examine. No
immensity appals them, no completely stag
gers them, no minuteness repels them.
Quick at tracing causes to their effects
and results to their origins, the slightest
clue leads them to the most important
conclusions, the merest hint conducts
to profound discoveries. In expert
ment they show skill in inventing direct
tests and indirect appliances that force, or
coax, or juggle nature out of secrets she has
hitherto held in the profoundest mystery.
The fruits of all these efforts bring the
most multifarious facts to our knowl-
edge about the properties of things, and
how they act upon each other; what ana
lysis reveals with respect to them, and what
their combinations produce. The average
reader, looking over the details of the facts
ascertained, finds them mostly an indistin-
guishable medley, often apparently trivial,
here and there sufficiently curious to create
a momentary interest, but mostly consisting
of things that to know confers no benefit, and
to be ignorant OF implies no loss. To the
inventor, the page OF new facts presents a
very different picture. Learning that this
article has this property, and that article
another property, he gees how, if associated
under given conditions and supplied with
certain instrumentalities, such and such
effects may be produced. He sets to work;
he tests the idea he has formed in various
ways until he finds what notifications will
best bring out the result he seeks to
produce. That done, he has completed
an invention which, patented and made
known to the world, may bring him
not only fortune but fame. His is the true
ladder to eminence. Let the results Of his
busy brain and his skillful hands be success
full, and he is famous. In every part OF the
civilized world he may visit he will be hon.
ored. What hitherto rank has conferred, the
sword won, or success in literature impaired
is now within the grasp OF the successful
inventor. He has tangible, undeniable
claim to the worlds attention. He has
merits that are their own evidence; claims
no power can confer and no authority deny.
The brightest intellect, the possessor of the
vastest stores of practical knowledge, find in
invention employment for their highest
powers, a field broader than their widest
knowledge, and aims capable of satisfying
the most inordinate ambition. Invention,
therefore, never occupied as many hands
and brains as it does to-day, and never
did it soar as high nor delve as deep.
Accordingly we see marvels accomplished,
and still mightier wonders loom up in the
distance. Just now the principal turn of
invention is toward electricity. The scientist
investigates its powers and demonstrates its
capacities, and the inventor follows him, rap
idly adapting to human service the resources
placed by him at his command. In addition
to its other uses the aeronauts are striving to
make it the long-sought instrument by which
men may traverse the air, guiding the aerial
car as the ship is guided upon the waves Of
the ocean. The balloon is useless for travel,
q lost mariner on log is as able to d.
rect his course as the man suspended beneath
a bag full OF gas. In Germany and Russia
bold experimenters are at work on this prob
lem. The power gained by boats sails is
resisted by the water, this resistance gives
the opportunity to control the vessels mo-
ton and SO direct its course. The
experimenters are now adopting the
principle of the inclined plane, which,
when pressed against the air, has tendency
TO rise. If this tendency can be sustained,
and be made sufficiently effective, a power
of controlling the rate and direction of mo-
ton will follow. A force is wanted which,
actuating appropriate paddles or fans, will
insure the required power for urging the car
upon the resisting air, as the boat is urged
by its propellors against the resisting water.
But any engine worked by steam will be too
heavy, with its fuel, for the purpose. Can
the required power be found in electricity?
Cannot it be made to generate or store tie
needed force IN so small compass and
weight as to supply the one thing which is
to open to man the ocean of air, as steam
gives him passage over the ocean of water?
That is what busy brains and skillful fingers
are now ardently at work upon, in both Ger
many and Russia. In the st. Gothard
tunnel, also, electricity is regarded as
the probable savior from a serious d.
lemma. Four trains a day now ira
verse that immense vault, and such
is the deficiency of air in the tunnel that the
men in the rear of the trains escape asphyxia
only by means OF reservoirs OF pure air from
which to breathe. What, then. will be the
case when ten or twelve trains pass each day :?
With electric power there would be no smoke
and no noxious gases, and by using the
abundance of water power supplied by neigh
bering waterfalls, SO as to charge with cleo
tricity an inch rod of copper passing from
entrance to entrance-the rails completing
the return circuit-it is expected that all
that is required may be secured, and at the
same time any danger from steam explosion
within the tunnel avoided. What will he
the result at the end of the next twenty-five
years of all the vast inventive effort now
making, and making by men whose knowl-
edge and general requirements are so much
in advance of that OF the average inventors
of the past?