Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-05-15
A H AL PROGRESS

A stray paragraph. in an exchange mentions the fact
that May 2 Of this year was the 4ooth anniversary Of the
birth of Leonardo da vinci whose name became a house
hold word a few years ago because Of the mystery sur
rounding theft of one of his paintings from the Louvre.
Da vinci is remembered chiefly as a painter, but his
achievements were such as to merit for him an honorable
place in history in other fields as we'll. In the field Of art
he won renown not onlp as a painter, but as a sculptor,
a rare combination. But to, his excellence in these
mediums he added the mastery Of music, Of languages
and philosophy. and. strange to say in science. He him.
self believed that he had achieved more as military
engineer than as an artist. The records Of his work show
that he was the discoverer of new principles in engineer
ing. and so well did he apply them in actual construction
that bridges, viaducts and other structures planned by
him still stand, after the lapse of five centuries, service
able and unimpaired.
All of which suggests a little speculation as to the
progress of science, and especially of mechanics.
In the development of an industrial. method the or
derby and logical method is. of course, first to recognize
a need. and then by the application of proved scientific
principles, to devise a method whereby that need may be
met. The method is used now very largely, and, in a
measure, it has always been used. But much of our sci
entific history has been marked by a direct reversal Of
that process. Consider the familiar example of the fer
tlization of land. Manure was spread upon the land for
the purpose of increasing its yield ages before the now
known facts relating to soil chemistry and plant growth
were suspected, and 1t renamed Tor MODERN science, 10
to discover that manure Isl good fertilizer, and to ascer-
tain why a practice universally followed produces its
good results. Artificers in metals used quite complicated
processes for the tempering of steel while, they and all
the world remained in Ignorance of the nature and even
the existence of the chemical agents indispensable to the
work, and in equal ignorance of the structure Of the
metal which they were handling. Yet they got good re-
suits. and it remained for science to discover why, and
to point the way to still better results ,.
Much Of our mechanical development is the result
of complex conditions working upon each other. Lang
ley formulated the scientific principle which governs
flight, and built a plane which, later, equipped with a
modern engine, flew successfully but for centuries before
him men had been attempting to copy the flight Of the
BIRDS. That they did not succeed was due chiefly to lack
of motive power, and in the gas engine there are COM
bined excellence in mechanical construction, and the
applications of the principles of gas explosion and of
applied electricity. Still further there was necessary the
development of a suitable fuel. The airplane, therefore,
combines the results of students and inventors in many
fields"
There are many appliances in common use today,
familiar to the ancients. There was no special reason why
the Assyrians should not have, had printing presses and
%typewriters, and bicycles. They employed the same me.
chanical principles in their ordinary life. The reason
did not recognize the need for them.