Evening star., 1909-06-13
By John K. LIE Baron

strictly speaking, Is little more
than new combination OF those images which
have been previously gathered and deposited
in the memory. says Sir Joshua Reynolds
While Sir joshua remark intended to
apply more particularly to art, it is equally
applicable to other things.
Edison is certainly entitled to all the credit
accorded him as the inventor of the phono-
graph. though Fenby had patented a phono-
graph for reproducing piano music fourteen
wears before Edison's patents were applied tor
Mccormick is properly credited as the IN
ventor of the reaplng machine. though he was
beaten IN the race to the patent office IN 1884
by Obed Hussey Both Mccormick and Hus-
sew however were familiar with the patents
taken out in 1903 by Richard French and John
Hawkins. and some English historians claim
priority all for the impractical invention
of the Rev Patrick Bell in 1927.
Who Invented the TELEGRAPH
THE electric telegraph is credited to Morse,
who made his first public demonstration
in 1885 over wire half mile long
The first utterance that set this idea IN
motion dates back to the middle of the seven
teenth century. and several crude systems were
in use before 1900.
Jonathan Grant jr on October 1. 1900. sent
a message from Boston to Marthas Vineyard
Il distance of ninety miles. and received an
answer within ten minutes.
In 1916 DR. John r. Coke, and in 1921 the
inventive genius of Wheatstone. made interest
ing experiments that were links in this chain
ot teegraphic development
In 1927 Harrison Dyar transmitted signals
over line two miles long, on Long Island.
Then came Morse whose three wears of
perimenting resulted in the public exhibit Of
1885
DR. Charles 7 Jackson. who was recognized
and rewarded by the French Academy OF
Sciences. claimed that Morse had appropriated
his ideas
The telegraph was not born; it was evolved
Wireless telegraphy was not conceived in the
brain of Marconi: for Lindsay of Dundee had
taken out patent this idea-for ideas are
the really patentable things-in 1854. twenty
wears before Marconi was born.
Clocks and Gravitation
CLOCKS are credited to the thirteenth
- century yet it is known that Pope Paul / -
N go a. D., sent tImepiece to King Pepln OF
France.
The theory OF gravitation is discovery
attributed to Newton and bears date of 1857
notwithstanding that the same idea was ad-
vanced by kepler seventy years before.
In 1862. HALEY discovered the comet that
still bears his name: yet Apian described the
same comet IN 1881.
The airship and aeroplane of our day are but
the offspring OF the old Montgolfer balloon OF
1872
An invention that made 1929 memorable was
Walkers lucifer match but the same idea
in crude form, was utilized by Hanckwitz in
1880
Our great grandmother grandmothers used
| to roll up piece of paper in the shape of Il
funnel through which to send out the call for
meals to the men in the field Edison elabor-
ated the idea somewhat and patented the
| negaphone
Fulton and the Steamboat
CAN any man show reason why John Fitch
- should not share the honors showered on
Fulton, Twenty years before the Clermont
made its memorable up the Hudson. John
Fitch had proved the feasibility of steam navi-
CATION. on the Delaware He had propelled i
boat at speed OF eight miles an hour
In 1870. he a boat regularly between
Burlington and Philadelphia carrying passen-
gers and nen- I'D !. speed of se.en ard !, halt