HISTORIC 
 
 
 INVENTION SI 
 
 RUPERT S.HOLLAND
 
 THE HISTORIC 
 
 SERIES FOR 
 YOUNG PEOPLE
 
 THE HISTORIC 
 
 SERIES FOR 
 YOUNG PEOPLE

 
 Historic Inventions 
 
 By 
 RUPERT S. HOLLAND 
 
 Author of "Historic Boyhoods" "Historic Girlhoods" 
 " Builden of United Italy" etc. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 Copyright, 1911, by 
 
 GEORGE W. JACOBS AND COMPANY 
 
 Published August, 1911 
 
 All rights reserved 
 Printed in U.S. A.
 
 To 
 
 y. ir. H.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS . . 9 
 
 II. PALISSY AND His ENAMEL .... 42 
 
 III. GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 53 
 
 IV. WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE ... 70 
 V. ARKWRIGHT AND THE SPINNING-JENNY . . 84 
 
 VI. WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN ... 96 
 
 VII. FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT . . in 
 
 VIII. DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP . . .126 
 
 IX. STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE . . 140 
 
 X. MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH .... 168 
 
 XL McCoRMICK AND THE REAPER * . .189 
 
 XII. HOWE AND THE SEWING-MACHINE . . . 2O6 
 
 XIII. BELL AND THE TELEPHONE . . . .215 
 
 XIV. EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT . . , 233 
 XV. MARCONI AND THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH . 26 [ 
 
 XVI. THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP . . . 273
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Gutenberg Takes the First Proof . . . Frontispiece 
 
 Palissy the Potter After an Unsuccessful 
 
 Experiment .... Facing page 46 
 
 Galileo's Telescope ..,!.."" 58 
 
 Watt First Tests the Power of Steam . " " 72 
 
 S.r Richard Arkwright ...."" 88 
 
 The Inventor of the Cotton Gin . . " " 104 
 
 The Clermont, the First Steam Packet . . " " 1 20 
 
 The Davy Safety Lamp . . . . " " 136 
 
 One of the First Locomotives . . . " " 156 
 
 Morse and the First Telegraph . . . " " 180 
 
 The Earliest Reaper . ... . ' " 194 
 
 Elias Howe's Sewing-Machine . . , " " 210 
 
 The First Telephone . . . . " " 222 
 
 Edison and the Early Phonograph . . " " 258 
 
 Wireless Station in New York City Show- 
 ing the Antenna ...."" 268 
 
 The Wright Brothers' Airship . . . 281
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 
 
 About 1400-1468 
 
 THE free cities of mediaeval Germany were continu- 
 ally torn asunder by petty civil wars. The nobles, 
 who despised commerce, and the burghers, who lived 
 by it, were always fighting for the upper hand, and the 
 laboring people sided now with one party, and now 
 with the other. After each uprising the victors usually 
 banished a great number of the defeated faction from 
 the city. So it happened that John Gutenberg, a 
 young man of good family, who had been born in 
 Mainz about 1400, was outlawed from his home, and 
 went with his wife Anna to live in the city of Stras- 
 burg, which was some sixty miles distant from Mainz. 
 He chose the trade of a lapidary, or polisher of precious 
 stones, an art which in that age was held in almost 
 as high esteem as that of the painter or sculptor. He 
 had been well educated, and his skill in cutting gems, 
 as well as his general learning and his interest in all 
 manner of inventions, drew people of the highest stand- 
 ing to his little workshop, which was the front room 
 of his dwelling house. 
 
 One evening after supper, as Gutenberg and his 
 wife were sitting in the room behind the shop, he 
 chanced to pick up a playing-card. He studied it very 
 carefully, as though it were new to him. Presently
 
 io HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 his wife looked up from her sewing, and noticed how 
 much absorbed he was. " Prithee, John, what marvel 
 dost thou find in that card?" said she. "One would 
 think it the face of a saint, so closely dost thou regard 
 it." 
 
 " Nay, Anna," he answered thoughtfully, " but didst 
 thou ever consider how the picture on this card was 
 made?" 
 
 " I suppose it was drawn in outline, and then painted, 
 as other pictures are." 
 
 "But there is a better way," said Gutenberg, still 
 studying the playing-card. " These lines were first 
 marked out on a wooden block, and then the wood was 
 cut away on each side of them, so that they were left 
 raised. The lines were then smeared with ink and 
 pressed on the cardboard. This way is shorter, Anna, 
 than by drawing and painting each picture separately, 
 because when the block is once engraved it can be 
 used to mark any number of cards." 
 
 Anna took the playing-card from her husband's 
 hand. It represented a figure that was known as the 
 Knave of Bells. " It's an unsightly creature," she said, 
 studying it, " and not to be compared with our picture 
 of good St. Christopher on the wall yonder. Surely 
 that was made with a pen?" 
 
 " Nay, it was made from an engraved block, just like 
 this card," said the young lapidary. 
 
 " St. Christopher made in that way ! " exclaimed his 
 wife. " Then what a splendid art it must be, if it keeps 
 the pictures of the blessed saints for us ! " 
 
 The picture of the saint was a curious colored wood-
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS n 
 
 cut, showing St. Christopher carrying the child Jesus 
 across the water. Under it was an inscription in Latin, 
 and the date 1423. 
 
 "Yes, thou art right, dear," Gutenberg went on. 
 " Pictures like that are much to be prized, for they fill 
 to some extent the place of books, which are so rare 
 and cost so much. But there are much more valuable 
 pictures in the Cathedral here at Strasburg. Dost 
 thou remember the jewels the Abbot gave me to 
 polish for him ? When I carried them back, he took 
 me into the Cathedral library, and showed me several 
 books filled with these engraved pictures, and they 
 were much finer than our St. Christopher. The books 
 i remember were the ' Ars Memorandi,' the ' Ars Mori- 
 endi,' and the ' Biblia Pauperum,' and the last had no 
 less than forty pictures, with written explanations un- 
 derneath." 
 
 " That is truly wonderful, John ! And what are they 
 about?" 
 
 " The ' Biblia Pauperum ' means ' Bible for the Poor/ 
 and is a series of scenes from the Old and New Testa- 
 ments." 
 
 " I think I've heard of it ; but I wish you'd tell me 
 more about it." 
 
 John leaned forward, his keen face showing unusual 
 interest. " The forty pictures in it were made by press- 
 ing engraved blocks of wood on paper, just like the St. 
 Christopher, or this playing-card. The lines are all 
 brown, and the pictures are placed opposite each other, 
 with their blank backs pasted together, so they form 
 one strong leaf."
 
 12 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 " And how big are the pictures ? 
 
 " They are ten inches high and seven or eight inches 
 wide, and each is made up of three small pictures, sep- 
 arated by lines. More than that, there are four half- 
 length figures of prophets, two above and two below 
 the larger pictures. Then there are Latin legends and 
 rhymes at the bottom of each page." 
 
 "And all that is cut on wood first?" said Anna, 
 doubtfully. " It sounds almost like a miracle." 
 
 " Aye. I looked very closely, and the whole book is 
 made from blocks, like the playing-card." 
 
 " Art thou sure it's not the pencraft of some skilful 
 scribe ? " 
 
 " Assuredly I am. Dost thou see, Anna, how much 
 better these blocks are than the slower way of copying 
 by hand ? When they're once cut many books can 
 be printed as easily as one." 
 
 " Aye," answered his wife, " and they will be cheaper 
 than the works written out by the scribes, and still be 
 so costly that whoever can make them ought to grow 
 rich from the sale. If thou canst do it, it will make thy 
 fortune. Thou art so ingenious. Canst thou not make 
 a ' Bible for the Poor ' ? " 
 
 " Little wife, thou\ must be dreaming ! " But John 
 Gutenberg smiled, for he saw that she had discovered 
 the thought that had been in his mind. 
 
 " But couldst thou not ? " Anna persisted. " Thou 
 art so good at inventing better ways of doing 
 things." 
 
 Gutenberg laughed and shook his head. " I have 
 found new ways to polish stones and mirrors," said
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 13 
 
 he, " but those are in my line of work. This is quite 
 outside it, and much more difficult" 
 
 Nothing more was said on the subject that night, but 
 Anna could see, as day followed day, that her husband 
 was planning something, and she felt very certain that 
 he was thinking out a way of making books more 
 quickly than by the old process of copying them word 
 for word by hand. 
 
 A few weeks later the young lapidary surprised his 
 wife by showing her a pile of playing-cards. " See my 
 handicraft," said he. " Aren't these as good as the 
 Knave of Bells I gave thee ? " 
 
 She looked at them, delight in her eyes. " They are 
 very much better, John. The lines are much clearer, 
 and the color brighter." 
 
 " Still, that is only a step. It is of little use unless I 
 can cut letters, and press them on vellum as I did these 
 cards. I shall try thy name, Anna, and see if I cannot 
 engrave it here on wood." 
 
 He took a small wooden tablet from the work-table 
 in his shop, and marking certain lines upon it, cut away 
 the wood so that it left a stamp of his wife's name. 
 Brushing ink over the raised letters he pressed the 
 wood upon a sheet of paper, and then, lifting it care- 
 fully, showed her her own name printed upon the paper. 
 
 "Wonderful!" she cried. "The letters have the 
 very likeness of writing ! " 
 
 " Aye," agreed Gutenberg, looking at the four letters, 
 " it is not a failure. I think with patience and persever- 
 ance I could even impress a copy of our picture of St. 
 Christopher. It must have been made from some
 
 i 4 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 manner of engraved block. See." He took the rude 
 print from the wall, and showed her on the back of it 
 the marks of the stylus, or burnisher, by which it had 
 been rubbed upon the wood. " Thou mayst be sure 
 from this that these lines were not produced by a pen, 
 as in ordinary writing," said he. 
 
 " Well," said Anna, " it would surely be a pious act 
 to multiply pictures of the holy St. Christopher." 
 
 Encouraged by his wife's great interest, and spurred 
 on by the passion for invention, Gutenberg now set 
 himself seriously to study the problem of engraving. 
 First of all he found it very difficult to find the right 
 kind of wood. Some kinds were too soft and porous, 
 others were liable to split easily. Finally he chose the 
 wood of the apple-tree, which had a fine grain, was 
 dense and compact, and firm enough to stand the 
 process of engraving. Another difficulty was the lack 
 of proper tools ; but he worked at these until his box 
 was supplied with a stock of knives, saws, chisels, and 
 gravers of many different patterns. Then he started to 
 draw the portrait of the saint. 
 
 At his first attempt he made the picture and the in- 
 scription that went with it on the same block, but as 
 soon as he had finished it a better idea occurred to 
 him. The second time he drew the picture and the in- 
 scription on separate blocks. " That's an improve- 
 ment," he said to his wife, " for I can draw the picture 
 and the letters better separately, and if I want I can use 
 different colored inks for printing the two parts." Then 
 he cut the wood away from the drawings, and inking 
 them, pressed them upon the paper. The result was a
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 15 
 
 much clearer picture than the old "St. Christopher" 
 had been. 
 
 He studied his work with care. " So far so good," 
 said he, " but it's not yet perfect. The picture can't 
 be properly printed without thicker ink. This flows too 
 easily, and even using the greatest care I can hardly 
 keep from blotting it." 
 
 He had to make a great many experiments to solve 
 this difficulty of the ink. At last he found that a prep- 
 aration of oil was best. He could vary the color accord- 
 ing to the substances he used with this. Umber gave 
 him lines of a darkish brown color, lampblack and oil 
 gave him black ink. At first he used the umber chiefly, 
 in imitation of the old drawings that he was copying. 
 
 When his ink was ready he turned again to his in- 
 terested wife. " Now thou canst help me," said he. 
 " Stuff and sew this piece of sheepskin for me, while I 
 get the paper ready for the printing." 
 
 Anna had soon done as he asked. Then Gutenberg 
 added a handle to the stuffed ball. " I need this to 
 spread the ink evenly upon the block," said he. " One 
 more servant of my new art is ready." 
 
 He had ground the ink upon a slab. Now he dipped 
 his printer's dabber in it, and spread the ink over the 
 wood. Then he laid the paper on it, and pressed it 
 down with the polished handle of one of his new grav- 
 ing tools. He lifted it carefully. The picture was a 
 great improvement over his first attempt. " This ink 
 works spendidly ! " he exclaimed in delight. 
 
 " Now I shall want a picture of St. Christopher in 
 every room in the house," said Anna.
 
 1 6 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 " But what shall I do ? " said Gutenberg. " I can't 
 afford the time and money to make these pictures, 
 unless I can sell them in some way." 
 
 "And canst thou not do that?" 
 
 " I know of no way at present ; but I will hang them 
 on the wall of the shop, and perhaps some of my 
 customers will see them and ask about them." 
 
 The young lapidary was poor, and he had spent part 
 of his savings in working out his scheme of block-print- 
 ing. He could give no more time to this now, but he 
 hung several copies of the " St. Christopher " in his 
 front room. Several days later a young woman, 
 stopping at Gutenberg's shop for her dowry jewels, 
 noticed the pictures. "What are those?" said she. 
 " The good saint would look well on our wall at home. 
 If thou wilt wrap the picture up and let me take it home 
 I will show it to my husband, and if he approves I will 
 send thee the price of it to-morrow." 
 
 Gutenberg consented, and the next day the woman 
 sent the money for the " St. Christopher." A few days 
 later it happened that several people, calling at the 
 shop to buy gems, chose to purchase pictures instead. 
 Anna was very much pleased by the sales, and told her 
 husband so at supper that evening. But he was less 
 satisfied. " In spite of the sales I have lost money to- 
 day," said he. "Those who bought the prints had 
 meant to buy jewels and mirrors, and if they had done 
 so I should have made a bigger profit. The pictures 
 take people's attention from the gems, and so hurt my 
 business. " 
 
 " But may it not be that the printing will pay thee
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 17 
 
 better than the sale of jewels, if thou wilt keep on 
 with it?" suggested the hopeful wife. "How soon 
 shalt thou go to the Cathedral with the Abbot's 
 jewels ? " 
 
 " As soon as I have finished the polishing. Engrav- 
 ing these blocks has kept me back even in that." 
 
 " When thou dost go take some of thy prints with 
 thee," begged Anna, " and see what the Father has to 
 say about them." 
 
 By working hard Gutenberg had the Abbot's jewels 
 finished two days later, and he took them with several 
 of his prints to the Cathedral. He was shown into the 
 library, where often a score of monks were busied in 
 making copies of old manuscripts. He delivered the 
 jewels to the Abbot, and then showed him the pictures. 
 
 " Whose handiwork is this ? " asked the Father. 
 
 But Gutenberg was not quite ready to give away his 
 secret, and so he answered evasively, " The name of 
 the artisan does not appear." 
 
 " Where didst thou obtain them ? " asked the Abbot. 
 
 " I pray thee let me keep that also a secret," an- 
 swered Gutenberg. 
 
 The Abbot looked them over carefully. " I will take 
 them all," said he. " They will grace the walls of our 
 library, and tend to preserve us from evil." 
 
 The young jeweler was very much pleased, and hur- 
 ried home to tell his wife what had happened. She was 
 delighted. " Now thou art in a fair way to grow rich," 
 said she. 
 
 But Gutenberg was by nature cautious. "We 
 mustn't forget," he answered, " that the steady income
 
 i8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 of a regular trade is safer to rely on than occasional 
 success in other lines." 
 
 A few days later a young man named Andrew 
 Dritzhn called at Gutenberg's shop, and asked if he 
 might come and learn the lapidary's trade. Thereto- 
 fore Gutenberg had had no assistants, but, on thinking 
 the matter over, he decided that if he had a good 
 workman with him he would have more time to study 
 the art of printing. So he engaged Dritzhn. Soon 
 after this the new apprentice introduced two young 
 friends of his, who also begged for the chance to learn 
 how to cut gems and set them, and how to polish 
 Venetian glass for mirrors and frame them in carved 
 and decorated copper frames. Gutenberg agreed and 
 these two others, named Hielman and Riffe, came to 
 work with him. 
 
 The shop was now very busy, with the three appren- 
 tices and the master workman all occupied. But Gu- 
 tenberg was anxious to keep his new project secret, and 
 so he fitted up the little back room as a shop, and spent 
 his evenings working there with Anna. 
 
 On his next visit to the Cathedral he came home with 
 a big package under his arm. He unwrapped it, and 
 showed Anna a large volume. " See," said he, " this 
 is the ' History of St. John the Evangelist.' The Abbot 
 gave it to me in return for some more copies of my St. 
 Christopher. It is written on vellum with a pen, and 
 all the initial letters are illuminated. There are sixty- 
 three pages, and some patient monk has spent months, 
 aye, perhaps years, in making it. But I have a plan to 
 engrave it all, just as I did the picture."
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 19 
 
 44 Engrave a whole book ! That would be a miracle ! " 
 
 " I believe I can do it. And when once the sixty- 
 three blocks are cut, a block to a page, I can print a 
 score of the books as easily as one copy." 
 
 " Then thou canst sell books as well as the monks I 
 And when the blocks are done it may not take more 
 than a day to make a book, instead of months and 
 years." 
 
 So John Gutenburg set to work with new enthusiasm. 
 He needed a very quiet place in which to carry out 
 his scheme, and more room than he had at home. 
 It is said he found such a place in the ruined cloisters 
 of the Monastery of St. Arbogast in the suburbs of Stras- 
 burg. Thither he stole away whenever he could leave 
 the shop, and not even Anna went with him, nor even 
 to her did he tell what he was doing. At last he 
 brought home the tools he had been making, and 
 started to cut the letters of the first pages of the " His- 
 tory of St. John." Night after night he worked at it, 
 until a great pile of engraved blocks was done. 
 
 Then one evening there was a knock at the door of 
 the living-room, and before he could answer it the door 
 was opened, and the two apprentices, Dritzhn and Hiel- 
 man, came in. They saw their master bending over 
 wooden blocks, a pile of tools, and the open pages of 
 the History. "What is this?" exclaimed Dritzhn. 
 " Some new mystery ? " 
 
 " I cannot explain now," said the confused inventor. 
 
 " But thou promised to teach us all thy arts for the 
 money we pay thee," objected Hielman, who was of 
 an avaricious turn of mind.
 
 20 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 " No, only the trade of cutting gems and shaping 
 mirrors." 
 
 "We understood we paid thee for all thy teaching," 
 objected the apprentice. "'Tis only fair we should 
 have our money's worth." 
 
 Gutenberg thought a moment. " This work must be 
 done in quiet," said he, "and must be kept an absolute 
 secret for a time. But I do need money to carry it on 
 rightly." 
 
 This made Dritzhn more eager than ever to learn 
 what the work was. " We can keep thy secret," said 
 he, " furnish funds, and perhaps help in the busi- 
 ness." 
 
 Gutenberg had misgivings as to the wisdom of in- 
 creasing his confidants, but he finally decided to trust 
 them. First he pledged each to absolute secrecy. Then 
 he produced his wooden cuts, and explained in detail 
 how he had made them. Both the apprentices showed 
 the greatest interest. " Being a draughtsman, I can 
 help with the figures," said Dritzhn. 
 
 " Yes," agreed Gutenberg, " but just now I am 
 chiefly busy in cutting blocks for books." 
 
 " Books ! " exclaimed the apprentice. 
 
 " Yes. I have found a new way of imprinting them." 
 Then he showed them what he was doing with the 
 History. 
 
 Dritzhn was amazed. " There should be a fortune in 
 this ! " said he. " But will not this art do away with the 
 old method of copying ? " 
 
 "In time it may," agreed the inventor. "That's 
 one reason why we must keep it secret. Other-
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 21 
 
 wise the copyists might try to destroy what I have 
 done." 
 
 As a result of this interview a contract was drawn up 
 between Gutenberg and his apprentices, according to 
 the terms of which each apprentice was to pay the in- 
 ventor two hundred and fifty florins. The work was to 
 be kept absolutely secret, and in case any of the partners 
 should die during the term of the agreement the sur- 
 vivors should keep the business entirely to themselves, 
 on payment of one hundred florins to the heirs of the 
 deceased partner. Riffe, the third apprentice, was ad- 
 mitted to the business, and after that the four took 
 turns looking after the jewelry shop and working over 
 the blocks for the History. 
 
 But the pupils were not so well educated as the mas- 
 ter. They could not read, and had to be taught how 
 to draw the different letters. They were clumsy in cut- 
 ting the lines, and spoiled block after block. Guten- 
 berg was very patient with them. Again and again he 
 would throw away a spoiled block and show them how 
 the letters should be cut properly. 
 
 In time the blocks were all finished. " Now I can 
 help," said Anna. "Thou must let me take the im- 
 pressions." 
 
 " So thou shalt," her husband answered. " To-night 
 we will fold and cut the paper into the right size for the 
 pages, and grind the umber for ink. To-morrow we 
 will begin to print the leaves." 
 
 The following day they all took turns making the 
 impressions. Page after page came out clear and true. 
 Then Anna started to paste the blank sides of the sheets
 
 22 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 together, for the pages were only printed on one side. 
 In a week a pile of the Histories was printed and 
 bound, and ready to be sold. 
 
 The jewelers had little time to offer the books to the 
 wealthy people of the city, and so Gutenberg engaged 
 a young student at the Cathedral, Peter Schoeffer by 
 name, to work for him. The first week he sold two 
 copies, and one other was sold from the shop. That 
 made a good beginning, but after that it was more 
 difficult to find buyers, and the firm began to grow 
 doubtful of their venture. 
 
 The poor people of Strasburg could not read, and 
 could not have afforded to buy the books in any event, 
 the nobility were hard to reach, and the clergy, who made 
 up the reading class of the age, were used to copying 
 such manuscripts as they needed. But this situation 
 did not prevent Gutenberg from continuing with his 
 work. He knew that the young men who were study- 
 ing at the Cathedral had to copy out word for word the 
 "Donatus," or manual of grammar they were required 
 to learn. So the firm set to work to cut blocks and 
 print copies of this book. When they were finished 
 they sold more readily than the History had done, and 
 the edition of fifty copies was soon disposed of. But 
 by that time all the scholars of the city were supplied, 
 and it was very difficult to send the books to other 
 cities. There were no newspapers, and no means of 
 advertising, and the only practical method of sale was 
 to show the book to possible purchasers, and point out 
 its merits to them. So Gutenberg turned to two other 
 books that were used by the monks, and printed them.
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 23 
 
 One was called the " Ars Memorandi," or " Art of Re- 
 membering," and the other the "Ars Moriendi," or 
 " Art of Knowing How to Die." 
 
 Whenever he printed a new book Gutenberg took it 
 to the Cathedral to show the priests. He carried the 
 " Ars Moriendi " there, and found the Abbot in the 
 library, looking over the manuscripts of several monks. 
 
 " Good-morning, my son," said the Abbot. " Hast 
 thou brought us more of thy magical books ? " 
 
 " It is not magic, Father ; it is simply patience that 
 has done it," said Gutenberg, handing the Abbot a 
 copy of his latest book. 
 
 " Thanks, my son. It is always a pleasure to ex- 
 amine thy manuscripts." 
 
 The monks gathered around the Abbot to look at 
 the new volume. " It is strange," said one of them, 
 named Father Melchior. " How canst thou make so 
 many books? Thou must have a great company of 
 scribes." 
 
 Another was turning over the pages of the book. 
 " It is not quite like the work of our hands," said he. 
 
 " It is certain that none of us can compete with thy 
 speed in writing," went on Father Melchior. " Every 
 few weeks thou dost bring in twelve or more books, 
 written in half the time it takes our quickest scribe to 
 make a single copy." 
 
 "Moreover," said another, "the letters are all so 
 exact and regular. Thou hast brought two copies, and 
 one has just as many letters and words on a page as 
 the other, and all the letters are exactly alike." 
 
 The Abbot had been studying the book closely.
 
 24 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Now he asked the monks to withdraw. When Guten- 
 berg and he were alone, he said, "Are these books 
 really made with a copyist's pen ? " He cast a search- 
 ing glance at the lapidary. 
 
 Gutenberg, much embarrassed, had no answer for 
 him. 
 
 " It is as I guessed," said the Abbot. " They are 
 made from blocks, like the St. Christopher." 
 
 The Abbot smiled at the look of dismay on Guten- 
 berg's face. " Have no fear," he added. " It may be 
 that I can supply thee with better work for thy skill. 
 We need more copies of the ' Biblia Pauperum ' for our 
 use here, and I have no doubt thou couldst greatly 
 improve on the best we have." 
 
 " I should like to do it," said Gutenberg, " if there 
 were not too much expense." 
 
 "The priests will need many copies," the Abbot as- 
 sured him. " And thou shalt be well paid for them." 
 
 So the young printer agreed to undertake this new 
 commission. It meant much to him to have secured 
 the patronage of the Abbot, for this would set a seal 
 upon the excellence of his work, and bring him to the 
 notice of the wealthy and cultivated people of the day. 
 
 Gutenberg took the Abbot's copy of the " Biblia " 
 home, and he and the apprentices started work upon 
 the wooden blocks. There were many cuts in the book 
 which had to be copied, and so they engaged two 
 wood engravers who lived in Strasburg to help them. 
 Even so, it took them months to finish the book. But 
 when it was printed and bound, and a copy shown to 
 the Abbot, he was delighted with it " Thou hast done
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 25 
 
 nobly, my son," said he, " and thy labors will serve the 
 interests of our Mother Church. Thou shalt be well 
 paid." 
 
 Gutenberg returned home with the money, and 
 showed it delightedly to his wife. " I knew thou 
 wouldst triumph," said she. " Only to think of a real 
 ' Biblia Pauperum ' made by my John Gutenberg. We 
 shall see wonderful days ! " 
 
 Now fortune grew more favorable. The " Biblia " 
 sold better than the other books had done, and 
 they next printed the Canticles, or Solomon's Song. 
 This was impressed, as the others had been, on only 
 one side of the page, and from engraved wooden 
 blocks. Then Gutenberg thought he would like to 
 print the entire Bible. Anna favored this, and he 
 started to figure out how long the work would take. 
 
 " There are seven hundred pages in the Bible," said 
 he. "I cannot engrave more than two pages a month 
 working steadily, and at such a rate it would take me 
 fully three hundred and fifty months, or nearly thirty 
 years, to make blocks enough to print the Holy Book." 
 
 " Why, thou wouldst be an old man before it was 
 done ! " cried his wife in dismay. 
 
 " Yes, and more than that, this process of engraving 
 is dimming to the eyes. I should be blind before my 
 work was half done." 
 
 " But couldst thou not divide the work with the 
 others ? " 
 
 " Yes, if only I could persuade them to attempt so 
 big a work. They want to try smaller books, for they 
 say my new process is hardly better for making a large
 
 26 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 book than the old method of copying. It may be that 
 I can get them to print the Gospels gradually, one book 
 at a time." 
 
 Though the workmen were now growing more 
 weary and disheartened with each new volume they un- 
 dertook, Gutenberg would not give up. He persuaded 
 them to start cutting the blocks for the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew. But as he worked with his knives the ap- 
 prentices grumbled about him. At last he had the first 
 block nearly done. Then his hand slipped, the tool 
 twisted, and the block was split across. 
 
 The other men looked aghast. So much work had 
 gone for nothing. 
 
 Gutenberg sat studying the broken block of wood. 
 As he studied it a new idea came to him. Picking up 
 his knife he split the wood, making separate pieces of 
 every letter carved on it. Then he stared at the pile of 
 little pieces that lay before him like a bundle of splin- 
 ters. He realized that he was now on the trail of a 
 greater discovery than any he had yet made, for these 
 separate letters could be used over and over again, not 
 only in printing one book but in printing hundreds. 
 
 Taking a fresh block he split it into little strips, and 
 cutting these down to the right size, he carved a letter 
 on the end of each strip. This was more difficult than 
 cutting on the solid block, and he spoiled many strips 
 of wood before he got a letter that satisfied him. But 
 finally he had made one, and then another, and another, 
 until he had all the letters of the alphabet. He was 
 careful to cut the sticks of the proper width, so that the 
 letters would not be too far apart when they should be
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 27 
 
 used for printing. When they were done he showed 
 them to the others and called them stucke, or type. 
 They soon saw what a great step forward he had 
 made. 
 
 The first words he printed with type were Bonus 
 homo, "a good man." He took the letters that spelled 
 the first word, and putting them in their proper order 
 tied them together with a string. He only had one 
 letter o, so he had to stop and cut two more. Then he 
 made a supply of each letter of the alphabet, and put 
 type of each letter separately in little boxes, to keep 
 them from getting mixed. So he made the first font of 
 movable type known to history. 
 
 As he experimented with these first type he made 
 another improvement. He found it was hard to keep 
 the letters tight together, so that he could ink them and 
 print from them. He cut little notches in the edges of 
 the different type, and by fastening his linen thread 
 about the notches in the outside letters of each word he 
 found that he could hold a word as tightly together as 
 if all the letters in it were cut on a single block. 
 
 The cutting of the type and the studying out of 
 new and better ways of holding them together took a 
 great deal of time, and meanwhile the sales of gems 
 and mirrors had fallen off. The apprentices had not 
 the master's skill in holding the letters together, and 
 they grew discouraged as time after time the type 
 would separate as they were ready to print from it. 
 They wanted to go back to the blocks, but Gutenberg 
 insisted that his new way was the better. At last he 
 hit upon another idea. He would make a press which
 
 28 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 would hold the type together better than a linen thread 
 or a knot of wire. 
 
 After many patient experiments he finished a small 
 model of a press which seemed to him to combine all 
 the qualifications needed for his work. He took this 
 to a skilful turner in wood and metal, who examined 
 it carefully. " This is only a simple wine-press I am to 
 make, Master John," said he. 
 
 " Yes," answered Gutenberg, " it is in effect a wine- 
 press, but it shall shortly spout forth floods of the most 
 abundant and marvelous liquor that has ever flowed to 
 quench the thirst of man." 
 
 The mechanic, paying no heed to Gutenberg's ex- 
 citement, made the press for him according to the 
 model. It was set up in the printing-rooms of Dritzhn's 
 dwelling, and the firm went on with their work of cut- 
 ting movable type. But the sale of books was small, 
 and for two years more the apprentices grumbled, and 
 protested that they should have stuck to the lapidary's 
 art. 
 
 New troubles soon arose. It was found that the ink 
 softened the type and spoiled the form of the letters. 
 " We must make more fresh type," said Gutenberg, 
 " until we can find a way to harden the wood." Then 
 a bill was sent in of one hundred florins for press-work. 
 The partners were angry, and said they saw no real 
 advantage in the press. " But without the frame and 
 press all our labor of making stucke will prove useless," 
 answered the inventor. " We must either give up the 
 art, and disband, or make the necessary improvements 
 as they are called for."
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 29 
 
 Gutenberg was made of sterner stuff than his partner 
 Dritzhn. Two years of small success and great doubt 
 had told upon the latter, and so one day when Father 
 Melchior of the Cathedral told him he noticed that he 
 was worried, Dritzhn confessed to him the secret of the 
 printing shop. " I have put money into the business," 
 said he, " and if I leave now I fear I shall lose it all." 
 
 " Leave it by all means," advised the Father, " for 
 be sure that no good will come of these strange arts." 
 
 But when he went back to the shop Dritzhn dis- 
 covered the others setting type for a new work, a 
 dictionary, that was called a " Catholicon." They 
 were all enthusiastic about this, believing it would have 
 a readier sale than their other works, and so he de- 
 cided to stay with them a little longer, in spite of the 
 Father's advice. 
 
 Just as the dictionary was ready to be issued, in the 
 autumn of 1439, an event occurred which threw the 
 firm into confusion. Dritzhn died suddenly, and his 
 two brothers demanded that Gutenberg should let 
 them take his place in the firm. He read over the 
 contract which they had all signed, and then told them 
 that they could riot be admitted as partners, but should 
 be paid the fifteen florins which the books showed 
 were due to Dritzhn' s heirs. They rejected this with 
 scorn, and at once started a lawsuit against Gutenberg 
 and his partners. 
 
 There were no such protections for inventions as 
 patents then ; rumor soon spread abroad the news that 
 Gutenberg had discovered a new art that would prove 
 a gold-mine, and the poor inventor saw that the law-
 
 30 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 suit would probably end in his ruin. The printing- 
 press had stood in Dritzhn's house, and before Guten- 
 berg could prevent it the two brothers had stolen parts 
 of it. Then he had what was left of it carried to his 
 own house ; but even here spies swarmed to try to 
 learn something of his secret. Finally he realized that 
 his invention was not safe even there, and decided 
 that every vestige of his work must be destroyed. 
 "Take the stucke from the forms," said he to his friends, 
 " and break them up in my sight, that none of them may 
 remain perfect." 
 
 " What, all our labor for the last three years ! " cried 
 Hielman. 
 
 " Never mind," answered Gutenberg. " Break them 
 up, or some one will steal our art, and we shall be 
 ruined." 
 
 So, taking hammers and mallets, they broke the 
 precious forms of type into thousands of fragments. 
 
 The lawsuit dragged along, and finally ended in 
 Gutenberg's favor. The firm was ordered to pay 
 Dritzhn's brothers the fifteen florins, and nothing more. 
 But the type were destroyed, and the partners were 
 afraid to make new ones, lest the suspicious public 
 should spy upon them and learn their secret. When 
 the term of the contract between the partners came to 
 an end it was not renewed. Each of the firm went his 
 own way, and John Gutenberg opened his lapidary's 
 shop again and tried to build up the trade he had lost. 
 
 His wife was still Gutenberg's chief encouragement. 
 She was certain that some day he would win success, 
 and often in the evening she would urge him not to
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 31 
 
 despair of his invention, but to wait till the time should 
 be ripe for him to go on with it again. As a matter 
 of fact it was impossible for him to give it up. Before 
 long he was cutting stucke again in his spare hours, 
 and then trying his hand at printing single pages. 
 
 He felt however that it would be impossible for him 
 to resume his presswork in Strasburg. There was 
 too much prejudice against his invention there. So 
 he decided to go back to his home town of Mainz, 
 where many of his family were living. Anna agreed 
 with this decision, and so they closed their shop, sold 
 their goods, and journeyed to his brother's home. 
 There one day his brother introduced him to a rich 
 goldsmith named Faust, and this man said he under- 
 stood that Gutenberg had invented a new way of mak- 
 ing books. John admitted this, and told him some de- 
 tails of his process. 
 
 The goldsmith was most enthusiastic, and suggested 
 that he might be able to help the inventor with money. 
 Gutenberg said he should need two or three thousand 
 florins. " I will give it to thee," answered Faust, " if 
 thou canst convince me that it will pay better than 
 goldsmithing." 
 
 Then the printer confided all his secrets to Faust, 
 and the latter considered them with great care. At 
 last he was satisfied, and told Gutenberg that he would 
 enter into partnership with him. " But where shall we 
 start the work ? " he added. " Secrecy is absolutely 
 necessary. We must live in the house in which we 
 work." 
 
 " I had thought of the Zum Jungen," answered Gu-
 
 32 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 tenberg, naming an old house that overlooked the 
 Rhine. 
 
 " The very place," agreed Faust. " It is almost a 
 palace in size, and will give us ample room ; it is in 
 the city, and yet oufof its bustle. It is vacant now, and 
 I will rent it at once. When canst thou move there ? " 
 
 " At once," said Gutenberg, more pleased than he 
 dared show. 
 
 So the printer and his good wife moved to the Zum 
 Jungen, which was more like a castle than a tradesman's 
 dwelling-house. Its windows looked over the broad, 
 beautiful river to the wooded shores beyond. Faust 
 advanced Gutenberg the sum of 2,020 florins, taking a 
 mortgage on his printing materials as security. Then 
 Faust moved his family and servants to the old house, 
 and the firm started work. Hanau, the valet of Gu- 
 tenberg's father, and a young scholar named Martin 
 Duttlinger, joined them at the outset. 
 
 Two well-lighted rooms on the second floor, so placed 
 as to be inaccessible to visitors, were chosen for the 
 workshops. Here the four worked from early morning 
 until nearly midnight, cutting out new sets of type and 
 preparing them for the presswork. They began by 
 printing a new manual of grammar, an " Absies," or 
 alphabetical table, and the " Doctrinale." All three of 
 these it was thought would be of use to all who could 
 read. 
 
 Soon Faust discovered the same defect in the type 
 that the workmen at Strasburg had discovered. The 
 wooden letters would soften when used, and soon lose 
 their shape. He spoke to Gutenberg about it, and the
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 33 
 
 latter studied the problem. At length an idea occurred 
 to him. He opened a drawer and took out a bit of 
 metal. He cut a letter on the end of it. " There is the 
 answer," said he. " We will make our type of lead. 
 We can cut it, and ink cannot soften it as it does 
 wood." 
 
 Faust was very much pleased. Now that he un- 
 derstood Gutenberg's invention he realized how great 
 a thing it was destined to become, and was anxious to 
 help its progress in every way he could. One day 
 Gutenberg told him that they needed a good man to cut 
 the designs for the engravings. " Dost thou know of 
 one?" asked Faust. "Of only one," was the answer. 
 " He is Peter Schoeffer, a youth who helped me before. 
 He is now a teacher of penmanship in Paris." 
 
 " We must send for him," said Faust. 
 
 So Gutenberg sent for Schoeffer, and the printing 
 staff was increased to five. 
 
 Schceffer had considerable reputation as a scholar, 
 and soon after he had joined them Gutenberg asked 
 him what he thought was the most important book in 
 the world. Schoeffer replied that he was not suffi- 
 ciently learned to answer the question. 
 
 " But to the best of thy knowledge," persisted Gu- 
 tenberg. 
 
 " I remember that when I was in the Cathedral 
 school," said Schoeffer, " Father Melchior showed us 
 the Gothic Gospels, or Silver Book, and said that more 
 art and expense had been spent on the Bible than on 
 any other book he knew. I believe therefore that it is 
 the most useful and important book in the world."
 
 34 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 " So I believe," agreed Gutenberg, " and I intend to 
 print it in the best style possible to my art." 
 
 " But what a tremendous undertaking, to print the 
 whole Bible ! " exclaimed Schceffer. 
 
 " Yes, a stupendous work," Gutenberg agreed. 
 " And so I want to start upon it at once." 
 
 Schoeffer was amazed when Gutenberg showed him 
 the new press he had built at the Zum Jungen. He 
 watched the master dab the type with ink, slide them 
 under the platen, and having pressed it down, take out 
 the printed page. 
 
