The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-10-10
EDUCATED INVENTORS. d.


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Mark Twain, In his novel, 'HThe Ameri-
can Claimant" introduces his readers to a
mechanics club debate, the manifest OBJ
ject being to satirize the socialistic ten
denotes Of the workmen Of the present day.
One Of the speakers, a self educated printer,
delivers long harangue to prove that we
'overrate the college culture share In the
production of the mighty progress" Of the
nation. SIN looking over list of inventors"
he continues, II find that they were not
college bred men. or course there are ex-
ceptions, but these exceptions are few"
Now 1t has long been o custom and a
very pleasant one no doubt that as soon as
man has risen to great prominence his
friends have sought to add luster to his
glory by making his origin more humble
than 1t really was and representing his
education as having been practically neg
lected. In the life of presidential candi-
date, got up for campaign purposes, this
may be all very we'll, for our partisanship
makes us all very credulous, but in the
work of standard author 1t is entirely
different.
Now the writer is we'll aware that Mark
Twain is such funny man that it is often
difficult to know when to take him seri-
ously. But in the present instance 1t is
manifest that Mr.. Clemens has allowed his
reason to be carried away by the popular
fallacy that the great inventors were men
Of little or no education, who started out
In life with vague ideas of the alphabet
and multiplication table. To say that the
inventors, with very few exceptions, were
not college bred is to make misstatement
that could have been rectifled at the ex-
pense of very little research.
To take Only the mora notp1 nanaa In
the field of American invention, we find
that Morse was not only educated at Yale,
but that he achieved success as a portrait
painter long before he ever dreamed of
having his name connected with the cleo
trio telegraph. While very poor in early
life, Whitney was quick to see the advan-
tages of education, and endured many
hardships for the sake of working his way
through Yale college. Corliss received a
good academic education, and knew enough
to construct a machine for sewing heavy
leather before he had ever seen the inside
OF a machine shop.
Fulton was a man of education, and was
a landscape painter by profession before he
became interested in mechanics. The elder
Roebling graduated at the Berlin Poly
technic school, and his son was educated
at the Rensselaer, institute. Calling was
not only educated, but he studied medicine
and took degree. Moncure Robinson.
one of our pioneer railroad constructors
and the builder of the Philadelphia and
Reading road, was designed for the law,
and was educated in the Gerardine acad-
envy and William and Mary college.
DRhlgren and Ericsson received mill
tary education, the latter having the title
Of LII. d. Rodman, of gun and powder
fame, was graduate of West Point, and
Thurston, to whom we are indebted for
more than one invention, was educated at
Brown university. The list could be great
ly extended il we included the names of
men noted for their discoveries in the sci
ences, who must of necessity have had the
highest education. 1t is poor policy at
best for self educated men to attempt to
undervalue the advantages of liberal
education.
No inventor need be afraid that ne will
handicap himself in his work by going
through college. To state that Howe and
Edison received very little education in
early life proves nothing in an argument
on this subject. While. they deserve all
the more credit on that account, who can
deny that their services to the world might
not have been even greater than they are
if they had started out in life with the ad- |
vantages of a college education2-M echan-
zeal NeWs