Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-11-25

work out a mechanical method for doing
certain process, we go at it piecemeal. We
feel our way, sep by step. Perhaps the Weav-
ing of textiles by machinery is one of the
most advanced of our mechanical processes.
Eighteen enormous machine looms are tend
ed by one man, and they do work that re-
quired thousands of hands not many years
ago So perfect is the work of these machines
that the attendant is permitted to go TO
lunch, and leave them running.
How was this perfection produced? Lit
tie by little, IN the course of many years
Yet il the weaving of fabrics by machinery
had been presented as a scientific problem to
a selected body of scientists and mechanics
with first-cIass shops anG laboratories at
their disposal, they could undoubtedly have
worked it out Systematically in much short
err time. There are innumerable mechanical
processes, which the world needs, and which
could be worked out by such concentration
of brains and facilities upon them.
"But instead of that concentration, what
have we? We have inventors scattered here
and there, working on their problems with
out cooperation, often without adequate Ia
cilities. Perhaps there are hundred men to-
day trying to work out the problem of the
electrical typewriter. Perhaps seventy-fve of
them have neither the education nor the
equipment necessary for the task perhaps
one of them has already worked it out and
the other ninety-nine are not aware OF the
fact.H
Here is an enormous waste of energy.
The records or our patent office, with it's
thousands of useless patents, it's hundreds Of
patents on the same device, is a terrible and
pathetic record of human energy wasted,
cropping in the dark of ignorance, struggling
under the handicap of poverty, failing for
want of the cooperation which is the only
thing that makes possible mans domination
of the earth.
HOW can this waste be avoided? How can
our industrial arts be stimulated 10 nor
NAL development?
This is a large question and partly a po-
litical one. 1t has been suggested that there
should be some great central government
institution which could afford the finest of
facilities for inventors, would bring together
the best brains in the country, and would
consider the scientific problems OF industry
Systematically.
Edison has shown how much may be &C
cOmplished by an inventor who has adequate
laboratories and adequate financial backing.
The patent office could be galvanized into
such an institution, and, indeed, there is a
movement on foot to make 1t more useful to
the inventor. The bureau of standards is at
present the nearest thing we have to a gov
eminent laboratory working on Industrial
problems.
1t is, in fact largely that but the scope
of its activity and It's facilities are both far
too limited to enable it to solve the problem
we are discussing.
The trouble with such a government or
SduIHdLIOn IS CndL pOllL.Cdl CONSIDERATIONS
would tend to make it conservative If it were
conservative it would be worse than USE
less. Perhaps voluntary organization of
scientists, operating under a government
charter, would solve the problem. 1t is an in
terestng field for speculative thinking.
Another subject for speculation is what
men will do H. a world which has been me-
chanized to the point where. all hand and
brain labor is eliminated, except that which
is truly creative. 1t would seem at glance
that millions would be Idle Indeed, the work
er's fear that machinery will replace him is
q very real and active thing, and one of the
formidable conservative forces in the way of
progress. Union labor has actively opposed
the introduction of labor-saving devices in
many instances.
AS matter of fact the mechanization of
the world will greatly reduce hours of la
bor as it's partial mechanization has already
greatly reduced them. But it will never, the
scientists say, cause anyone to be idle, or to
lack for an opportunity to make a living.
The creating brain and the fashionng hand
will be needed more than ever. Men will
simply be relieved of the purely mechanical
work, which stultifes the mind and often in
jures the body, which should never be done
by men anyway.