 " It is wonderful ! " said he. " How many impres- 
 sions canst thou take from the press in a day ? " 
 
 " About three hundred, working steadily." 
 
 " Then books will indeed multiply ! What would the 
 plodding copyists say to this ! " 
 
 When they began printing with the lead type they 
 soon found that the metal was too soft. The nicest 
 skill had to be used in turning the screw of the press, 
 and only Gutenberg seemed able to succeed with it. 
 Schceffer suggested that they should try iron. 
 
 " We have," said Gutenberg, " but it pierced the 
 paper so that it could not be used." 
 
 Schoeffer was used to experimenting in metals, and 
 the next day he brought to the workroom an alloy 
 which he thought might serve. It was a mixture of 
 regulus of antimony and lead. They tried it, and found 
 it was precisely the right substance for their use. Gu- 
 tenberg and Faust were both delighted, and very soon 
 afterward made Peter Schceffer a partner in the firm. 
 
 They now started on the great work of printing the
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 35 
 
 Bible. Duttlinger was commissioned to buy a Bible to 
 serve for his own use. This was brought in secret to 
 the workrooms, and the partners inspected it carefully. 
 They realized what a huge undertaking it would be to 
 print such a long book, but nevertheless they set out to 
 do it. Each man was allotted his share in the labor, 
 and the work began. 
 
 The press Gutenberg was using was a very simple 
 affair. Two upright posts were fastened together by 
 crosspieces at top and bottom. In this frame a big 
 iron screw was worked by means of a handle. A board 
 was fastened beneath the screw, and the type, when 
 inked and set in a wooden frame, were placed on this 
 board. The printing paper was laid over the type, and 
 the screw forced the platen, which was the board fixed to 
 it, down upon the paper. Then the screw was raised 
 by the handle, the platen was lifted with it, and the 
 printed paper was ready to be taken out. The screw 
 was worked up and down in a box, called a hose, and 
 the board on which the type were set for the printing 
 was actually a sort of sliding table. The frame or 
 chase of type was fixed on this table, and when inked 
 and with the paper laid in place, was slid under the 
 platen, which was a smooth planed board. The screw 
 was turned down, the platen was pressed against the 
 sheet of paper, and the printing was done. 
 
 Each of the workers at the Zum Jungen suggested 
 valuable changes and additions. Schoeffer proved 
 wonderfully adept at cutting type, and later at illumi- 
 nating the initial letters that were needed. The copies 
 we have of the books published by this first Mainz press
 
 3 6 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 bear striking witness to the rare skill and taste Peter 
 Schceffer showed in designing and coloring the large 
 capital letters that were considered essential at that 
 day. 
 
 The firm had by now prepared several hundred 
 pounds' weight of metal type for the Bible, had dis- 
 covered that a mixture of linseed oil and lampblack 
 made the best ink, and had invented ink-dabbers made 
 of skin stuffed with wool. Then it occurred to Schoeffer 
 that there must be some easier way of making type 
 than by cutting it out by hand. After some study he 
 found it, and the firm began taking casts of type in 
 plaster moulds. But the success of this method seemed 
 very doubtful at first, for it was hard to get a good im- 
 pression of such small things as type in the soft plaster. 
 Again Schceffer showed his skill. He planned the cut- 
 ting of punches which would stamp the outline of the 
 type upon the matrix. He cut matrices for the whole 
 alphabet, and then showed the letters cast from them to 
 Gutenberg and Faust. 
 
 " Are these letters cast in moulds ? " exclaimed the 
 astonished Faust. 
 
 " Yes," answered Schceffer. 
 
 "This is the greatest of all thy inventions then," 
 said Faust. " Thou art beyond all question a great 
 genius ! " 
 
 With type cast in this new way the firm printed the 
 first page of their Bible in the spring of 1450. The 
 press worked to perfection, and when they removed 
 the vellum sheet the printed letters were clear, beauti- 
 fully formed, and ranged in perfect lines. So began the
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 37 
 
 printing of what was to become famous as the Mazarine 
 Bible. But it was not until five years later, in 1455, 
 that the book was finished. 
 
 The Bible was printed, but its cost had been great, 
 and the returns from its sale were small. Faust was 
 dissatisfied with Gutenberg, and took occasion to tell 
 Schoeffer one evening that he believed the firm would 
 do better without the master. " Thou hast devised the 
 ink, the forms for casting type, and the mixture of 
 metals," he said. " These are almost all that has been 
 invented. Gutenberg spent 4,000 florins before the 
 Bible was half done, and I do not see how he can ever 
 repay me the sums I have advanced." 
 
 Faust played upon young Schoeffer's vanity, he 
 praised him continually and disparaged Gutenberg, 
 and finally persuaded him they would be better off 
 without the latter. Peter Schoeffer was, moreover, in 
 love with Faust's daughter Christiane, and wished to 
 marry her. This was another inducement for him to 
 side with the rich goldsmith. 
 
 Then one day Faust asked Gutenberg blankly when 
 he intended to repay him the money he had advanced. 
 Gutenberg was surprised, and told him he had nothing 
 but the small profits the firm was making. 
 
 " I will give thee thirty days to pay the debt," said 
 Faust, " and if thou dost fail to pay within that time I 
 shall take steps to collect it." 
 
 " But how am I to procure it ? Wouldst thou ruin 
 me ? " cried Gutenberg. 
 
 " The money I must have, and if thou art honest 
 thou wilt pay me," came the hard answer.
 
 3 8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 The month ended, and Gutenberg had not found the 
 money. He protested and pleaded with Faust, but the 
 latter was obdurate. He started a lawsuit at once to 
 recover the sums he had expended, and judgment was 
 given against Gutenberg, commanding that he should 
 pay what he had borrowed, together with interest. 
 Gutenberg could not do this, and so Faust took posses- 
 sion of all the presses, the type, and the copies of the 
 Bible that were already printed. 
 
 Gutenberg knew that he was ruined. His wife tried 
 to console him. " I am worse than penniless," said he. 
 " My noble art is at an end. What I most feared has 
 happened. They have stolen my invention, and I have 
 nothing left" 
 
 Meantime Schceffer had married Faust's daughter, 
 and the two men took up the printing business for 
 themselves. Faust showed the Bibles to friends, and 
 was advised to carry a supply of them to Paris. He 
 went to that city, and at first met with great success. 
 He sold the King a copy for seven hundred and fifty 
 crowns, and private citizens copies at smaller prices. 
 But soon word spread abroad that this stranger's stock 
 was inexhaustible. " The more he sells the more he 
 has for sale," said one priest. Then some one started 
 the report that the stranger was in league with the 
 devil, and soon a mob had broken into his lodgings 
 and found his stock of Bibles. Faust was arrested on 
 the charge of dealing in the black art, and was brought 
 before the court. He now decided that he would have 
 to tell of the printing press if he were to escape, and 
 so he made a full confession. So great was the wonder
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 39 
 
 and admiration at the announcement of this new inven- 
 tion that he was at once released, loaded with honors, 
 and soon after returned to Mainz with large profits 
 from his trip. 
 
 But Gutenberg was hot entirely left to despair. His 
 brother Friele, who was well-to-do, came to his aid, and 
 interested friends in starting John at work on his 
 presses again. He missed Schceffer's discoveries as to 
 ink and the casts for type, but although he had not the 
 means to print another copy of the Bible, he contrived 
 to print various other books which were bought by the 
 clerical schools and the monasteries. After a time 
 Faust, realizing perhaps that Gutenberg was in reality 
 the inventor of the art which he was beginning to find so 
 lucrative, came to him, and asked his forgiveness. He 
 admitted that he had been unfair in the prosecution of 
 the lawsuit, and urged Gutenberg to take his old place 
 in their firm. But Gutenberg could not be persuaded, 
 he preferred to work after his own fashion, and to be 
 responsible only to himself. 
 
 For eight years he carried on the business of his new 
 printing shop in the Zum Jungen, with his brother and 
 Conrad Humery, Syndic of Mainz, to share the expenses 
 and profits. Then his wife, Anna, died, and he could 
 not keep on with the work. His brother advised him 
 to leave Mainz for a time and travel. So he sold his 
 presses and type to the Syndic, and left Mainz. Wher- 
 ever he journeyed he was received with honor, for it 
 was now widely known that he had invented the new art 
 of printing. The Elector Adolphus of Nassau invited 
 him to enter his service as one of his gentlemen pension-
 
 40 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 ers, and paid him a generous salary. Thus he was able 
 to live in peace and comfort until his death in 1468. 
 
 Meanwhile Faust and Schceffer had continued to 
 print the Bible and other works, and had found a pros- 
 perous market in France and the German cities, 
 Schceffer cast a font of Greek type, and used this in 
 printing a copy of Cicero's " De Officiis," which was 
 eagerly bought by the professors and students of the 
 great University of Paris. But as Faust was disposing 
 of the last copies of this book in the French capital he 
 was seized with the plague, and died almost immedi- 
 ately. For thirty-six years Peter Schceffer continued 
 printing books, making many improvements, and 
 bringing out better and better editions of the Bible. 
 
 The capture of Mainz in 1462 by the Elector Adol- 
 phus of Nassau gave the secrets of the printing press 
 to the civilized world. Presses were set up in Ham- 
 burg, Cologne, Strasburg, and Augsburg, two of 
 Faust's former workmen began printing in Paris, and 
 the Italian cities of Florence and Venice eagerly took 
 up the new work. Between 1470 and 1480 twelve hun- 
 dred and ninety-seven books were printed in Italy alone, 
 an indication of what men thought of the value of 
 Gutenberg's invention. 
 
 William Caxton, an English merchant, learned the 
 new art while he was traveling in Germany, and when 
 he returned home started a press at Westminster with 
 a partner named Wynken de Worde. This was the 
 first English press, but others were quickly set up at 
 Oxford and York, Canterbury, Worcester, and Nor- 
 wich, and books began to appear in a steady stream.
 
 GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS 41 
 
 The art of printing has seen great changes since Gu- 
 tenberg's day. The type is now made by machinery, 
 inked by machinery, set and distributed again by ma- 
 chinery. The letters, when once set up, are cast in 
 plates of entire pages, so that they can be kept for use 
 whenever they are wanted. Stereotyping and electro- 
 typing have made this possible. The Mergenthaler 
 Linotype machine sets and casts type in the form of 
 solid lines. The great presses of to-day can accom- 
 plish more in twelve hours than the presses of 1480 in 
 as many months. 
 
 But the great press we have is the direct descendant 
 of the little one that John Gutenberg built in the Zum 
 Jungen at Mainz, and the letters we read on the printed 
 page are after all only another form of those he cut out 
 with so much patient labor on his wooden blocks in 
 Strasburg. Printing is one of the greatest inventions 
 the world has ever seen, but it had its beginning in the 
 simple fact that a young German polisher of gems fell 
 to wondering how a rude playing-card had been made.
 
 II 
 
 PALISSY AND HIS ENAMEL 
 
 About 1510-1589 
 
 THE discovery of a long-sought enamel and the suc- 
 cessful manufacture of a new and beautiful type of pot- 
 tery can scarcely be ranked among the great inventions 
 of history, but the story of Bernard Palissy is far too in- 
 teresting to need any such excuse. He was a worker 
 in the fine arts, in a day when objects of beauty were 
 considered of the first importance, and his success was 
 then regarded as almost as great a thing as the build- 
 ing of the first McCormick reaper in another age. 
 
 This maker of a new and beautiful porcelain was a 
 Frenchman, born about 1510 at the little village of La 
 Chapelle Biron, which lies between the Lot and Dor- 
 dogne, in Perigord. His parents were poor peasants, 
 without the means or the opportunity to give Bernard 
 much of a schooling, but he picked up a very fair 
 knowledge of reading and writing, and kept his eyes 
 so wide open that he learned much more than the aver- 
 age country boy. It was the age when the churches of 
 France were being made glorious with windows of 
 many-colored glass, and Bernard, watching the glass- 
 workers, dared to ask if they would take him as ap- 
 prentice. One of them would, and so the boy of Peri- 
 gord began his career of artist, his field covering not 
 only the manufacture of glass, but its cutting, arrang-
 
 PALISSY AND HIS ENAMEL 43 
 
 ing, and sometimes its painting for the rose- windows of 
 the Gothic churches. And so skilled were those glass- 
 workers and so deeply in love with their art that their 
 glass has been the despair of the later centuries that 
 have tried to copy them. 
 
 Like a true artist he was very much in earnest. 
 With his spare time and such money as he could save 
 he studied all subjects that seemed apt to be of help 
 to him. He learned geometry, and drawing, painting, 
 and modeling. In his desire for the greatest subjects 
 for his windows and the finest treatment of them, 
 Bernard turned to Italy, the home of the great paint- 
 ers, and copied their works. This led his eager mind 
 to delve into Italian literature, and shortly the young 
 workman was not only draughtsman and artist, but 
 something of a man of letters as well. The little vil- 
 lage of La Chapelle Biron found that the peasant's 
 son, without any education in the church schools, was 
 already a man of many talents and quite remarkable 
 learning. 
 
 He had mastered his profession, and the town in 
 Perigord was somewhat too small for him. He must 
 see something of that outer world where many others 
 were making works of art. His skill as a painter of 
 glass, as a draughtsman, and land-measurer, would 
 earn him a living wherever he might go. So he set 
 forth on his travels, as many young scholars and arti- 
 sans were used to do in those days, working here and 
 there, collecting new ideas, talking with many men of 
 different minds, and gaining a first-hand knowledge of 
 the world that lay about him. He visited the chief
 
 44 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 provinces of France, saw something of Burgundy and 
 Flanders, and stayed for a time on the banks of the 
 Rhine. His love of acquiring knowledge grew as he 
 traveled, and he studied natural history, geology and 
 chemistry. Where churches were being built he painted 
 glass, where towns or nobles needed measurers or sur- 
 veyors of their, lands he worked for them. When he 
 had seen as much of the world as he wished, he went 
 to the town of Saintes, married, and settled there as 
 a man of several trades. 
 
 It was in 1539 that Palissy became a citizen of 
 Saintes, and several years later that chance sent his 
 way a beautiful cup of enameled pottery. Some have 
 said that the cup came from Italy, and some from Nu- 
 remberg, but it was of a new pattern to Palissy, and 
 the more he looked at it and handled it the more he 
 wanted to learn the secret of its making, and duplicate 
 it or improve on it. He had the artist's wish to create 
 something beautiful, and with it was the belief that he 
 could provide well for his wife and children, and raise 
 the potter's art to a new height if he could learn the 
 secret of this enamel. That thought became his lode- 
 stone, and he left all his other work to accomplish it 
 Much as he knew about glass, he knew nothing about 
 enamel. He had no notion of the materials he 
 should need, nor how he was to combine them. He 
 started to make earthen vessels without knowing how 
 other men had made them. He knew that he should 
 need a furnace, and so he built one, although he had 
 never seen a furnace fired. 
 
 The attempt seemed foolhardy from the start. What
 
 PALISSY AND HIS ENAMEL 45 
 
 he had saved he spent in his attempts to find the right 
 materials. Soon his savings were gone, and he had 
 to look about for a new means of living. A survey 
 and plan of the great salt-marshes of Saintonge was 
 wanted in 1543, and Palissy obtained the work. He 
 finished it, was paid the stipulated sum, and immedi- 
 ately spent it in fresh experiments to find the coveted 
 enamel. But he could not find it. One experiment 
 after another ended in rebuff. He labored day and 
 night, and the result of all his labors was the same. 
 But the desire to find that enamel had possessed Pa- 
 lissy's mind, and it was not a mind to veer or change. 
 
 The man was beset by friends who told him he was 
 mad to continue the chase, and that his undoubted talents 
 in other lines were being wasted. He was implored, 
 reproached, and belabored by his wife, who begged 
 him to leave his furnace, and turn to work that would 
 feed and clothe his growing family. He might well 
 have seemed a fanatic, he might well have seemed 
 distraught and cruel to his family, but he met each 
 protest with a simple frankness that disarmed all at- 
 tacks and showed his indomitable purpose. Those 
 were days of intense suffering for Palissy, and later 
 he described them in his own writings in a way that 
 showed his real depth of feeling and his constant 
 struggle against what he held to be temptations. 
 
 He borrowed money to build a new furnace, and 
 when this was done he lived by it, trying one combi- 
 nation of materials after another in his search for the 
 secret of the enamel. Those were superstitious days, 
 and some of his more ignorant neighbors thought
 
 46 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 that Bernard Palissy must be in league with the devil, 
 since he spent day and night feeding fuel to his fur- 
 nace, and sending a great volume of smoke and 
 sparks into the air. Some said he was an alchemist 
 trying to turn base metals into gold, some that he 
 was discovering new poisons, some frankly believed 
 that his learning had turned his mind and made him 
 mad. They were all certain of one thing, and that 
 was that his great fires were providing very ill for 
 his family, who became in time a charge on the town's 
 charity. 
 
 For sixteen years Palissy experimented. For six- 
 teen years he had to resist the reproaches of wife and 
 children, and the threats of neighbors. That was an 
 epic struggle, well worth the recording. We can pic- 
 ture the little mediaeval town, surrounded by its salt 
 marshes, the prosperous burghers, and the strange 
 man, Bernard Palissy, at whom all others scoffed, 
 whose children played in the streets in rags and tatters, 
 but who, himself, was always working at his furnace 
 with demoniac zeal. " Too much learning," says one 
 burgher, shaking his head. "What business had a 
 simple glass- worker to study those texts out of Italy ? " 
 "Seeking for more learning than other folk have is 
 apt to league one with the Evil One," says number two. 
 " Bernard has sold his soul. He will fall in his furnace 
 some day, and go up in smoke." "Nay," says the 
 third burgher, " he will live forever, to bring shame to 
 our town of Saintes. He is like one of those plagues 
 the priests tell us of." And he crosses himself de- 
 voutly.
 
 PALISSY AND HIS ENAMEL 47 
 
 But Palissy cared for nothing but to learn that 
 secret. At first he had had a workman to help him ; 
 now he let him go. He had no money to pay him, 
 and so gave him all his clothes except those he had on. 
 He knew his family were starving, and he dared not 
 go out into the streets for fear of the maledictions of 
 his neighbors. But he fed that furnace and he melted 
 his different compositions. When he could get no 
 other fuel he turned to the scant furnishings of his 
 house. He burned his bed and chairs, his table, and 
 everything that was made of wood. He felt that he 
 was now on the verge of his discovery ; but he must 
 have more fire. He tore strips of board from the 
 walls, and piled them in the furnace. Still he needed 
 more heat, and ran out into the yard behind his dwell- 
 ing. There were sticks that supported vines, and a 
 fence that ran between his land and the next. He took 
 the wood of the fence, the sticks of the vines, and hur- 
 ried back with them to the furnace. He threw them 
 on the blaze, he bent over his composition, and he 
 found the secret answered for him. After sixteen years 
 he learned how to make that rare enamel. 
 
 It was a glorious achievement, and it brought Palissy 
 fame and fortune. With his new knowledge he had 
 soon fashioned pottery, decorated with rustic scenes, 
 and exquisitely enameled, that all lovers of works of 
 art desired at any price. The first pieces of his rustic 
 pottery soon reached the court of France, and Henry 
 II and his nobles ordered vases and figures from him 
 to ornament the gardens of their chateaux. Catherine 
 de' Medici became his patron, and the powerful Con-
 
 48 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 stable de Montmorenci sent to Saintes for Palissy to 
 decorate his chateau at Ecouen. Fragments of this 
 work have been preserved, exquisite painted tiles, and 
 also painted glass, setting forth the story of Psyche, 
 which Palissy prepared for the chateau. 
 
 The people of Saintes now found that their madman, 
 instead of bringing obloquy upon their town, was to 
 bring it fame. The Reformation had made many 
 Protestants in that part of France, and Palissy was one 
 of them. But when the Parliament of Bordeaux, in 
 1562, ordered the execution of the edict of 1559, that 
 had been directed against the Protestants, the Catholic 
 Duke of Montpensier gave him a special safeguard, 
 and ordered that his porcelain factory should be 
 exempted from the general proscription. Party feeling 
 ran very high, however, and in spite of the Duke's 
 safeguard Palissy was arrested, his workshop ordered 
 destroyed by the judges at Saintes, and the King him- 
 self had to send a special messenger to the town and 
 claim that Palissy was his own servant, in order to save 
 his life. The royal family, in spite of their many 
 faults, were sincere lovers of beautiful workmanship, 
 and they summoned Palissy to Paris, where they could 
 insure his safety. Catherine de' Medici gave him a site 
 for his workshop on a part of the ground where the 
 Palace of the Tuilleries stood later, and used often to 
 visit him and talk with him about his art. He made 
 the finest pieces of his porcelain here in Paris. Here 
 he also resumed his earlier studies, and came to lecture 
 on natural history and physics to all the great scholars 
 of the day. When the massacre of St. Bartholomew's
 
 PALISSY AND HIS ENAMEL 49 
 
 Eve deluged France with the blood of Protestants 
 Catherine saw that Palissy was spared from the general 
 destruction. 
 
 Palissy had shown the inborn courage of his nature 
 during those sixteen lean years in Saintes. The peril- 
 ous ups and downs of life in sixteenth century France 
 were to show that courage in another light In spite 
 of royal favor the Catholic League reached for him, 
 and in 1588, when he was nearly eighty years old, he 
 was arrested by order of the Sixteen, thrown into the 
 Bastille, and threatened with death. Henry III, son 
 of Catherine, and in his own way a friend of artists, 
 went to see Palissy in prison. " My good friend," said 
 the King, " you have now been five and forty years in 
 the service of my mother and myself ; we have allowed 
 you to retain your religion in the midst of fire and 
 slaughter. Now I am so pressed by the Guises and 
 my own people that I am constrained to deliver you 
 up into the hands of your enemies, and to-morrow you 
 will be burned unless you are converted." 
 
 " Sire," answered the old man, " I am ready to re- 
 sign my life for the glory of God. You have told me 
 several times that you pity me, and I, in my turn, pity 
 you, who have used the words / am constrained. It 
 was not spoken like a king, sire ; and these are words 
 which neither you nor those who constrain you, the 
 Guisards and all your people, will ever be able to make 
 me utter, for I know how to die." 
 
 The King, however, admiring Palissy's talents, and 
 remembering his mother's fondness for the artist, 
 would not give him up to the party of the League.
 
 50 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Instead he let him remain in his dungeon in the Bastille, 
 where he died in 1589. 
 
 The maker of Palissy ware, as it is called, had many 
 talents, and among them was that of the writer. Dur- 
 ing his days in prison he busied himself in penning 
 his philosophic, religious, and artistic meditations, as 
 many other illustrious prisoners have done. His auto- 
 biography is curious, and its note of sincerity has given 
 it great value as a human document. Says Lamartine 
 of the writings of Palissy, they are " real treasures of 
 human wisdom, divine piety, and eminent genius, as 
 well as of great simplicity, vigor, and copiousness of 
 style. It is impossible, after reading them, not to con- 
 sider the poor potter one of the greatest writers of 
 the French language. Montaigne is not more free 
 and flowing, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is scarcely more 
 graphic ; neither does Bossuet excel him in poetical 
 power." 
 
 But Palissy did not explain his art of enamel in de- 
 tail in any of his writings, and after the death of his 
 brothers or nephews, who succeeded to his work, the 
 secret of Palissy ware, like that of certain other arts of 
 the Renaissance, was lost. 
 
 Palissy did not decorate his porcelain with flat paint- 
 ing. His figures, which usually dealt with historical, 
 mythological, or allegorical subjects, were executed in 
 relief, and colored. These colors were bright, and were 
 generally yellows, blues, and grays, although some- 
 times he used greens, violets, and browns. He never 
 acquired the pure white enamel of Luca della Robbia, 
 .nor that of the faience of Nevers. His enamel is hard,
 
 PALISSY AND HIS ENAMEL 51 
 
 but the glaze is not so fine as that of Delft. The back 
 of his ware is never all the same color, but usually 
 mottled with several colors, often yellow, blue, and 
 brown. 
 
 Palissy's studies in natural history helped him when 
 he came to decorate his pottery. The figures are 
 strikingly true in form and color, and seem to have 
 been moulded directly from nature, as they probably 
 were. Thus the fossil shells which he frequently used 
 in his border decorations are the shells found in the 
 Paris basin, his fish are those of the Seine, his plants, 
 usually the watercress, the hart's tongue, and the 
 maidenhair fern, are those which he found in the 
 country about Paris. His rustic scenes have that same 
 charm of fidelity to nature. 
 
 He also made very beautiful tiles to overlay walls, 
 stoves, and floors. The chateau at Ecouen has a large 
 room entirely paved with them, and many are to be 
 seen in the chapel. They bear heraldic designs, the 
 devices of the Constable de Montmorenci, and the 
 colors are fresh and bright, due to the artist's unique 
 method of enameling. 
 
 Like so many Renaissance artists Palissy tried his 
 skill in many lines. If his most remarkable work was 
 his "rustic pieces," as they are called, great dishes 
 ornamented with fishes, reptiles, frogs, shells, and 
 plants in relief, intended to be used as ornaments and 
 not for service, scarcely less interesting were his 
 statuettes, his stands for fountains, his " rustic figures " 
 for gardens, his candlesticks, ewers and basins, saltcel- 
 lars, ink-stands, and baskets. Large collections of his
 
 52 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 work are to be found in the Louvre, the Hotel de 
 Cluny, and at Sevres. Many pieces have strayed into 
 the hands of great private collectors of rare porcelain, 
 and both England and Russia have many fine examples 
 of his masterpieces. 
 
 He had two assistants, either brothers or nephews, 
 and they knew the secret of his process. They had 
 worked with him, and they continued his art into the 
 reign of Henry IV. One of their productions shows 
 that king surrounded by his family. But these succes- 
 sors had not the artistic instinct or touch of the master. 
 They had little originality, and speedily became servile 
 copyists, so that Palissy ware for a time lost the high 
 place it had held. But these successors did not hand 
 on the secret, and when no more of the ware was forth- 
 coming good judges of the potter's art found it easy to 
 distinguish between the work of Bernard and of his 
 followers, and his own porcelain was again enthroned 
 among the greatest productions of French art. Con- 
 noisseurs of to-day find it easy to know real Palissy 
 ware. 
 
 Such is the story of a great artist of the Renaissance 
 in France, of a man born with the love of beauty, who 
 found a new way of giving the world delight, and who 
 overcame what seemed almost superhuman trials.
 
 Ill 
 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 
 1564-1642 
 
 THREE days before the death of the great Italian 
 Michael Angelo, in the year 1564, there was born in 
 Pisa a boy who was given the name of Galileo Galilei, 
 and who was destined to become one of the greatest 
 philosophers and inventors the world has ever known. 
 He came of a noble family of Florence, which had 
 originally borne the name of Bonajuti, but had later 
 changed it to that of Galilei, and he is usually known 
 by his baptismal name of Galileo, according to the 
 Italian custom of that age. His father was a merchant, 
 engaged in business in Pisa, a man well versed in the 
 Latin and Greek tongues, and well known for his 
 knowledge of mathematics. He was anxious that each 
 of his three sons should have a good education, and so 
 he sent Galileo, his eldest boy, to the famous monastery 
 of Vallombrosa, situated in a beautiful wooded valley not 
 far from Florence. But the father did not intend his 
 son to become a priest, and so, when he found his 
 thoughts tending in that direction, he took him away 
 from the monastery, planning to make him a merchant 
 like himself. 
 
 But the mind of the young Galileo was already 
 remarkably acute. He was a good musician, a skilful
 
 54 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 draughtsman and painter, something of a poet, and 
 had shown considerable talent in designing and build- 
 ing a variety of toy machines. His father soon decided 
 that his son's bent did not lie in the direction of a dealer 
 in cloths, and, casting about for a scientific career, 
 chose that of medicine for Galileo. So he took up this 
 study at the University of Pisa. 
 
 One afternoon the youth of eighteen went to the 
 great Cathedral of the city. He knelt to make his 
 devotions. From the roof of the nave hung a large 
 bronze lamp, and as the boy watched he saw an at- 
 tendant draw the lamp toward him to light it, and then 
 let it swing back again. The swinging caught his at- 
 tention, and he watched it with more and more interest. 
 At first the arc of the swinging lamp was wide, but 
 gradually it grew less and less. But what struck him 
 as singular was that the oscillations all seemed to be 
 made in the same time. He had no watch, so he put 
 his fingers on his wrist in order to note the pulse-beats. 
 As nearly as he could determine the swings of the lamp 
 as they lessened were keeping the same times. 
 
 When he went home he began to experiment with 
 this idea of the swinging lamp, or pendulum as it came 
 to be called, and soon had constructed an instrument 
 which marked with very fair accuracy the rate and va- 
 riation of the pulse-beats. It was imperfect in many 
 respects, but when he showed it to his teachers at the 
 university they were delighted with it, and it was soon 
 generally used by the physicians of the day under the 
 name of the Pulsilogia. 
 
 But, to his father's dismay, the young Galileo did 

 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 55 
 
 not show great interest in the study of medicine. In- 
 stead he spent his time studying the mathematics of 
 Euclid, and from them went on to the writings of Archi- 
 medes and the laws of mechanics. These latter ab- 
 sorbed him, and fresh from reading them he con- 
 structed for himself a hydrostatic balance, the purpose of 
 which was to ascertain accurately the relative propor- 
 tions of any two metals in an alloy. He wrote an 
 essay on his invention, and circulated it among his 
 friends and teachers. This added to his reputation as 
 a scientist, but brought him no money. His family 
 were poor, and he needed a means of support, and so 
 he applied for, and after a time obtained, appointment 
 to the post of Professor of Mathematics at the Univer- 
 sity of Pisa. 
 
 For centuries the laws of mechanics as laid down by 
 the Greek Aristotle had been accepted without much 
 dispute by the civilized world. But a spirit of new 
 thought and investigation was now risiug in Europe, 
 and more especially in Italy. Galileo determined to 
 study the laws of mechanics by experiment, and not, as 
 so many earlier scientists had done, by argument or 
 mere theoretical opinions. Therefore he undertook to 
 establish definitely the laws relating to falling bodies. 
 
 Aristotle, almost two thousand years before, had an- 
 nounced that if two bodies of different weights were 
 dropped from the same height the heavier would reach 
 the ground sooner than the lighter, according to the 
 proportion of their weights. Galileo doubted this, and 
 decided to try it. Accordingly he assembled the 
 teachers and students of the university one morning
 
 56 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 about the base of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. 
 He himself climbed to the top, carrying with him a 
 ten-pound shot and a one-pound shot. He balanced 
 them on the edge of the tower and let them fall to- 
 gether. They struck the ground together. As a 
 result of this experiment Galileo declared three laws in 
 relation to falling bodies. He said that if one neg- 
 lected the resistance of the air, or in other words sup- 
 posed the bodies to fall through a vacuum, it would be 
 found, first, that all bodies fall from the same height in 
 equal times ; second, that in falling the final velocities 
 are proportional to the times ; and third, that the spaces 
 fallen through are proportional to the squares of the 
 times. 
 
 The first of these laws was shown by his experiment 
 on the Leaning Tower. To show the others he built a 
 straight inclined plane with a groove down its centre. 
 A bronze ball was free to move in the groove with the 
 least possible friction. By means of this he showed 
 that no matter how much he inclined the plane, and so 
 changed the time, the ball would always move down 
 it according to the laws he had stated. 
 
 But in disproving the accuracy of the old laws of 
 Aristotle the young scientist had raised a hornet's nest 
 about his ears. The men of the old school would not 
 believe him, a conspiracy was set on foot against him, 
 and finally the criticism of his new teachings grew so 
 severe that he was forced to resign his position, and 
 move to Florence. 
 
 In spite of his wide-spread reputation no school or 
 university was ready to welcome the young scientist
 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 57 
 
 He was known as a man of a very original turn of 
 mind, and therefore one who would be apt to clash 
 with those who clung to their belief in the old order of 
 thought. At last, however, he succeeded in obtaining 
 the chair of Professor of Mathematics at the University 
 of Padua, then one of the greatest seats of learning in 
 Italy. Here again he showed the great scope of his 
 knowledge, and wrote on military architecture and 
 fortifications, the laws of motion, of the sphere, and 
 various branches of mechanics. He invented a ma- 
 chine for raising water, and was granted a patent which 
 secured him his rights in it for twenty years, and he 
 also produced what he called his Geometrical and Mil- 
 itary Compass, but what was later commonly known 
 as the Sector. 
 
 Galileo's fame as a teacher had now spread widely 
 throughout Europe, and students began to flock to 
 Padua to study under him. He had a large house, 
 where a number of his private pupils lived with him, a 
 garden, in which he delighted, and a workshop. Here 
 he experimented on his next invention, that of the air 
 thermometer. One of his friends, Castelli, wrote of 
 this in a letter many years later, dated 1638. "I re- 
 member," he writes, " an experiment which our Signer 
 Galileo had shown me more than thirty-five years ago. 
 He took a small glass bottle about the size of a hen's 
 egg, the neck of which was two palms long, and as 
 narrow as a straw. Having well heated the bulb in 
 his hand, he inserted its mouth in a vessel containing 
 a little water, and, withdrawing the heat of his hand 
 from the bulb, instantly the water rose in the neck
 
 58 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 more than a palm above its level in the vessel. It is 
 thus that he constructed an instrument for measuring 
 the degrees of heat and cold." 
 
 In 1604 the attention of all the astronomers of Europe 
 was attracted by a new star which suddenly appeared 
 in the constellation Serpentarius. Galileo studied it, 
 and shortly began to lecture on the comparatively new 
 science of astronomy. Formerly he had taught the 
 old system of Aristotle to his classes, now, after a 
 searching investigation, he declared his belief in the 
 contrary conclusions of Copernicus. This study led 
 him on and on. He became interested in the magnetic 
 needle, and its use as a compass in navigation. Co- 
 lumbus' discovery of its changing its position according 
 to its relation to the North Pole took place on his first 
 voyage to America, and reports of this had reached 
 Padua. All educated men were rousing to the fact 
 that the age was fertile with new discoveries in every 
 branch of knowledge, and Galileo and those who were 
 working with him gave eager heed to each month's 
 batch of news. 
 
 Mere chance is said to have brought about the mak- 
 ing of the first telescope. The story goes that an 
 apprentice of Hans Lipperhey, an optician of Middle- 
 burg, in Holland, was, one day in October, 1608, play- 
 ing with some spectacle lenses in his master's shop. 
 He noticed that by holding two of the lenses in a 
 certain position he obtained a large and inverted view 
 of whatever he looked at. He told Master Hans about 
 this, and the optician fixed two lenses in a tube, and 
 looking at the weathercock on a neighboring steeple
 
 GALILEO'S TELESCOPE
 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 59 
 
 saw that it seemed much nearer and to be upside 
 down. He hung the tube in his shop as a curious 
 toy, and one day the Marquis Spinola examined it and 
 bought it to present to Prince Maurice of Nassau. Soon 
 a number of Hans Lipperhey's scientific neighbors 
 were trying to make copies of his tube, and before very 
 long reports of it were carried to Italy. The news 
 reached Galileo while on a visit to Venice in June, 1609. 
 This is his account of what followed, taken from a letter 
 written to his brother-in-law Landucci, and dated 
 August 29, 1609. 
 
 " You must know then that about two months ago a 
 report was spread here that in Flanders a spy-glass had 
 been presented to Prince Maurice, so ingeniously con- 
 structed that it made the most distant objects appear 
 quite near, so that a man could be seen quite plainly at 
 a distance of two miles. This result seemed to me so 
 extraordinary that it set me thinking, and as it ap- 
 peared to me that it depended upon the laws of per- 
 spective, I reflected on the manner of constructing 
 it, and was at length so entirely successful that I made 
 a spy-glass which far surpasses the report of the 
 Flanders one. As the news had reached Venice that I 
 had made such an instrument, six days ago I was sum- 
 moned before their Highnesses, the Signoria, and 
 exhibited it to them, to the astonishment of the whole 
 senate. Many of the nobles and senators, although of 
 a great age, mounted more than once to the top of the 
 highest church tower in Venice, in order to see sails 
 and shipping that were so far off that it was two hours 
 before they were seen, without my spy-glass, steering
 
 60 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 full sail into the harbor ; for the effect of my instrument 
 is such that it makes an object fifty miles off appear as 
 large as if it were only five. 
 
 44 Perceiving of what great utility such an instrument 
 would prove in naval and military operations, and see- 
 ing that His Serenity the Doge desired to possess it, 
 I resolved on the 24th inst. to go to the palace and pre- 
 sent it as a free gift." So Galileo did, and as a result 
 the senate elected him to the Professorship at Padua 
 for life, with a salary of one thousand florins yearly. 
 
 But what were Galileo's claims to the invention of 
 this great instrument ? Here is what he wrote in 1623. 
 " Perhaps it may be said that no great credit is due for 
 the making of an instrument, or the solution of a prob- 
 lem, when one is told beforehand that the instrument 
 exists, or that the problem is solvable. It may be said 
 that the certitude of the existence of such a glass aided 
 me, and that without this knowledge I would never 
 have succeeded. To this I reply, the help which the 
 information gave me consisted in exciting my thoughts 
 in a particular direction, and without that, it is pos- 
 sible they may never have been directed that way ; but 
 that such information made the act of invention easier 
 to me I deny, and I say more to find the solution of a 
 definite problem requires a greater effort of genius 
 than to resolve one not specified ; for in the latter case 
 hazard, chance, may play the greater part, while in the 
 former all is the work of the reasoning and intelligent 
 mind. Thus, we are certain that the Dutchman, the 
 first inventor of the telescope, was a simple spectacle- 
 maker, who, handling by chance different forms of
 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 61 
 
 glasses, looked, also by chance, through two of them, 
 one convex and the other concave, held at different dis- 
 tances from the eye ; saw and noted the unexpected 
 result ; and thus found the instrument. On the other 
 hand, I, on the simple information of the effect 
 obtained, discovered the same instrument, not by 
 chance, but by the way of pure reasoning. Here are 
 the steps : the artifice of the instrument depends either 
 on one glass or on several. It cannot depend on one, for 
 that must be either convex, or concave, or plain. The 
 last form neither augments nor diminishes visible ob- 
 jects ; the concave diminishes them, the convex increases 
 them, but both show them blurred and indistinct. Pass- 
 ing then to the combination of two glasses, and know- 
 ing that glasses with plain surfaces change nothing, 
 I concluded that the effect could not be produced by 
 combining a plain glass with a convex or a concave 
 one ; I was thus left with the two other kinds of glasses, 
 and after a few experiments I saw how the effect 
 sought could be produced. Such was the march of my 
 discovery, in which I was not assisted in any way by 
 the knowledge that the conclusion at which I aimed 
 was a verity." 
 
