Year: 1862

Influence of Inventors Upon their Age.


Truly the race Of invention is the race Of
progress Nations may have won fame in
arms, arts aud literature they may have ac-
quired distinction for the wisdom Of their na
tional poliiy, and for the astuteness of their
statesmen and rulers, but while such gifts and
acquisitions may have tended to partial and
short-lived glory, or to individual distinction
and power, they never laid the basis of a per-
manent national greatness they did not con-
tribute to the widespread prosperity of peoples;
they did not resolve the grand social problem
Of conferring the greatest amount of happiness
upon the greatest number Literature, arms,
arts, science or craftsmanship, however grand
in themselves, have not conduced in the neces-
sary degree to the development Of the material
resources which Providence has implanted in
every cline. They have not multiplied the
results Of human labor they have left unfu-
filed that grand desideratum as anxously
looked for as the philosophers stone by the
diCHcluiStS vi olu- tHt dublHhdtiOH vi tilue
and space and if their most distinguished
professors ever conceived the design, they nev-
er succeeded in carrying it out, to make two
blades of grass grow where only one grew be-
fore" Though they have crowned the Cor
inthian column, they never constituted the
column itself, which must be based upon
wider consideration of popular life and human
interest.


The accomplishment Of these miracles was
left exclusively to the inventors, who are en-
phatically among the benefactors of their age.
1t is they who have applied science iu all its
ramifcatons to the elucidation and production
of the wants and requirements of every day
life. 1t has been said that " there is no royal
road to knowledge" but who can deny that
there have been discovered by our inventors
royal roads in abundance to reach splendid rc>
suits in seconds of time which could only be
rudely obtained by long days of wearisome
and intense application Have not our in
ventors lightened the burdens in every depart
ilCHL VI hulbil lubbI ctuOlu PTdUu
achievements in the steam engine and the
electric telegraph whose superhuman agencies
have left the mind lost in amazement, which
have not only rendered the age illustrious, but
have absolutely astounded the world Indeed,
We ask in what species of human effort have
not the inventors labors been benefcenty
felt Does not the range of his influence ex
tend from the cottage to the palace Are not
the workings Of his genius felt at the desk of
the merchant and the bureau of the statesman?
Is it not seen in the room of the humble seam-
stress, as her busy needle plies with electric
speed in the sewing machine, marvellously
abridging her labors while it mulhplies her
profits? 1t is seen in the machine which reaps
a hundred fold the superabundance of the
teeming valley, as well as in that which climbs
the mountain and brings fertility to its arid
sides.


Our own nation may not be able to boast of
as many achievements in literature, arms or
arts as the old nations of Europe but there
are men among us who have taught those old
nations the most useful lessons for the multi
phcation Of their domestic comforts, the devel-
opment of their material prosperity, their So
cial advancement and their national progress.


But our American inventors can afford to
shed light upon the old world. They have a
superabundant fertility of inventive resource
They have professional pride, and although
they have a proper and natural desire to reap
well earned pecuniary advantage from their
lahors, they must be proud to feel that they
have contributed so many blessings to the
world at large.


Hitherto our inventors have proved worthy
Of themselves, Of their own high calling and of
the country. Let them now continue their
glorious and beneticent labors on even larger
scale than ever The times in which we live
are making the very epic of national history,
and they certainly afford our inventors grand
opportunities TO become national benefactors
of their own beloved country, as well as TO ac-
quire fortune and fame for themselves and their
families. Let national pride combine with per-
sonal interest to inspire Our great inventors to
renew their efforts to bring forward something
worthy of their own fame-wortby of the na-
tona crisis; something which in war as well
as in peace will prove them equal TO every
emergency-will demonstrate to the world that
they are capable of producing what has not
only promoted our national greatness, but what
will preserve our national independence.


For ourselves, identified as we are for so
many years with our age and nation in their
best improvements, their advancement and
their greatness, we shall rejoice personally as
well as professionally in every new triumph in
the field of invention ard whether such tri.
umph conduces to meet our great national
emergency, or some useful purpose of domestic
economy or agricultural or other utilizing ne
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