Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-05-17
SOURCE OF ALL KNOWLEDGE.

SOURCE OF ALL KNOWLEDGE.
At Their Best Man Can Only Initiate
Nature.
Did you ever realize that Nature
has a patent office so full Of inven-
tions that man would be at loss to
get along without them, and If he
had to pay royalties on all Of them
the price of the necessities Of life
would be greatly increased thereby?
Long before man took to inventins
labor-saving devices Nature had
worked out many Of the greatest in
ventions of the age. 1t would 20
hard with some inventors If there
was a law preventing infringement
upon Natures patents.
The curious thing about 1t is. how
ever, that man has laboriously
thought out his great inventions
through the centuries, while all the
time Nature had them ready for his
study If he had only the eyes to see.
1t is only in recent years that we
have fully appreciated the fact that
all about us are scattered devices
which serve as the foundation of
most of our great mechanical prin-
ciples.
For instance, the first block and
tackle, which we employ so generally
today, was created in the eye Of the
first man born on the earth. This
block and tackle controls the move
ment Of the eyeballs, and is perfect
miniature Of those used in ordinary
mechanical fields. If the first inven-
tor of this labor-saving device had
understood the physiology Of the
body as we know 1t today he would
have been saved many days and
nights Of hard thought and expert
ment.
The first pump ever made and the
most wonderful and powerful yet in
existence, Is the heart. For its size
it has a greater efficiency than any
pump invented by man. There are
all the principles of the modern force
pump in the heart, and 1t Is marvel
ously up to date despite its ancient
struggled with the pump. improving
it slowly. and discovering the ele-
mentary laws governing 1t. How
much easier 1t would have been for
them If they could have taken the
human heart and studied it careful
ly! The force pump would then have
been invented or copied completely.
When you pick up tools and use
them you will find that many Of them
have what Is called the ball-and-
socket joint. This enables one to
form mechanical labor in an easy
and efficient way. Half Of our tools
and machines would be pretty clum-
sy affairs without this little inven-
tive device. Yet Nature knew Of
this invention long before man dis
covered it, and she utilized it in the
construction of the human frame.
We have, after all, the most remark
BILE ball-and- d-socket device ever In
vented right in our bodies. We could
not swing our arms without it. Our
shoulder bones swing back and forth
on the ball-and-socket arrangement,
which no one has ever yet surpassed.
Even the modern invention Of ball
bearings was anticipated by Nature.
The vertebrae Of the snake consists
of a long chain Of balls and sockets
which work on the principles of the
ball bearings of our bicycles and au-
tomobiles.
Many inventions are so common
that we do not stop to inquire about
their origin but you can rest as
sured that their construction by
primitive man was not a simple or
easy matter. Working in the dark,
he must often have stumbled upon
mechanical principles by accident, or
possibly he copied some of his Ideas
from Nature. For instance, the first
and best hinge ever made was found
in an oyster. Take the horny oyster
of the Pacific coast and examine its
shells. They are put together and
held there by a perfect hinge, which
cannot be surpassed in efficiency by
any found in your hardware store
Among birds. flowers and crawl
ing creatures we may find the proto-
types of many of our modern inven-
tions. Nature has concealed some of
these inventions, so that for ages
they were not discovered. and others
are exhibited as plain as day. Pos
sibly their very simplicity prevented
man from discovering their value
Do you suppose that the inventor OF
the common gasfitters' pincers went
10 the lobster to learn the principles
of his device? If not, he might well
have done so, for the lobster's claw
is the original gasfitter's pincers.
Recently there have been put on
the market small boxes and recep-
tacles which cannot roll off shelf
or table. These boxes are made to
contain small articles, such as fine
gold dust, diamond chips, or any
small article of value. They cannot
roll off because of their peculiar oval
construction. If you hit them they
roll around and around instead OF
off the shelf. A great invention. you
say! But it was a secret only to man
Nature made the original of this box
in the first egg of the murre. You
cannot knock one of those eggs off
table very easily. for it will roll
around and around instead Of off.
This principle has now been. applied
to the construction of many small ar
ticles for desk use.