 The telescope that Galileo presented to the Doge of 
 Venice, and which was later lost, consisted of a tube 
 of lead, with what is called a plano-concave eye-glass 
 and a plano-convex object glass, and had a magnifying 
 power of three diameters, which made objects look 
 three times nearer than they actually were, and as a 
 result nine times larger. The tube was about seventy 
 centimeters long and about forty-five millimeters in di-
 
 62 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 ameter. It was first used in public from the top of the 
 campanile in the piazza at Venice on August 21, 1609, 
 and the most distant object that could be seen through 
 it was the campanile of the church of San Giustina in 
 Padua, about thirty-five kilometers away. 
 
 As soon as Galileo returned to his home in Padua he 
 busied himself with improving his invention. First 
 he constructed a new telescope, which as he said " made 
 objects appear more than sixty times larger." Soon he 
 had a still better one, which enlarged four hundred 
 times. He used this to examine the moon, and said 
 that it brought that body " to a distance of less than 
 three semi-diameters of the earth, thus making it ap- 
 pear about twenty times nearer and four hundred times 
 larger than when seen by the unaided eye." To use 
 the instrument more accurately he built a support 
 which held it firmly. He had also now learned to 
 make the lenses adjustable, by fixing the tubes that 
 held them so that they could be drawn out of, or 
 pushed into the main tube of the telescope. To see 
 objects not very far distant very clearly he would push 
 the glasses a little way apart, and to see things very far 
 distant he drew the glasses together. 
 
 But this last telescope did not altogether satisfy him, 
 and so he built a still larger one. This brought ob- 
 jects more than thirty times closer and showed them al- 
 most a thousand times larger in size. With this he 
 discovered the moons of Jupiter, and some of the fixed 
 stars, and added much to what was already known 
 concerning the Milky Way, a region of the sky which 
 had long been a puzzle to astronomers.
 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 63 
 
 He spent a great part of his time now in his work- 
 shop, making and grinding glasses. They were expen- 
 sive and very difficult to prepare properly. Out of 
 more than one hundred that he ground at first he found 
 only ten that would show him the newly found moons 
 of Jupiter. The object glasses were the more difficult, 
 for it was this glass which had to bring to a focus as 
 accurately as possible all the rays of light that passed 
 into the telescope. 
 
 As the voyage of Columbus had brought a new 
 world in the western ocean to the notice of Europe, so 
 Galileo's discoveries with his telescope brought forth 
 a new world in the skies. Galileo wrote out state- 
 ments of his discoveries, and sent these, with his new 
 telescopes, to the princes and learned men of Italy, 
 France, Flanders, and Germany. At all the courts and 
 universities the telescopes were received with the great- 
 est enthusiasm, and put to instant use in the hope of 
 discovering new stars. But again the followers of 
 Aristotle, those who were unwilling to admit that any- 
 thing new could be learned about the laws of nature or 
 the universe, arose in wrath. They attacked Galileo 
 and his discoveries. They would not admit that 
 Jupiter had four attendant moons, although these 
 satellites could be seen by any one through the tele- 
 scope, and a little later, when Galileo stated that the 
 planet Saturn was composed of three stars which 
 touched each other (later found to be one planet with 
 two rings) they rose up to denounce him. But as yet 
 these protests against the discoverer had little effect. 
 Europe was too much interested in what he was show-
 
 64 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 ing it to realize how deeply he might affect men's views 
 of the universe. 
 
 Fame was now safely his. Men came from all parts 
 of Europe to study under this wonderful professor of 
 Padua. But teaching gave him too little time to carry 
 on his own researches. So he looked about for some 
 other position that would give him greater leisure, and 
 finally stated his wishes to Cosimo II, Duke of Florence. 
 Galileo had named the satellites of Jupiter after the 
 house of Medici, to which this Duke belonged, and 
 Cosimo was much flattered at the compliment. As 
 a result he was soon after made First Mathematician 
 of the University of Pisa, and also Philosopher 
 and Mathematician to the Grand Duke's Court of 
 Florence. 
 
 Settled at last at Florence his work as an astronomer 
 steadily went forward. He discovered that the planet 
 Venus had a varying crescent form, that there were 
 small spots circling across the face of the sun, which he 
 called sun-spots, and later that there were mountains 
 on the moon. He also visited Rome, where he was re- 
 ceived with the greatest good-will by Pope Paul V and 
 his cardinals, and where he met the leading scientists 
 of the capital. 
 
 But Galileo's course was no less flecked with light 
 and shade than were the sun and moon he studied. 
 The envy of rivals soon spread false reports about him, 
 and the professors at Pisa refused to accept the results 
 of his studies. Then one of the latter stirred the relig- 
 ious scruples of the Dowager Grand Duchess by telling 
 her that Galileo's conclusion that the earth had a double
 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 65 
 
 motion must be wrong, since it was opposed to the 
 statements of the Bible. Galileo heard of this, and 
 wrote a letter in reply, in which he said that in study- 
 ing the laws of nature men must start with what they 
 could prove by experiments instead of relying wholly 
 on the Scriptures. This was enough to set the machin- 
 ery of his enemies in motion. Galileo's teachings were 
 pointed out as dangerous to the teachings of the Church, 
 and the officers of the Inquisition began to consider 
 how they might best deal with him. Certain of his 
 writings were declared false and prohibited, and he was 
 admonished that he must follow certain lines in his 
 teachings. He went to Rome himself, and saw the 
 Pope again, but found that his friends were fewer and 
 his enemies growing more powerful. 
 
 The theory of Copernicus that the earth and planets 
 are in constant motion was the very foundation of 
 Galileo's scientific studies, and yet the order of the 
 Church now forbade him to use this theory. He went 
 back to Florence out of health and despondent. His 
 old students were falling away from him through fear 
 of the Pope's displeasure, and he was left much alone. 
 But his thirst for knowledge would not let him rest. 
 He took up his residence in the fine old Torre del 
 Gallo, which looks down on Florence and the river 
 Arno, and went on with his work. He wrote out the 
 results of his discoveries, and made a microscope from 
 a model he had seen. Soon he had greatly improved 
 upon his model, and had an instrument, which, as he 
 said, " magnifies things as much as 50,000 times, so 
 that one sees a fly as large as a hen." He sent copies
 
 66 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 to some friends, and shortly his microscopes were as 
 much in demand as his telescopes had been. 
 
 In 1632 he published what he called " The Dialogues 
 of Galileo Galilei." This divided the world of Italy 
 into two camps, the one those who believed in Aristotle 
 and the old learning, the other those who followed 
 Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. The Jesuits took up 
 the gage he had thrown down, and Galileo found the 
 Church of Rome arrayed against him. The sale of his 
 book was forbidden, a commission was appointed to 
 bring charges against him, and he was ordered to go 
 to Rome for trial. The commission reported that 
 Galileo had disobeyed the Church's orders by main- 
 taining that the earth moves and that the sun is 
 stationary, that he had wrongly declared that the move- 
 ments of the tides were due to the sun's stability and 
 the motion of the earth, and that he had failed to give 
 up his old beliefs in regard to the sun and the earth as 
 he had been commanded. 
 
 Galileo, although he was ill, went to Rome, and was 
 placed on trial before the Inquisition. After weeks of 
 weary waiting and long examinations he was ordered 
 to take a solemn oath, forswearing his belief in his 
 own writings and rejecting the conclusion that the 
 sun was stationary and that the earth moved. Rather 
 than suffer the pains of the Inquisition he agreed, 
 and made his solemn declaration. According to an 
 old story, now discredited, as he rose from his knees 
 after the ceremony he whispered to a friend " Eppur si 
 muove " (It does move, nevertheless). Whether he said 
 this or not there can be no doubt but that the great
 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 67 
 
 astronomer knew the performance was a farce, and 
 that the world did move in spite of all the Inquisition 
 could declare. 
 
 The Inquisition did its work ruthlessly. Notices 
 of the sentence prohibiting the reading of Galileo's 
 book and ordering all copies of it to be surren- 
 dered, and copies of the declaration he had made 
 denying his former teachings, were sent to all the 
 courts of Europe and to many of the universities. 
 In Padua the documents were read to teachers and 
 students at the university where for so many years 
 Galileo had been the greatest glory of learning, and 
 in Florence the Inquisitor read the sentence publicly 
 in the church of Santa Croce, notices having been 
 sent to all who were known to be friends or follow- 
 ers of Galileo, ordering them to attend. Thus his 
 humiliation was spread broadcast, and in addition he 
 was ordered to be held at Rome as a prisoner. 
 
 After a time he was permitted to go on parole 
 to the city of Siena, which was at least nearer his 
 home outside Florence. There he stayed until the 
 Grand Duke Cosimo, who had stood by him, per- 
 suaded the Church that Galileo's health required 
 that he be allowed to join his friends. At last he 
 reached his home, and again took up his studies. 
 His eyesight was failing, and eventually he became 
 entirely blind, but meanwhile his speculations cov- 
 ered the widest fields of science, he studied the laws 
 of motion and equilibrium, the velocity of light, the 
 problems of the vacuum, of the flight of projectiles, 
 and the mathematical theory of the parabola. He
 
 68 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 wrote another book, dealing with two new sci- 
 ences, and was busy with designs for a pendulum 
 clock at the time of his death in 1642. He was 
 buried in the church of Santa Croce, the Pantheon 
 of Florence, under the same roof with his great fellow 
 countryman, Michael Angelo. 
 
 What is known as the modern refracting telescope 
 is based upon a different combination of lenses than 
 that used by Galileo. Kepler studied Galileo's in- 
 strument, and then designed one consisting of two 
 convex lenses. The modern telescope follows Kep- 
 ler's arrangement, but Galileo's adjustment is still 
 suitable where only low magnifying powers are needed, 
 and is used to-day in the ordinary field- and opera- 
 glass. 
 
 Galileo knew nothing of what we call the reflecting 
 telescope. He found that by using a convex-lens as 
 an object-glass he could bring the rays of light from 
 any distant object to a focus, and it did not apparently 
 occur to him that he could achieve the same end by 
 the use of a concave mirror. James Gregory, a Scotch- 
 man, designed the first reflector in 1663, and described 
 it in a book, but he was too poor to construct it. Nine 
 years later Sir Isaac Newton, having studied Gregory's 
 plans, built the first reflecting telescope, which is now 
 to be seen in the hall of the Royal Society in London. 
 But invention has gone yet farther in perfecting these 
 instruments with which to study the skies, and the 
 great telescopes of modern times have in most in- 
 stances discarded Newton's reflector for the refracting 
 instrument. And these are built on a tremendous scale.
 
 GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE 69 
 
 The Yerkes telescope at Williams Bay, Wisconsin, 
 has a refractor of forty inches, and the one built for 
 the Paris Exposition of 1900, one of fifty inches. In 
 numerous other details they have changed, and yet 
 each is chiefly indebted to that simple spy-glass of 
 Galileo, by which he was able to show the nobles 
 and senators of Venice full-rigged ships, which without 
 it were barely distant specks on the horizon. Or, 
 going still farther back, the men who make our present 
 telescopes are following the trail that was first blazed 
 on the day when the Dutch apprentice of Middleburg 
 chanced to pick up two spectacle lenses and look 
 through the two of them at once. 
 
 Galileo made many great discoveries and inventions ; 
 there was hardly a field of science that he did not 
 enter and explore ; but his greatest work was to open 
 a new world to men's attention. It was this that 
 brought him before the Inquisition and that branded 
 him as a dangerous heretic, and it was this that placed 
 him in the forefront of the world's discoverers. Men 
 might say that the earth stood still, because it suited 
 them best to believe so, but Galileo gave the world an 
 instrument by which it could study the matter for it- 
 self, and the world has gone on using that instrument 
 and that method ever since.
 
 IV 
 
 WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE 
 
 1736-1819 
 
 IT was no pressing need that drove John Gutenberg 
 to the invention of his printing press, nor was it neces- 
 sity that led to Galileo's discovery of the telescope, but 
 it was a very urgent demand that led to the building 
 of a steam-engine by James Watt England and Scot- 
 land found that men and women, even with the aid of 
 horses, could not work the coal mines as they must be 
 worked if the countries were to be kept supplied with 
 fuel. The small mines were used up, the larger ones 
 must be deepened, and in that event it would be too 
 long and arduous a task for men and women to raise 
 the coal in small baskets, or for horses to draw it out 
 by the windlass. A machine must be constructed that 
 would do the work more quickly, more easily, and more 
 cheaply. 
 
 A Frenchman named Denys Papin had built the first 
 steam-engine with a piston. He had seen certain ex- 
 periments that showed him how much strength there 
 was in compressed air. He had noticed that air 
 pressure could lift several men off their feet. His 
 problem therefore was how best to compress the air, or, 
 as it appeared to him, how to secure a vacuum. His 
 experiments proved that he could do this by the use of
 
 WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE 71 
 
 steam. He took a simple cylinder and fitted a piston 
 into it. Water was put in the cylinder under the 
 piston, a fire was lighted beneath it, and as the water 
 came to the boiling point the piston was forced upward 
 by the steam. Then the fire was taken away, and as 
 the steam in the cylinder condensed, the piston was 
 forced down by the air pressure above. He fastened 
 the upper end of the piston to a rope, which passed 
 over two pulleys. If a weight were hung to the other 
 end of the rope it would be raised as the piston was 
 forced down. In that way the air pressure did the 
 work of lifting the weight, and the necessary vacuum 
 was obtained by forming steam and then condensing it 
 in the cylinder. This was a very primitive device, re- 
 quiring several minutes for the engine to make one 
 stroke, but it was the beginning of the practical use of 
 steam as a motive power. 
 
 Thomas Newcomen, an English blacksmith by trade, 
 first put Papin's idea to use. Instead of the rope and 
 pulleys Newcomen fastened a walking-beam to the end 
 of the piston, and attached a pump-rod to the other 
 end of the walking-beam. He used the steam in the 
 cylinder only to balance the pressure of the air on the 
 piston, and let the pump-rod descend by its own 
 weight. As the steam condensed the piston fell, and 
 the pump-rod rose again. By this means he could 
 pump water from a mine, or lift coal. His first engine 
 was able to lift fifty gallons of water fifty yards at each 
 stroke, and could make twelve strokes a minute. At 
 first he condensed his steam by throwing cold water on 
 the outside of the cylinder, but one day he discovered
 
 72 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 that the engine suddenly increased its speed, and he 
 found that a hole had been worn in the cylinder, and 
 that the water with which he had covered the top of the 
 piston was entering through this hole. This condensed 
 the steam more rapidly, and he adopted it as an im- 
 provement in his next engine. A little later a boy 
 named Humphrey Potter, who had charge of turning the 
 cocks that let the water and steam into the cylinder, 
 found a way of tying strings to the cocks so that the 
 engine would turn them itself, and so originated what 
 came to be known as valve-gear. 
 
 Newcomen's engine was a great help to the coal 
 mines of England and Scotland, but it was very ex- 
 pensive to run, a large engine consuming no less than 
 twenty-eight pounds of coal per hour per horse-power. 
 Then it happened that in 1764 a small Newcomen en- 
 gine that belonged to the University of Glasgow was 
 given to James Watt, an instrument-maker at the uni- 
 versity, to be repaired. To do this properly he made 
 a study of all that had been discovered in regard to en- 
 gines, and then set about to construct one for himself. 
 
 There are many stories told of the boyhood of James 
 Watt. He lived at Greenock on the River Clyde in 
 Scotland, and was of a quiet, almost shy disposition, 
 and delicate in health. He was fond of drawing and 
 of studying mechanical problems, but rarely had much 
 to say about his studies. The story goes that as he 
 sat one evening at the tea-table with his aunt, Mrs. 
 Muirhead, she said reprovingly to him, " James Watt, 
 I never saw such an idle boy : take a book or employ 
 yourself usefully ; for the last hour you haven't spoken

 
 WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE 73 
 
 a word, but taken off the lid of that kettle and put it 
 on again, holding a cup or a silver spoon over the 
 steam, watching it rise from the spout, and catching 
 the drops it falls into. Aren't you ashamed of spend- 
 ing your time in this way ? " And history goes on to 
 presume that as the boy watched the bubbling kettle 
 he was studying the laws of steam and making ready 
 to put them to good use some day. 
 
 He picked out the trade of a maker of mathematical 
 instruments, and went to London to fit himself for it. 
 He was apprenticed to a good master and made rapid 
 progress, but the climate of London was bad for his 
 health, and as soon as his term of instruction was fin- 
 ished he went back to Scotland. There he found it 
 difficult to get employment, but at last he obtained 
 permission to open a small shop in the grounds of the 
 University of Glasgow, and to call himself " Mathe- 
 matical-instrument-maker to the University." 
 
 When the Newcomen engine was given to Watt to 
 repair he studied it closely, and soon reached an im- 
 portant conclusion. A great amount of heat was lost 
 whenever the cold water was let into the cylinder to 
 condense the steam, and this loss vastly increased the 
 expense of running the engine, and cut down its power. 
 He saw that to prevent this loss the cylinder must be 
 kept as hot as the steam that entered it. This led him 
 to study the nature of steam, and he had soon made 
 some remarkable discoveries in regard to it. He found 
 that water had a high capacity for storing up heat, 
 without a corresponding effect on the thermometer. 
 This hidden heat became known as latent heat.
 
 74 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 It was of course a matter of common knowledge that 
 heat could be obtained by the combustion of coal or 
 wood. Watt found that heat lay also in water, to be 
 drawn out and used in what is called steam. If you 
 change the temperature of water you find that it exists 
 in three different states, that of a liquid, or water, that 
 of a solid, or ice, and that of a gas, or steam. If water 
 were turned into steam, and two pounds of this steam 
 passed into ten pounds of water at the freezing point 
 the steam would become liquid, or water, again, at 
 212 of temperature, but at the same time the ten 
 pounds of freezing water into which the steam had 
 been passed would also have been raised to 212 by 
 the process. This shows that the latent heat of the 
 two pounds of steam was sufficient to convert the ten 
 pounds of freezing water into boiling water. That is 
 the latent heat which is set free to work when the 
 steam coming in contact with the cold changes the 
 vapor from its gaseous to a liquid state. The heat, 
 however, is only latent, or in other words of no use, 
 until the temperature of the water is raised to 212, 
 and the vapor rises. 
 
 Mr. Lauder, a pupil of Lord Kelvin, writing of Watt's 
 " Discoveries of the Properties of Steam," describes his 
 results in this way : " Suppose you take a flask, such 
 as olive oil is often sold in, and fill it with cold water. 
 Set it over a lighted lamp, put a thermometer in the 
 water, and the temperature will be observed to rise 
 steadily till it reaches 212, where it remains, the water 
 boils, and steam is produced freely. Now draw the 
 thermometer out of the water, but leaving it still in the
 
 WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE 75 
 
 steam. It remains steady at the same point 212. 
 Now it requires quite a long time and a large amount 
 of heat to convert all the water into steam. As the 
 steam goes off at the same temperature as the water, 
 it is evident a quantity of heat has escaped in the 
 steam, of which the thermometer gives us no account. 
 This is latent heat. 
 
 " Now, if you blow the steam into cold water instead 
 of allowing it to pass into the air, you will find that it 
 heats the water six times more than what is due to its 
 indicated temperature. To fix your idea : suppose you 
 take loo Ibs. of water at 60, and blow one pound of 
 steam into it, making 101 Ibs., its temperature will now 
 be about 72, a rise of 12. Return to your 100 Ibs. 
 of water at 60 and add one pound of water at 212 the 
 same temperature as the steam you added, and the 
 temperature will only be raised about 2. The one 
 pound of steam heats six times more than the one 
 pound of water, both being at the same temperature. 
 This is the quantity of latent heat, which means simply 
 hidden heat, in steam. 
 
 " Proceeding further with the experiment, if, instead 
 of allowing the steam to blow into the water, you con- 
 fine it until it gets to some pressure, then blow it into 
 the water, it takes the same weight to raise the tem- 
 perature to the same degree. This means that the 
 total heat remains practically the same, no matter at 
 what pressure. 
 
 " This is James Watt's discovery, and it led him to 
 the use of high-pressure steam, used expansively." 
 
 Newcomen, in making his steam-engine, had simply
 
 7 6 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 made additions to Papin's model. Watt had already 
 done much more, for in trying to find how the engine 
 might be made of greater service he had discovered at 
 the outset the principle of the latent heat of steam. He 
 knew that in Newcomen's engine four-fifths of all the 
 steam used was lost in heating the cold cylinder, and 
 that only one-fifth was actually used in moving the 
 piston. It was easy to see how this loss occurred. 
 The cylinder was cooled at the top because it was open 
 to the air, and was cooled at the bottom in condensing 
 the steam that had driven the piston up so as to create 
 a vacuum which would lower the piston for another 
 stroke. Watt knew that what he wanted was a plan 
 by which the cylinder could always be kept as hot as 
 the steam that went into it. How was he to obtain 
 this ? He solved it by the invention of the " separate 
 condenser." This is how he tells of his discovery. 
 " I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath after- 
 noon, early in 1765. I had entered the green by the 
 gate at the foot of Charlotte Street and had passed the 
 old washing-house, when the idea came into my mind 
 that as steam was an elastic body it would rush into a 
 vacuum, and if a communication were made between 
 the cylinder and an exhausted vessel it would rush into 
 it, and might be there condensed without cooling the 
 cylinder. I then saw that I must get rid of the con- 
 densed steam and injection- water if I used a jet as in 
 Newcomen's engine. Two ways of doing this occurred 
 to me. First, the water might be run off by a descend- 
 ing pipe, if an orBet could be got at the depth of thirty- 
 five or thirty-six feet, and any air might be extracted
 
 WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE 77 
 
 by a small pump. The second was to make the pump 
 large enough to extract both water and air. ... I 
 had not walked farther than the golf-house when the 
 whole thing was arranged in my mind." 
 
 This was the discovery that gave us practically the 
 modern steam-engine, with its countless uses in un- 
 numbered fields. Newcomen's engine was limited to 
 the pressure of the atmosphere, Watt's could use the 
 tremendous force of steam under higher and higher 
 pressure. He led the steam out of the cylinder and 
 condensed it in a separate vessel, thereby leaving the 
 cylinder hot. He closed the cylinder top, and prevented 
 the loss of steam. The invention may seem simple 
 enough as we study it, but as a matter of fact it was the 
 attainment of this result of keeping the cylinder as hot 
 as the steam that enters it that has given us our steam- 
 engine. 
 
 The morning following that Sunday afternoon on 
 which the idea of the condenser had occurred to Watt 
 he borrowed a brass syringe from a college friend, and 
 using this as a cylinder and a tin can as a condenser 
 tried his experiment. The scheme worked, albeit in a 
 primitive way, and Watt saw that he was on the track 
 of an engine that would revolutionize the labor of men. 
 But he saw also that it would take both time and 
 money to bring his invention to its most efficient 
 form. 
 
 His instrument-making business had prospered, he 
 had taken in a partner, and the firm now employed six- 
 teen workmen. About the same time he married, and 
 rented a house outside the university grounds. Soon
 
 7 8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 he was busily at work building a working model of his 
 steam-engine. 
 
 A working model was very hard to make. Watt him- 
 self was a skilful mechanician, but the men who helped 
 him were not. The making of the cylinder and the 
 piston gave him the chief trouble. The cylinder would 
 leak. It took him months to devise the tools that 
 would enable him to make a perfect-fitting cylinder, 
 and when he had accomplished that he still found that 
 in one way or another a certain amount of steam would 
 escape. Yet, although imperfect, his model was al- 
 ready many times more powerful than the Newcomen 
 engine he had started with. 
 
 But before very long Watt found that this work was 
 leading him into debt. He told his good friend Pro- 
 fessor Black, who had discovered the latent heat of 
 steam before Watt had, that he needed a partner to 
 help him in his business of building engines. Black 
 suggested Dr. Roebuck, who had opened the well- 
 known Carron Iron Works near Glasgow. The two 
 men met, and, after some negotiations, formed a part- 
 nership. Roebuck agreed to pay Watt's debts to the 
 sum of a thousand pounds, to provide the money for 
 further experiments, and to obtain a patent for the 
 steam-engine. In return for this he was to become the 
 owner of a two-third interest in the invention. 
 
 It was more difficult to secure a patent in those days 
 than in later times, for both the courts and the public 
 considered that the right to make use of any new inven- 
 tion should belong to the whole world, and not alone 
 to one man or to a few men. Watt's models had to b?
 
 WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE 79 
 
 very carefully made, and his designs very accurately 
 drawn if he was to secure any real protection, and the 
 preparation of these took a vast amount of time. But 
 Roebuck continued to encourage him, and on January 
 5, 1769, he was granted his first patent, the very 
 same day on which another great English inventor, 
 Arkwright, obtained a patent for his spinning-frame. 
 This first patent covered Watt's invention of the con- 
 denser, but not his next invention, which was the 
 double-acting engine, or in other words, a method by 
 which the steam should do work on the downward as 
 well as on the upward stroke. 
 
 With his patent secured Watt spent six months 
 building a huge new engine, which he had ready for use 
 in September, 1 769. In spite of all his painstaking it was 
 only a partial success. The cylinder had been badly 
 cast, the pipe-condenser did not work properly, and 
 there was still the old leakage of steam at the piston. 
 Men began to doubt whether the new engine could 
 ever be made to accomplish what Watt claimed for it, 
 but although he realized the difficulties the inventor 
 would not allow himself to doubt. Unfortunately his 
 way was no longer clear. Dr. Roebuck met with re- 
 verses and had to end the partnership agreement, and 
 Watt had to borrow money from his old friend Pro- 
 fessor Black to secure his patent. To add to his dis- 
 tress his wife, who had been his best counselor, died. 
 
 Dr. Roebuck had owed money to a celebrated mer- 
 chant of Birmingham named Matthew Boulton. Boul- 
 ton had heard a great deal about Watt's engine, and 
 now consented to take Roebuck's interest in Watt's in-
 
 80 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 vention in payment of the debt. At the same time the 
 firm of Boulton and Watt was formed, and in May, 
 1774, Watt shipped his trial engine south, and set out 
 himself for Birmingham. 
 
 Boulton was a business genius, and Watt now found 
 that he could leave financial matters entirely to his care, 
 and busy himself solely with his engine. He had 
 better workmen, better appliances, and better material 
 in Birmingham than he had had in Glasgow, and the 
 engine was soon beginning to justify his hopes. But 
 the original patent had only been granted for fourteen 
 years, and six of these had already passed. Boulton 
 was not willing to put money into the building of a 
 great factory until he was sure that the engines would 
 be secured to the firm. Therefore more time had to be 
 spent in obtaining an extension of the patent. This 
 was finally done, and Watt was granted a term of 
 twenty-four years. At once Boulton set to work, the 
 first engine factory rose, and hundreds of men in Eng- 
 land turned to Birmingham to see how much truth 
 there was in the wonderful stories that had been spread 
 abroad of the new invention. 
 
 Men soon learned that the stories were true. Or- 
 ders began to flow in, and Watt had his hands full in 
 traveling about the country superintending the erection 
 of his steam-engines. The mines of Cornwall had be- 
 come unworkable, and as a great deal depended on the 
 success of the engine in such work, he traveled to 
 Cornwall to make sure that there should be no faults. 
 The miners, the engineers, and the owners had gath- 
 ered to see the new engine. It stood the test splendidly,
 
 WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE 81 
 
 making eleven eight-foot strokes per minute, which 
 broke the record. After that the other mines of Great 
 Britain discarded the old expensive Newcomen engine, 
 and sent in orders for Watt's. The firm prospered, 
 and the inventor began to feel some of the material 
 comforts of success. He had married a second time, 
 and made a home for his wife and children in Birming- 
 ham. Now, when he could spare the time from super- 
 intending the workmen and traveling over the country, 
 he gave his thoughts to further inventive schemes. 
 
 Watt had not only invented the condenser and the 
 double-acting engine, he had produced an indicator for 
 measuring the pressure of steam in the cylinder, and 
 also what was called the fly-ball governor, which took 
 the place of the throttle-valve he had first used to regu- 
 late the speed of his engines. These improvements 
 had so increased the uses of the engine that scores of 
 rival inventors were abroad, and therefore he decided to 
 secure a second patent. This he did in 1781, the pat- 
 ent being issued " for certain new methods of produc- 
 ing a continued rotative motion around an axis or cen- 
 tre, and thereby to give motion to the wheels of mills 
 or other machines." The next year he secured still 
 another patent, and now he had so perfected his double- 
 acting engine that it had a regular and easily controlled 
 motion, in consequence of which, as he said in his spec- 
 ifications, " in most of our great manufactories these 
 engines now supply the place of water, wind and horse 
 mills, and instead of carrying the work to the power, 
 the prime agent is placed wherever it is most conve- 
 nient to the manufacturer." This meant that the steam-
 
 82 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 engine had now reached the point where it could be 
 made to serve for almost any purpose and placed in 
 almost any position that might be required. 
 
 There was one further step for Watt to take in the 
 development of his invention. He wished a more 
 powerful engine than his double-acting one, and so he 
 produced the "compound" engine. This was really 
 two engines, the cylinders and condensers of which 
 were so connected that the steam which had been used 
 to press on the piston of the first could then be used to 
 act expansively upon the piston of the second, and in 
 this way the second engine be made to work either al- 
 ternately or simultaneously with the first. And this 
 compound engine is practically the very engine that 
 we have to-day. Improvements have been made, but 
 they have been made in details. The piston-rings in- 
 vented by Cartwright have prevented the escape of 
 steam, and so permitted the use of a higher pressure 
 than Watt could achieve, and the cross-head invented 
 by Haswell has provided the piston with a better bed 
 on which to rest and freed it from a certain friction. 
 
 The firm of Boulton and Watt had a successful ca- 
 reer, and in time the sons of the two partners took the 
 latters' places. Watt had occasion to protect his pat- 
 ents by a suit at law, but he was victorious in this, and 
 by the time the patent rights had expired the firm had 
 built up such a large business that it was safe from ri- 
 vals. Confident of his son's ability to carry on the 
 business Watt at length retired, to busy himself in 
 studying other inventions, to cultivate his garden, and 
 to revisit familiar scenes in his beloved Scotland.
 
 WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE 83 
 
 The steam-engine had come to take its place in the 
 great onward march of progress. Men were already 
 at work planning to make it move cars across the land 
 and ships upon the sea. It was to revolutionize the 
 manufacture of almost everything; what men and 
 women had done before by hand it was now to do, and, 
 devised at first because of the great need of a new way 
 to work the coal mines, it was to provide a motive 
 power to accomplish all kinds of labor. 
 
 Such is the story of how James Watt took New- 
 comen's simple piston and cylinder and so harnessed 
 steam that he could make it do the work he wanted.
 
 ARKWRIGHT AND THE SPINNING- 
 JENNY 
 1732-1792 
 
 ALL the great English inventors have sprung from 
 families of small means, and have had to work for their 
 living. Richard Ark wri grit, born at Preston, in Lanca- 
 shire, December 23, 1732, was no exception to this rule. 
 He was the youngest of thirteen children, and his parents 
 were as poor as the proverbial church mice. He had 
 no real education, only such as he could pick up by 
 chance, but he made the most of such chances as came 
 his way. He was apprenticed to a barber at Bolton, 
 and later took up that business for himself. It was an 
 occupation in which he would be apt to glean much 
 gossip and many stray scraps of information, but little 
 that would tend to broaden his mind. Perhaps he re- 
 alized this for himself, and concluded that the hair- 
 dressing line was not to be his destiny, for when he 
 was in the neighborhood of twenty-eight years of age 
 he retired from his barber-shop, and became a travel- 
 ing dealer in hair and dyes. This would at least al- 
 low him to see something more of the world. 
 
 His prospects at this new trade were good. He had 
 come upon a new method of dyeing hair and preparing 
 it to be made into wigs. Wigs were the fashion, and 
 Arkwright had an excellent process, and was an ener-
 
 ARKWRIGHT AND THE SPINNING-JENNY 85 
 
 getic and resourceful dealer. He saw something of the 
 country world of England, the men and women in it, 
 what they wanted, and what they needed. Doubtless 
 his inventive mind was already revolving improve- 
 ments for them. The dealer in dyes and wigs was a 
 shrewd and canny man. Carlyle had this to say con- 
 cerning him and his progress : " Nevertheless, in strop- 
 ping of razors, in shaving of dirty beards, and the con- 
 tradictions and confusions attendant thereon, the man 
 had notions in that rough head of his ! Spindles, shut- 
 tles, wheels, and contrivances, plying ideally within the 
 same ; rather hopeless-looking, which, however, he did 
 at last bring to bear. Not without difficulty." 
 
 There is always a strain of romance, or at least ad- 
 venture, in the life of the itinerant pedlar, something of 
 the free-footedness of the gypsy, and something of the 
 acumen of those Eastern traders who traveled in cara- 
 vans from the Orient. But doubtless we see the charm 
 more clearly than the traveler himself. It may have 
 been, and most likely was, a workaday job for Richard 
 Arkwright. But consider the romance that underlay 
 it ! This country vendor of hair was to become one of 
 the world's great inventors, and to kneel before his 
 sovereign for the accolade that was to make him knight. 
 Figaro of Seville, famed as he was, was none superior 
 to the Lancashire barber. 
 
 He traveled much through South Lancashire and 
 Cheshire, and there he came in daily contact with the 
 cotton-spinners. A weaver of great ingenuity and tire- 
 less purpose, James Hargreaves, had invented what was 
 known as a spinning-jenny, an arrangement by which
 
 86 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 many spindles, fastened in a wooden frame, would 
 work together by the turning of a fly-wheel. This 
 machine could do the work of many spinners, and in a 
 much shorter time. The rovings of cotton went under 
 a bar-clasp that took the place of the spinner's finger 
 and thumb. This bar-clasp could be moved backward 
 and forward on a rod as the spinner's hand would do 
 when stretching the thread and winding it on. It had 
 a precision of action that resulted in a much greater 
 regularity in the spun thread than by the earlier process. 
 It was a very ingenious device, and Hargreaves de- 
 served the greatest credit for the skill with which he 
 solved the problem 
 
 But the spinners did not take kindly to this improve- 
 ment. When they discovered that Hargreaves could 
 do more spinning with less work with his machine, and 
 could supply his own loom with all the woof that was 
 needed instead of keeping three or four spinners em- 
 ployed, they grew highly indignant. They did not 
 realize that the demand for cotton cloth was far greater 
 than the supply, and that they could all be profitably 
 employed operating the spinning-jenny. That panic 
 which has so often come over people when they learn 
 of a new device entering their field of action struck the 
 cotton-spinners, and Hargreaves was regarded as a foe 
 rather than a friend. Hargreaves was driven from 
 Lancashire to Nottingham, and many of his larger 
 jennies were broken by mobs. A few of the smaller 
 machines were saved, but the people's mind was very 
 evident. 
 
 Hargreaves' improvement on the old-fashioned
 
 ARKWRIGHT AND THE SPINNING-JENNY 87 
 
 spinning-wheel dates from 1767, though he himself, it 
 is said, had first used such a machine in 1764. Two 
 men, Wyatt and Paul, of Birmingham, had earlier built 
 a machine to spin stronger yarn than that usually used, 
 but their machine had shown many defects, and they 
 had abandoned its use. Arkwright knew of Hargreaves' 
 jenny, but not of the other machine, and as he came 
 upon none in use in his travels he cannot be held 
 to have been under any obligations to this earlier 
 device. 
 
 The manufacture of cotton goods was in a primitive 
 state in England. Pure cotton fabrics could not be 
 made, and the fustians that were produced had a warp 
 of linen yarn in them, due to the fact that no way was 
 known by which cotton yarn of sufficient strength could 
 be spun. Arkwright soon learned these difficulties that 
 arose from the absence of cotton warp and the de- 
 ficiency of cotton weft, and his alert mind commenced 
 to wonder whether he could not so improve on 
 Hargreaves' jenny as to overcome these difficulties. 
 He was not a skilled mechanic himself, and so, when he 
 decided to take up the subject, he employed a clock- 
 maker, named Kay, to help him. Realizing the hos- 
 tility to any improvement on the part of the cotton- 
 spinners, he gave out that he was engaged in building 
 a machine to solve the world-old problem of perpetual 
 motion. 
 
 Under this cloak he worked, and soon found that his 
 new occupation was vastly more interesting than that 
 of dealer in wigs had been. He was a shrewd man, and 
 therefore, when he withdrew from that trade in 1767, it
 
 88 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 is probable that he foresaw that he was on the track of 
 something better. His idea was that cotton could be 
 spun by rollers, and he said that this thought occurred 
 to him as he happened to watch a red-hot iron bar 
 lengthened out by passing between two rollers. But 
 the iron would necessarily have to be drawn out in such 
 a process, while the cotton wool could be indefinitely 
 packed together. It would have to be taken hold of, 
 and forcibly stretched as it passed through the pair of 
 rollers, if it were to be drawn out, and not merely 
 compressed. His solution of this problem was a 
 machine that had two pairs of rollers, which were called 
 drawing-rollers, the first pair of which revolved slowly 
 in contact with each other, while the second pair 
 revolved more rapidly in a similar way. One roller of 
 each pair was covered with leather, and the other was 
 fluted lengthwise. The two were pressed together by 
 means of weights. In this manner the adhesion of the 
 cotton wool was safely secured, and there was no 
 chance of the rollers slipping around without drawing 
 it in. The cotton passed through the two pairs of 
 rollers, and its extension depended entirely on the 
 difference in the velocity of the revolutions of the two 
 pairs. When the proper fineness had been obtained in 
 this way, the cotton, as it passed from the second pair 
 of rollers, was twisted into a firm strong thread by 
 spindles attached to the frame. 
 
