Mohave County miner., 1898-04-16
Working Out the Details.

letter describing briefly aome PROPOSED
inyeo,ion aud winding up with some
such phrase AZ this: II only throw oal
the crude idea noe, but ! think Il would
be easy 10 work cot the detslla." Some.
iitaes the writer intsAds to conduct the
latter par. OF the proceedings hirnaeli ;
sometimes be wants manufactures 20
undertake tho task. But 10 either case.
he considers the "sorking out Of the do.
tails" tritiins matter, and usually be
iieyes that the main part OF the work has
already been done 10 couceiving "ths
crude idea"
This is a very common, but really a
serious, error. A grea, many things
which look oil right, while still existing
oniy 10 the mind OF the Inventor, develop
some unforeseen deiec. as soon a. they
are put TO practical test. Long before
Edlson's day, for instance, other men
had the ''cruds idea" that light could be
produced by heating to incAndescence q
filsment OF some substance by sending a
current Of electricity through Ii, In fact,
they knew II. Blu. none Of them pro-
duced a successful lamp And IL took
Ellison five or ten years. and cost him
many thousands OF dollars, to work out
the details" He found that platinum
was unavailable for flamsnt, and that
carbon was better. He sent men all
over the world, to the jungles Of India
and 10 the forests oil the Amazon. to &c.
differsnt kinds OF vegetable fiber with
which TO experiment, so that be might
find the best. Then be discovered that
a better vacuum was needed. instead OF
the bulbs, than could bs secured with or
binary air pumps, and 30 he went 10
work to inven. al improved air pump Of
bis own. Besides these other important
details, there was this essential problem
requiring attention: How could be per.
suade just the right amount Of electricity
to leave the rain wire aud 90 into each
lsmp. Too little would leave the lamp
dim. Too much would barn II vnt in
stantly. Some Of the most famous cleo.
tricisns in the world said that the thing
could not be done. Edison did IT,,
though and il he had not achieved this
success, his lamp would not have worked
A dozen other such instances, in the ca.
nf EAtanp nn,Il he ~, I'D
There Is one, taken from the life OF Sir
Henry Bessemer, Of England. who died a
few weeks ago, having conferred more
benefit on the civilized world than any
other inventor Of the present century,
and having derived over 8, 900, zoos from
his patents
Forty-ive years ago steel cost 250$ or
300s a ton. Nov II can be had for POS
or 25$ The reduction ia price is partly
the result Of he use oil machinery 10 the
operations OF manufacture, and OF the
cheaper transportation Of ore But the
chief factor 10 the change is the iuyen-
ton o. Bessemer's process Of making
steel. Pig iron contains too much car
bon. Sir Henry melted II 10 huge egg.
shaped flask, called converter, forced
powerful air jats into the bottom Of the
latter, and thus burned out the impuri
ties. But his invention was not COM
plete when be made 1t public In 1856
He experienced great disappointment,
suffered vigorous criticism and denuu
citation as an imposter, spent 50.000$ or
100 COOS In addition to bis frst outlay,
sent all over the world for samples Of ore
and pig iron, and conducted elaborate
chemical experiments before be learned
how to overcome three difficulties tina,
he had not forseen at first. Nearly four
years were consumed in this task. And
II he had been man of less patience,
thoroughness and energy, he would have
failed.
We cannot all he Edisons and Besse.
mers. Only q few inventors have the
ready money to expend as these two
men did. But they both began life as
poor boys. They made their own for.
tunes. And they did 90 even more by
working out the details" themselves
than they did by their "crude ideas. -
NJ. & s. Press.