Evening star., 1924-01-20
How World Has Gained
By Fortunate Accidents

I S necessity or accident the mother
of invention? The old adage
would lead us to believe that il
was necessity. but accident has
indeed played a large part in many
of the inventions which have added
to our industrial wealth and to the
pleasures and conveniences which
have made our lives moro comfort
able. Not infreQuertly an invention
has been suggested by some trivial
event which would have passed un
noticed had not a man with eyes and
brains seen it. ---Sa' Z
It was an accident that gave US the
telephone. DR.. Alexander C. Bell
twisted a screw one-fourth of revo-
luton and thereby gave US one of
the marvels OF al ages. but he had
no idea at the time what it meant.
DR.. Bell was by inheritance and
training scientist and was at the
ing speech visible by means OF light
flashes. He was working with con-
trivance another man had invented
with the idea of carrying speech to
distance by means of an electric cur
rent and a wire. The current used
was ,fntermittent-that is. Jumped
space and was therefore not continu-
Gus. When DR.. Bell turned the screw
he closed the gap and made the cur
rent constant, which is the principle
Of the telephone.
He did not realize the value Of
what he had done until he was
demonstrating to some friends that
he could talk from the garret to the
cellar. The next morning in order to
protect his discovery he went to the
patent office and procured a patent
on his invention. At 8 o'clock the
same day another man appeared and
sought a patent for an invention with
the same idea. The difference Of a
few hours lost him a hundred million
dollars.
It was accident that put George
Westinghouse on the track of his
chief invention While on a railway
journey he was importuned by a poor
woman to buy magazine. He read
in it an article describing a COM
pressed air borer used in a mountain
tunnel, which gave him a clue to his
automatic air brake.
Senefelder, the inventor OF Iithog-
raphy, was a jack of all trades and
an engraver and printer. He was
working at. etching on copper when
the coppersmith refused to let him
have any more plates unless he paid
cash for them, and it was then he
tried to utilize the old plates by rub
bing of the etchings with a soft lime
stone. After the copper became use
less through many rubbings he tried
etching on the stone. One day he was
tended to etch when his mother asked
him to write the laundry list, as the
laundress was waiting. Not finding
a bit Of paper or ink at hand, he wrote
the list on the stone with printing ink
from wax, soap and lamp
black. intending to copy it at leisure
A few days later, when he was about
to wipe the writing from the stone,
he wondered what the effect would be
OF writing with the prepared ink on
the stone, IL 1t should be bitten in
with aquafortis. He bit away to about
the hundredth part OF an inch, took
several impressions of the writing
and the art Of 1ithography was dis
covered.
One day-the children of Dutch
spectacle maker had some of the
spectacles in front of his door. play
ing with them, put two of the largest
glasses together and peeped through
them. To their surprise, the weather
cock on the church across the way
was brought close to their eyes.
Showing the strange sight to their
father, he set to work and constructed
a curious toy. Calico. hearing Of this
toy which made distant things appear
close at hand, say at once what a
valuable aid 1t would be in studying
the heavens and set to work and soon
made the telescope.
Daguerre was careless enough to
lay a silver spoon upon plate that