 Arkwright realized that he must have assistance in 
 order to put his machines on the market. He applied 
 to a Mr. Atherton, and the latter, although he con- 
 sidered the venture a hazardous one, sent him two work-
 
 SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT
 
 ARKWRIGHT AND THE SPINNING-JENNY 89 
 
 men to help in building his first machine. When this 
 was finished Arkwright went with it to Preston, and 
 there set up his spinning-frame and began to use it in a 
 room of the house that belonged to the Free Grammar 
 School. His experiments convinced him of its success. 
 Then he thought how he could best introduce his 
 machine with least risk of rousing the popular fury. 
 John Smalley, a liquor merchant and painter, had 
 helped him build his machine, and after consultation, 
 the two men decided to take the spinning-jenny to 
 Nottingham, which lay in the heart of the frame-work 
 stocking trade. 
 
 Ark wright's great opportunity lay in the fact that the 
 manufacture of cotton hosiery had hitherto had to be 
 carried on on a limited scale, owing to the difficulty of 
 obtaining yarn that was sufficiently strong for the 
 stocking-frames that were then used. At first he and 
 John Smalley were associated with the Messrs. Wright, 
 Nottingham bankers, but these bankers, figuring on the 
 experience that had befallen the inventors of other 
 spinning machines, soon withdrew their aid. But 
 Arkwright was more fortunate in his next step. 
 Samuel Need, a Nottingham manufacturer of stockings, 
 and his partner, Jedediah Strutt, of Derby, who had 
 himself invented a device for making ribbed stockings, 
 became interested in his machine, tested it carefully, and 
 with the experience they had already gained as practical 
 manufacturers, decided in its favor. It was their ap- 
 proval that started Arkwright on the road to fortune. 
 
 Arkwright took out his first patent in 1 769, the same 
 year that Watt patented his steam-engine with a
 
 90 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 separate condenser. A little later, with his partners 
 Need and Strutt, he built a very complete factory at 
 Cromford, on the Derwent River. He had already 
 shown his power of originating and perfecting a work- 
 ing machine, now he showed an additional ability for 
 organizing a great manufactory, and improving and 
 adding new devices to his original model. This was 
 the test of his strength, and perhaps the most wonder- 
 ful part of his character. Many men have come upon 
 new ideas, and many have sent them forth to improve 
 the world's work, but only a few have developed them, 
 day in and day out, until they stand forth as a finished 
 achievement. That is the gauge, the test that has 
 proved the inventor. Not Watt's first innovations on 
 the stationary steam-engine, nor Stephenson's building 
 of his original locomotive, nor Arkwright's discovery 
 that rollers could be used to draw the cotton, but the 
 years of trial and improvement Watt spent at Birming- 
 ham, and Stephenson in his shops at Killingworth, and 
 Arkwright in his factory at Cromford, have made the 
 three men famous in history. They were the years of 
 patience and perseverance, which must come in the 
 life of every great inventor to test his strength. 
 
 The country people about Cromford came to see 
 Arkwright's machines, and wonder at them, and some- 
 times to buy a dozen pairs of stockings that had been 
 made of Arkwright's yarn. But the big Manchester 
 manufacturers refused to trade with him. The fine 
 water-twist that was being spun on his spinning-frames 
 was perfectly adapted to be used as warp, and would 
 have supplied the demand for genuine cotton goods,
 
 ARKWRIGHT AND THE SPINNING-JENNY 91 
 
 which otherwise had to be imported from India. But, 
 though they needed his yarn, the manufacturers would 
 not buy it from him, and he was forced to find some 
 way of using his large output himself. First he used it 
 to manufacture stockings, and then, in 1773, to make, 
 for the first time in England, fabrics entirely of cotton. 
 This was the turning point in England's trade in cotton 
 goods. Heretofore she had not been able to meet the 
 demands of her own people, now she was to commence 
 a campaign that was ultimately to send her cloth to the 
 farthest ends of the earth. 
 
 His powers of resistance were to be still further 
 tested. An act was passed, based on the assumption 
 that the English spinners could never compete with the 
 fine Indian handiwork, that a duty of sixpence a yard 
 should be levied on all calicoes, which were a variety 
 of cotton goods originally imported from Calicut, in 
 India. In addition, the sale of printed calicoes was for- 
 bidden. The customs officers immediately began to 
 levy the duty on the products of Arkwright's mills, 
 claiming that the goods were in reality calicoes, al- 
 though they were made in England. It followed that 
 merchants who had ordered goods from the Cromford 
 Mill cancelled their orders, rather than pay the duty, 
 and again Arkwright found his cottons piling up on 
 his hands. 
 
 The act was too unfair to stand, and after a time was 
 repealed. Cotton and all mixed fabrics were taxed 
 threepence per yard, and the prohibition on printed 
 cotton goods was withdrawn. The opposition of rival 
 manufacturers could not in the nature of things long re-
 
 92 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 tard what was to become one of the nation's main in- 
 dustries. 
 
 He took out his second patent in 1775, and it em- 
 braced almost the entire field of cloth manufacture. It 
 contained innumerable devices that he had worked out 
 during the years he had been experimenting at his 
 factory. It; covered " carding, drawing, and roving 
 machines for use in preparing silk, cotton, flax, and 
 wool for spinning." The man who had been a vendor 
 of wigs had now revolutionized the whole spinning 
 world. He had taught men and women to work at his 
 machines, instead of in the old way of individual hand 
 labor, he had organized a great business, and was show- 
 ing the world that more could be accomplished by the 
 division of labor and its control by one mind than could 
 ever have resulted from individual initiative. In this 
 way he was taking a most vital part in the progress of 
 those new economic ideas that were dawning into 
 consciousness toward the close of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 It is so easy to see the successful result, so difficult to 
 appreciate the trials that have been undergone. We 
 look at the great picture and we admire the genius of the 
 artist, but how rarely we realize the no less wonderful 
 patience, the no less wonderful struggle that underlies 
 what we see. The creator has not wrought easily, that 
 is certain ; and his greatness consists in what he has 
 overcome. 
 
 Arkwright was ill with asthma during many of the 
 years when he was fighting for his fortune, and time 
 and again it seemed as if his strength must fail before
 
 ARKWRIGHT AND THE SPINNING-JENNY 93 
 
 the task he had undertaken. But he was a great 
 fighter, and so he won through. His workmen were 
 offered bribes to leave his service, and teach his methods 
 to rivals, his patents were infringed, right and left there 
 was warfare, and he was fighting a score of enemies 
 single-handed. 
 
 In 1781 he had to bring suit against Colonel Mor- 
 daunt, and eight other manufacturers, for infringing his 
 patent. The influence of all the Lancashire cotton- 
 spinners was aligned against his claims. They could 
 not deny the fact that he had invented the spinning- 
 jenny, but they said that the specifications of his patent 
 were not sufficiently clear. The court upheld this con- 
 tention, and declared the patent invalid. Arkwright 
 withdrew the other suits he had started, and wrote and 
 published his " Case," in order to set forth to the world 
 the truth of his claims. 
 
 In 1785 he brought his case again into court, and 
 this time Lord Loughborough ruled that his patent 
 was valid. On account of this conflict of decisions the 
 matter was referred to the Court of King's Bench. 
 Here a Lancashire man named Highs, who had con- 
 structed a double jenny to work fifty-six spindles in 
 1770, was declared by Arkwright's opponents to be the 
 real inventor. It was said that Arkwright had stolen 
 this man's ideas. On such evidence Arkwright's 
 claims were denied, and his patent overruled. This 
 was the species of constant warfare with which he had 
 to occupy himself. 
 
 Manchester had fought against the spinning-frame 
 for years, but it was to receive the chief fruits of its
 
 94 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 success. Arkwright built a mill there in 1780, and 
 it prospered exceedingly, in spite of the fact that he 
 no longer had the protection of his patents. He was 
 such a good business man, such a splendid organizer, 
 that he could overcome his enemies without that help, 
 and in time he built up a fortune. 
 
 When he had started his first mill at Nottingham 
 Arkwright had been obliged to use horse-power, and 
 it was owing to the expense of such a system that 
 he had soon moved to Cromford, where he could ob- 
 tain water-power from the Derwent River. It was this 
 that gave his yarn the name of water-twist. But in 
 his Manchester Mill he made use of a hydraulic wheel, 
 supplied with water by a single-stroke atmospheric 
 steam-engine. Later Boulton and Watt's engines were 
 installed, and with the most profitable results. As a 
 result of these improvements the imports of cotton 
 wool, which had averaged less than 5,000,000 pounds 
 a year in the five years from 1771 to 1775, rose to an 
 average of more than 25,000,000 pounds in the five 
 years ending with 1790. England began to export 
 cotton goods in 1781, which was sufficient evidence 
 that the manufacture of such goods was proceeding 
 more rapidly than the home demand for them. This 
 was due largely to Arkwright's invention, to his build- 
 ing up of factories on new methods, and to the great 
 help furnished to all machinery by the steam-engines 
 of James Watt. 
 
 This is the romance of the dealer in wigs and dyes. 
 He had won fame and fortune, and a powerful posi- 
 tion in his country. In 1786 he was appointed High
 
 ARKWRIGHT AND THE SPINNING-JENNY 95 
 
 Sheriff in Derbyshire, and the same year was knighted 
 by George III. He died at Cromford in 1792. 
 
 His personality was strong, aggressive, dominating. 
 Nothing could turn him from his course when he had 
 made up his mind in regard to it. He was determined 
 to make a fortune out of cotton-spinning, and he did, 
 in spite of the loss of his patents, and the rivals who 
 were always pursuing him. He stands high as in- 
 ventor, and quite as high as one of the makers of mod- 
 ern commercial England.
 
 VI 
 
 WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 
 
 1765-1825 
 
 COTTON-GROWING has been for a long time the 
 main industry of the Southern United States, and 
 the exporting of cotton by that part of the country 
 has largely fed the mills of the world. Yet in 1784 
 the customs officers at Liverpool seized eight bags 
 of cotton arriving on an American vessel, claiming 
 that so much of the raw material could not have been 
 produced in the thirteen states. In 1793 the total 
 export of cotton from the United States was less than 
 ten thousand bales, but by 1860 the export was four 
 million bales. The chief reason for this marvelous 
 advance was the cotton-gin, for which Eli Whitney 
 applied for a patent in 1793. 
 
 Wherever cotton grew in the South there the cotton- 
 gin was to be found. It brought prosperity and ease 
 and comfort, it allowed the small as well as the large 
 owner to have his share of the profits of the markets 
 of the world. It gave the cotton country its living, 
 and yet Whitney struggled for years to win the 
 slightest recognition of his claims. He wrote to 
 Robert Fulton, " In one instance I had great diffi- 
 culty in proving that the machine had been used in 
 Georgia, although at the same moment there were
 
 WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 97 
 
 three separate sets of this machinery in motion within 
 fifty yards of the building in which the court sat, and 
 all so near that the rattling of the wheels was dis- 
 tinctly heard on the steps of the court-house." 
 
 He came to the South from New England, having 
 been born in Westborough, Worcester County, Massa- 
 chusetts, December 8, 1765, educated at Yale College, 
 and going to Georgia as teacher in a private family. 
 General Greene, of Savannah, took a great interest 
 in him, and taught him law. Whitney had been 
 a good student, had an attractive personality, and 
 had already shown a natural knack for mechanics. 
 While he was teaching at the Greenes' home he no- 
 ticed that the embroidery frame that Mrs. Greene used 
 tore the fine threads of her work. He asked her to 
 let him study it, and shortly had made a frame on an 
 entirely different plan that would do the same work 
 without injuring the threads. His hostess was de- 
 lighted with it, and spread the word of her young 
 teacher's ingenuity through the neighborhood. 
 
 As in all Southern mansions hospitality was rife at 
 the Greenes', and it happened that one evening a num- 
 ber of gentlemen were gathered there who had fought 
 under the General in the Revolution. The subject of 
 the growing of cotton came under discussion, and 
 some one spoke of the unfortunate fact that no method 
 had been found for cleaning the cotton staple of the 
 green seed. If that could be done cotton could be 
 grown with profit on all the land that was unsuited 
 for rice. To separate a single pound of the clean 
 staple from the green seed took a whole day's work
 
 98 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 for a woman. There was little profit in trying to grow 
 much cotton at such a rate, and most of the cotton 
 picking was done by the negroes in the evenings, 
 when the harder labor of the fields was finished. Then 
 Mrs. Greene pointed to Eli Whitney with a smile. 
 " There, gentlemen," said she, " apply to my friend 
 Mr. Whitney for your device. He can make any- 
 thing." The guests looked at the young man, but 
 he hastened to disclaim any such abilities, and said 
 that he had never even seen cotton-seed. 
 
 But in spite of his disclaimer he began to consider 
 whether he could make a machine that would help to 
 separate the seed from the cotton. He went to see a 
 neighbor, Phineas Miller, and talked over his plans with 
 him. Miller became interested, and gave him a room 
 in his house where he might carry on his experiments. 
 He had to use very primitive implements, making his 
 own tools and drawing his own wire. He worked 
 quietly, only Mr. Miller and Mrs. Greene knowing what 
 he was doing. 
 
 Whitney worked on his machine all the winter of 
 1793, and by spring it was far enough completed to 
 assure him of success. Mr. Miller, who was a lawyer 
 with a taste for mechanics, and who was, again like 
 Eli Whitney, a New Englander and graduate of Yale, 
 married Mrs. Greene after the General's death. It was 
 he who actually made Whitney's machine a business 
 possibility by proposing that he should become a 
 partner with the inventor, and bear all the expenses of 
 manufacturing it until they should secure their patent. 
 They drew up a legal agreement to this effect, dated
 
 WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 99 
 
 May 27, 1793, and stipulating that all the profits should 
 be equally divided between them. 
 
 There followed very soon the first dramatic scenes in 
 the long battle between the owners of the cotton-gin 
 and the public. The Southern people knew how in- 
 valuable such an invention would be to them ; it meant 
 food and shelter and better living all along the line ; it 
 would increase the value of their property a hundred- 
 fold. So as soon as it became bruited abroad that Eli 
 Whitney had such a machine in his workroom that 
 spot became the Mecca for the countryside. Crowds 
 came to beg for a look at the wonderful machine, and 
 hung about the house and plotted to get in. But 
 Whitney and Miller were afraid to let people see the 
 invention until they had made sure of their patents on 
 it, and so they refused to let the crowds have a look at 
 it. Then the more reckless of the crowds threw all 
 sense of fairness to the winds, and broke into Mr. 
 Miller's house, seized the machine, and carried it off 
 with them. Soon it was publicly displayed, and before 
 Whitney could finish his model for the Patent Office a 
 dozen machines, similar to his, were in use in the cot- 
 ton fields. 
 
 Whitney's cotton-gin was made of two cylinders of 
 different diameters, mounted in a strong wooden frame. 
 One cylinder had a number of small circular saws that 
 were fitted into grooves cut into the cylinder. The 
 other cylinder was covered with brushes, and so placed 
 that the tips of the bristles of these brushes touched the 
 saw-teeth. The raw cotton was put in a hopper, where 
 it was met by the teeth of the saws, and torn from the
 
 ioo HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 seeds. The brushes then swept the cotton clear of the 
 gin. The seeds were too large to go between the bars 
 through which the series of saws protruded, and were 
 kept apart by themselves. Of course many improve- 
 ments were made upon this machine, but it was found 
 that even in this original form it would enable one 
 man, using two horse-power, to clean the seed from five 
 thousand pounds of cotton in a day. That meant that 
 fortunes could be made in the hitherto disregarded cot- 
 ton fields of the South. 
 
 Whitney now went to Connecticut to finish certain 
 improvements on the machine, to secure his patents, 
 and to begin the manufacturing of as many gins as his 
 partner Miller should find were needed in Georgia. 
 The partners wrote frequently to each other, and their 
 letters show the fierceness of the struggle they were 
 waging to protect their rights. " It will be necessary," 
 wrote Miller, " to have a considerable number of gins 
 in readiness to send out as soon as the patent is ob- 
 tained in order to satisfy the absolute demands and make 
 people's heads easy on the subject ; for I am informed 
 of two other claimants for the honor of the invention 
 of the cotton-gin in addition to those we knew before." 
 
 The two men did everything in their power to hasten 
 the building of their gins. They knew their rivals were 
 unscrupulous, and were in fact already trying their best 
 to prejudice the minds of the more conservative Georgia 
 cotton-growers against them. But money was very 
 scarce, and the manufacture of the machines proved so 
 costly that Whitney found it impossible to furnish as 
 many gins as his partner wanted.
 
 WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 101 
 
 Whitney applied for his patent in 1793. The follow- 
 ing April he went back to Georgia, where he found un- 
 usually large crops of cotton had been planted, in ex- 
 pectation of using the gin. As there were not enough 
 of his gins ready rivals were pushing their inferior ma- 
 chines. One of these, called the roller-gin, destroyed 
 the seeds by crushing them between two revolving 
 cylinders, instead of separating them by teeth. A 
 large part of the crushed seed was, however, apt to stay 
 in the cotton after it had passed through the machine, 
 and this form of gin did not therefore produce as satis- 
 factory results as did Whitney's. Another rival was 
 the saw-gin, which was almost identical with Whitney's 
 gin, except that the saw-teeth were cut in circular rings 
 of iron instead of being made of wire. This machine 
 infringed the partners' patents, and caused them an al- 
 most endless series of expensive lawsuits. 
 
 Two years of conflict in the South proved the su- 
 periority of Whitney's invention over all other machines, 
 but resulted in little actual profit. In March, 1795, he 
 went north to New York, where he was kept for several 
 weeks by illness. When he got back to his factory in 
 New Haven he found that fire had wiped out his work- 
 shop, together with all his gins and papers. He was 
 $4,000 in debt, and virtually bankrupt. Yet he had 
 great courage, and fortunately his partner Miller had 
 the same faith. When Whitney sent him the news from 
 New Haven, Miller replied, "I think we ought to meet 
 such events with equanimity. We have been pursuing 
 a valuable object by honorable means, and I trust that 
 all our measures have been such as reason and virtue
 
 102 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 must justify. It has pleased Providence to postpone 
 the attainment of this object. In the midst of the re- 
 flections which your story has suggested, and with 
 feelings keenly awake to the heavy, the extensive injury 
 we have sustained, I feel a secret joy and satisfaction 
 that you possess a mind in this respect similar to my 
 own that you are not disheartened, that you do not re- 
 linquish the pursuit, and that you will persevere, and 
 endeavor, at all events, to attain the main object. This 
 is exactly consonant to my own determinations. I will 
 devote all my time, all my thoughts, all my exertions, 
 and all the money I can earn or borrow to encompass 
 and complete the business we have undertaken ; and if 
 fortune should, by any future disaster, deny us the boon 
 we ask, we will at least deserve it. It shall never be 
 said that we have lost an object which a little persever- 
 ance could have attained. I think, indeed, it will be 
 very extraordinary if two young men in the prime of life, 
 with some share of ingenuity, and with a little knowledge 
 of the world, a great deal of industry, and a consider- 
 able command of property, should not be able to sustain 
 such a stroke of misfortune as this, heavy as it is." 
 
 Whitney attempted to rebuild his factory, but the 
 affairs of the firm were in extreme jeopardy. He had 
 to pay twelve per cent, a year to borrow money for his 
 work. Then certain English manufacturers reported 
 that the cotton that was cleaned by Whitney's gin was 
 not of good quality. The struggle was a hard one. 
 He wrote to Miller, "The extreme embarrassments 
 which have been for a long time accumulating upon 
 me are now become so great that it will be impossible
 
 WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 103 
 
 for me to struggle against them many days longer. It 
 has required my utmost exertions to exist without mak- 
 ing the least progress in our business. I have labored 
 hard against the strong current of disappointment 
 which has been threatening to carry us down the 
 cataract, but I have labored with a shattered oar and 
 struggled in vain, unless some speedy relief is ob- 
 tained. . . . Life is but short at best, and six or 
 seven years out of the midst of it is to him who makes 
 it an immense sacrifice. My most unremitted attention 
 has been devoted to our business. I have sacrificed to 
 it other objects from which, before this time, I might 
 certainly have gained $20,000 or $30,000. My whole 
 prospects have been embarked in it, with the expecta- 
 tion that I should before this time have realized some- 
 thing from it" 
 
 Pirates now filled the field, and the lawsuits which 
 they were compelled to bring to defend themselves 
 went against them. Miller wrote to Whitney on May 
 n, 1797, "The event of the first patent suit, after all 
 our exertions made in such a variety of ways, has gone 
 against us. The preposterous custom of trying civil 
 causes of this intricacy and magnitude by a common 
 jury, together with the imperfection of the patent law, 
 frustrated all our views, and disappointed expectations 
 which had become very sanguine. The tide of popular 
 opinion was running in our favor, the judge was well 
 disposed toward us, and many decided friends were 
 with us, who adhered firmly to our cause and interests. 
 The judge gave a charge to the jury pointedly in our 
 favor; after which the defendant himself told an ac-
 
 io 4 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 quaintance of his that he would give $2,000 to be free 
 from the verdict, and yet the jury gave it against us, 
 after a consultation of about an hour. And having 
 made the verdict general, no appeal would lie. 
 
 " On Monday morning, when the verdict was ren- 
 dered, we applied for a new trial, but the judge refused 
 it to us on the ground that the jury might have made 
 up their opinion on the defect of the law, which makes 
 an aggression consist of making, devising, and using 
 or selling ; whereas we could only charge the defendant 
 with using. 
 
 " Thus, after four years of assiduous labor, fatigue, and 
 difficulty, are we again set afloat by a new and most 
 unexpected obstacle. Our hopes of success are now 
 removed to a period still more distant than before, 
 while our expenses are realized beyond all controversy." 
 
 The failure of that patent suit loosed all the pirates, 
 and Whitney saw the cotton fields flooded with gins, 
 all of which were really based on his invention, and yet 
 from which he did not receive one penny. The public 
 had given over paying any attention to his patents. 
 Every one seemed determined that a machine which 
 meant so much to the cotton lands should be free to all, 
 irrespective of any legal or moral rights in the matter. 
 Miller wrote him a little later, " The prospect of making 
 anything by ginning in this state is at an end. Sur- 
 reptitious gins are erected in every part of the country, 
 and the jurymen at Augusta have come to an under- 
 standing among themselves that they will never give a 
 cause in our favor, let the merits of the case be as they 
 may."
 
 WHITNEY. THE INVENTOR OF THE COTTON GIN
 
 WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 105 
 
 Affairs could not well have been worse for the part- 
 ners. They would have been willing to give up mak- 
 ing gins and devote themselves to selling the rights 
 they had already obtained, but it was difficult to find 
 purchasers for titles which were so openly disregarded 
 on every hand. They found it almost impossible to 
 collect payments for the few machines they did sell, 
 the buyers preferring to be sued, trusting to a jury of 
 their neighbors deciding for them against the unpopular 
 manufacturers, who claimed to control such an impor- 
 tant machine as the gin. Whitney tried to sell his 
 patent rights for South Carolina to that state itself, and 
 had the matter brought before the Legislature. It met 
 with better success than usual. " I have been at this 
 place," he writes in a letter, " a little more than two 
 weeks attending the Legislature. A few hours previous 
 to their adjournment they voted to purchase for the 
 state of South Carolina my patent-right to the machine 
 for cleaning cotton at $50,000, of which sum $20,000 is 
 to be paid in hand, and the remainder in three annual 
 payments of $10,000 each." To this he added, " We 
 get but a song for it in comparison with the worth of 
 the thing, but it is securing something. It will enable 
 Miller & Whitney to pay their debts and divide some- 
 thing between them." 
 
 This plan of selling the rights to the states seemed 
 to promise better things for the inventor. In December, 
 1802, he arranged for the sale of similar rights to the 
 state of North Carolina, and a little later a similar 
 agreement was made with Tennessee. But imagine 
 his dismay when the South Carolina Legislature sud-
 
 io6 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 denly annulled its contract with him, refused to make 
 any further payments, and began suit to recover 
 what had already been paid him. The current of 
 popular opinion had again set against this firm of two. 
 It was said that a man in Switzerland had invented a 
 cotton-gin before Whitney, and that the main features 
 of his own machine had been taken from others. But 
 there were some upright and honorable men in the 
 South Carolina Legislature, and they finally succeeded 
 in convincing their associates that Whitney had been 
 maligned. In the session of 1804 the Legislature re- 
 scinded its latest act in regard to the gin, and testified 
 to its high opinion of Whitney. 
 
 The inventor's faithful partner, Miller, died in 1803. 
 He had stood by Whitney through thick and thin, and 
 had met one buffet after another. In spite of his 
 splendid spirit the ceaseless war to protect their claims 
 had somewhat broken him, and he had despaired of 
 ever receiving justice in the courts. Whitney himself 
 was now receiving some return from the sales to the 
 states, and these enabled him to keep out of debt, but 
 the greater part of his earnings had still to go for the 
 costs of his suits at law. 
 
 In December, 1807, the United States Court in 
 Georgia gave a decision in Whitney's favor against a 
 man named Fort who had infringed on his patent. 
 The words of Judge Johnson in this case became cele- 
 brated. " To support the originality of the invention," 
 said he, " the complainants have produced a variety of 
 depositions of witnesses, examined under commission, 
 whose examinations expressly prove the origin, prog-
 
 WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 107 
 
 ress, and completion of the machine of Whitney, one 
 of the copartners. Persons who were made privy to 
 his first discovery testify to the several experiments 
 which he made in their presence before he ventured to 
 expose his invention to the scrutiny of the public eye. 
 But it is not necessary to resort to such testimony to 
 maintain this point. The jealousy of the artist to 
 maintain that reputation, which his ingenuity has justly 
 acquired, has urged him to unnecessary pains on this 
 subject. There are circumstances in the knowledge of 
 all mankind which prove the originality of this in- 
 vention more satisfactorily to the mind than the direct 
 testimony of a host of witnesses. The cotton-plant 
 furnished clothing to mankind before the age of Herod- 
 otus. The green seed is a species much more pro- 
 ductive than the black, and by nature adapted to a 
 much greater variety of climate, but by reason of the 
 strong adherence of the fibre to the seed, without the 
 aid of some more powerful machine for separating it 
 than any formerly known among us, the cultivation of 
 it would never have been made an object. The machine 
 of which Mr. Whitney claims the invention so facilitates 
 the preparation of this species for use that the cultiva- 
 tion of it has suddenly become an object of infinitely 
 greater national importance than that of the other 
 species ever can be. Is it, then, to be imagined that if 
 this machine had been before discovered, the use of it 
 would ever have been lost, or could have been confined 
 to any tract or country left unexplored by commercial 
 enterprise? But it is unnecessary to remark further 
 upon this subject. A number of years have elapsed
 
 io8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 since Mr. Whitney took out his patent, and no one has 
 produced or pretended to prove the existence of a 
 machine of similar construction or use. 
 
 "With regard to the utility of this discovery the 
 court would deem it a waste of time to dwell long upon 
 this topic. Is there a man who hears us who has not 
 experienced its utility? The whole interior of the 
 Southern states was languishing and its inhabitants 
 emigrating for want of some object to engage their 
 attention and employ their industry, when the invention 
 of this machine at once opened views to them which 
 set the whole country in active motion. From child- 
 hood to age it has presented to us a lucrative employ- 
 ment. Our debts have been paid off, our capitals have 
 increased, and our lands trebled themselves in value. 
 We cannot express the weight of the obligation which 
 the country owes to this invention. The extent of it 
 cannot now be seen. Some faint presentiment may be 
 formed from the reflection that cotton is rapidly sup- 
 planting wool, flax, silk, and even furs in manufactures, 
 and may one day profitably supply the use of specie in 
 our East India trade. Our sister states also participate 
 in the benefits of this invention, for besides affording 
 the raw material for their manufacturers, the bulkiness 
 and quantity of the article afford a valuable employ- 
 ment for their shipping." 
 
 Whitney had fought long and hard, and had at last 
 received at least partial justice. But it had been so 
 slow in coming that, when his rights were to a certain 
 extent established, there were only a few years left his 
 patents to run. He had realized for some time that he
 
 WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 109 
 
 must look elsewhere for financial returns, and so, in 
 1798, had begun the manufacture of firearms. He 
 purchased a site for his factory near New Haven, at a 
 place called Whitneyville now, then known as East 
 Rock. Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, 
 ordered 10,000 stand of arms from him, and he con- 
 tracted to furnish them. At first he met with many 
 difficulties, owing to lack of proper materials and work- 
 men, and his own lack of familiarity with the business. 
 But as time went on the works improved, and Whitney 
 applied his inventive genius to many important im- 
 provements. He received other contracts, and even- 
 tually the national government came to rely upon his 
 factory for a large part of its war supplies. 
 
 In 1812 Whitney applied for a renewal of his patent 
 for the cotton-gin. He set forth the facts that he had 
 received almost no compensation for his invention, that 
 it had made the fortune of many of the Southern states, 
 that it enabled one man to do the work of a thousand men 
 before, but that, placing the value of one man's labor 
 at twenty cents a day, the whole amount he had re- 
 ceived was less that the value of the labor saved in one 
 hour by the use of his machines throughout the coun- 
 try. But again there was opposition from many in- 
 fluential Southern planters, and his application was 
 denied. 
 
 The inventor was, however, making money from his 
 factory for firearms, and his personal fortunes had 
 brightened. In 1817 he married Henrietta Edwards, 
 the daughter of Judge Pierpont Edwards, of Connecti- 
 cut. His home life was ideally happy, he was fond of
 
 no HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 New Haven, and eventually he received increasing 
 evidence that the people of the cotton lands were learn- 
 ing their indebtedness to him, and were anxious to 
 make some restitution for their earlier disregard of his 
 claims. He died January 8, 1825. 
 
 The material value of Eli Whitney's invention can 
 hardly be estimated. It opened a new kingdom to the 
 South. It built up countless acres of hitherto unprofit- 
 able land. But in spite of men's recognition of the 
 value of his cotton-gin, and their instant adoption of it 
 everywhere, he was for years denied his title to it, and 
 had to wage a warfare that is almost without parallel 
 in the history of American inventors.
 
 VII 
 
 FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 
 
 1765-1815 
 
 THERE is a peculiar charm attaching to the figure of 
 Robert Fulton, the attraction that plays about the man 
 who is many-sided, and picturesque on whatever side 
 one looks at him. He was a man at home on both 
 shores of the Atlantic, at a time when such men were 
 rare. He had been taught drawing by Major Andre, 
 when the latter was a prisoner of war in the little 
 Pennsylvania town of Lancaster. He had hung out his 
 sign as Painter of Miniatures at the corner of Second 
 and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia, under the friendly 
 patronage of Benjamin Franklin. He had lodged in 
 London at the house of Benjamin West, and shown his 
 pictures at the Royal Academy. Two great English 
 noblemen became his allies in scientific studies. 
 Napoleon, as First Consul, bargained with him over his 
 invention of torpedoes. Finally he sent the little 
 Clermont up the Hudson under steam. There was a 
 man of rare ability, one who had many hostages to 
 give to fortune. He was the artist turned inventor, as 
 many another has done, and if he was not as great an 
 artist as Leonardo da Vinci neither was Leonardo as 
 great an inventor as Robert Fulton. 
 
 Fulton invented a machine for cutting marble, one for
 
 U2 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 spinning flax, a double inclined plane for canal naviga- 
 tion, a machine for twisting rope, an earth-scoop for 
 canal and irrigation purposes, a cable-cutter, the earliest 
 French panorama, a submarine torpedo boat, and the 
 steamboat. Other men had worked over steamboats, 
 but he reached the goal. He made the steamboat 
 practicable, as Watt had the steam-engine. Above all, 
 he was very fortunate ; he found his countrymen ready 
 to welcome the Clermont, and to fall in with his plans, 
 an attitude which had not faced certain men in Eng- 
 land and in France who had built similar boats earlier 
 than Fulton. Some engineers have been tempted to 
 call him a lucky amateur, a talented artist who hap- 
 pened to become interested in new methods of naviga- 
 tion. If one grants all this there is still the fact that it 
 was the Clermont 1 s success that opened the water- 
 courses of the world to steam. 
 
 " Quicksilver Bob " he was called as a boy in Lan- 
 caster, because he used to buy all that metal he could 
 for experiments. Even then he was many-sided. He 
 made designs for firearms and experimented with guns 
 to learn the carrying distance of various bores and balls. 
 There was a factory in Lancaster where arms were 
 being made for the Continental troops, and " Quick- 
 silver Bob " was given the run of the place. In addi- 
 tion he painted signs to hang before the village shops 
 and taverns. 
 
 To simplify his fishing expeditions he made a model 
 of a boat propelled by paddles, and later he built such 
 a boat and used it on the Conestoga River. No one 
 could tell what he would turn to next. When Hessian
 
 FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 113 
 
 prisoners were kept in the neighborhood the town boys 
 would go out to look at them, and Robert would make 
 sketches of them. These sketches gave him a local 
 reputation, and his friends were not surprised when at 
 seventeen he left Lancaster to seek his fortune as a 
 painter of portraits and miniatures in Philadelphia. 
 
 He was well liked in the city. He had a talent for 
 friendship, which, combined with good looks, more 
 than ordinary intelligence, and most uncommon indus- 
 try, carried him far. He drew plans for machinery, 
 he designed houses and carriages, he worked as pro- 
 fessional painter. Franklin became his patron and 
 adviser. Then illness sent him to the fashionable hot 
 springs of Virginia, and there he heard so much talk 
 of England and of France that he decided to see 
 those countries for himself. Before he left America 
 he bought a farm in Washington County, Pennsyl- 
 vania, in order to insure a home for his mother and 
 sisters. That done, he sailed for England, with a 
 packet of letters of introduction, in 1 786. 
 
 In London Fulton professed himself to be an artist, 
 although his thoughts were constantly tending toward 
 inventions. He lived at the house of Benjamin West, 
 and painted, and his portraits were shown at the 
 Royal Academy and at the Society of Artists. Be- 
 times he enjoyed himself in society and in trips to 
 the counties. He journeyed into Devonshire and 
 stayed at Powderham Castle, copying famous pictures 
 there. Wherever he went he made friends, and their 
 influence was constantly helping him forward on what 
 must have been a somewhat precarious career.
 
 ii 4 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Two of these friends, the Duke of Bridgewater and 
 the Earl of Stanhope, were scientists of repute. The 
 Duke owned a great estate, of untold mineral wealth, 
 which had never been properly worked because of lack 
 of transportation facilities. He had recently built sev- 
 eral canals on this property, and was at the head of a 
 number of companies which were planning to inter- 
 sect England with waterways. He interested Fulton 
 in his schemes and gradually weaned his thoughts 
 away from art to civil engineering. The Earl of Stan- 
 hope corresponded with him over the possibility of 
 propelling boats by steam, and in these letters Fulton 
 first gave the outlines of the plans he was later to 
 perfect in the Clermont. The Earl was deeply inter- 
 ested, and encouraged the young American to perse- 
 vere, but for the time Fulton left the steamboat to 
 work out other problems. 
 
 The possibility of a great English canal system ap- 
 pealed to him strongly, and in 1794 he obtained an 
 English patent for a double inclined plane for raising 
 and lowering canal boats. Later he took English 
 patents on a machine for spinning flax, and on a new 
 device for twisting hemp rope. There followed others 
 for a machine that should scoop out earth to make 
 canals or aqueducts, for a " Market or Passage Boat " 
 to use on canals, and for a " Dispatch Boat " that should 
 travel quickly. He sent drawings of all these inven- 
 tions to his influential friends, hoping that they would 
 push them, and he also wrote and published " A Trea- 
 tise on Canal Navigation." By this time he would 
 seem to have given up all thought of the artist's ca-
 
 FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 115 
 
 reer, arid to have turned his talent with the pen to 
 the aid of his mechanical drawings. 
 
 The French Revolution was imminent, and Fulton 
 was busy studying the conditions that were leading 
 to it. He believed that Free Trade would tend to 
 abolish many of the difficulties that divided nations, 
 and he wrote a paper on that subject, addressed to 
 the French Directory. He believed in democracy, 
 but he was strongly of the opinion that the young 
 American republic should take no part in the struggle 
 for liberty in Europe. In a letter written in 1794 he 
 says, "It has been much Agitated here whether the 
 Americans would join the French. But I Believe 
 every Cool friend to America could wish them to Re- 
 main nuter. The americans have no troublesome 
 Neighbors, they are without foreign Possessions, and 
 do not want the alliance of any Nation, for this Reason 
 they have nothing to do with foreign Politics. And 
 the Art of Peace Should be the Study of every young 
 American which I most Sincerely hope they will 
 maintain." 
 
 But Fulton himself was in a manner to be drawn 
 into the turmoil. When France had quieted some- 
 what England began that policy of aggression on the 
 sea toward American ships and crews that was to lead 
 to the War of 1812. Fulton's attention was drawn 
 from canal-building to the possibility of some inven- 
 tion that might tend to subserve peace, and this in 
 time led him to design and build the first torpedo. 
 
 Again Fulton's talent for friendship stood him in 
 good stead. When he had left London for Paris he
 
 n6 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 called upon Joel Barlow, poet and American diplomat, 
 and was urged to take up his residence first at the 
 hotel where the Barlows were staying, and later at 
 their house. For seven years Fulton lived with them, 
 busy about the most diverse matters, and always 
 keenly interested in the struggles of the new and hot- 
 tempered republic. A rich American had bought a 
 tract of central real estate in Paris and had built a row 
 of shops arranged on the two sides of a cloister. 
 Fulton suggested that he add a panorama to the 
 other buildings, and the idea was adopted. Fulton 
 was given charge, and by 1800 he had built and 
 opened the first panorama that Paris had ever seen. 
 The show made money, and the inventor, a perfect 
 Jack-of-all-trades, added another feather to his vari- 
 colored cap. 
 
 In December, 1797, Fulton had interested his friend 
 Barlow in a machine intended to drive " carcasses " of 
 gunpowder under water. But his first experiments at 
 exploding the gunpowder at a definite moment failed. 
 Then he moved to Havre, where he would have greater 
 opportunity to try out his torpedo-boats, as he chris- 
 tened them. His idea was that if his invention suc- 
 ceeded war would be made so dangerous that nations 
 would be obliged to keep peace. Barlow was able to 
 assist him with money until he had built and actually 
 navigated some of his torpedoes along the coast. When 
 he had satisfied himself, he wrote to the French govern- 
 ment, the Directory, offering them his invention for use 
 against their enemies. 
 
