Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-01-06
EDUCATED INVENTORS.
1 Mistake Too Frequently Made by Men
who Write Biographies.

Who Write biographies.
Mark Twain, in his novel. "The Ameri-
san Claimant" introduces his readers to
mechanics club debate, the manifest OBJ
feet 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. 'In looking over a list ofinventors,"
he continues, 81 find that they were not
college bred men. OF course there are ex-
captions, but these exceptions are few"
Now it has long been a custom and
very pleasant one no doubt that as soon as
a man has risen to great prominence his
friends have sought to add luster to his
glory by making his origin mere humble
than it 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 well, for our partisanship
makes us all very credulous, but in the
work of standard author it is entirely
different.
Now the writer is well 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 it is
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 a misstatement
that could have been rectified at the eS-
pense of very little research.
To take only the more noted names 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 q machine for sewing heavy
| leather before he had ever seen the inside
| of machine shop.
| Fulton was man OF education, and was
a landscape painter by profession before he
| became interested ip 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, out nSSIuNIeu InSulCiuS
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.
Dahlgren and Ericsson received a mill
tary education, the latter having the title
of Ii. d. Rodman, of gun and powder
| fame, was a graduate of West Point, and
| Thurston, TO whom we are indebted for
! more than ore invention, was educated al
| Brown university. The list could be great
| ly extended if 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 a liberal
| education.
| No inventor need be afraid that he 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
1 on this subject. While they deserve all
| the more credit on that account, who can
| deny that their services to the world mig hit
not have been even greater than they are
! if they had started out in life with the ad-
vantages of college education?- Mechan
| ical News.