The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1905-04-26
GREAT INVENTIONS.
All Of Them Have Met With Fierce Oppo-
Sition.
Milton Horn in Chicago Tribune.

I was branded a. an impudcnt quack,
! as fool, and as knavc. Expert en-
ginccrs dcrided him, went into the
witness box and loftily exposed" the
impracticability of his projects. Men
were told that railways would prevent
their cows from grazing and hens
! from laying. The poisoned air from
the locomotive would kill the birds as
they flew over the trains, and render
the preservation of phcasants and
foxes no longer possible.
/ IIouscholdcrs along the projected
lines were assured that their dwell
ings would be burnt up by the fire
from the engines. Travelling by rail
way would be highly dangerous.
Country inns would be ruined. Boil
crs would burst and blow the passen-
gers to atoms. The landscape would
be made bare and barren. The canals
would be reduced to the condition
Of unusued bitches, the coaching busi-
ness ruined
The Quarterly Review stated
GAS to those persons who speculate
on making railways general through
out the kingdom, we deem them and
their visionary. schemes unworthy of
notice"
Those who have mainly benefited
by the introduction Of railways, the
great landowners, whose estates have
been developed and their value enor-
mously enhanced, were among the
most bitter OF the new ideas oppo
nents. The mobiles themselves opposed
the bills in parliament, what time
their keepers we're assaulting the Off
GERS intrusted with the duty Of max
ing surveys.
The cost to the early companies was
appalling. Unheard of sums were de-
mandcd by way Of compcusation and
one company found its bill for parlia-
mcntary costs total up to $1,000, 600
before ever sod of the railway was
turned.
Besscmer's story is 30 near to our
own times that we are all familiar
with it. His first invention was one
for stamping documents, which, by
rendering fraudulent stamps impos-
sible, saved the government an enor-
nous sum annually. The idea was
practically flched from him by the
authorities. Profitable Office was
promised, but when the friendless lad
went to claim ful6llment Of pledge he
was rcbuffed and driven away from
the office.
@ His struggles in the making Of steel
!, read like romance. When his in
vention seemed perfect, and the man
ufacturing world which had howled
him down was quelled, there was
, found pig iron which his process
, would not convert. The triumph of
r the critics was immense. But he
|, labored on; and, though to the very
end he was still disbelieved by fatu-
Gus few, he gave to the manufactur-
ing community such wealth as had
, been undreamed Of in his day.
The government in the end behaved
with great magnanimity; it conferred
upon him knighthood with as little
grudging as it would bestow tho dis
tinction upon provincial mayor.
DThe invention of the steamboat, for
, which Fulton was ridiculed in the
United States, and whose success was
due alone to the intrepidity of the in
ventor, was received in even a worse
spirit in England. William Smying-
ton launched the first practical steam
ship ever eemploted.l It performed
it's trials successfully-too success
fully. The wise-acres of the period
, rose in wrath, and declared that the
wash from the new contrivance would
destroy the sides of the Forth and
Clyde canal. 1t was broken up; and
its inventor died broken hearted.
Long after the practicability Of the
! steamship had been demonstrated, the
British government was appealed to
in vain. Steamers were plying on the
Clyde, on the Thames, between Glas.
gov andk Belfast, Glasgow and Liver
pool, between London and Margate.
Steam Epassage 10 and from America
and to. and from India been made
twenty years sbefore tho admiralty
would allow public opinion to force
the adoption of steam for the navy.
Having once adopted it, they stuck
like limpets to the first idea-the pad
die wheel against everything. John
Ericsson made and patented his screw