 The Directory was pleased with the offer, but the
 
 FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 117 
 
 government was in so much of a turmoil that it was 
 months before any positive action was taken. At 
 length, on February 28, 1801, Fulton received word 
 from Napoleon, the First Consul, to send his torpedo- 
 boat against the English fleet. He set out; but the 
 English fleet did not come his way, and he spent the 
 summer vainly reconnoitering along the coast. To 
 show the value of his invention he arranged to attack 
 a sloop. This he described in his letter to the French 
 Commission on Submarine Navigation. " To prove 
 this experiment," he wrote, " the Prefect Maritime and 
 Admiral Villaret ordered a small Sloop of about 40 
 feet long to be anchored in the Road, on the 23rd 
 of Thermidor. With a bomb containing about 20 
 pounds of powder I advanced to within 200 Metres, 
 then taking my direction so as to pass near the Sloop, 
 I struck her with the bomb in my passage. The ex- 
 plosion took place and the sloop was torn into atoms, 
 in fact, nothing was left but the buye [buoy] and cable. 
 And the concussion was so great that a column of 
 Water, Smoke and fibres of the Sloop were cast from 
 80 to loo feet in Air. This simple Experiment at once 
 proved the effect of the Bomb Submarine to the satis- 
 faction of all the Spectators." 
 
 This exhibition took place in August, 1801, before a 
 crowd of onlookers, and at once established the value 
 of the torpedo. But, as he was unable to attack any 
 English ships, the French government lost interest in 
 his invention, and Napoleon's scientific advisers re- 
 ported to him that they regarded the young American 
 as " a visionary."
 
 n8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 At the same time the British government awakened 
 to the great possibilities of Fulton's device. His old 
 friend, Lord Stanhope, urged that suitable offers be 
 made him. This was ultimately done, and in April, 
 1804, Fulton left France and returned to London. A 
 contract was drawn up by which he was to put his tor- 
 pedo at the service of the English government and re- 
 ceive in return two hundred pounds a month and one- 
 half the value of all ships that might be destroyed by 
 his invention. 
 
 This arrangement, however, was of short duration. 
 A change of ministry dampened his hopes, and in 1806 
 the government declined to adopt his invention on his 
 terms. At the same time they tried to suppress this 
 new method of warfare, and to that end made him an- 
 other offer. Fulton, always an ardent patriot, answered, 
 " At all events, whatever may be your reward, I will 
 never consent to let these inventions lie dormant should 
 my Country at any time have need of them. Were 
 you to grant me an annuity of ^20,000 a year, I would 
 sacrifice all to the safety & independence of my Coun- 
 try. But I hope that England and America will un- 
 derstand their mutual Interest too well to War with each 
 other And I have no desire to Introduce my Engines 
 into practice for the benefit of any other Nation." 
 
 He was already eager to return home to work upon 
 his long cherished plans for a steamboat. He con- 
 tinues, " As I am bound in honor to Mr. Livingston to 
 put my steamboat in practice and such engine is of 
 more immediate use to my Country than Submarine 
 Navigation, I wish to devote some years to it and
 
 FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 119 
 
 should the British Government allow me an annuity I 
 should not only do justice to my friends but it would 
 enable me to carry my steamboat and other plans into 
 effect for the good of my Country. It has never 
 been my intention to hide these Inventions from 
 the World on any consideration, on the contrary it has 
 been my intention to make them public as soon as con- 
 sistent with strict justice to all with whom I am con- 
 cerned. For myself I have ever considered the interest 
 of America [n] free commerce, the interest of mankind, 
 the magnitude of the object in view and the rational 
 reputation connected with it superior to all calculations 
 of a pecuniary kind." 
 
 Satisfactory terms of agreement were reached, and 
 in 1806 Fulton was free and ready to return to that na- 
 tive land from which he had been away twenty years. 
 
 The building of a practicable steamboat had long 
 been in his mind. He had corresponded on the sub- 
 ject with Chancellor Livingston, who had devoted much 
 time and money to new inventions. Fulton, when in 
 Paris, had experimented with models of steamboats, and 
 had studied the records of what had already been done 
 in that line. In 1802 he had started a course of calcu- 
 lations on the resistance of water, and the comparative 
 advantages of the known means of propelling vessels. 
 He had rejected the plan of using paddles or oars, and 
 also of forcing water out of the stern of the vessel, and 
 had retained the idea of the paddle-wheel. This he 
 tried successfully on a small model that he built and 
 used on a river that ran through the village of Plom- 
 bieres. He then built an experimental boat, sixty-six
 
 120 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 feet long and eight feet wide, and this he exhibited to 
 a large audience of Parisians in August, 1803. His 
 success led him to order certain parts of a steam-engine 
 from the firm of Boulton and Watt in Birmingham, 
 these to be shipped to America. Meantime Chancel- 
 lor Livingston had obtained for himself and Fulton the 
 exclusive right to navigate the waters of New York 
 state by vessels propelled by fire or steam. 
 
 As soon as he reached America in December, 1806, 
 Fulton started work on his boat. He engaged Charles 
 Brownne, a ship-builder on the East River, to lay down 
 the hull. He decided to name the vessel the Clermont, 
 the name of Chancellor Livingston's country-place on 
 the Hudson, where Fulton had been a guest. The en- 
 gine duly arrived from Birmingham and was carried to 
 the shipyard. As a number of loafers and hangers-on 
 about the docks threatened injury to " Fulton's Folly," 
 as the building boat was called, he had to engage watch- 
 men to guard his property. By August the boat was 
 finished, and was moved by her own engine from the 
 yards to the Jersey shore. She was one hundred and 
 fifty feet long, thirteen feet wide, and drew two feet of 
 water. Before she had gone a quarter of a mile both 
 passengers and observers on the shore were satisfied 
 that the steamboat was a thoroughly practicable vessel. 
 
 On Sunday, August 9, 1807, Fulton made a short 
 trial trip of the Clermont, and wrote an account of it 
 to Livingston. "Yesterday about 12 o'clock I put 
 the steamboat in motion first with a paddle 8 inches 
 broad, 3 feet long, with which I ran about one mile 
 up the East River against a tide of about one mile an
 
 FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 121 
 
 hour, it being nearly high water. I then anchored and 
 put on another paddle 8 inches wide, 3 feet long, 
 started again and then, according to my best observa- 
 tions, I went 3 miles an hour, that is two against a 
 tide of one: another board of 8 inches was wanting, 
 which had not been prepared, I therefore turned the 
 boat and ran down with the tide and turned her round 
 neatly into the berth from which I parted. She answers 
 the helm equal to anything that ever was built, and I 
 turned her twice in three times her own length. Much 
 has been proved by this experiment. First that she 
 will, when in complete order, run up to my full calcula- 
 tions. Second, that my axles, I believe, will be suf- 
 ficiently strong to run the engine to her full power. 
 Third, that she steers well, and can be turned with ease." 
 It was on August 17, 1807, that the Clermont 
 made her first historic trip up the Hudson. At one 
 o'clock she cast off from her dock near the State's 
 Prison, in what was called Greenwich Village, on the 
 North River. The inventor described the voyage 
 characteristically to a friend. He wrote, " The moment 
 arrived in which the word was to be given for the boat 
 to move. My friends were in groups on the deck. 
 There was anxiety mixed with fear among them. They 
 were silent, sad and weary. I read in their looks 
 nothing but disaster, and almost repented of my efforts. 
 The signal was given and the boat moved on a short 
 distance and then stopped and became immovable. 
 To the silence of the preceding moment, now suc- 
 ceeded murmurs of discontent, and agitations, and 
 whispers and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated
 
 122 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 ' I told you it was so ; it is a foolish scheme : I wish 
 we were well out of it.' 
 
 " I elevated myself upon a platform and addressed 
 the assembly. I stated that I knew not what was the 
 matter, but if they would be quiet and indulge me for 
 half an hour, I would either go on or abandon the 
 voyage for that time. This short respite was conceded 
 without objection. I went below and examined the 
 machinery, and discovered that the cause was a slight 
 maladjustment of some of the work. In a short time it 
 was obviated. The boat was again put in motion. 
 She continued to move on. All were still incredulous. 
 None seemed willing to trust the evidence of their own 
 senses. We left the fair city of New York ; we passed 
 through the romantic and ever- vary ing scenery of the 
 Highlands ; we descried the clustering houses of Albany ; 
 we reached its shores, and then, even then, when all 
 seemed achieved, I was the victim of disappointment. 
 
 " Imagination superseded the influence of fact. It 
 was then doubted if it could be done again, or if done, 
 it was doubted if it could be made of any great value." 
 
 But the Clermont, in spite of all prophecies to the 
 contrary, had traveled under her own steam from New 
 York to Albany, and the trip was the crowning event in 
 Fulton's career as inventor. At the time she made that 
 first voyage the Clermont was a very simple craft, 
 decked for a short distance at bow and stern, the 
 engine open to view, and back of the engine a house 
 like that on a canal-boat to shelter the boiler and pro- 
 vide an apartment for the officers. The rudder was of 
 the pattern used on sailing-vessels, and was moved by
 
 FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 123 
 
 a tiller. The boiler was of the same pattern used in 
 Watt's steam-engines, and was set in masonry. The 
 condenser stood in a large cold-water cistern, and the 
 weight of the masonry and the cistern greatly detracted 
 from the boat's buoyancy. She was so very unwieldy 
 that the captains of other river boats, realizing the 
 danger of the steamboat's competition, were able to 
 run into her, and make it appear that the fault was hers ; 
 and as a result she several times reached port with 
 only a single wheel. 
 
 There were almost as many quaint descriptions of the 
 boat as there were people who saw it. One described 
 it as an " ungainly craft looking precisely like a back- 
 woods sawmill mounted on a scow and set on fire." 
 Others said the Clermont appeared at night like a 
 " monster moving on the waters defying the winds and 
 tide, and breathing flames and smoke." Some of the ig- 
 norant along the Hudson fell on their knees and prayed 
 to be delivered from the monster. The boat must have 
 been a very strange sight ; pine wood was used for fuel, 
 and when the engineer stirred the fire a torrent of 
 sparks went shooting into the sky. 
 
 The boat was clumsy beyond question. The exposed 
 machinery creaked and groaned, the unguarded paddle- 
 wheels revolved ponderously and splashed a great deal 
 of water, the tiller was badly placed for steering. Ful- 
 ton quickly remedied some of the defects, and the 
 Clermont that began to make regular runs from 
 New York to Albany a little later was quite a different 
 boat from that which made her maiden voyage on Au- 
 gust i yth.
 
 124 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 In spite of Fulton's gloomy tone in his letter there 
 were many among the men and women who made the 
 first trip with him who were not dubious concerning 
 the invention. As soon as the first difficulties were 
 overcome and the boat was moving on a steady keel, 
 the passengers, most of whom were close friends of 
 Fulton and of Chancellor Livingston, broke into song. 
 As they passed by the Palisades it is said they sang 
 " Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonny Doon." Fulton him- 
 self could not be overlooked. A contemporary de- 
 scribed him : " Among a thousand individuals you 
 might readily point out Robert Fulton. He was con- 
 spicuous for his gentle, manly bearing and freedom 
 from embarrassment, for his extreme activity, his 
 height, somewhat over six feet, his slender yet ener- 
 getic form and well accommodated dress, for his full 
 and curly dark brown hair, carelessly scattered over his 
 forehead and falling around his neck. His complexion 
 was fair, his forehead high, his eyes dark and penetra- 
 ting and revolving in a capacious orbit of cavernous 
 depths ; his brow was thick and evinced strength and 
 determination ; his nose was long and prominent, his 
 mouth and lips were beautifuly proportioned, giving 
 the impress of eloquent utterance. Trifles were not 
 calculated to impede him or damp his perseverance." 
 
 Fulton was now forty-two years old, and famous on 
 both sides of the Atlantic. He asked Harriet Living- 
 ston, a near relation of his friend the Chancellor, to be- 
 come his wife. She accepted him, and he was warmly 
 welcomed into that rich and influential family. 
 
 On September 2, 1807, Fulton advertised regular
 
 FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 125 
 
 sailings of the Clermont between New York and 
 Albany. These proved popular, and other routes were 
 soon planned. That winter he made many changes in 
 the vessel and worked out certain devices that he 
 wished to patent. The name of Clermont was 
 changed to the North River the following spring, 
 and the reconstructed steamboat continued in regular 
 service on the Hudson for a number of years. In the 
 succeeding year he built other boats, the Rariton, to 
 run from New York to New Brunswick, and The Car 
 of Neptune as a second Hudson River boat. He was 
 very much occupied perfecting new commercial schemes, 
 protecting his patents from a horde of pirates, and 
 planning to introduce his invention into Europe. Be- 
 fore his death in 1815, eight years after the Cler- 
 monfs first trip, he had built seventeen boats, among 
 them the first steam war frigate, a torpedo boat, and 
 the first steam ferry-boats with rounded ends to be used 
 for approaching opposite shores. 
 
 A century has not dimmed Fulton's fame, nor set 
 aside his claim to be the practical inventor of the steam- 
 boat. He built the first one to be used in American 
 waters, and his model was copied in all other countries. 
 He carried his ideas to completion, and that, with his 
 talent to observe and improve upon other men's work, 
 gave him his leading place among the world's pio- 
 neers.
 
 VIII 
 
 DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP 
 
 1778-1829 
 
 HUMPHREY DAVY, according to his contemporaries, 
 could have chosen any one of several roads to fame. 
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge said of him, " Had not Davy 
 been the first chemist, he probably would have been 
 the first poet of his age." Among many activities he 
 invented the safety-lamp, the object of which was to pro- 
 tect miners from the perils of exploding fire-damp. 
 George Stephenson invented a similar device at about 
 the same time, or a little earlier, but Davy's lamp was 
 the one most generaly adopted, and his claim as in- 
 ventor is commonly recognized, while Stephenson's 
 fame is secure with the perfection of the steam-locomo- 
 tive and the railroad. 
 
 Davy was born at Penzance in Cornwall December 
 J 7 I 77 8 the eldest son in a family of five children. 
 More alert and imaginative than other boys, and with 
 an uncommonly good memory, he made great head- 
 way at Mr. Coryton's grammar school, where he went 
 when he was six. Coleridge's opinion of him may have 
 been correct, for history says that he was a fluent writer 
 of English and Latin verses while still a schoolboy, 
 and that he could tell stories well enough to hold an 
 audience of his teachers and neighbors. He liked fine
 
 DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP 127 
 
 language and the arts of speech, and, according to his 
 brother, Dr. John Davy, he cultivated those arts in his 
 walks. Once when he was taking a bottle of medicine 
 to a sick woman in the country he began to declaim a 
 stirring speech, and at its climax threw the bottle away. 
 He never noticed its loss until he reached the patient, 
 and then wondered what could have become of the vial. 
 The bottle was found next morning in a hay-field ad- 
 joining the path Davy had taken. 
 
 When he was fourteen he left Mr. Coryton's school 
 for the Truro Grammar School, where he stayed for a 
 year. Here he was famed for his good-humor and a 
 very original turn of mind. A school friend, reminis- 
 cing about Humphrey, told of a walk several of them 
 took one hot day. " Whilst others complained of the 
 heat," said he, " and whilst I unbuttoned my waistcoat, 
 Humphrey appeared with his great-coat close-buttoned 
 up to his chin, for the purpose, as he declared, of keep- 
 ing out the heat. This was laughed at at the time, but it 
 struck me then, as it appears to me now, as evincing 
 originality of thought and an indisposition to be led by 
 the example of others." 
 
 This originality of thought and love of experiment 
 for its own sake were to be chief characteristics of the 
 future scientist. 
 
 His school education was finished when he was 
 fifteen, and he returned home, where he studied French 
 in a desultory fashion, and devoted most of his time to 
 fishing, of which he was always very fond. His father's 
 death made him realize that as the eldest of the sons 
 he must shoulder the responsibility for the family's
 
 128 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 support, and, all his natural tastes lying in that direction, 
 he decided to become a physician. 
 
 A practicing surgeon and apothecary of Penzance, 
 Bingham Borlase, was willing to take Davy as an ap- 
 prentice, and the youth began work and study in his 
 office. But the boy was no ordinary apprentice. He 
 became almost at once an omnivorous student and 
 writer. He laid out a plan of study that included 
 theology, astronomy, logic, mathematics, Latin, Greek, 
 Italian, Spanish, and Hebrew, and he wrote essays, 
 remarkably mature and well-phrased, in a series of 
 note-books that he kept in the office. Poetry he wrote 
 also, filled with love of the sea that circled his native 
 Cornwall, and the great cliffs and moorlands that make 
 that part of England one of the most picturesque spots 
 in the world. 
 
 His work with Mr. Borlase brought him into the field 
 of chemistry when he was nineteen. It was a field of 
 magic to him. He read two books, Lavoisier's 
 "Elements of Chemistry," and Nicholson's "Dictionary 
 of Chemistry," and rushed from them to experiment 
 for himself. His bedroom was his laboratory. His 
 tools were old bottles, glasses, tobacco-pipes, teacups, 
 and such odds and ends as he could find. When he 
 needed fire he went to the kitchen. The owner of the 
 house, Mr. Tonkin, was an old friend of the Davy 
 family, and very fond of Humphrey, but the amateur 
 experiments were almost too much for him. Said he, 
 after he had watched some more than usually noisy 
 combustion at the fire, "This boy, Humphrey, is 
 incorrigible. Was there ever so idle a dog? He
 
 DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP 129 
 
 will blow us all into the air." But Humphrey minded 
 no arguments nor objections ; he was studying the 
 effects of acids and alkalies on vegetable colors, the 
 kind of air that was to be found in the vesicles of 
 common varieties of seaweed, and the solution and 
 precipitation of metals. The work was all-engrossing ; 
 it occupied every spare moment of his time and 
 thought. 
 
 If any greater stimulus to scientific study had been 
 needed it would have been supplied to young Davy by 
 his acquaintance with Gregory Watt, the son of the 
 inventor James Watt. Gregory came to board at Mrs. 
 Davy's house when he was twenty-one, and Humphrey 
 nineteen. He was a splendid companion, and possessed 
 of a remarkably brilliant mind. In a short time the 
 two youths had become inseparable friends, experiment- 
 ing together, and taking walks to the mines and 
 quarries in the neighborhood of Penzance in search of 
 minerals for study. It was an ideal friendship, in- 
 comparably valuable for Davy. But Gregory Watt 
 died when he was twenty-eight. "Gregory was a 
 noble fellow," Davy wrote to a friend, "and would 
 have been a great man." 
 
 In the meantime the young physician's apprentice 
 had been lured away from Penzance. Dr. Beddoes 
 had established what he styled a Pneumatic Institution 
 at Clifton, the object of which was to try the medicinal 
 effects of different gases on consumptive patients. 
 Davy, only twenty, had been offered the position of 
 director, and had accepted. His old friend Mr. Tonkin, 
 who had thought to see Humphrey become the leading
 
 1 30 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 physician of Penzance, was so much put out with this 
 change of plan that he altered his will and revoked a 
 legacy he had intended for Davy. 
 
 Filled with the ardor of research Davy went on with 
 his experiments at Clifton. He discovered silica in the 
 epidermis of the stems of weeds, corn, and grasses. 
 He experimented with nitrous oxide (laughing gas) for 
 ten months until he had thoroughly learned its in- 
 toxicating effects. Often he jeopardized his life, and 
 once nearly lost it, by breathing carburetted hydrogen. 
 He published the results of his more important experi- 
 ments. When he was twenty-one he issued his 
 " Essays on Heat and Light." He experimented with 
 galvanic electricity, and increased the powers of Volta's 
 Galvanic Pile. Moreover he outlined and partly 
 drafted an epic poem on the deliverance of the Israelites 
 from Egypt. The total is a surprising catalogue of 
 industries for the young Clifton Director. 
 
 His ardor had worn him out, and he was forced to 
 take a holiday at Penzance. His reputation as a rising 
 scientist had reached the little Cornish town, and he 
 was given a hearty welcome. He loved his own 
 country and never lost his delight in her natural 
 beauties. Nor did he ever forget his own days in the 
 grammar school, and in his will he directed that a 
 certain sum of money should be paid to the master 
 each year " on condition that the boys may have a 
 holiday on his birthday." 
 
 Davy had already made influential friends, and one 
 of them, Dr. Hope, the professor of chemistry at the 
 University of Edinburgh, was to give him his next step
 
 DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP 131 
 
 forward. Dr. Hope knew Davy's works on heat, 
 nitrous oxide, and galvanic electricity, and he recom- 
 mended the young scientist to Count Rumford for the 
 professorship of chemistry in the Royal Philosophical 
 Institution in London, which Count Rumford had been 
 instrumental in founding. Davy wrote to his mother 
 that this was " as honorable as any scientific appoint- 
 ment in the kingdom, with an income of at least five 
 hundred pounds a year." 
 
 He went to London in 1801, and there he had the 
 great satisfaction of meeting many scientific men whose 
 names and work were well known to him. Six weeks 
 after he arrived he began his first course of lectures, 
 taking for his subject the history of galvanism, and the 
 various methods of accumulating galvanic influence. 
 The Philosophical Magazine said of the new lion, " The 
 sensation created by his first course of lectures at the 
 Institution, and the enthusiastic admiration which they 
 obtained, is at this period hardly to be imagined. 
 Men of the first rank and talent, the literary and the 
 scientific, the practical and the theoretical, blue-stock- 
 ings and women of fashion, the old and the young, all 
 crowded, eagerly crowded, the lecture-room. His 
 youth, his simplicity, his natural eloquence, his chem- 
 ical knowledge, his happy illustrations and well-con- 
 ducted experiments, excited universal attention and 
 unbounded applause. Compliments, invitations, and 
 presents were showered upon him in abundance from 
 all quarters ; his society was courted by all, and all ap- 
 peared proud of his acquaintance." 
 
 Davy was an eloquent, enthusiastic, forceful speaker.
 
 i 3 2 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 He prepared his lectures with the greatest care, and he 
 delivered them with that attention to dramatic effect 
 which is instinctive in all really great speakers. 
 Coleridge said, " I attend Davy's lectures to increase 
 my stock of metaphors," and there were many others 
 who went to hear the young chemist for other reasons 
 than a liking for science. He had his own theories of 
 the arts of public address. " Great powers," said he, 
 " have never been exerted independent of strong feel- 
 ings. The rapid arrangement of ideas from their 
 various analogies to the equally rapid comparisons of 
 these analogies, with facts uniformly occurring during 
 the progress of discovery, have existed only in those 
 minds where the agency of strong and various motives 
 is perceived of motives modifying each other, mingling 
 with each other, and producing that fever of emotion 
 which is the joy of existence and the consciousness of 
 life." 
 
 In addition to his lectures Davy worked hard in the 
 well-stocked laboratory of the Institution, where he was 
 supplied with a corps of capable assistants. His re- 
 searches covered a very large part of the field of 
 chemistry, and he was indefatigable in running down 
 any new idea which his active brain chanced to hit 
 upon. In his vacations from London he went to the 
 farthest regions of the British Isles, spending consider- 
 able time in the north of Ireland and the Hebrides. 
 Here he studied the geological structures, and collected 
 all the information he could in regard to agriculture. 
 Anything to do with natural science interested him. He 
 sketched a great deal, and he was forever asking ques-
 
 DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP 133 
 
 tions of all the countrymen he met. His questions 
 made him famous in many a hamlet, where such in- 
 quisitiveness had never been known before. 
 
 Shortly after he had moved to London he had been 
 asked to investigate astringent plants in connection 
 with tanning. To this end he visited tan-yards and 
 farmers, and in 1802 began to deliver a course of 
 lectures on " The Connection of Chemistry with Vege- 
 table Physiology." These lectures proved remarkably 
 popular, and for ten years he repeated them at the 
 meetings of the Board of Agriculture. They were later 
 published in book form, and so great was their interest 
 that they were translated into almost every European 
 language. The Edinburgh Review, that dean of 
 British critics, said, " We feel grateful for his having 
 thus suspended for a time the labors of original investi- 
 gation, in order to apply the principles and discoveries 
 of his favorite science to the illustration and improve- 
 ment of an art which, above all others, ministers to the 
 wants and comforts of man." 
 
 When his agricultural researches were finished he 
 went back to his studies with the voltaic pile or battery. 
 He discovered that potash and soda can be decom- 
 posed, with the resultant metals of potassium and 
 sodium. When he made this discovery he was so de- 
 lighted that he danced about the room, and was too 
 excited to finish the experiment for some time. 
 
 He had worked too hard, and soon after this dis- 
 covery he fell ill. For days all London watched for 
 the bulletins of the young chemist's condition. For- 
 tunately he recovered, and in time went back to the
 
 134 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 work which was proving so invaluable for the world of 
 science. 
 
 The Royal Institution now provided him with a 
 voltaic battery that was four times as powerful as any 
 that had previously been constructed. With this he 
 made numberless chemical discoveries. The Royal 
 Society had made him a fellow when he was twenty- 
 five years old, and one of its secretaries when he was 
 twenty-nine. His London lectures grew continually 
 more popular. The Dublin Society invited him to 
 lecture in that city, and his course at once attracted the 
 greatest attention. He was already the scientific lion 
 of England, but withal a very modest and unassuming 
 lion. Cuvier said, " Davy, not yet thirty-two, in the 
 opinion of all who could judge of such labors, held the 
 first rank among the chemists of this or of any other 
 age." The National Institute of France awarded him 
 the prize that had been established by Napoleon for 
 the greatest discovery made by means of galvanism. 
 Then, in 1812, when he was thirty-three, he was 
 knighted by the Prince Regent. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Davy, as he now was, married Mrs. 
 Appreece, a woman of many talents and unusual in- 
 telligence. She was rich, and soon after their marriage 
 Davy was able to resign his professorship at the Royal 
 Institution, which he had held for twelve years, and 
 devote himself to original research and to travel. 
 Carrying a portable chemical apparatus for his studies, 
 Sir Humphrey and Lady Davy went first to Scotland, 
 and then to France, Italy, and Germany. They met 
 the most prominent men of the age in those countries.
 
 DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP 135 
 
 These men found the famous chemist interested in 
 everything about him, as much of a poet as a scientist. 
 In Rome he wrote a sonnet to the sculptor Canova, and 
 the literary circles of Italy proclaimed him a poet after 
 their own heart. 
 
 Davy was now one of the foremost chemists of the 
 world, but he could as yet hardly lay claim to the title 
 of inventor. He had been an ambitious man, and had 
 once said that he had escaped the temptations that lay 
 in wait for many men because of " an active mind, a 
 deep ideal feeling of good, and a look toward future 
 greatness." That future greatness had always been in 
 his thoughts, and had been one of the compelling 
 powers in his great chemical discoveries. But beyond 
 this thought of greatness was a very deep and earnest 
 desire to help his fellow men. So when the chance to 
 do this offered he took advantage of it at once. 
 
 Explosions of coal-gas were only too common in the 
 mines of England. They were almost always fatal to 
 the miners, and formed the greatest peril of those who 
 labored underground. In 1812 a terrible explosion oc- 
 curred in a leading English mine, and caused the death 
 of almost a hundred miners. The mine had caught on 
 fire, and had to be closed at the mouth, which meant 
 certain destruction to those within. The catastrophe 
 was so great that the biggest mine-owners met to see 
 whether some protection against such accidents could 
 not be devised. After much discussion they appointed 
 a committee to call on Sir Humphrey Davy and ask 
 him to investigate the possibilities for them. 
 
 Davy realized that here lay his opportunity to be of
 
 1 36 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 real service to men, the goal he had always had in 
 mind. He took up the question, experimented with 
 fire-damp, and found that it was in reality light car- 
 buretted hydrogen. He visited many mines, and took 
 into careful consideration the conditions under which 
 the men worked. For months he investigated and ex- 
 perimented, and at length, in 1815, he constructed 
 what he called the safety-lamp. This was an oil lamp 
 which had a chimney or cage of wire gauze. The 
 gauze held the flame of the lamp from passing through 
 and igniting the fire-damp outside. It was only pos- 
 sible for a very little of the fire-damp to penetrate the 
 gauze and such as did was held harmless prisoner. 
 The cage allowed air to pass and light to escape, and 
 although by the combustion of the fire-damp the wire 
 gauze might become red hot, it was still efficient as a 
 safety-lamp. 
 
 Davy's safety-lamp proved exactly what was needed 
 to act as protection from exploding fire-damp. It was 
 tried under all conditions and served admirably. 
 George Stephenson had worked out a somewhat 
 similar safety-lamp at about the same time, and his 
 was used in the collieries around Newcastle. In the 
 rest of England Davy's lamp was at once adopted. All 
 miners were equipped with either the Davy lamp or 
 the " Geordie " lamp, as the other was called, and the 
 mine fatalities from fire-damp immediately decreased. 
 This lamp is still the main safeguard of those who 
 have to contend with dangerous explosive gases in 
 mines all over the world. 
 
 Friends urged Davy to patent his lamp, and thus
 
 THE DAVY SAFETY LAMP
 
 DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP 137 
 
 ensure himself a very considerable income from its sale. 
 But he said, " I never thought of such a thing : my 
 sole object was to serve the cause of humanity ; and if 
 I have succeeded, I am amply rewarded in the gratify- 
 ing reflection of having done so. I have enough for 
 all my views and purposes ; more wealth could not in- 
 crease either my fame or my happiness. It might un- 
 doubtedly enable me to put four horses to my carriage ; 
 but what would it avail me to have it said that Sir 
 Humphrey drives his carriage and four ? " 
 
 His fellow men appreciated the great value of this 
 service he had rendered. At Newcastle, the centre of 
 the mining country, a dinner was given in his honor, 
 and a service of plate, worth over twelve thousand 
 dollars, was presented to him. The Emperor of Russia 
 sent him a magnificent silver-gilt vase, with a letter 
 congratulating him on his great achievement, and the 
 King of England made him a baronet. 
 
 Davy himself, in spite of his reputation as a chemist, 
 placed this invention above all his other work. "I 
 value it more than anything I ever did," said he. " It 
 was the result of a great deal of investigation and 
 labor ; but if my directions be attended to, it will save 
 the lives of thousands of poor men. I was never more 
 affected than by a written address which I received 
 from the working colliers when I was in the north, 
 thanking me on behalf of themselves and their families 
 for the preservation of their lives." 
 
 Davy's note-books are most interesting reading and 
 show the philosophic trend of his thoughts. At one 
 time he said, " Whoever wishes to enjoy peace, and is
 
 I 3 8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 gifted with great talents, must labor for posterity. In 
 doing this he enjoys all the pleasures of intellectual 
 labor, and all the desire arising from protracted hope. 
 He feels no envy nor jealousy ; his mark is too far 
 distant to be seen by short-sighted malevolence, and 
 therefore it is never aimed at. ... To raise a 
 chestnut on the mountain, or a palm in the plain, which 
 may afford shade, shelter, and fruit for generations yet 
 unborn, and which, if they have once fixed their roots, 
 require no culture, is better than to raise annual flowers 
 in a garden, which must be watered daily, and in which 
 a cold wind may chill or too ardent a sunshine may 
 dry. . . . The best faculties of man are employed 
 for futurity : speaking is better than acting, writing is 
 better than speaking." 
 
 He was fond of travel, and after he had seen the 
 successful use of his lamp he went abroad again. 
 When he returned he was made president of the Royal 
 Society, a position which had been made illustrious by 
 Sir Isaac Newton. The British navy asked him to 
 discover what could be done to prevent the corrosion 
 of copper sheathing on vessels, caused by salt water. 
 He made experiments, and at last succeeded in render- 
 ing the copper negatively electrical by the use of small 
 pieces of tin, zinc, or iron nails. But shells and sea- 
 weed would adhere to the non-corroded surface, and 
 hence the process was not entirely successful. This 
 principle of galvanic protection, however, was found to 
 be applicable to many other purposes. 
 
 These and other experiments in chemistry and 
 electricity, travel, and his duties as president of the
 
 DAVY AND THE SAFETY-LAMP 139 
 
 Royal Society filled his days. In 1826 he was attacked 
 by paralysis, and from then he spent much of his time 
 on the continent, seeking health and strength. He 
 wrote on fishing and on travel, and all his writings, on 
 whatever theme he touched, are filled with the love of 
 nature and of beauty, and permeated with that philo- 
 sophic balance that had been characteristic of his whole 
 career. He died in Geneva, May 29, 1829. 
 
 Davy was not the born inventor, drawn irresistibly 
 to construct something new. He was the born chem- 
 ist, and it was only when he was asked to investigate 
 the nature of the fire-damp that he fell to studying 
 whether some adequate protection could not be af- 
 forded the miners. Yet he himself said that he 
 was more proud of his safety-lamp than of all his 
 other discoveries, and although the scientists and 
 chemists may think of Humphrey Davy as a great ex- 
 perimenter, great lecturer, and great writer on chem- 
 istry and electricity, the world at large knows him best 
 for his safety-lamp and for the great change for the 
 better he was able to bring about in the mines of 
 England.
 
 IX 
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 
 
 1781-1848 
 
 THE need of finding a new way of working the 
 coal mines of England, and of marketing the coal, 
 which had been such an important factor in the de- 
 velopment of the steam-engine, was a scarcely less 
 important factor in the building of the earliest prac- 
 tical railway locomotive. The coal had to be hauled 
 from the pit of the colliery to the shipping place. It 
 was carried in cars that were pushed or pulled over 
 a rude line of wooden or iron rails. But it was evi- 
 dent from the time when James Watt began to build 
 his steam-engines to lift the coal from the mine that 
 men of inventive minds would soon seek to send the 
 cars over the level ground by the same power. We 
 owe the railroad chiefly to the needs of the north of 
 England, and there we find the real birth of the loco- 
 motive. 
 
 About the beginning of the nineteenth century a 
 number of men in England were experimenting with 
 new means' of locomotion, both for merchandise and 
 for passengers. Their projects varied from cars run- 
 ning on wheels and drawn by horses to carriages pro- 
 pelled by small stationary steam-engines, placed at 
 short distances from each other along the road. In
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 141 
 
 1802 Richard Trevethick, a captain in a Cornish tin- 
 mine, took out a patent for a steam-carriage. The 
 machine he built looked like an ordinary stage-coach 
 on four wheels. It had one horizontal cylinder, which 
 was placed in the rear of the hind axle, together with 
 the boiler and the furnace-box. The motion of the 
 piston was carried to a separate crank-axle, and that 
 in turn gave the motion to the axle of the driving- 
 wheel. This was in itself a great invention, being 
 the first really successful high-pressure engine that 
 was built on the principle of moving a piston by the 
 elasticity of steam against only the pressure of the 
 air. The steam was admitted from the boiler under 
 the piston that moved in a cylinder, and forced it up- 
 ward. When the motion had reached its limit, the 
 communication between the piston and the under side 
 of the cylinder was shut off, and the steam escaped 
 into the atmosphere. Then a passage was opened 
 between the boiler and the upper end of the piston, 
 which was consequently pushed downward, and then 
 the steam was again allowed to escape. As a result 
 the power of the engine was equal to the difference 
 between the atmosphere's pressure and the elastic force 
 of the steam in the boiler. 
 
 This steam-carriage of Trevethick was fairly suc- 
 cessful, and created a great sensation in that part of 
 Cornwall where it was built. He decided to take it 
 to London, and drove it himself to Plymouth, from 
 which port it was to be carried by sea. On the road 
 it caused amazement and consternation, and won the 
 name of Captain Trevethick's dragon. He exhibited
 
 I 4 2 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 it in London, but after a short time gave up driving it, 
 believing that the roads of England were too badly 
 built to make the use of a steam-carriage feasible. 
 
 Other men were working on similar lines. Among 
 them was the owner of a colliery in the north named 
 Blackett, who built a number of engines for propelling 
 coal-cars and used them at his mines. But these were 
 very clumsy and heavy, moved slowly, and had to be 
 continually repaired at considerable expense, so that 
 other miners, after examining Blackett's engines, de- 
 cided they were not worth the cost of manufacture. 
 To make the steam-carriage really serviceable it must 
 be more efficient and reliable. 
 
 Meantime a young man named George Stephenson, 
 who was working at a coal mine at Killingworth, 
 seven miles north of Newcastle, was studying out a 
 new plan of locomotive. His father had been a fire- 
 man in a colliery at Wylam, a village near Newcastle, 
 and there the son George was born on June 9, 1781. 
 He had lived the life of the other boys of the village, 
 had been a herd-boy to care for a neighbor's cows, 
 had been a " picker " in the colliery, and separated 
 stones and dross from the coal, had risen to assistant 
 fireman, then fireman, then engineman. He was strong 
 and vigorous, fond of outdoor sports, and also con- 
 siderable of a student. In time he moved to Willing- 
 ton Quay, a village on the River Tyne, where coal 
 was shipped to London. Here he married, and made 
 his home in a small cottage near the quay. He was 
 in charge of a fixed engine on Willington Ballast Hill 
 that drew the trains of laden coal-cars up the incline.
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 143 
 
 After he had worked for three years at Willington 
 he was induced to take the position of brakesman of 
 the engine at the West Moor Colliery at Killingworth. 
 He had only been settled in his new place a short 
 time when his wife died, leaving him with a son Rob- 
 ert. Stephenson thenceforth threw himself into his 
 work harder than ever, studying with his son as the 
 boy grew older, and spending a great deal of time 
 over his plans for a steam-engine that should move 
 the coal-cars. He knew the needs of the colliery per- 
 fectly, had acquired a good knowledge of mechanics, 
 and proposed to put his knowledge to account. 
 
 He had already, as engine-wright of the Killing- 
 worth Colliery, applied the surplus power of a pump- 
 ing steam-engine to the work of drawing coal from the 
 deeper workings of the mine, thereby saving a great 
 amount of manual and horse labor. When the coal 
 was drawn up it had to be transported to the quays 
 along the Tyne, and to simplify this Stephenson laid 
 down inclined planes so that a train of full wagons 
 moving down the incline was able to draw up another 
 train of empty wagons. But this would only work over 
 a short distance, and was in itself a small saving in ef- 
 fort. 
 
 The engines that Mr. Blackett had built, using 
 Trevethick's model as a basis, were working daily near 
 the Killingworth Colliery, and Stephenson frequently 
 went over to see them. He studied Mr. Blackett's latest 
 locomotive, nicknamed " Black Billy," with the greatest 
 care, and then told his friend Jonathan Foster that he 
 was convinced that he could build a better engine than
 
 I 4 4 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Trevethick's, one that would work more effectively and 
 cheaply and draw a train of cars more steadily. 
 
