The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-11-05
GREATEST
OF ALL INVENTORS

Nature has devised the human
body on a plan which makes mod
ern science and engineering some
what commonplace in comparison.
She is the greatest engineer of
the ages and likewise the custodian
of the worlds first patent office.
If the first race of men had dis
sected and studied carefully the
bones, muscles, glands and other
parts of the human body they could
have found nearly all the impor-
tant mechanical principles that
have done SO much for the indus
trial world.
We know that a hollow shaft of
iron or steel is nearly twice as
strong as a solid shaft containing
the same amount of material-an
important scientific fact that all
engineers know and apply in their
work. But nature knew it long
before man did and applied the
principal in the construction of our
bones.
The bones of the face we're form.
ed for accommodating hundreds of
little muscles, but in order to &C
complish this without increasing
the surface greatly she bored hun
dreds of little holes in the surface
called air cells, to which the mus
cles could be attached in countless
numbers. Strength, lightness and
large surface are thus obtained in
the most ingenious way. An engi.
neer would find great difficulty in
duplicating such a piece of mechan.
ism.
The block and pulley or tackle
was a great mechanical discovery,
but nature made every man carry
several of these around with him
at the very beginning of creation.
The most important of these tao
kles is found in the eye. If you
turn your eye to look at the tip of
your nose, you use this block and
pulley, which is just as perfect as
any erected on a ship to hoist sail.
The muscle which moves the eye
ball works through the block easily
and smoothly and without friction,
for nature has supplied to all of
her machinery automatic or me-
chanical oil inventions. These
never fail to work unless we are
sick. and then the danger of a hot
box is to be considered.
The invention of the safety valve
for steam engines has saved thous-
ands of lives and millions of dol
lars of property. 1t is an invention
that stands prominently to the
front in this age Of mechanical
progress. But nature supplied us
each with a safety valve which for
effectiveness works better than any
made by man. Without this safety
valve we would not live "a hours.
This safety valve is the perspira-
tive or sweat gland, and to make
sure that we would not run short
of the supply she has furnished
the body with some two and half
millions of them. If our tempera,
ture rose seven or eight degrees
we would die within few hours
and yet we could not run, row
play tennis, ball or even walk safe
ly any distance without increasing
our temperature to the danger
point IL we had no safety valve
provided SO ingeniously by nature
The cup and ball socket and the
air ticket sockets were first used In
the human body. If our hip joints
and arms were not fitted with air.
tight sockets we would get too
tired to continue our work for any
length of time in just holding these
limbs together by muscles. 1t ID
the pressure OF the air which holds
them in place. and thus all physical
effort Is avoided. In the various
air light joints aud sockets found
in tina human body one may find
nearly all the mechanical princi
pies involved IN the air brake OF
the use Of compressed air for a
thousand things.
Some ons exclaims that nature
did not discover bali Bearings. q