 He also had the advantage of seeing other primitive 
 locomotives that were being tried at different places 
 near Newcastle. One of these, known as Blenkinsop's 
 Leeds engine, ran on a tramway, and would draw six- 
 teen wagons with a weight of seventy tons at the rate 
 of about three miles an hour. But the Blenkinsop 
 engine was found to be very unsteady, and tore up the 
 tram-rails, and when its boiler blew up the owner de- 
 cided that the engine was not worth the cost of repair. 
 Stephenson, however, drew some useful points from it, 
 as well as from each of the other models he saw, and 
 proposed to himself to follow Watt's example in con- 
 structing his steam-engine, namely, to combine the 
 plans and discoveries of other inventors in a machine 
 of his own, and so achieve a more complete success. 
 
 Stephenson was now very well regarded at the colliery 
 for the improvements he had made there. He brought 
 the matter of building a new " Traveling Engine," as 
 he called it, to the attention of the lessees of the mine 
 in 1813. Lord Ravensworth, the principal partner, 
 formed a favorable opinion of Stephenson' s plans, and 
 agreed to supply him with the funds necessary to build 
 a locomotive. 
 
 With his support Stephenson went to work to choose 
 his tools and workmen. He had to devise and make 
 many of the tools he needed, and to train his men spe- 
 cially for this business. He built his first engine in the 
 workshops at the West Moor Mine. It followed to 
 some extent the model of Blenkinsop's engine. It had
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 145 
 
 a cylindrical boiler, eight feet long and thirty-four 
 inches in diameter, with an internal flue tube passing 
 through it. The engine had two vertical cylinders and 
 worked the propelling gear with cross-heads and con- 
 necting-rods. The power of the two cylinders was 
 carried by means of spur-wheels, which continued the 
 motive power to the wheels that supported the engine 
 on the rails. The engine was simply mounted on a 
 wooden frame that was supported on four wheels. 
 These wheels were smooth, as Stephenson was con- 
 vinced that smooth wheels would run properly on an 
 edge-rail. 
 
 This engine, christened the " Blutcher," and taking 
 about ten months to build, was tried on the Killing- 
 worth Railway on July 25, 1814. It proved to be the 
 most successful working engine that had yet been built, 
 and would pull eight loaded wagons of about thirty 
 tons' weight up a slight grade at the rate of four miles 
 an hour. For some time it was used daily at the col- 
 liery. 
 
 But the " Blutcher " was after all a very clumsy ma- 
 chine. The engine had no springs, and its movement 
 was a series of jolts, that injured the rails and shook 
 the machinery apart. The important parts of the ma- 
 chinery were huddled together, and caused friction, and 
 the cog-wheels soon became badly worn. Moreover 
 the engine moved scarcely faster than a horse's walk, 
 and the expense of running it was very little less than 
 the cost of horse-power. Stephenson saw that he must 
 in some way increase the power of his engine if he was 
 to provide a new motive power for the mines.
 
 146 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 In this first engine the steam had been allowed to es- 
 cape into the air with a loud, hissing noise, which 
 frightened horses and cattle, and was generally re- 
 garded as a nuisance. Stephenson thought that if he 
 could carry this steam, after it had done its work in the 
 cylinders, into the chimney by means of a small pipe, 
 and allow it to escape in a vertical direction, its velocity 
 would be added to the smoke from the fire, or the ris- 
 ing current of air in the chimney, and would in that 
 way increase the draught, and as a result the intensity 
 of combustion in the furnace. He tried this experi- 
 ment, and found his conjecture correct ; the blast stimu- 
 lated combustion, consequently the capability of the 
 boiler to generate steam was greatly increased, and the 
 power of the engine increased in the same proportion. 
 No extra weight was added to the machine. The in- 
 vention of this steam blast was almost the turning 
 point in the history of the locomotive. Without it the 
 engine would have been too clumsy and slow for prac- 
 tical use, but with it the greatest possibilities of use 
 appeared. 
 
 Encouraged by the success of his steam blast Ste- 
 phenson started to build a second locomotive. In this he 
 planned an entire change in mechanical construction, 
 his principal objects being the use of as few parts as 
 possible, and the most direct possible application of 
 power to the wheels. He took out a patent for this 
 engine on February 28, 1815. This locomotive had 
 two vertical cylinders that communicated directly with 
 each pair of the four wheels that supported the engine, 
 by means of a cross-head and a pair of connecting-
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 147 
 
 rods. " Ball and socket " joints were used to make the 
 union between the ends of the cross-heads where they 
 united with the connecting-rods, and between the rods 
 and the crank-pins attached to each driving-wheel. The 
 mechanical skill of his workmen was not equal to the 
 forging of all the necessary parts as Stephenson had 
 devised them, and he was obliged to make use of sub- 
 stitutes which did not always work smoothly, but he 
 finally succeeded in completing a locomotive which was 
 a vast improvement on all earlier ones, and that was 
 notable for the simple and direct communication be- 
 tween the cylinders and the wheels, and the added 
 power gained by using the waste steam in the steam blast. 
 This second locomotive of Stephenson's was in the main 
 the model for all those built for a considerable time. 
 
 During the time when Stephenson was working on 
 his second locomotive explosions of fire-damp were un- 
 usually frequent in the coal mines of Northumberland 
 and Durham, and for a space he turned his attention to 
 the possibility of inventing some pattern of safety-lamp. 
 The result was his perfection of a lamp that would fur- 
 nish the miners with sufficient light and yet preclude 
 risk of exploding fire-damp. This came to be known 
 as the " Geordie Lamp," to distinguish it from the 
 " Davy Lamp " that Sir Humphrey Davy was invent- 
 ing at about the same time. The lamp was used 
 successfully by the miners at Killingworth, and was con- 
 sidered by many as superior to Davy's lamp. Dis- 
 putes arose as to which was invented first, and long 
 controversies between scientific societies, most of which 
 sided with the friends of Davy. Stephenson himself
 
 i 4 8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 stated his claims firmly, but without rancor, and when 
 he saw that it prevented the accidents in mines was 
 satisfied that he had gained his object, and returned to 
 the more absorbing subject of locomotives. 
 
 He realized that the road and the rails were almost 
 as important as the engine itself. At that time the rail- 
 ways were laid in the most careless fashion, little atten- 
 tion was paid to the rails' proper joining, and less to 
 the grades of the roads. Stephenson laid down new 
 rails at Killingworth with " half-lap joints," or extend- 
 ing over each other for a certain distance at the ends, 
 instead of the "butt joints" that were formerly used. 
 Over these both the coal-cars drawn by horses and his 
 locomotive ran much more smoothly. To increase this 
 smoothness of travel he added a system of spring car- 
 riage to his engine, and saved it from the jolting that 
 had handicapped his first model. 
 
 The second locomotive was proving so efficient at 
 the Killingworth Colliery that friends of the inventor 
 urged him to look into the possible use of steam in 
 traveling on the common roads. To study this he 
 made an instrument called the dynamometer, which 
 enabled him to calculate the resistance of friction to 
 which carriages would be exposed on railways. His 
 experiments made him doubtful of the possibility of 
 running such railroads, unless a great amount of very 
 expensive tunneling and grading were first done. 
 
 All this time George Stephenson continued to study 
 with his son Robert. The boy was employed at the 
 colliery, and was rapidly learning the business under 
 the skilful charge of his father. Stephenson had de-
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 149 
 
 cided however that Robert should have a better educa- 
 tion than had been his, and in 1820 took him from his 
 post as viewer in the West Moor Pit, and sent him to 
 the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 News spread slowly in England in that day, and the 
 fact that a steam locomotive was being successfully 
 used at Killingworth attracted very little attention in 
 the rest of the country. Even in the neighborhood of 
 the mines people soon grew used to seeing " Puffing 
 Billy," as the engine was called, traveling back and 
 forth from the pit to the quay, and took it quite for 
 granted. Here and there scattered scientific men, ever 
 since Watt's perfection of the steam-engine, had con- 
 sidered the possibility of travel by steam, but practical 
 business men had failed to come forward to build a 
 railway line. At length, however, Edward Pease, of 
 Darlington, planned a road to run from Stockton to 
 Darlington, and set about building it. He had a great 
 deal of difficulty in forming a company to finance it, 
 but he was a man of much perseverance, and at length 
 he succeeded. While he was doing this Stephenson 
 was patiently building new locomotives, and trying to 
 induce the mine-owners along the Tyne to replace their 
 horse-cars with his engines. In 1819 the owners of 
 the Hetton Colliery decided to make this change, and 
 asked Stephenson to take charge of the construction of 
 their line. He obtained the consent of the Killingworth 
 owners, and began work. On November 18, 1822, the 
 Hetton Railway was opened. Its length was about 
 eight miles, and five of Stephenson's locomotives were 
 working on it, under the direction of his brother
 
 I 5 o HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Robert. In building this line George Stephenson was 
 thoroughly practical. Although he knew that his name 
 was becoming more and more identified with the 
 locomotive engine, he did not hesitate to use stationary 
 engines wherever he considered that they would be 
 more economical. In the Hetton Railway, which ran 
 for a part of its distance through rough country, he 
 used stationary engines wherever he could not secure 
 grades that would make locomotives practicable. His 
 own steam-engines traveled over this line at the rate 
 of about four miles an hour, and each was able to draw 
 a train of seventeen coal wagons, weighing about sixty- 
 four tons. 
 
 The coal mines of the Midlands and the north of 
 England had been the original inducement to invent- 
 ors to build engines that would draw cars, and the 
 manufacturing needs of Manchester and Liverpool 
 were now gradually inducing promoters to consider 
 building railroads. The growth of Manchester and the 
 towns close to it was tremendous, the cotton traffic 
 between Manchester and Liverpool had jumped to 
 enormous figures, and men felt that some new method 
 of communication must be found. Robert Fulton's 
 friend, the Duke of Bridge water, had been of some 
 help with his canal system, but the trade quickly out- 
 stripped this service. Then William James, a man of 
 wealth and influence, a large landowner and coal- 
 operator, took up the subject of a Liverpool and Man- 
 chester Railway with some business friends, and had a 
 survey of such a line begun. His men met with every 
 possible resistance from the country people, who had
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 151 
 
 no wish to have " Puffing Billys " racing through their 
 fields ; bogs had to be crossed and hills leveled ; and 
 it soon appeared that the cost of a road would be very 
 expensive. The local authorities gave James and his 
 associates some encouragement, but those members of 
 Parliament he approached were more or less opposed 
 to his plans. The time was not yet quite ripe for the 
 road, but the needs of trade were growing more and 
 more pressing. 
 
 Meantime Mr. Pease was again growing eager to 
 build his Darlington and Stockton line. Near the end 
 of the year 1821 two men called at his house. One in- 
 troduced himself as Nicholas Wood, viewer at Killing- 
 worth, and then presented his companion, George 
 Stephenson, of the same place. Stephenson had letters 
 to Mr. Pease, and after a talk with him, persuaded him to 
 go to the Killingworth Colliery and see his locomotives. 
 Pease was much impressed with the engines he saw 
 there, and even more with Stephenson's ability as a 
 practical engineer. The upshot of the matter was that 
 Pease reported the results of his visit to the directors of 
 his company, and they authorized him to secure 
 Stephenson's services in surveying the line they wished 
 to build. He took up the work, made careful surveys 
 and reports, and was finally directed to build a railway 
 according to his own plans. This he did, working 
 with the best corps of assistants and the most efficient 
 materials he could find. When the line was nearly 
 completed he made a tour of inspection over it with his 
 son and a young man named John Dixon. Dixon 
 later recalled that Stephenson said to the two as they
 
 152 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 came to the end of their trip, " Now, lads, I will tell you 
 that I think you will live to see the day, though I may 
 not live so long, when railways will come to supersede 
 almost all other methods of conveyance in this country 
 when mail coaches will go by railway, and railroads 
 will become the Great Highway for the king and all 
 his subjects. The time is coming when it will be 
 cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway than 
 to walk on foot. I know there are great and almost in- 
 surmountable difficulties that will have to be en- 
 countered ; but what I have said will come to pass as 
 sure as we live." 
 
 In spite of the powerful opposition that the company 
 encountered, and the threats of the road trustees and 
 others, the Stockton and Darlington line was opened 
 for travel on September 27, 1825. A great concourse of 
 people had gathered to see the opening of this first pub- 
 lic railway. Everything went well. Stephenson himself 
 drove the engine, and the train consisted of six wagons, 
 loaded with coal and flour, then a special passenger 
 coach, filled with the directors and their friends, then 
 twenty-one wagons temporarily fitted with seats for 
 passengers, and then six wagons of coal, making 
 thirty-four carriages in all. A contemporary writer 
 says, "The signal being given the engine started off 
 with this immense train of carriages ; and such was its 
 velocity, that in some parts the speed was frequently 
 twelve miles an hour ; and at that time the number of 
 passengers was counted to be four hundred and fifty, 
 which, together with the coals, merchandise, and car- 
 riages, ^vould amount to near ninety tons. The engine,
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 153 
 
 with its load, arrived at Darlington, a distance of eight 
 and three-quarter miles, in sixty-five minutes. The six 
 wagons loaded with coals, intended for Darlington, 
 were then left behind ; and, obtaining a fresh supply of 
 water and arranging the procession to accommodate a 
 band of music, and numerous passengers from Darling- 
 ton, the engine set off again, and arrived at Stockton in 
 three hours and seven minutes, including stoppages, 
 the distance being nearly twelve miles." By the time 
 the train reached Stockton there were about six hundred 
 people riding in the cars or hanging on to them, and 
 the train traveled on a steady average of four to six 
 miles an hour from Darlington. 
 
 This road was primarily built to transport freight, 
 and passengers were in reality an afterthought. But 
 the directors decided to try a passenger coach, and ac- 
 cordingly Stephenson built one. It was an uncouth 
 carriage, looking something like a caravan used at a 
 country fair. The doors were at the ends, a row of 
 seats ran along each side of the interior, and a long 
 deal table extended down the centre. Stephenson 
 called this coach the " Experiment," and in a short time 
 it had become the most popular means of travel be- 
 tween Stockton and Darlington. 
 
 With the' Stockton and Darlington Railway an assured 
 and successful fact, the men who had been interested in 
 building a line between Liverpool and Manchester 
 earlier took up the subject again. Some improvement 
 in the means of communication between the two cities 
 was more needed than ever. The three canals and the 
 turnpike road were often so crowded that traffic was
 
 I 5 4 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 held up for days and even weeks. In addition the 
 canal charges were excessive. On the other hand 
 the railway builders had to meet the opposition of 
 the powerful canal companies and landowners along the 
 line they wished to open, and it took time and inge- 
 nuity to accomplish working adjustments. 
 
 The Liverpool and Manchester Railway bill came up 
 for consideration in the House of Commons early in 
 1825. A determined stand was made against it, and 
 the promoters and their engineers, chief among whom 
 was Stephenson, had to be very modest in their claims. 
 Stephenson had said to friends that he was confident 
 that locomotives could be built that would carry a train 
 of cars at the rate of twenty miles an hour, but such a 
 claim would have been received by the public as ridicu- 
 lous, and the engineer laughed to scorn. His oppo- 
 nents tried to badger him in every way they could, and 
 ridicule even his modest statements. " Suppose now," 
 said one of the members of Parliament in questioning 
 him, " one of these engines to be going along a railroad 
 at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour, and that a cow 
 were to stray upon the line and get in the way of the 
 engine; would not that be a very awkward circum- 
 stance?" "Yes," answered Stephenson, with a twin- 
 kling eye, " very awkward -for the coo ! " 
 
 In fact very few of the members understood Stephen- 
 son's invention at all. A distinguished barrister repre- 
 sented about the general level of ignorance when he 
 said in a speech, " Any gale of wind which would affect 
 the traffic on the Mersey would render it impossible to 
 set off a locomotive engine, either by poking the fire, or
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 155 
 
 keeping up the pressure of the steam till the boiler was 
 ready to burst." Against such opposition it was not 
 surprising that the bill failed of passage that year. 
 
 But the necessities of commerce could not be denied, 
 and the following year the bill came up again, and was 
 passed. Stephenson, as principal engineer of the rail- 
 way, at once began its building. This in itself was a 
 unique and very remarkable feat. An immense bog, 
 called Chat Moss, had to be crossed, and Stephenson 
 was the only one of the engineers concerned who did 
 not doubt whether such a crossing were really possible. 
 Ditches that were dug to drain the bog immediately 
 filled up ; as soon as one part was dug out the bog flowed 
 in again ; it swelled rapidly in rainy weather, and piles 
 driven into it would sink down into the mire. But 
 Stephenson finally built his road across it. A matting 
 of heath and the branches of trees was laid on the bog's 
 surface, and in some places hurdles interwoven with 
 heather ; this floating bed was covered over with a few 
 inches of gravel, and on this the road proper was con- 
 structed. In addition to the crossing of Chat Moss a 
 tunnel of a mile and a half had to be cut under part of 
 Liverpool, and in several places hills had to be leveled 
 or cut through. The old post-roads had never had to 
 solve such problems, and George Stephenson deserves 
 to rank as high as a pioneer of railroad construction as 
 he does as builder of the working locomotive. 
 
 The directors of the railway were anxious to secure 
 the best engine possible, and opened a general compe- 
 tition, naming certain conditions the engine must fulfil. 
 Stephenson and Henry Booth built the " Rocket," and,
 
 156 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 as this was the only engine that fulfilled all the condi- 
 tions, took the prize. The "Rocket" was by far the 
 most perfect locomotive yet built, having many new 
 improvements that Stephenson had recently worked out. 
 
 The "Rocket" would make thirty miles an hour, a 
 wonderful achievement, and was put to work drawing 
 the gravel that was used in building the permanent 
 road across Chat Moss. With the aid of such a pow- 
 erful engine the work went on more rapidly, and in 
 June, 1830, a trial trip was made from Liverpool to 
 Manchester and back. There was a huge gathering 
 at the stations at each end of the line. The train was 
 made up of two carriages, filled with about forty pas- 
 sengers, and seven wagons loaded with stores. The 
 " Rocket " drew this train from Liverpool to Manchester 
 in two hours and one minute, and made the return trip 
 in an hour and a half. It crossed Chat Moss at the 
 rate of about twenty-seven miles an hour. 
 
 The public opening of the new road occurred on 
 September 15, 1830. By that time Stephenson had 
 built eight locomotives, and they were all ready for 
 service. Much of the opposition of the general public 
 had been overcome, and the opening was considered a 
 great national event. The Duke of Wellington, then 
 Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, and many other prom- 
 inent men were present. George Stephenson drove 
 the first engine, the " Northumbrian," and was followed 
 by seven other locomotives and trains, carrying about 
 600 passengers. Stephenson's son drove the second 
 engine, and his brother the third. They started from 
 Liverpool, and the people massed along the line
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 157 
 
 cheered and cheered again as they saw the eight trains 
 speed along at the rate of twenty-four miles an hour. 
 
 Unfortunately an accident occurred about seventeen 
 miles out of Liverpool. The first engine, with the car- 
 riage containing the Duke of Wellington, had been 
 stopped on a siding so that the Duke might review the 
 other trains. Mr. Huskisson, one of the members of 
 Parliament for Liverpool, and a warm friend and sup- 
 porter of Stephenson and the railroad, had stepped 
 from his coach, and was standing on the railway. The 
 Duke called to him, and he crossed over to shake 
 hands. As they grasped hands the bystanders began 
 to cry, " Get in, get in ! " Confused, Mr. Huskisson 
 tried to go around the open door of the carriage, which 
 projected over the opposite rail. As he did so he was 
 hit by the " Rocket," an engine coming up on the other 
 track, was knocked down, and had one leg crushed. 
 That same night he died in the near-by parsonage of 
 Eccles. This first serious railway accident, occurring 
 at the very opening of the line, cast a gloom over the 
 event. It revealed something of the danger coincident 
 with the new invention. The Duke of Wellington and 
 Sir Robert Peel both expressed a wish that the trains 
 should return to Liverpool, but when it was pointed out 
 that a great many people had gathered from all the 
 neighboring country at Manchester, and that to aban- 
 don the opening would jeopardize the whole future 
 success of the road, they agreed to go on. The jour- 
 ney was completed without any further mishap, and 
 the people of Manchester gave the eight trains a warm 
 welcome.
 
 158 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 With the opening of this line the success of the rail- 
 road as a practical means of conveyance became as- 
 sured. ^Singularly enough the builders of the railroad 
 had based their estimates almost entirely on merchan- 
 dise traffic, and had stated to the committee of the 
 House of Commons that they did not expect their pas- 
 senger coaches to be more than half filled. The car- 
 riages they planned to use would have carried 400 to 
 500 persons if full, but the road was hardly open before 
 the company had to provide accommodations to carry 
 1,200 passengers daily, and the receipts from passenger 
 travel immediately far exceeded the receipts from car- 
 rying freight. 
 
 Similarly the directors had expected that the average 
 speed of the locomotives would be about nine or ten 
 miles an hour, but very soon the trains were carrying 
 passengers the entire thirty miles between Liverpool 
 and Manchester in a little more than an hour. Travel 
 by stage-coach had taken at least four hours, so 
 that the railroad reduced the time nearly one-fourth. 
 Engineers who came from a distance to examine the 
 railroad were amazed at the smoothness of travel over 
 it. Two experts from Edinburgh declared that traveling 
 on it was smoother and easier than any they had 
 known over the best turnpikes of Mr. Macadam. They 
 said that even when the train was going at the very high 
 speed of twenty-five miles an hour they " could observe 
 the passengers, among whom were a good many ladies, 
 talking to gentlemen with the utmost sangfroid" 
 
 Business men were delighted at being able to leave 
 Liverpool in the morning, travel to Manchester, do
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 159 
 
 business there, and return home the same afternoon. 
 The price of coal, and the cost of carrying all classes of 
 goods, was tremendously reduced. Another result, 
 which was the opposite of what had been expected, was 
 that the price of land along the line and near the sta- 
 tions at once rose. Instead of the noise and smoke of 
 the trains frightening people away it seemed to charm 
 them. The very landlords who had driven the sur- 
 veyors off their property and done everything they 
 could to hinder the builders now complained if the rail- 
 road did not pass directly through their domains, and 
 begged for stations close at hand. Even the land 
 about Chat Moss was bought up and improved, and 
 all along the line what had been waste stretches began 
 to blossom into towns and villages. 
 
 Stephenson continued to make improvements to his 
 locomotives. He had already added the multitubular 
 boiler, the idea of which was to increase the evapora- 
 tive power of the boiler by adding to its heating sur- 
 face by means of many small tubes filled with water. 
 This increase of evaporative power increased the speed 
 the engine could attain. In his new engine, the " Sam- 
 son," he adopted the plan of coupling the fore and rear 
 wheels of the engine. This more effectually secured 
 the adhesion of the wheels to the rails, and allowed the 
 carrying of heavier loads. He improved the springs 
 of the carriages, and built buffers to prevent the bumping 
 of the carriage ends, which had been very unpleasant 
 for the earliest passengers. He also found a new method 
 of lubricating his carriage axles, his spring frames, the 
 buffers, and the brakes he had built for the trains.
 
 160 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was to be 
 followed rapidly by other lines. George Stephenson 
 was a good man of business as well as a good engineer. 
 He suggested a number of lucrative opportunities to 
 his Liverpool friends, and he took a financial share in 
 some of them himself. He thought there should be a 
 line between Swannington and Leicester, in order to in- 
 crease the coal supply of the latter town, which was 
 quite a manufacturing centre. A company was formed, 
 and his son Robert was appointed engineer. In the 
 course of the work Robert learned that an estate near 
 the road was to be sold, and decided that there was 
 considerable coal there. George Stephenson and two 
 other friends bought the place, and he took up his res- 
 idence there, at Alton Grange, in order to supervise the 
 mining operations. The mine was very successful, and 
 the railroad proved of the greatest value to the people 
 of Leicester. Stephenson now changed his position 
 from that of an employee of coal-owners to that of em- 
 ployer of many miners himself. 
 
 The first railroads to be built were principally 
 branches of the Liverpool and Manchester one, and 
 chiefly located in the mining and manufacturing 
 county of Lancaster. But before long the great metrop- 
 olis of London required railroad communication with 
 the Midlands, and the London and Birmingham road was 
 projected. Here again the promoters had to overcome 
 gigantic obstacles, the opposition of the great landed 
 proprietors who owned vast estates in the neighbor- 
 hood of London, the opposition of the old posting com- 
 panies, and of the conservative element who were afraid
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 161 
 
 of the great changes such a method of transportation 
 would bring about. The natural difficulties of the first 
 lines were increased a hundredfold, greater marshes 
 had to be crossed, greater streams to be bridged, 
 greater hills to be tunneled. But the greater the 
 obstacles the greater Stephenson's resources proved. 
 When some of his tunnels were flooded, because the 
 workmen had cut into an unexpected bed of quicksand, 
 he immediately designed and built a vast system of 
 powerful pumps, and drew off enough water to fill the 
 Thames from London Bridge to Woolwich, so that his 
 workmen might continue the tunnels and line them 
 with masonry sufficiently solid to withstand any future 
 inrush of water. 
 
 The men who were back of this railroad would very 
 probably never have projected it had they realized that 
 the building of it would cost five million pounds. But 
 when the road was opened for use the excess in traffic 
 beyond the estimates was much greater than the excess 
 in cost had been. The company was able to pay large 
 dividends, and the builders found that they could have 
 made no better investment. This London and Bir- 
 mingham road, 112 miles long, was opened September 
 17, 1838. The receipts from passenger traffic alone for 
 the first year were ^608,564. Evidently travel by 
 coach had not been as popular in reality as the conserv- 
 atives had ardently maintained. 
 
 It is curious to note the many kinds of opposition 
 these first railways encountered. Said Mr. Berkeley, 
 a member of Parliament for Cheltenham, " Nothing is 
 more distasteful to me than to hear the echo of our
 
 162 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 hills reverberating with the noise of hissing railroad 
 engines running through the heart of our hunting 
 country, and destroying that noble sport to which I 
 have been accustomed from my childhood." One 
 Colonel Sibthorpe declared that he " would rather 
 meet a highwayman, or see a burglar on his premises, 
 than an engineer; he should be much more safe, 
 and of the two classes he thought the former more 
 respectable ! " Sir Astley Cooper, the eminent sur- 
 geon, said to Robert Stephenson, when the latter 
 called to see him about a new road, " Your scheme 
 is preposterous in the extreme. It is of so extrava- 
 gant a character as to be positively absurd. Then 
 look at the recklessness of your proceedings ! You 
 are proposing to cut up our estates in all directions 
 for the purpose of making an unnecessary road. Do 
 you think for one moment of the destruction of prop- 
 erty involved in it ? Why, gentlemen, if this sort of 
 thing is allowed to go on, you will in a very few 
 years destroy the noblesse ! " Physicians maintained 
 that travel through tunnels would be most prejudi- 
 cial to health. Dr. Lardner protested against passen- 
 gers being compelled to put up with what he called " the 
 destruction of the atmospheric air," and Sir Anthony 
 Carlisle insisted that " tunnels would expose healthy 
 people to colds, catarrhs, and consumption." Many 
 critics expected the boilers of the locomotives to ex- 
 plode at any and all times. Others were sure that 
 the railways would throw so many workmen out of 
 employment that revolution must follow, and still 
 others declared that England was being delivered ut-
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 163 
 
 terly into the power of a small group of manufacturers 
 and mine-owners. But in spite of all this the people 
 took to riding on the railways and England prospered. 
 
 The aristocracy held out the longest. Noblemen 
 did not relish the thought of traveling in the same 
 carriages with workmen. The private coach had 
 for long been a badge of station. For a time, there- 
 fore, the old families and country gentility sent their 
 servants and their luggage by train, but themselves 
 jogged along the old post-roads in the family chariots. 
 But there were more accidents and more delays in 
 travel by coach than by train, and so, one by one, they 
 pocketed their pride and capitulated. The Duke of 
 Wellington, who had seen the accident to Mr. Huskis- 
 son near Liverpool, held out against such travel for a 
 long time. But when Queen Victoria, in 1842, used 
 the railway to go from London to Windsor, the last 
 resistance ended, and the Iron Duke, together with 
 the rest of his order, followed the Queen's example. 
 Said the famous Dr. Arnold of Rugby, as he watched 
 a train speeding through the country, " I rejoice to 
 see it, and think that feudality is gone forever. It is 
 so great a blessing to think that any one evil is really 
 extinct." 
 
 Stephenson himself was one of the busiest men in the 
 kingdom. He was engineer of half a dozen lines that 
 were building, and he traveled incessantly. Many 
 nights the only sleep he had was while sitting in his 
 chaise riding over country roads. At dawn he would 
 be at work, surveying, planning, directing, until night- 
 fall. In three years he surveyed and directed the con-
 
 164 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 struction of the North Midland line, running from 
 Derby to Leeds, the York and North Midland, from 
 Normanton to York, the Manchester and Leeds, the 
 Birmingham and Derby, and the Sheffield and Rother- 
 ham. And in addition to this he traveled far and wide 
 to give advice about distant lines, to the south of Eng- 
 land, to Scotland, and to the north of Ireland to in- 
 spect the proposed Ulster Railway. He took an office 
 in London, in order that he might take part in the 
 railway discussions that were continually coming be- 
 fore Parliament. His knowledge of every detail re- 
 lating to the subject was enormous. He knew both 
 the engineering and the business sides most intimately. 
 " In fact," he said to a committee of the House of 
 Commons in 1841, " there is hardly a railway in Eng- 
 land that I have not had to do with." Yet in spite of 
 all this work he found time to look after his coal 
 mines near Chesterfield, to establish lime-works at Am- 
 bergate, on the Midland Railway, and to superintend 
 his flourishing locomotive factory at Newcastle. 
 
 King Leopold of Belgium invited him to Brussels, 
 and there discussed with him his plans for a railway 
 from Brussels to Ghent. The King made him a Knight 
 of his Order of Leopold, and when the railway was 
 finished George Stephenson was one of the chief 
 guests of honor at the opening. Later he went to 
 France, where he was consulted in regard to the 
 new line that was building between Orleans and 
 Tours. From there he went to Spain to look into the 
 possible construction of a road between Madrid and 
 the Bay of Biscay. He found the government of Spain
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 165 
 
 indifferent to the railway, and there were many doubts 
 as to whether there would be sufficient traffic to pay 
 the cost of construction. His report to the sharehold- 
 ers in this proposed " Royal North of Spain Railway " 
 was therefore unfavorable, and the idea was shortly 
 after abandoned. 
 
 Stephenson had moved his home from Alton Grange 
 to Tapton House in 1838. The latter place was a 
 large, comfortable dwelling, beautifully situated among 
 woods about a mile to the northeast of Chesterfield. 
 Here he lived the life of a country gentleman, free to in- 
 dulge the strong love of nature that had always been 
 one of his leading characteristics. He began to grow 
 fine fruits and vegetables and flowers, and his farm and 
 gardens and hothouses became celebrated all over Eng- 
 land. He was continually sought out by inventors and 
 scientific men, who wanted his views on their particular 
 work. He also spent some time at Tapton in devising 
 improvements for the locomotive. One of these was a 
 three-cylinder locomotive, and such an engine was later 
 used successfully on the North Eastern Railway. It 
 was, however, found to be too expensive an engine for 
 general railroad use. He also invented a new self- 
 acting brake. He sent a model of this to the Institute 
 of Mechanical Engineers at Birmingham, of which he 
 was president, together with a report describing it in 
 full. " Any effectual plan," he wrote, " for increasing 
 the safety of railway traveling is, in my mind, of such 
 vital importance, that I prefer laying my scheme open 
 to the world to taking out a patent for it ; and it will be 
 a source of great pleasure to me to know that it has
 
 166 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 been the means of saving even one human life from 
 destruction, or that it has prevented one serious con- 
 cussion." 
 
 He also gave great assistance to his son Robert, who 
 was rapidly becoming a railway engineer second only to 
 his father in fame. George Stephenson began the line 
 from Chester to Holyhead, which was completed by 
 Robert. Robert designed the tubular bridge across the 
 Menai Straits on this line, which was considered a most 
 remarkable feat. Permission could not be obtained to 
 interfere with the navigation of the Straits in the 
 slightest degree during the building, and so piers and 
 arches could not be used. It occurred to Robert 
 Stephenson that the train might be run through a 
 hollow iron beam. Two tubes, which were to form the 
 bridge, were made of wrought iron, floated out into the 
 stream, and raised into position. This new and original 
 railway bridge proved a success, and convinced Eng- 
 land that Robert had inherited his father's genius for 
 surmounting what seemed impossible natural difficulties. 
 George Stephenson did not live to see this line com- 
 pleted. He died August 12, 1848. 
 
 In many respects Stephenson was like Watt. He 
 came from the working classes, inheriting no special 
 gift for science, and little leisure to follow his own bent. 
 What he learned he got at first hand, in the coal mines 
 and the engine shops. What he accomplished was due 
 largely to indomitable perseverance. Others had built 
 steam-engines that were almost successful as locomotives, 
 but for one reason or another had never pushed their 
 invention to that point where the world could actually
 
 STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE 167 
 
 use it. When Stephenson had built his locomotive he 
 fought for it, he made men take an interest in it, and 
 the world accept it. He always spoke of his career as a 
 battle. " I have fought," said he, " for the locomotive 
 single-handed for nearly twenty years, having no 
 engineer to help me until I had reared engineers under 
 my own care." And again he said, "I put up with 
 every rebuff, determined not to be put down." 
 
 Stephenson did for the locomotive what Watt did for 
 the condensing engine. He took the primitive devices 
 of other men, and by the rare powers of selection, 
 combination, and invention produced a finished product 
 of wonderful power and efficiency. True it is that 
 neither Watt nor Stephenson were the first men to 
 conceive of a steam-engine or a locomotive, nor even 
 the first to build working models, but they were the 
 first to finish what they began, and add the steam- 
 engine and the locomotive to the other servants of men. 
 
 Dr. Arnold was doubtless right when he looked upon 
 the railway as presaging the end of the feudal system. 
 Its value is beyond any estimate. It has widened 
 man's horizon, and given him all the lands instead of 
 only the limits of his homestead.
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 
 
 1791-1872 
 
 ON the packet ship Sully, sailing from the French 
 port of Havre for New York on October i, 1832, were 
 Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, who had been at- 
 tending certain lectures on electricity in Paris, and an 
 American artist named Samuel Finley Breese Morse. 
 Dr. Jackson was intensely interested in electricity, and 
 more especially in some experiments that Faraday had 
 lately been making in regard to it. He had an electro- 
 magnet in his trunk, and one day, as a number of the 
 passengers sat at dinner, he began to describe the laws 
 of electro-magnetism as they were then known. He 
 told how the force of a magnet could be tremendously 
 increased by passing an electric current a number of 
 times about a bar of soft iron. One of the diners asked 
 how far electricity could be transmitted and how fast it 
 traveled. Dr. Jackson answered that it seemed to 
 travel instantaneously, none of the experimenters having 
 detected any appreciable difference in time between the 
 completing of the electric circuit and the appearance 
 of the spark at any distance. Morse, who had been 
 interested in the study of electricity at Yale College, 
 said that if the electric current could be made visible in 
 any part of the circuit he saw no reason why messages
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 169 
 
 could not be sent instantaneously by electricity. To 
 send a message would simply require the breaking of 
 the circuit in such different ways as could be made to 
 represent the letters of the alphabet. The conversation 
 went on to other subjects, but the artist kept the con- 
 clusion he had just stated in mind. That night he 
 walked the deck discussing the matter with Dr. Jackson, 
 and for the rest of the voyage he was busy jotting 
 down suggestions in his note-book and elaborating 
 a plan for transforming breaks in an electric current 
 into letters. 
 
 The facts at his disposal, and his first method of 
 dealing with them, were comparatively simple. The 
 electric current would travel to any distance along a 
 wire. The current being broken, a spark would appear. 
 The spark would stand for one letter. The lack of a 
 spark might stand for another. The length of its 
 absence would indicate another. With these three in- 
 dications as a starting-point he could build up an 
 alphabet. As there was no limit to the distance that 
 electricity would travel there seemed no reason why 
 these dots and dashes, or sparks and spaces, should not 
 be sent all around the world. 
 
 Professor Jeremiah Day had taught Morse at Yale that 
 the electric spark might be made to pierce a band of un- 
 rolling paper. Harrison Gray Dyar, of New York, in 
 1827, had shown that the spark would decompose a 
 chemical solution and so leave a stain as a mark, and it 
 was known that it would excite an electro-magnet, 
 which would move a piece of soft iron, and that if a 
 pencil were attached to this a mark would be made on
 
 170 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 paper. Therefore Morse knew that if he devised his 
 alphabet he had only to choose the best method of in- 
 dicating the dots and dashes by the current. The 
 voyage from Havre to New York occupied six weeks, 
 and during the greater part of this time he was busy 
 working out a mechanical sender which would serve to 
 break the electric current by a series of types set on a 
 stick which should travel at an even rate of speed. 
 The teeth of the type would complete the circuit or 
 would break the current as they passed, and so send 
 the letters. At the receiving end of the line the cur- 
 rent as it was sent would excite the electro-magnet, 
 which would be attached to a pencil, and so make a 
 mark, and each mark would represent one of the 
 symbols that were to stand for letters. He worked 
 day and night over these first plans, and after a few 
 days showed his notes to Mr. William C. Rives, a pas- 
 senger, who had been the United States Minister to 
 France. Mr. Rives made various criticisms, and Morse 
 took these up in turn, and after long study overcame 
 each one, so that by the end of the voyage he felt that 
 he had worked out a practical method of making the 
 electric current send and receive messages. 
 
 At a later date a contest arose as to the respective 
 claims of Samuel Morse and Dr. Jackson to be con- 
 sidered the inventor of the recording telegraph, and 
 the evidence of their fellow passengers on board the 
 Sully was given in great detail. From all that was 
 then said it would appear that Dr. Jackson knew quite 
 as much, if not more, about the properties of electro- 
 magnetism than Morse did, but that he was of a
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 171 
 
 speculative turn of mind, whereas Morse was practical, 
 and capable of reducing the other's theories to a work- 
 ing basis. The note-books he submitted, and which 
 were well remembered by many of his fellow voyagers, 
 showed the various combinations of dots, lines, and 
 spaces with which he was constructing an alphabet, and 
 also the crude diagrams of the recording instrument 
 which should mark the dots and lines on a rolling piece 
 of paper. Captain Pell, in command of the Sully, 
 testified later, that as the packet came into port Morse 
 said to him, " Well, Captain, should you hear of the 
 telegraph one of these days as the wonder of the world, 
 remember that the discovery was made on board the 
 good ship Sully." The times were ripe for his great 
 invention, and although other men, abler scientists and 
 students, had foreseen the possibilities of such a system, 
 it was Morse who determined to put it into practice. 
 
 But Samuel Morse was a painter, and all his career 
 thus far had lain along artistic lines. True, when he 
 was an undergraduate at Yale he had been much in- 
 terested in Professor Day's lectures on electricity, and 
 had written long letters home in regard to them. But 
 when he was about to graduate, he wrote to his father, 
 a well-known clergyman of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 
 " I am now released from college, and am attending to 
 painting. As to my choice of a profession, I still think 
 I was made for a painter, and would be obliged to you 
 to make such arrangements with Mr. Allston for my 
 studying with him as you shall think expedient. I 
 should desire to study with him during the winter ; and, 
 as he expects to return to England in the spring, I
 
 I 7 2 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 should admire to be able to go with him. But of this 
 we will talk when we meet at home." 
 
 Washington Allston was at that time the leading in- 
 fluence in the primitive art life of the country, and 
 Morse was very fortunate to have won his friendship 
 and interest Allston took him to England, and there 
 introduced him to Benjamin West, the dean of painters 
 and a man who was always eager to aid young coun- 
 trymen of his who planned to follow his career. 
 Morse made a careful drawing of the Farnese Hercules 
 and took it to West. The veteran examined it and 
 handed it back, saying, " Now finish it." Morse worked 
 over it some time longer, and returned it to West. 
 "Very well, indeed, sir," said West. "Go on and 
 finish it." " Is it not finished ? " asked Morse. " See," 
 said West, " you have not marked that muscle, nor the 
 articulation of the finger-joints." Again Morse worked 
 over it, and again returned, only to meet with the same 
 counsel to complete the picture. Then the older man re- 
 lented. " Well, I have tried you long enough," said he. 
 " Now, sir, you have learned more by this drawing than 
 you would have accomplished in double the time by a 
 dozen half-finished beginnings. It is not many draw- 
 ings, but the character of one which makes a thorough 
 draughtsman. Finish one picture, sir, and you are a 
 painter." 
 
 Morse now decided to paint a large picture of " The 
 Dying Hercules " for exhibition at the Royal Academy. 
 In order to be sure of the anatomy he first modeled 
 the figure in clay, and this cast was so well done that, 
 acting on West's advice, he entered it for a prize in
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 173 
 
 sculpture then offered by the Society of Arts. This 
 entry won, and the young American was presented 
 with the gold medal of the society before a distin- 
 guished audience. The picture that he painted from 
 this model was hung at the exhibition of the Royal 
 Academy, and received high praise from the critics, so 
 that Morse felt he had begun his career as artist most 
 auspiciously. 
 
 His natural inclination was toward the painting of 
 large canvases dealing with historical and mythical 
 subjects, which were much in fashion at that period, 
 and he now set to work on the subject, " The Judgment 
 of Jupiter in the case of Apollo, Marpessa, and Idas." 
 This was to be submitted for the prize of fifty guineas 
 and medal offered by the Royal Academy. It seems 
 to have been a fine piece of work, and met with West's 
 hearty praise, but before it could be submitted the artist 
 was obliged to return home at an urgent summons 
 from his father. 
 
 Boston had already heard of Morse's success in 
 London when he reached home in October, 1815. His 
 " Judgment of Jupiter " was exhibited, and became the 
 talk of the town, but when he opened a studio and 
 began to paint no one offered to buy any of his pictures. 
 He needed money badly, and he saw none coming his 
 way. After a year's struggle he closed his studio, and 
 traveled through the country sections of New England, 
 looking for work as a portrait painter. This he found, 
 and he wrote to his parents from Concord, New Hamp- 
 shire, "I have painted five portraits at $15 each, and 
 have two more engaged and many talked of. I think
 
 I 74 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 I shall get along- well. I believe I could make an inde- 
 pendent fortune in a few years if I devoted myself ex- 
 clusively to portraits, so great is the desire for good 
 portraits in the different country towns." 
 
 In Concord he met Miss Lucretia P. Walker, whom 
 he married a few years later. Meantime he went to 
 visit his uncle in Charleston, South Carolina, and found 
 his portraits so popular that he received one hundred 
 and fifty orders in a few weeks. He was also com- 
 missioned to paint a portrait of James Monroe, then 
 President, for the Charleston Common Council, and the 
 picture was considered a striking masterpiece. He 
 soon after married, and settled his household goods in 
 New York, with $3,000 made by his portraits, as his 
 capital. 
 
 He knew what he wanted to do, to paint great his- 
 torical pictures. But the public did not appreciate his 
 efforts in that line. He painted a large exhibition 
 picture for the National House of Representatives, but 
 it was not purchased by the government. On the 
 other hand the Corporation of New York commissioned 
 him to paint the portrait of Lafayette, who was then 
 visiting America. At the same time he became en- 
 thusiastic over the founding of a new society of artists, 
 and was chosen the first president of the National 
 Academy of Design. 
 
 His small capital was dwindling. His efforts to paint 
 historical pictures rather than portraits, and his share 
 in paying off certain debts of his father's, had made 
 great inroads on the money he had saved. To add to 
 his misfortunes his wife died in February, 1825. In 1829
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 175 
 
 he went abroad, visited the great galleries of Europe, 
 and tried to find a more ready market for his historical 
 studies. It was on his return from France in 1832 that 
 the conversation of Dr. Jackson and the other pas- 
 sengers turned his thoughts in the direction of an elec- 
 tric telegraph. 
 
 Now came his gradual transformation from painter 
 to inventor. His brothers gave him a room with them 
 in New York, and this became his studio and labora- 
 tory at one and the same time. Easels and plaster- 
 casts were mixed with type-moulds and galvanic bat- 
 teries, and Morse turned from a portrait to his working 
 model of telegraph transmitter and back again a dozen 
 times a day. He painted to make his living, but his 
 interest was steadily turning to his invention. 
 
 He had many friends, and a wide reputation as a 
 man of great intellectual ability, and in a few years he 
 was appointed the first Professor of the Literature of 
 the Arts of Design in the new University of the City of 
 New York. This gave him a home in the university 
 building on Washington Square, and there he moved 
 his apparatus. At this time he was chiefly concerned 
 with the question of how far a message could be sent 
 by the electric current, for it was known that the cur- 
 rent grew feebler in proportion to the resistance of the 
 wire through which it travels. He had learned that 
 the electro-magnet at the receiving end would at any 
 great distance become so enfeebled that it would fail to 
 make any record of the message. His solution of this 
 difficulty was a relay system. He explained this to 
 Professor Gale, a colleague at the university, who
 
 j;6 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 later testified as to Morse's work. " Suppose," said 
 the inventor, " that in experimenting on twenty miles 
 of wire we should find that the power of magnetism is 
 so feeble that it will not move a lever with certainty a 
 hair's breadth : that would be insufficient, it may be, 
 to write or print ; yet it would be sufficient to close 
 and break another or a second circuit twenty miles 
 farther, and this second circuit could be made, in the 
 same manner, to break and close a third circuit twenty 
 miles farther, and so on around the globe." Gale 
 proved of great assistance. So far Morse had only 
 used his recorder over a few yards of wire, his electro- 
 magnet had been of the simplest make, and his battery 
 was a single pair of plates. Gale suggested that his 
 simple electro-magnet, with its few turns of thick wire, 
 should be replaced by one with a coil of long thin wire. 
 In this way a much feebler current would be able to 
 excite the magnet, and the recorder would mark at a 
 much greater distance. He also urged the use of a 
 much more powerful battery. The two men now 
 erected a working telegraph in the rooms of the 
 university, and found that they could send and receive 
 messages at will. 
 
 It is interesting to read Morse's own words in regard 
 to the beginning of his work at Washington Square. 
 11 There," he said, " I immediately commenced, with 
 very limited means, to experiment upon my invention. 
 My first instrument was made up of an old picture or 
 canvas frame fastened to a table ; the wheels of an old 
 wooden clock, moved by a weight to carry the paper 
 forward ; three wooden drums, upon one of which the
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 177 
 
 paper was wound and passed over the other two ; a 
 wooden pendulum suspended to the top piece of the 
 picture or stretching frame and vibrating across the 
 paper as it passed over the centre wooden drum ; a 
 pencil at the lower end of the pendulum, in contact with 
 the paper ; an electro-magnet fastened to a shelf across 
 the picture or stretching frame, opposite to an arma- 
 ture made fast to the pendulum ; a type rule and type 
 for breaking the circuit, resting on an endless band, 
 composed of carpet-binding, which passed over two 
 wooden rollers moved by a wooden crank. 
 
 " Up to the autumn of 1837 my telegraphic apparatus 
 existed in so rude a form that I felt a reluctance to have 
 it seen. My means were very limited so limited as to 
 preclude the possibility of constructing an apparatus of 
 such mechanical finish as to warrant my success in 
 venturing upon its public exhibition. I had no wish to 
 expose to ridicule the representative of so many hours 
 of laborious thought. Prior to the summer of 1837, at 
 which time Mr. Alfred Vail's attention became attracted 
 to my telegraph, I depended upon my pencil for sub- 
 sistence. Indeed, so straightened were my circum- 
 stances that, in order to save time to carry out my 
 invention and to economize my scanty means, I had 
 for many months lodged and eaten in my studio, pro- 
 curing my food in small quantities from some grocery 
 and preparing it myself. To conceal from my friends 
 the stinted manner in which I lived, I was in the habit 
 of bringing my food to my room in the evenings, and 
 this was my mode of life for many years." 
 
 Before he devoted all his time to his invention Morse
 
 i;8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 had been anxious to paint a large historical picture for 
 one of the panels in the rotunda of the Capitol at 
 Washington. His offer had been rejected, and this 
 had led a number of his friends to raise a fund and 
 commission him to paint such a picture. He chose as 
 his subject " The Signing of the First Compact on 
 Board the Mayflower" But he was now so much en- 
 grossed with his experiments that he gave up the plan 
 and the fund was returned to the subscribers. 
 
 We have already heard in Morse's statement of the 
 arrival of Mr. Alfred Vail. He was to have much to 
 do with the success of Morse's invention. He had 
 happened to call at the university building when the 
 inventor was showing his models to several visiting 
 scientists. " Professor Morse," said Mr. Vail, " was 
 exhibiting to these gentlemen an apparatus which he 
 called his Electro-Magnetic Telegraph. There were 
 wires suspended in the room running from one end of 
 it to the other, and returning many times, making a 
 length of several hundred feet. The two ends of the 
 wire were connected with an electro-magnet fastened 
 to a vertical wooden frame. In front of the magnet 
 was its armature, and also a wooden lever or arm fitted 
 at its extremity to hold a lead pencil. ... I saw 
 this instrument work, and became thoroughly acquainted 
 with the principle of its operation, and, I may say, 
 struck with the rude machine, containing, as I believed, 
 the germ of what was destined to produce great changes 
 in the conditions and relations of mankind. I well 
 recollect the impression which was then made upon 
 my mind. . . . Before leaving the room in which
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 179 
 
 I beheld for the first time this magnificent invention, I 
 asked Professor Morse if he intended to make an ex- 
 periment on a more extended line of conductors. He 
 replied that he did, but that he desired pecuniary as- 
 sistance to carry out his plans. I promised him assist- 
 ance provided he would admit me into a share of the 
 invention, to which proposition he assented. . . . 
 The question then arose in my mind, whether the elec- 
 tro-magnet could be made to work through the neces- 
 sary lengths of line, and after much reflection I came 
 to the conclusion that, provided the magnet would 
 work even at a distance of eight or ten miles, there 
 could be no risk in embarking in the enterprise. And 
 upon this I decided in my own mind to sink or swim 
 with it." 
 
 Alfred Vail secured his father's financial assistance, 
 and in September, 1837, an agreement was executed by 
 which Vail was to construct a model of Morse's tele- 
 graph for exhibition to Congress, and to secure the 
 necessary United States patents, in return for which he 
 was to have a one-fourth interest in these patent rights. 
 The patent was obtained on October 3, 1837, and Vail 
 set to work to prepare the new models. Almost all the 
 apparatus that was used had to be specially made for the 
 purpose, or altered from its original use. The first work- 
 ing battery was placed in a cherry-wood box divided into 
 cells and lined with beeswax, and the insulated wire was 
 the same as that the milliners used in building up the 
 high bonnets fashionable at that day. Vail made cer- 
 tain improvements as he worked on his model. He 
 replaced the recording pencil with a fountain pen, and
 
 180 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 instead of the zigzag signals used the short and long 
 lines that came to be called " dots" and " dashes." He 
 learned from the typesetters of a newpaper office what 
 letters occurred most frequently in ordinary usage, 
 and constructed the Morse or Vail code on the prin- 
 ciple of using the simplest signals to represent those 
 letters that would be most needed. 
 
 By the winter of 1837 many people had seen the tele- 
 graph instruments at the university building, but few 
 of them considered them more than ingenious toys. 
 Scientific men had talked of the possibilities of an elec- 
 tric telegraph for a number of years, but the public had 
 seen none actually installed. Even Vail's father began 
 to doubt the wisdom of his son's investment. To con- 
 vince him the young man, on January 6, 1838, asked his 
 father to come to the experimenting shop where Morse 
 and he were working. He explained how the model 
 operated, and said that he could send any message to 
 Morse, who was stationed some distance away at the 
 receiving end. The father took a piece of paper, and 
 wrote on it, "A patient waiter is no loser." " There," 
 said he, " if you can send this, and Mr. Morse can read 
 it at the other end I shall be convinced." The message 
 was sent over the wire, and correctly read by Morse. 
 Then Mr. Vail admitted that he was satisfied. 
 
 Morse now decided to bring his invention to the at- 
 tention of Congress. He was permitted to set up his 
 apparatus in the room of the House Committee on 
 Commerce at the Capitol. There he gave an exhibi- 
 tion to the committee, but most of them doubted if his 
 plans for sending long-distance messages were really
 
 MORSE AND THE FIRST TELEGRAPH
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 181 
 
 feasible. On February 21, 1838, he worked his tele- 
 graph through ten miles of wire contained on a reel, 
 with President Van Buren and his cabinet as an audi- 
 ence. Then he asked that Congress appropriate 
 sufficient money to enable him to construct a telegraph 
 line between Washington and Baltimore. The chair- 
 man of the Committee on Commerce, Francis O. J. 
 Smith, of Maine, was very much interested by now, 
 and drafted a bill appropriating $30,000 for this pur- 
 pose. But the bill did not come to a vote, and the 
 matter was allowed to drop. 
 
 Meantime rival claimants to the invention were ap- 
 pearing on all sides. Morse decided that he must try 
 to secure European patents, and went abroad for that 
 purpose. His claim was opposed in England, and in 
 France it was finally decided that in the case of such 
 an invention the government must be the owner. He 
 was well received, and given the fullest credit for his 
 achievements, but the patents were refused, and he had 
 to return home with his small capital much depleted 
 and business prospects at a low ebb. Moreover, the 
 United States government now seemed to have lost in- 
 terest in the subject, and his partners, the Vails, were 
 having financial difficulties of their own. 
 
 While he waited he continued to experiment. He 
 believed that the electric current could be sent under 
 water as easily as through the air, and to try this he 
 insulated a wire two miles long with hempen threads 
 that were saturated with pitch-tar and wrapped with 
 India-rubber. He unreeled this cable from a small row- 
 boat between Castle Garden and Governor's Island in
 
 182 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 New York Harbor on the night of October 18, 1842. 
 At daybreak Morse was at the station at the Battery, 
 and began to send a message through his submarine 
 cable. He had succeeded in sending three or four 
 characters when the communication suddenly stopped, 
 and although he waited and kept on with his trials no 
 further letters could be transmitted. On investigation 
 it appeared that no less than seven ships were lying 
 along the line of Morse's cable, and that one of these, 
 in getting under way, had lifted the cable on her 
 anchor. The sailors hauled two hundred feet of it on 
 deck, and, seeing no end to it, cut it, and carried part of 
 it away with them. But the test had proved Morse's 
 theory, and he became convinced that in time messages 
 could be sent across the ocean as easily as over land. 
 When Congress met in December, 1842, Morse again 
 appeared in Washington to obtain financial help. Con- 
 gress was not very enthusiastic over his project, but the 
 House Committee on Commerce finally recommended 
 an appropriation of $30,000, and a bill to that effect 
 was passed in the House of Representatives by the 
 small majority of six votes. The Senate was over- 
 crowded with bills, and Morse's was continually post- 
 poned. In the early evening of the last day of the 
 session there were one hundred and nineteen bills to 
 come to vote before his, and it seemed impossible that 
 it should be taken up. Morse, who had been sitting in 
 the gallery all day, concluded that further waiting was 
 useless, and went back to his hotel, planning to leave 
 for New York early the next morning. He found that 
 after paying his hotel bill he would have less than half
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 183 
 
 a dollar in the world. But as he came down to break- 
 fast the following morning he was met by Miss Ells- 
 worth, the daughter of his friend, the Commissioner of 
 Patents. She held out her hand, saying, " I have come 
 to congratulate you." 
 
 " Congratulate me ! Upon what?" asked Morse. 
 
 " On the passage of your bill," she answered. 
 
 " Impossible ! It couldn't come up last evening. You 
 must be mistaken," said the inventor. 
 
 " No," said Miss Ellsworth, " father sent me to tell 
 you that your bill was passed. He remained until the 
 session closed, and yours was the last bill but one 
 acted upon, and it was passed just five minutes before 
 the adjournment." 
 
 In return for this news Morse promised that Miss 
 Ellsworth should send the first message when his tele- 
 graph line was opened. That same day he wrote to 
 Alfred Vail that the bill " was reached a few minutes 
 before midnight and passed. This was the turning 
 point in the history of the telegraph. My personal 
 funds were reduced to the fraction of a dollar, and, 
 had the passage of the bill failed from any cause, there 
 would have been little prospect of another attempt on 
 my part to introduce to the world my new invention." 
 
 It had been decided to construct an underground 
 line between Washington and Baltimore, the conductor 
 being a five-wire cable laid in pipes, but after several 
 miles had been laid from Baltimore the insulation broke 
 down. A very large part of the government grant 
 had been spent, and the situation looked very dubious. 
 But after some discussion it was determined to carry
 
 184 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 the wire by poles, as this could be done much more 
 rapidly and at smaller expense. 
 
 The National Whig Convention, to nominate candi- 
 dates for President and Vice- President, met at Baltimore 
 on May i, 1844. The overhead wire had been started 
 from Washington toward Baltimore, and by that day 
 twenty-two miles of it were in working order. The 
 day before the convention met Morse had arranged 
 with Vail that certain signals should mean that certain 
 candidates had been nominated. Henry Clay was 
 named for President, and the news was carried by rail- 
 road to the point where Morse had stretched his wire. 
 He signaled it to Washington, and the Capitol heard 
 it long before the first messages arrived by train. 
 
 On May 24, 1844, the line was completed, and Miss 
 Ellsworth was invited to send the first message from 
 the room of the United States Supreme Court to Balti- 
 more. She chose the Biblical words " What hath God 
 wrought?" and this was sent over the telegraph. Vail 
 received the message in Baltimore, and the first demon- 
 stration was a complete success. The younger man 
 had added an improvement of his own ; instead of the 
 dots and dashes being indicated by the markings of a 
 pen or pencil they were embossed on the paper with a 
 metal stylus. 
 
 An incident in connection with the Democratic Con- 
 vention, which was then in session in Baltimore for the 
 purpose of nominating presidential candidates, added 
 to the public interest in Morse's telegraph. The Demo- 
 crats had named James K. Polk for President and Silas 
 Wright for Vice-President. The news was sent by
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 185 
 
 wire to Washington, and Mr. Wright sent his message 
 declining the honor over the telegraph. The chairman 
 of the meeting, Hendrick B. Wright, received the 
 message. In a letter to Benson J. Lossing he says, 
 " As the presiding officer of the body I read the des- 
 patch, but so incredulous were the members as to the 
 authority of the evidence before them that the con- 
 vention adjourned over to the following day to await 
 the report of the committee sent over to Washington 
 to get reliable information on the subject." The com- 
 mittee returned with word that the telegraph message 
 had been correct. Then, all but the convention com- 
 mittee being excluded from the telegraph room in 
 Baltimore, message after message was sent over the 
 wire by Vail to Morse and Silas Wright in Washing- 
 ton. The committee used many arguments to urge 
 Wright's acceptance ; he answered them all, persisting 
 in his refusal ; and finally this decision was reported to 
 the convention, which nominated Mr. Dallas in his 
 place. The story of the part the new invention had 
 played quickly spread abroad, and added to the intense 
 public interest now focussed on it. 
 
 On April i, 1845, the first telegraph line between 
 Washington and Baltimore was opened for general 
 use. Congress had appropriated $8,000 to maintain it 
 for the first year, and placed it under the direction of 
 the Postmaster- General. The official charge was one 
 cent for every four characters transmitted. The re- 
 ceipts of the first four days were one cent, for the fifth 
 day twelve and a half cents, for the seventh sixty cents, 
 for the eighth one dollar and thirty-two cents, for the
 
 1 86 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 ninth one dollar and four cents. Morse offered to sell 
 his invention to the government for $100,000, but the 
 Postmaster-General declined the offer, stating in his 
 report that the service " had not satisfied him that under 
 any rate of postage that could be adopted its revenues 
 could be made equal to its expenditures." 
 
 With the public opening of the line between Wash- 
 ington and Baltimore the practical success of the new 
 electric telegraph was assured. The Magnetic Tele- 
 graph Company was formed to carry a wire from New 
 York to Philadelphia, and thence another line was run 
 to Baltimore in 1846. The telegraph being an ac- 
 complished fact, pirates of the patent now appeared, 
 and for a course of years Morse and his partners had 
 to fight for their rights. Henry O'Reilly, who had 
 been employed in building the first lines, contracted to 
 construct another from Philadelphia to St. Louis, and 
 when that was finished he formed a company known 
 as the People's Line, to run to New Orleans. He 
 claimed to use instruments entirely different from those 
 patented by Morse, and so to be free from the payment 
 of royalties. Morse applied for an injunction, and on 
 appeal the Federal Supreme Court decided in his 
 favor. Other similar suits followed, and in each one 
 the decision justified Morse's contention. The con- 
 clusion was that even though other men had known of 
 the possibilities by experiment, it was the fact that he 
 had first put the matter into practical form directed 
 toward a specific purpose, and hence was to be regarded 
 in law as the inventor. 
 
 The telegraph grew with the country. The Western
 
 MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 187 
 
 Union Company followed the stage-coach across the 
 plains to California, and soon the frontier towns were 
 linked to the large cities of the East. Other men took 
 up the work in other lines, and in 1854 Cyrus W. Field 
 formed the Atlantic Telegraph Company to lay a cable 
 between America and Europe. As Morse had said 
 when he first began seriously to study the subject on 
 board the Sully, "If it will go ten miles without stop- 
 ping I can make it go around the globe." 
 
 The inventor found himself universally honored, and 
 at last a very wealthy man. He married Miss Griswold 
 of Poughkeepsie, and bought an estate of two hundred 
 acres near that city. He was given degrees by Ameri- 
 can and European universities and societies, was 
 made a member of the French Legion of Honor, re- 
 ceived orders of knighthood from the rulers of Spain 
 and Italy, Denmark, Turkey, and Portugal. In 1858 
 the Emperor of the French called a Congress in Paris 
 to honor Morse, and the Congress awarded him a gift 
 of 400,000 francs as a token of gratitude. In his 
 eightieth year his statue in bronze was placed in 
 Central Park, New York, and his countrymen did their 
 utmost to show him their appreciation of his great 
 achievement. He died in 1872, a short time after he 
 had unveiled a statue of Benjamin Franklin in New 
 York's Printing-house Square. 
 
 Morse was the inventor, but his partner Alfred Vail 
 had a great share in making the present telegraph. 
 He discarded the original porte-rule and type of the 
 transmitter for the key or lever, moved up and down 
 by hand to complete or break the circuit. He perfected
 
 188 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 the dot and dash code, he invented the device for 
 embossing the message, and replaced the inking pen 
 by a metal disc, smeared with ink, that rolled the dots 
 and dashes on the paper. When it was found that the 
 telegraph operators would read the signals from the 
 clicking of the marking lever instead of from the paper, 
 he made an instrument which had no marking device, 
 and in which the signals were sounded by the striking 
 of the lever of the armature against the metal stops. 
 This " sounder " soon drove out the old Morse recorder. 
 The present instrument is in its mechanical form far 
 more the work of Vail than of Morse.
 
 XI 
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 
 1809-1884 
 
 THE same sturdy pioneer stock that gave America 
 Daniel Boone and Lincoln, Robert Fulton and Andrew 
 Jackson, produced the inventor of the reaper. He 
 came of a line of resourceful, fearless Scotch-Irish 
 settlers, bone of the bone and sinew of the sinew of 
 those generations that laid the broad foundations of the 
 United States. His great-grandfather had been an 
 Indian fighter in the colony of Pennsylvania, his grand- 
 father had moved to Virginia and fought in the Revolu- 
 tion, and his father had built a log-house and tilled a 
 farm in that strip of arable Virginia land that lay be- 
 tween the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains. 
 He prospered, and added neighboring farms to his 
 original holding ; he had two grist-mills, two sawmills, a 
 blacksmith shop, a smel ting-furnace, and a distillery ; 
 he invented new makes of farm machinery, and in 
 addition was a man of considerable reading, able to 
 hold his own in discussion with the lawyers and the 
 clergymen of the countryside. He was of that same 
 well-developed type of countryman of whom so many 
 were to be found in the thirteen original states and the 
 borderlands to the west, that settler type which was the 
 real backbone of the young country.
 
 190 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 The McCormick house and farm was almost a small 
 village in itself. There were eight children, and their 
 shoes were cobbled, their clothes woven, their very beds 
 and chairs and tables built at home. Whatever was 
 needed could be done, the family were always busy 
 within doors or without, and the spirit of helpfulness 
 and invention was in the air. Into such a setting 
 Cyrus Hall McCormick was born in 1809, the same 
 year that saw the birth of Lincoln. 
 
 He went to one of the Old Field Schools, so called 
 because it was built on ground that had been abandoned 
 for farm use. He learned what other boys and girls 
 were learning in simple country schools, but he 
 studied harder than most of them, because he had a 
 keen desire to understand thoroughly whatever subject 
 he started. He saw his father busy in his workshop at 
 all spare moments, and he took him as a pattern. 
 After weeks of work he brought his teacher a remarkably 
 exact map of the world, drawn to scale, and outlined 
 in ink on paper pasted on linen, and fastened on two 
 rollers. The work showed his ingenious fancy, and 
 perhaps determined his father to have him educated as 
 a surveyor. At eighteen he began this study, and had 
 soon won a good reputation in the neighborhood as an 
 engineer. Much of the time he spent in the fields with 
 his father, and here he soon learned that reaping wheat 
 was no easy task, and that swinging a wheat cradle 
 under the summer sun was hard on both the temper 
 and the back. 
 
 Many men had tried to lighten the farmer's labor in 
 cutting grain, and Cyrus McCormick's father had long
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 191 
 
 had the ambition to invent a reaper. He had succeeded 
 in building a cumbersome machine that was pushed at 
 the back by a pair of horses. The plan of the machine 
 was well enough ; it consisted of a row of short curved 
 sickles that were fastened to upright posts. Revolving 
 rods drove the wheat up against the sickles. The 
 machine acted properly, but the grain would not. In- 
 stead of standing up straight and separated to be cut 
 the wheat would more often come in great bunches, 
 twisting about the sickles and getting tangled in the 
 machinery. Mr. McCormick tried the machine in 
 the harvesting of 1816, but it would not work, and had 
 to be carted away to the workshop as an invention 
 gone wrong. But he persevered with this idea, and 
 from time to time built other models. After a number 
 of years he brought forth a machine that would cut, but 
 left the wheat after cutting in a badly tangled shape. 
 He saw that this was not sufficient. The reaper to be 
 of real use must dispose of the grain properly as well 
 as shear the stalks. 
 
 Cyrus now took up the work that his father reluc- 
 tantly abandoned. He decided to build his reaper on 
 entirely new lines. First he dealt with the problem of 
 how to separate the grain that was to be cut from that 
 which was to be left standing. This he finally solved 
 by adding a curved arm, or divider, to the end of his 
 reaper's blade. In this way the grain that was to be 
 cut would be properly fed to the knife. 
 
 But the grain was apt to be badly tangled before 
 the reaper reached it, and his machine must be able to 
 cut that which was pressed down and out of shape as
 
 I 9 2 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 well as that which was standing straight. To accom- 
 plish this he decided that his knife must have two 
 motions, one a forward cut, and the other sideways. 
 He tried many plans before he finally hit upon one 
 that solved this for him. It was a straight knife blade 
 that moved forward and backward, cutting with each 
 motion. This idea became known as the reciprocating 
 blade. 
 
 Yet even though the machine could divide the grain 
 properly, and the knife cut with a double motion, there 
 was the possibility that the blade might simply press 
 the grain down and so slide over it. This was espe- 
 cially apt to be the case after a rain, or when the grain 
 had been badly blown about by the wind. The prob- 
 lem now was how to hold it upright. He found the 
 solution lay in adding a row of indentations that pro- 
 jected a few inches from the edge of the knife, and 
 acted like fingers in catching the stalks and holding 
 them in place to be cut 
 
 These three ideas, the divider, the reciprocating 
 blade, and the fingers, were all fundamental devices of 
 the machine Cyrus McCormick was building. They 
 all met the question of how the grain could be cut. 
 To these he next added a revolving reel, that would 
 lift any grain that had fallen and straighten it, and a 
 platform to catch the grain as it was cut and fell. His 
 idea was that a man should walk along beside the 
 reaper and rake off the grain as it fell upon the plat- 
 form. 
 
 Two more devices, and his first machine was com- 
 pleted. One was to have the shafts placed on the out-
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 193 
 
 side of the reaper, or so that the horse would pull it 
 sideways, instead of having to push it, as had been the 
 case with his father's model. The other was to have 
 the whole machine practically operated by one big 
 wheel, which should bear the weight and move the 
 knife and the reel. 
 
 It had taken young McCormick many months to 
 work out all these problems, and there were only one 
 or two weeks each year, the harvest weeks, when he 
 could actually try his machine. He wanted to use it 
 in the spring of 1831, but he found that the work of 
 finishing all the necessary details was enormous. He 
 begged his father to leave a small patch of wheat for 
 him to try to cut, and at last, one day in July of that 
 year, he drove his cumbersome machine into the field. 
 All his family watched as the reaper headed toward 
 the grain. They saw the wheat gathered and swept 
 down upon the knife, they saw the blade move back 
 and forth and cut the grain, and then saw it fall upon 
 the little platform. The machine worked with hitches, 
 not nearly so smoothly nor so efficiently as it should, 
 but it did work ; it gathered the grain in and it left it in 
 good shape to be raked off the platform. The trial 
 proved that such a machine could be made to do the 
 work, and that was all that the inventor wanted. 
 
 He drove it back to his workshop and made certain 
 changes in the reel and the divider. Then, several 
 days later, he drove it over to the little settlement at 
 Steele's Tavern, and cut six acres of oats in one after- 
 noon. That was a marvelous feat, and caused great 
 wonder in the countryside, but the harvesting season
 
 I 9 4 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 had ended, and the inventor would have to wait a year 
 before he could prove the use of his machine again. 
 
 By the next year McCormick was ready for a larger 
 audience. The town of Lexington lay some eighteen 
 miles south of his home, and he made arrangements 
 with a farmer there, named John Ruff, to give an exhi- 
 bition of his reaper in the latter's field. Over a hundred 
 people were present when McCormick arrived, all 
 curious to see what could be done with the complicated- 
 looking machine. Many of them were harvesters 
 themselves, and none too eager to see a mechanical 
 device enter into competition for their work. The field 
 was hilly and rough, and the reaper careened about in 
 it like a ship in a gale. The farmer grew indignant, 
 and protested that McCormick would ruin all his 
 wheat, and the laborers began to jeer and joke at the 
 machine's expense. The exhibition gave every sign 
 of proving a failure when one of the spectators called 
 out that he owned the next field and would be glad to 
 give McCormick a chance there. This field was level, 
 and the young man quickly turned his reaper into it. 
 Before sunset he had cut six acres of wheat, and con- 
 vinced his audience that his machine was a great im- 
 provement over the old method. That evening he 
 drove the reaper to the court-house square and ex- 
 plained its working to the towns people. Very few of 
 them saw how it was to revolutionize the farmer's labor, 
 but one or two did. Professor Bradshaw, of the local 
 academy, studied the machine, and then stated publicly 
 that in his opinion, " This machine is worth a hundred 
 thousand dollars."
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 195 
 
 But if Cyrus McCormick had been fortunate in grow- 
 ing up on a farm where he could study the problem of 
 cutting grain at first hand he was now to find that he 
 was not so fortunate when it came to building other 
 reapers and marketing them. His home was four days' 
 travel from Richmond. He must have money to get 
 the iron for his machines, to advertise, and to pay 
 agents to try to sell them. He had very little money. 
 He did advertise in the Lexington Union in September, 
 1833, offering reapers for sale at fifty dollars ; but there 
 were no answers to his advertisements. So skeptical 
 were the farmers that it was seven years before one 
 bought a reaper of him. But he had faith enough in 
 his invention to take out a patent on it in 1834. 
 
 Until now McCormick had depended on the farm 
 for his livelihood, but there was little profit in this, and 
 he turned his attention to a deposit of iron ore in the 
 neighborhood, and built a furnace and began to make 
 iron. This succeeded until the panic of 1837 reached 
 the Virginia country and brought debt and lowered 
 prices with it. Cyrus surrendered his farm and what 
 other property he had to his creditors. None of them 
 was sufficiently interested in the crude reaper to con- 
 sider it worth taking. 
 
 But the inventor hung on to his faith in this machine, 
 although no one appeared to buy it, and the expense 
 he had gone to in making it had practically bankrupted 
 him. And his faith met with its reward, for one day in 
 1840 a stranger rode up to the door of his workshop 
 and offered fifty dollars for a reaper. He had seen one 
 of the machines on exhibition, and had decided to try
 
 I 9 6 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 it. A little later two other farmers who lived on the 
 James River appeared and gave McCormick two more 
 orders. He had the satisfaction of knowing that in 
 the harvest of 1840 three of his reapers were having a 
 trying out. 
 
 The next year he was busy trying to perfect a blade 
 that would cut wet grain. This took him weeks of 
 experimenting, but at last he found that a serrated 
 edge of a certain pattern would produce the effect he 
 wanted. He added this to the new machines he was 
 building, fixed the price of the reaper at one hundred 
 dollars, and in 1842 sold seven machines, in 1843 
 twenty-nine, and in 1844 fifty. At last he had justified 
 himself, and the log workshop had become a busy 
 factory. 
 
 An invention of such great value to the farmer 
 naturally advertised itself through the country districts. 
 Men who heard of a machine that would cut one hun- 
 dred and seventy-five acres of wheat in less than eight 
 days as happened in one case naturally decided that 
 it was worth investigating. And those who already 
 owned machines saw a chance to make money by sell- 
 ing to their neighbors. One man paid McCormick 
 $i333 for the reaper agency of eight counties, another 
 $500 for the right in five other counties, and a business 
 man offered $2,500 for the agency in southern Vir- 
 ginia. Meantime orders were coming in from the dis- 
 tant states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Iowa, 
 and the little home factory was being pushed to the 
 utmost. 
 
 But it was not only difficult to obtain the necessary
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 197 
 
 materials for building reapers on the remote Virginia 
 farm, it was almost impossible to ship the machines 
 ordered in time for the harvests. Those that went 
 west had to be taken by wagon to Scottsville, sent 
 down the canal to Richmond, put on shipboard for the 
 long journey down the James River to the Atlantic and 
 so by ocean to New Orleans, changed there to a river 
 steamer that should take them up the Mississippi and 
 by the Ohio River to the distributing point of Cincin- 
 nati. Many delays might happen in such a long trip, 
 and many delays did happen, and in several cases the 
 reapers did not reach the farmers who had ordered 
 them until long after the harvesting season was over. 
 McCormick saw that he must build his reapers in a 
 more central place. 
 
 At that time labor was very scarce in the great 
 central region of the country, and the farms were 
 enormous. The wheat was going to waste, for there 
 were not enough scythes and sickles to cut it. 
 McCormick started on a trip through the middle West, 
 and what he saw convinced him that his reaper would 
 soon be an absolute necessity on every farm. All he 
 needed was to find the best point for building his 
 machines and shipping them. He studied this matter 
 with the greatest care, and finally decided that the 
 strategic place was the little town of Chicago, situated 
 on one of the Great Lakes, and half-way between the 
 prairies of the West and the commercial depots and 
 factories of the eastern seaboard. 
 
 Chicago in 1847 was still little more than a frontier 
 town. It had fought gamely with floods and droughts,
 
 I 9 8 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 with cholera and panics, with desperadoes and with 
 land thieves. But men saw that it was bound to grow, 
 for railroads would have to come to bring the wheat 
 and others to carry it away, and that meant that some 
 day it would be a great metropolis. McCormick, like 
 most of the other business builders who were stream- 
 ing into Chicago, only wanted credit to enable him to 
 build and sell his goods, and he was fortunate enough 
 to find a rich and prominent citizen named William B. 
 Ogden, who was ready to give him credit and enter 
 into partnership with him. 
 
 Ogden gave McCormick $25,000 for a half interest 
 in the business of making reapers, and started at once 
 to build a factory. At last the inventor was firmly 
 established. He arranged to sell five hundred reapers 
 for the harvest of 1848, and as one after another was 
 sent out into the great wheat belts and set up and 
 tried, the farmers who saw them decided that the 
 reapers spelled prosperity for them. The business 
 grew, and at the end of two years, when the partners 
 found it wiser to dissolve their firm, McCormick was 
 able to tell Ogden that he would pay him back the 
 $25,000 that he had invested, and give him $25,000 
 more for interest and profits. Ogden accepted, and 
 McCormick became sole owner of the business. 
 
 Cyrus McCormick was not only an inventor, but a 
 business-builder of the rarest talent, one of the great 
 pioneers in a field that was later to be cultivated in the 
 United States to a remarkable degree. He knew he 
 had a machine that would lessen labor and increase 
 wealth wherever wheat was grown, and he felt that it
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 199 
 
 was his mission to see that the reaper should do its 
 share in the progress of the world. In that sense he 
 was more than a mere business man ; but in another 
 sense he was a gigantic business-builder. Just as he 
 had studied the problem of cutting wheat with the 
 object of producing the most efficient machine possible, 
 so he now studied the problem of selling his reapers in 
 such a way that every farmer should own one. He 
 believed in liberal advertising, and he had posters 
 printed with a picture of the reaper at the top, and 
 below it a formal guarantee warranting the machine's 
 performance absolutely. There was a space beneath 
 this for the signature of the farmer who bought, and 
 the agent who sold, and two witnesses. The price of 
 the reaper was one hundred and twenty dollars, and the 
 buyer paid down thirty dollars, and the balance at the 
 end of six months, provided the reaper would cut one 
 and a half acres an hour, and fulfil the other require- 
 ments. This guarantee, with a chance to obtain the 
 money back if the purchase was unsatisfactory, was a 
 new idea, and appealed to every one as a most sincere 
 and honorable way of doing business. More than this, 
 he sold for a fixed price, which was in many respects a 
 new method of selling, and he printed in newspapers 
 and farm journals letters he had received from farmers 
 telling of their satisfaction with the reaper. In these 
 new ways he laid the foundation of an enormous busi- 
 ness. 
 
 The rush to the gold fields of California in 1849 and 
 the resulting settlement of the far western country made 
 Chicago even more central than it had been before.
 
 2OO 
 
 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 But, although the advertisements of the McCormick 
 reaper were scattered everywhere, many farmers would 
 put off buying until the harvesting season had almost 
 come, and when it was too late to get the machines from 
 the central factory. Therefore McCormick had agents 
 and built warehouses in every farming district, and 
 these agents were given a free rein in their own locality, 
 their instructions being to see that every farmer who 
 needed a reaper was given the easiest opportunity to 
 get one. The price was a fixed one, but McCormick 
 was patient with the purchasers. He gave them a 
 chance to pay for the reapers with the proceeds of their 
 harvests. He held that it was better that he should 
 wait for the money than that the farmers should lack 
 the machines that would enable them to make the most 
 of their fields of grain. " I have never yet sued a 
 farmer for the price of a reaper," he stated in 1848, and 
 he held to that policy as steadfastly as he could. As a 
 result he soon gained the farmers' confidence, and his 
 name became identified with square, and even with 
 lenient, dealing with all classes of purchasers. He lost 
 little by it, and in the long run the wide-spread advertis- 
 ing of this policy of business proved an invaluable 
 asset. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that no rival reapers were 
 put upon the market. Many were, and to meet some 
 of these McCormick made use of what became known 
 as the Field Test. He would instruct his agents to 
 issue invitations to his rivals to meet him in competi- 
 tion. Then the different makes of reapers would show 
 how many acres of grain they could cut in an afternoon
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 201 
 
 before an audience of the neighboring farmers. Judges 
 were appointed to decide as to the merits of the differ- 
 ent machines, and in most of the tests McCormick's 
 reaper outdistanced all its rivals. In one such meeting 
 it is said that forty machines competed. Such shows 
 were the best possible form of advertising, but in time 
 they degenerated into absurd performances. Trick 
 machines of unwieldy strength were built secretly, and 
 reapers were driven into growths of young trees, and 
 were fastened together and then pulled apart to prove 
 which was the stronger. At last it was realized that 
 the field tests were no longer fair, and McCormick gave 
 them up. 
 
 So important an invention as the reaper was certain 
 to have many improvements made to it. For a number 
 of years, however, the only additions that were made 
 to the original model were seats for the driver and 
 raker. The machine did the work of the original man 
 with the sickle or scythe and that of the cradler, and 
 having cut the grain left it in loose piles on the ground. 
 But it still had to be raked up and bound, and a 
 number of inventors were busy trying to perfect 
 mechanical devices that would do this work too. A 
 man named Jearum Atkins invented a contrivance that 
 was called the " Iron Man," which was a post fastened 
 to the reaper, having two iron arms that swept round 
 and round and brushed the grain from the platform as 
 fast as it was cut and had fallen. This plan was very 
 clumsy, but improvements were made so rapidly that 
 by 1860 the market was filled with various patterns of 
 self-raking reapers.
 
 202 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 The problem of binding the grain was more difficult. 
 This had always been hard labor, taking a great deal 
 of time and requiring three or four men to every 
 reaper. The first step toward a self-binder was the 
 addition of a foot-board at the back of the reaper, on 
 which a man might stand and fasten the grain into 
 sheaves as it fell. This was a little better than the old 
 method, but only a little. It took less time, but it was 
 still very hard and slow work. 
 
 McCormick was deep in a study of this matter when 
 one day a man named James Withington came to him 
 from Wisconsin, and announced that he had a machine 
 that could automatically bind grain. McCormick had 
 been working night and day over his own plan, and 
 when the inventor began to explain he fell asleep. 
 When he woke, Withington had left. McCormick at 
 once sent one of his men to the inventor's Wisconsin 
 home, and, with many apologies, begged him to come 
 back. Withington did, and showed McCormick a 
 wonderful machine, one made of two arms of steel that 
 would catch each bundle of grain, pass a wire about it 
 and twist the ends of the wire, cut it loose, and throw it 
 to the ground. Here was an invention that would 
 more than double the usefulness of the reaper, and one 
 that seems quite as remarkable as the reaper itself. 
 McCormick at once contracted with Withington for 
 this binder, and tried it on an Illinois farm the following 
 July. It worked perfectly, cutting fifty acres of grain 
 and binding it into sheaves. At last only one person 
 was needed to harvest the wheat, the one who sat 
 upon the driver's seat and simply had to guide the
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 203 
 
 horses. A small boy or girl could do all the work that 
 it had taken a score of men to accomplish twenty years 
 before. 
 
 Now it seemed as if the reaper was complete, and 
 nothing could be added to increase its efficiency. 
 McCormick had seen to it that the whirr of his machine 
 was heard in every wheat field of the United States, 
 and was busily extending the reign of the reaper to the 
 great grain districts of Russia, India, and South 
 America. Then, in the spring of 1880, William Deer- 
 ing built and sold 3,000 self-binding machines that used 
 twine instead of wire to fasten the sheaves, and as the 
 news of this novelty spread the farmers declared that 
 the wire of the old binders had cut their hands, had 
 torn their wheat, had proved hard to manage in the 
 flour-mills, and that henceforth they must have twine- 
 binders. 
 
 McCormick realized that he must give the farmers 
 what they demanded, and he looked about for a man 
 who could invent a new method of binding with 
 twine. He found him in Marquis L. Gorham, who per- 
 fected a new twine-binder, and added a device by 
 which all the sheaves bound were turned out in uniform 
 size. By the next year McCormick was pushing his 
 Gorham binder on the market, and the farmers who 
 had wavered in their allegience to his reaper were 
 returning to the McCormick fold. 
 
 The battle of rival reapers had been long and costly. 
 From the building of his factory in Chicago McCormick 
 had been engaged in continuous lawsuits with com- 
 petitors. His original patent had expired in 1848, and
 
 204 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 he had used every effort to have it extended. The 
 battle was fought through the lower courts, through 
 the Supreme Court, and in Congress. The greatest 
 lawyers of the time were retained on one side of the 
 reaper struggle or the other. His rivals combined 
 and raised a great fund to defeat his claims. He spent 
 a fortune, but his patents were not renewed, and com- 
 petition was thrown wide open. With the invention of 
 the twine-binder the patent war burst out afresh, and 
 again the courts were called upon for decisions between 
 the rivals. But by now the competition had become 
 so keen and the cost of manufacturing so heavy that the 
 field dwindled quickly. When the war over the twine- 
 binder ended there were only twenty-two competing 
 firms left ; before that there had been over a hundred. 
 
 The reaper had been primarily necessary in America, 
 because here farm labor was very scarce, and the wheat 
 fields enormously productive. In fact the growth of 
 the newly opened Western country must have been in- 
 definitely retarded if men had had to cut the grain by 
 hand and harvest it in the primitive manner. The 
 reaper was a very vital factor in the development of 
 that country, and McCormick deserved the credit of 
 being one of the greatest profit-builders of the land. 
 
 In Europe and Asia labor was plentiful, and the 
 reaper had to win its way more slowly. McCormick 
 showed his machine at the great international exhibi- 
 tions and gradually induced the large landowners to 
 consider it. Practical demonstration proved its value ( 
 and it made its appearance in the fields of European 
 Russia and Siberia, in Germany and France and the
 
 McCORMICK AND THE REAPER 205 
 
 Slavic countries, in India, Australia, and the Argentine, 
 and at last wherever wheat was to be cut. It trebled 
 the output of grain, and the welfare of the people has 
 proven largely dependent on their food supply. It has 
 been an invention of the greatest economic value to the 
 world.
 
 XII 
 
 HOWE AND THE SEWING-MACHINE 
 
 1819-1867 
 
 THE needs of his times, and of the people among 
 whom he lives, have often set the inventor's mind 
 working along the line of his achievement. It was so 
 with Elias Howe, who built the first sewing-machine. 
 A hard- working man, and not overstrong, he would 
 return to his home from the machine-shop where he 
 was employed, and throw himself on the bed night 
 after night to rest. Each night he watched his young 
 wife sewing to clothe their three children and add a 
 little something to the family income. With a strong 
 taste for mechanics it was natural that he should 
 wonder if there were not some way of lightening the 
 burden of so much needlework. 
 
 He had been brought up in surroundings that 
 naturally impressed him with the value of looms and 
 new appliances for spinning and weaving. He under- 
 stood the various processes of handling wool and 
 cotton, although his own work lay outside them. 
 His father had been a miller in the small Massachusetts 
 town of Spencer, where Elias was born in 1819. New 
 England was already building her textile factories, and 
 when he was only six the boy joined his brothers and 
 sisters at the work of sticking wire teeth through the 
 straps of leather that were then used for cotton-cards.
 
 HOWE AND THE SEWING-MACHINE 207 
 
 What he learned from books he had to pick up during 
 a few weeks each summer at the district school. His 
 health was delicate, and he was lame, unfitted to be a 
 farmer, and his best place seemed to be in his father's 
 mill. But he was ambitious, and when he was sixteen, 
 a friend having brought him glowing tales of the great 
 cotton-mills in the fast-growing city of Lowell, he 
 decided to seek his fortune there. The panic of 1837 
 closed the mills, and Howe found his course deflected 
 to work in a machine-shop in Cambridge. By the 
 time he came of age he had married and was living in 
 Boston, working as a mechanic to support his family. 
 Of a speculative turn of mind, he was constantly sug- 
 gesting improvements at the shop, and his watching 
 his wife labor with needle and thread turned his 
 thoughts in the direction of a machine for sewing. 
 
 The idea was not a new one, but the men who had 
 studied it had decided that there were too many diffi- 
 culties to overcome. Howe took up the matter as a 
 pastime, giving his spare moments to it, and talking it 
 over with his wife in the evenings when he was not too 
 tired. Naturally enough what he tried to do was to 
 imitate the action of the hand in sewing. His idea was 
 to make a machine that would thrust a needle through 
 the cloth and then push it back again, working up and 
 down. Therefore his first needle was sharp at both 
 ends, and had its eye in the middle. He decided that 
 he could only use very coarse thread, as the constant 
 motion would surely snap any fine thread. But a 
 year's experimenting convinced him that this simple 
 up-and-down thrust was too primitive a motion, and
 
 208 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 that the needle must be made to form a different sort 
 of stitch. He tried one method after another, and 
 finally hit upon the idea of making use of two threads, 
 and forming the stitch by means of a shuttle and a 
 curved needle having the eye near the point. He 
 made a model, in wood and wire, of this first sewing- 
 machine, in October, 1844, and found that it would 
 work. 
 
 An early account of Howe's first sewing-machine 
 says, " He used a needle and a shuttle of novel construc- 
 tion, and combined them with holding surfaces, feed 
 mechanism, and other devices as they had never before 
 been brought together in one machine. . . . One 
 of the principal features of Mr. Howe's invention is the 
 combination of a grooved needle having an eye near 
 its point, and vibrating in the direction of its length, 
 with a side-pointed shuttle for effecting a locked stitch, 
 and forming with the threads, one on each side of the 
 cloth, a firm and lasting seam not easily ripped." 
 
 Howe had now decided to give all his time to in- 
 troducing his sewing-machine. He gave up his posi- 
 tion in the machine-shop, and moved his family to his 
 father's house in Cambridge. There his father was 
 employed in cutting palm-leaf for the manufacture of 
 hats. The son had a lathe put in the garret, and began 
 to make the various parts that were needed for his 
 sewing-machine. He did any work he could find by 
 the day to supply his family with food and clothing, 
 but it proved a very hard battle. His father's shop 
 burned, and the whole family seemed on the brink of 
 ruin. The young inventor was in a very difficult situa-
 
 HOWE AND THE SEWING-MACHINE 209 
 
 tion. He was confident that he had a machine that 
 should, if properly handled, bring him in a fortune, but 
 he must have some money to buy the iron and steel 
 that were essential to its building, and he must devise a 
 way of interesting some capitalist in it sufficiently to 
 enable him to put it on the market. Meantime he 
 must contrive to provide for his family, who were now 
 practically without shelter. 
 
 Fortunately, at this point, a Cambridge dealer in 
 coal and wood, by the name of Fisher, heard of Howe's 
 machine, and asked to see it. Howe jumped at the 
 opportunity, explained its mechanism, and told how 
 he was situated. Mr. Fisher thought the model had 
 possibilities, and agreed to provide board for the 
 inventor and his family, to give the young man a 
 workshop in his own house, and to advance him the 
 sum of $500, which Howe said was absolutely necessary 
 to pay for the construction of such a machine as could 
 be shown to the public. For his assistance Fisher was 
 to receive a half-interest in a patent for the sewing- 
 machine if Howe could obtain one. This arrangement 
 proved Howe's salvation, and in December, 1844, he 
 moved into his new friend's house. 
 
 He worked all that winter, meeting the many practical 
 difficulties that arose as he progressed with his machine, 
 and devising solutions for overcoming each. He 
 worked all day, and many a time long into the night. 
 His machine progressed so well that by April, 1845, he 
 found that it would sew a seam four yards long. The 
 machine was entirely completed by the latter part of 
 May, and its work proved satisfactory to both partners.
 
 210 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Howe sewed the seams of two woolen suits with it, 
 one for himself, and one for Fisher, and it was declared 
 that the mechanical sewing was so well done that it 
 promised to outlast the cloth. There was no longer 
 any doubt that Howe had invented a machine that 
 would lighten labor to a very great degree. 
 
 He took out his first patent on the sewing-machine 
 toward the end of 1845. But when he tried to introduce 
 his invention he met the same difficulties that had 
 faced all men who tried to supplant hand labor by any 
 mechanical process. The tailors of Boston to whom 
 he showed it were willing to admit its efficiency, but 
 told him that he could never secure its general use, as 
 such a proceeding would ruin their business. Every 
 one admired the sewing-machine and praised Howe's in- 
 genuity, but no one would buy one. The opposition to 
 the completed machine seemed insuperable, and Fisher, 
 believing it to be so, at length withdrew from his 
 partnership with Howe. The latter and his family had 
 to move back again to his father's house. 
 
 To make a living Howe took a position as a locomo- 
 tive engineer, leaving his invention unused at home. 
 This work proved too hard, his health broke down, and 
 he was compelled to give up the position. In his en- 
 forced idleness he began to devise new ways of selling 
 his machine, and finally decided to send his brother 
 Amasa to England, and see if he could not interest 
 some one there in the invention. His brother was- 
 willing to do this, and arrived in London, with a 
 sewing-machine, in October, 1846. He showed it to a 
 man named William Thomas, who became interested
 
 ELIAS HOWE'S SEWING MACHINE
 
 HOWE AND THE SEWING-MACHINE 211 
 
 in it, offered $1,250 for it, and also offered to employ 
 Elias Howe in his business of umbrella and corset maker. 
 
 Howe decided that this position was preferable to his 
 idleness in Cambridge, and accepted it. He sailed for 
 England, and entered the factory of William Thomas. 
 But, although Thomas had taken a very lively interest 
 in Howe's sewing-machine, he did not treat the inventor 
 well. For eight months Howe worked for him, and 
 meantime he had sent for his wife and three children, 
 and they had arrived in London. But eight months 
 was the limit of his endurance of his new master's 
 tyranny, and at the end of that time he gave up his posi- 
 tion. Matters seemed tending worse and worse with 
 him, and the situation of the Howe family in London, 
 almost penniless, grew daily more and more precarious. 
 
 His family at home sent Howe a little money before 
 his earnings were entirely spent, and he used this to buy 
 passage for his wife and children back to the United 
 States. He himself stayed in London, believing there 
 were better chances for the sale of his machine there 
 than in America. But his pursuit of fortune in England 
 proved but the search for the rainbow's pot of gold. 
 There was no market for his wares, and after months 
 of actual destitution he pawned the model of his sewing- 
 machine and even his patent papers in order to secure 
 funds to pay his passage home. Tragedy dogged his 
 footsteps. He reached New York with only a few 
 small coins in his pocket, and received word that his 
 wife was lying desperately ill in Cambridge. His 
 own strength was spent, and he had to wait several 
 days before he had the money to pay his railroad fare
 
 212 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 to Boston. Soon after he reached home his wife died. 
 Blow after blow had fallen on him until he was almost 
 crushed. 
 
 Even his hard-won invention seemed now about to 
 be snatched from him. Certain mechanics in New 
 England, who had heard descriptions of his model, built 
 machines on its lines, and sold them. The newspapers 
 learned of these, and began to suggest their use in a 
 number of industries. Howe looked about him, saw 
 the sewing-machine growing in favor, heard it praised, 
 and realized that it had been actually stolen from him. 
 He bestirred himself, found patent attorneys who were 
 willing to look into his patents, and when they pro- 
 nounced them unassailable, found money enough to 
 defend them. He began several suits to establish his 
 claims in August, 1850, and at about the same time 
 formed a partnership with a New Yorker named Bliss, 
 who agreed to try to sell the machines if Howe would 
 open a shop and build them in New York. 
 
 Howe's claims to the invention of the sewing-machine 
 were positively established by the courts in 1854. The 
 machine was now well known, and its value as a money- 
 maker very apparent. But the workers in cheap 
 clothing shops organized to prevent the introduction 
 of the machines, claiming that they would destroy their 
 livelihood. Labor leaders took up the slogan, and led 
 the men and women workers in what were known as 
 the Sewing-machine Riots. In the few shops where 
 the machines were actually introduced they were injured 
 or destroyed by the workmen. The pressure became 
 so great that the larger establishments ceased their use,
 
 HOWE AND THE SEWING-MACHINE 213 
 
 and only the small shops, that employed a few workers, 
 were able to continue using the new machine. In spite 
 of its recognized value it looked as if the sewing- 
 machine could not prove a financial success, and when 
 Howe's partner Bliss died in 1855 the inventor was 
 able to buy his share in the business from his heirs for 
 a very small sum. 
 
 Opposition, even of the most strenuous order, has 
 never been able to retard for long the use of an inven- 
 tion that simplifies industry. If a machine is made that 
 will in an hour do the work that formerly required 
 several days' hand labor that machine is certain to dis- 
 place that hand labor. The workers may protest, but 
 industrial progress demands the more economic 
 method. So it was with the sewing-machine. The 
 riots died away, the labor leaders turned to other fields, 
 and one by one the clothing factories installed the new 
 machines. Howe had the patience to wait, and in one 
 way and another obtained the sinews of war to sue the 
 infringers of his patents. The waiting was worth 
 while. He ultimately forced all other manufacturers 
 of sewing-machines to pay him for their products. In 
 six years his royalties increased from $300 a year to 
 over $200,000 a year. His machine was shown at the 
 Paris Exposition of 1867, and was awarded a gold 
 medal, and Howe himself was given the ribbon of the 
 French Legion of Honor. 
 
 The wheel of fortune has turned quickly for many 
 inventors, but perhaps never more completely than it 
 did for Elias Howe. The man who had pawned his 
 goods in London, and had reached New York with less
 
 214 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 than a dollar in his pocket, had an income of $200,000 
 a year. He who had been rebuffed by the tailors of 
 Boston was recognized as one of the great men of his 
 generation, and one who, instead of taking the bread 
 from the mouths of poor working men and women, 
 had lightened their labor a thousandfold. The women, 
 like his own wife, who had sewed by day and night, 
 were saved their strength and vision, and the slavery 
 of the clothing factories, notorious in those days, was 
 inestimably lightened. But it had been a hard fight to 
 make the world take what it sorely needed. 
 
 Howe's struggle had been so hard that his health 
 was badly broken when he did succeed. He had 
 several years to enjoy his profits and honors. He died 
 October 3, 1867, at his home in Brooklyn. 
 
 Many inventors have barely escaped with their lives 
 from the fury of mobs who thought the inventor would 
 take their living from them. Papin, and Hargreaves, 
 and Arkwright all learned what such resistance meant. 
 But as one invention has succeeded another people 
 have grown wiser, and realized that each has conferred 
 a benefit rather than taken away a right. Howe was 
 one of the last to find the people he hoped to benefit 
 aligned against him. The world has moved, since 
 Galileo's day, and the inventor is now known as the 
 great benefactor. But Howe's life was a fight, and his 
 triumph that of one of the great martyrs of invention.
 
 XIII 
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 
 
 1847- 
 
 NONE of the inventions that have resulted from the 
 study of electricity have been stumbled upon in the 
 dark. Scientists in both England and America had 
 realized the possibility of the telegraph before Morse 
 built his first working outfit in his rooms on Washington 
 Square. Edison took out a patent covering wireless 
 telegraphy before Marconi gave his name to the new 
 means of communication. Often a man who has been 
 following one trail through this new field has come 
 upon another, glanced down it, and decided to go back 
 and explore it more thoroughly another day. Mean- 
 time the trail is run down by a rival. The prize has 
 gone to that persevering one who has made that trail 
 his own, and learned its secret while other men were 
 only glancing at it. Alexander Graham Bell was by no 
 means the first man to realize that the sound of the 
 human voice could be sent over a wire. He did not 
 happen to stumble upon this fact. He worked it out 
 bit by bit, from what other men had already learned 
 concerning electricity, and his object was to make the 
 telephone of real use to the world. It so happened 
 that Elisha Gray and Bell each filed a claim upon the 
 telephone at the Patent Office on the same day,
 
 216 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 February 14, 1876. But it was Bell who was able to 
 place the first telephone at the public's service. 
 
 He came of a family that had long been interested 
 in the study of speech. His father, his grandfather, 
 his uncle, and two brothers had all taught elocution in 
 one form or another at the Universities of Edinburgh, 
 Dublin, and London. His grandfather had worked 
 out a successful system to correct stammering, his 
 father, widely known as a splendid elocutionist, had 
 invented a sign-language that he called "Visible 
 Speech," which was of help to those learning foreign 
 tongues, and also a system to enable the deaf to read 
 spoken words by the movements of the lips. Naturally 
 enough the young inventor started with a very con- 
 siderable knowledge of the laws of sound. 
 
 Bell was born in Edinburgh March I, 1847, and 
 educated there and in London. When he was sixteen 
 family influence was able to get him the post of teacher 
 of elocution in certain schools, and he spent his leisure 
 hours studying the science of sound. Soon after he 
 came of age he met two well-known Englishmen who 
 were experts in his line of study, Sir Charles Wheat- 
 stone and Alexander J. Ellis. Ellis had translated 
 Helmholtz's celebrated book on "The Sensations of 
 Tone," and was able to show Bell in his own laboratory 
 how the German scientist had succeeded in keeping 
 tuning-forks in vibration by the power of electro-mag- 
 nets, and had blended the tones of several tuning-forks 
 so as to produce approximately the sound of the hu- 
 man voice. This idea was new to Bell, and led him to 
 wonder whether it would not be possible to construct
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 217 
 
 what might be called a musical telegraph, sending dif- 
 ferent notes over a wire by electro-magnetism, using a 
 piano keyboard to give the different notes. 
 
 Sir Charles Wheatstone, the leading English author- 
 ity on the telegraph, received young Bell with the 
 greatest interest, and showed him a new talking-ma- 
 chine that had been constructed by Baron de Kempelin. 
 Bell studied this closely, discussed it with Wheatstone, 
 and decided that he would devote himself to the prob- 
 lems of reproducing sounds mechanically. 
 
 The course of his life was then suddenly altered. His 
 two brothers died in Edinburgh of consumption, and 
 he was told that he must seek a change of climate. Ac- 
 cordingly his father and mother sailed with him to the 
 town of Brantford in Canada. There he at once be- 
 came interested in teaching his father's system of " Visi- 
 ble Speech" to a tribe of Mohawk Indians in the 
 neighborhood. 
 
 He had already had very considerable success in 
 teaching deaf-mutes to talk by visible speech, or sign- 
 language, and this success was repeated in Canada. 
 Word of it went to Boston, and as a result the Board of 
 Education of that city wrote to him, offering to pay 
 him five hundred dollars if he would teach his system 
 in a school for deaf-mutes there. He was glad to ac- 
 cept, and in 1871 moved to Boston, which he planned 
 to make his permanent residence. 
 
 Success crowned his teaching almost immediately. 
 Boston University offered him a professorship, and he 
 opened a " School of Vocal Physiology," which paid 
 him well. Most of his remarkable skill in teaching the
 
 21$ HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 deaf and dumb to understand spoken words and in a 
 manner to speak themselves was due to his father's 
 system, which he had carefully followed, and had in 
 some respects improved upon. 
 
 At this time a resident of Salem, Thomas Sanders, 
 engaged the young teacher to train his small deaf-mute 
 son, and asked him to make his home at Sanders' house 
 in Salem. As he could easily reach Boston from there 
 Bell consented, and in the cellar of Mr. Sanders' house 
 he set up a workshop, where for three years he experi- 
 mented with tuning-forks and electric batteries along 
 the line of his early studies in London. 
 
 At nearly the same time Miss Mabel Hubbard came to 
 him to be taught his system of speech. He became en- 
 gaged to her, and some years later they were married. 
 
 His future wife's father was a well-known Boston 
 lawyer, Gardiner G. Hubbard. It is related that one 
 evening as Bell sat at the piano in Mr. Hubbard's home 
 in Cambridge, he said, " Do you know that if I sing 
 the note G close to the strings of the piano, the G- 
 string will answer me?" "What of it?" asked Mr. 
 Hubbard. " Why, it means that some day we ought to 
 have a musical telegraph, that will send as many mes- 
 sages simultaneously over one wire as there are notes 
 on the piano." 
 
 Bell knew the field of his work in a general way, but 
 he had not yet decided which path to choose of several 
 that looked as if they might lead across it. His far- 
 distant goal was to construct a machine that would 
 carry, not the dots and dashes of the telegraph, but the 
 complex vibrations of the human voice. This would
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 219 
 
 be much more difficult to attain than a musical tele- 
 graph, and for some time he wavered between the two 
 ideas. His work with his deaf and dumb pupils was all 
 in the line of making sound vibrations visible to the eye. 
 He knew that with what was called the phonautograph 
 he could get tracings of such sound vibrations upon 
 blackened paper by means of a pencil or marker at- 
 tached to a vibrating cord or membrane, and further- 
 more that he could obtain tracings of certain vowel 
 sound vibrations upon smoked glass. He studied the 
 effect of vibrations upon the bones of the ear, and this led 
 him to experiment with vibrating a thin piece of iron be- 
 fore an electro-magnet. 
 
 His study of the effect of vibrations on the human ear- 
 drum showed Bell what path he should follow. Sound 
 waves striking the delicate ear-drum could send thrills 
 through the heavier bones inside the ear. He thought 
 that if he could construct two iron discs, which should 
 be similar to the ear-drums, and connect them by an 
 electrified wire, he might be able to make the disc at one 
 end vibrate with sound waves, send those vibrations 
 through the wire to the other disc, and have that give 
 out the vibrations again in the form of sounds. That 
 now became his working idea, and it was the principle 
 on which the telephone was ultimately to be built. 
 
 But Bell had been giving so much time and atten- 
 tion to this absorbing project that his teaching had suf- 
 fered. His " School of Vocal Physiology " had had to 
 be abandoned, and he found that his only pupils were 
 Miss Hubbard and small George Sanders. Both Mr. 
 Sanders and Mr. Hubbard, who had been helping him
 
 220 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 with the cost of his experiments, refused to do so any 
 longer unless he would devote himself to working out 
 his musical telegraph, in which both had a great deal 
 of faith as a successful business proposition. 
 
 While he was struggling with these distracting calls 
 of duty and science he was obliged to go to Washing- 
 ton to see his patent attorney. There he determined to 
 call upon Professor Joseph Henry, who was the great- 
 est American authority on electrical science, and who 
 had experimented with the telegraph in the early years 
 of the century. Bell, aged twenty-eight, explained his 
 new idea to Henry, then aged seventy-eight. The 
 theory was new to Henry, but he saw at once that it 
 had tremendous possibilities. He told Bell so. " But, ' 
 said Bell, " I have not the expert knowledge of elec- 
 tricity that is needed." " You can get it," answered 
 Henry. " You must, for you are in possession of the 
 germ of a great invention." 
 
 Those few words, coming from such a man, were of 
 the greatest possible encouragement to Bell. He re- 
 turned home, determined to get the knowledge of 
 electricity he needed, and to carry on his work with the 
 telephone. 
 
 He rented a room at 109 Court Street, Boston, for a 
 workshop, and took a bedroom in the neighborhood. 
 He studied electricity night and day, and he gave 
 equal time to the musical telegraph that his friends 
 favored and to the invention that now claimed his real 
 interest. 
 
 The man from whom Bell rented his workshop was 
 Charles Williams, himself a manufacturer of electrical
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 221 
 
 supplies. Bell had for his assistant Thomas A. Watson, 
 who helped him construct the two armatures, or vibrat- 
 ing discs, at the end of an electrified wire that 
 stretched from the workshop to an adjoining room. 
 Watson was working with Bell on an afternoon in June, 
 1875. Bell was in the workshop, and Watson in the 
 next room. Bell was stooping down over the instru- 
 ment at his end of the wire. Suddenly he gave an 
 exclamation. He had heard a faint twang come from 
 the disc in front of him. 
 
 He dashed into the next room. "Snap that reed 
 again, Watson," he commanded. Back at his own end 
 of the wire he waited. In a minute he caught the light 
 twang again. It was only what he had been expecting 
 to hear at any time during the months of his work, but 
 nevertheless he was amazed when he did catch the 
 sound. It proved that a sound could be carried over a 
 wire, and accurately reproduced at the farther end. 
 And that meant that the vibrations of the human voice 
 could ultimately be sent in the same way. 
 
 Bell's enthusiasm had already converted his assistant, 
 Watson ; it now won over Hubbard and Sanders. 
 They began to believe that there might be some- 
 thing of real value in his strange scheme, and offered 
 to help him finance it. He went on with his studies in 
 electricity, and gradually began to learn how he could 
 make it serve him best. 
 
 But it was a far cry from that first faint sound to the 
 actual transmission of words. For a long time his 
 receiving instruments would only give out vague 
 rumbling noises. In November, 1875, his experiments
 
 222 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 showed him that the vibrations created in a reed by the 
 human voice could be transmitted in such a way as to 
 reproduce words and sounds. Then, in January, 1876, 
 he showed a few of the pupils at Monroe's School of 
 Oratory in Boston an apparatus by which singing 
 could be carried more or less satisfactorily from the 
 cellar of the building to a room on the fourth floor. 
 But on March 10, 1876, the new instrument actually 
 talked. Watson, who was at the basement end of the 
 wire, heard the disc say, " Mr. Watson, come here, I 
 want you." He dashed up the three flights of stairs to 
 the room in which Bell was. " I can hear you 1 " he 
 cried. " I can hear the words / " 
 
 " Had I known more about electricity, and less about 
 sound," Bell is reported to have said, " I would never 
 have invented the telephone." He had come upon his 
 discovery by the right path, but it was a path that very 
 few men could ever have picked out. Other inventors 
 had tried to make a machine that would carry the voice, 
 but they had all worked from the standpoint of the 
 telegraph. Bell, inheriting unusual knowledge of the 
 laws of speech and sound, came from the other direc- 
 tion. He started with the laws of sound transmission 
 rather than with the laws of the telegraph. The result 
 was that he had created something altogether new, 
 basically different from all the other inventions that 
 made use of electricity, for which there was as yet no 
 common name even, and which he described in his 
 application for a patent, as "an improvement in teleg- 
 raphy." 
 
 Only two months after the day on which the tele-
 
 THE FIRST TELEPHONE 
 
 Reproduced by permission 
 
 From "The History of the Telephone" 
 
 By Herbert N. Casson 
 
 Published by A. C. McClurg & Co.
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 223 
 
 phone had actually talked for the first time the Centen- 
 nial Exposition opened in Philadelphia. Mr. Hubbard 
 was one of the Commissioners, and he obtained per- 
 mission to have Bell's first telephone placed on a small 
 table in the Department of Education. Bell himself 
 was too poor to be able to go to Philadelphia, and 
 intended to stay in Boston, and try to find new deaf- 
 mute pupils. But when Miss Hubbard left for the 
 Centennial, and begged him to go with her, he could 
 not resist. He stayed on the train, without a ticket, 
 without baggage, and reached Philadelphia with the 
 Hubbards. 
 
 The new instrument had been at the Exposition for 
 six weeks without attracting serious attention. But Mr. 
 Hubbard arranged that the judges should examine it 
 for a few minutes on the Sunday afternoon following 
 Bell's arrival. The afternoon, however, was very warm, 
 and there were a great many exhibits for the judges to 
 inspect. There was the first grain-binder, and the 
 earliest crude electric light, and Elisha Gray's musical 
 telegraph, and exhibits of printing telegraphs. It was 
 seven o'clock when the judges reached Bell's table, and 
 they were tired and hungry. One of the judges picked 
 up the receiver, looked at it, and put it back on the 
 table. The others laughed and joked as they started 
 to go by. Then they stopped short. A man had 
 come up to the table, with a crowd of attendants at his 
 heels. He said to the young man at the table, " Pro- 
 fessor Bell, I am delighted to see you again." The 
 new arrival was the Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil, 
 who had once visited Bell's school for deaf-mutes in
 
 224 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Boston. The Emperor said he would like to test Bell's 
 new machine. 
 
 With the judges, a group of famous scientific men, 
 and the Emperor's suite for audience, Bell went to the 
 transmitter at the other end of the wire, while Dom 
 Pedro put the receiver to his ear. There was a 
 moment's pause, and then the Emperor threw back his 
 head, exclaiming, " My God it talks!" 
 
 The Emperor put down the receiver. Joseph Henry, 
 who had encouraged Bell in Washington, picked it up. 
 He too heard Bell's own words coming from the disc. 
 He too showed his amazement. " This comes nearer 
 to overthrowing the doctrine of the conservation of 
 energy," said he, " than anything I ever saw." After 
 him came Sir William Thomson, later known as Lord 
 Kelvin. He had been the engineer of the first Atlantic 
 Cable. He listened intently. " Yes," said he at last, 
 "it does speak. It is the most wonderful thing I have 
 seen in America ! " 
 
 Until ten o'clock that night the judges spoke into 
 the transmitter and listened at the receiver of Bell's in- 
 strument. Next morning it was given a place of 
 honor, and every one begged for a chance to examine 
 it. It became the most wonderful exhibit of the Cen- 
 tennial, and the judges gave Bell their Certificate of 
 Award. Nothing more opportune could possibly have 
 happened for the inventor. 
 
 But in spite of this launching at the hands of the 
 most eminent scientists, business men could see little 
 future for the new machine. It was very ingenious, 
 they admitted, but it could only be a toy. And Bell
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 225 
 
 himself was not sufficiently well versed in business 
 affairs to know how to make the most of his invention. 
 Fortunately Mr. Hubbard was much better acquainted 
 with business methods. He determined to promote 
 the telephone, and he did. He talked about it to all 
 his friends until they could think of nothing else. He 
 began a campaign of publicity, with the object of 
 making the name of the new instrument a household 
 word. He had it written up for the newspapers, and 
 advertised public demonstrations of its powers, and ar- 
 ranged that Bell should lecture on it in different cities. 
 Bell was a good lecturer, and his talks became popular. 
 Then news was sent to the Boston Globe by tele- 
 phone, and people began to wonder if there were not 
 new possibilities in its use. 
 
 In May, 1877, a man named Emery called at Hub- 
 bard's office, and leased two telephones for twenty 
 dollars. That encouraged the promoters, and they 
 issued a little circular describing the business. Then 
 another man, who ran a burglar-alarm company, ob- 
 tained permission to hang up the telephone in a few 
 banks. They proved of use, and the same man started 
 a service among the express companies. Before long 
 several other small exchanges were opened, and by 
 August, 1877, it was estimated that there were 778 
 telephones in use. Hubbard was very much encour- 
 aged, and he, together with Bell, Sanders, and Watson 
 formed the " Bell Telephone Association." 
 
 The Western Union Telegraph Company was a 
 great corporation, controlling the telegraph business 
 of the country. Hubbard hoped that it would purchase
 
 226 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 the Bell patents, as it had already bought many 
 patents taken out on allied inventions. They offered 
 them to President Orton for $100,000, but he refused 
 to buy them, saying, " What use could this company 
 make of an electrical toy ? " 
 
 But the Western Union had many little subsidiary 
 companies, supplying customers with printing-tele- 
 graphs and dial telegraphs and various other modifi- 
 cations of the usual telegraph, and one day one of 
 these companies reported that some of their customers 
 were preferring to use the new telephone. The West- 
 ern Union bestirred itself at this sign of competition, 
 and had shortly formed the " American Speaking- 
 Telephone Company," with a staff of inventors that 
 included Edison. The war was on in earnest, for the 
 new company not only claimed to have the best instru- 
 ment on the market, but advertised that it had "the 
 only original telephone." 
 
 That war was actually a good thing for Bell, and 
 Hubbard, and Sanders. With the Western Union 
 pushing this new invention, and not only pushing it, 
 but fighting for its claim to it, the public realized that 
 the telephone was neither a toy nor a scientific oddity, 
 but an instrument of great commercial value. Sanders' 
 relatives came to the aid of the Bell Company, and put 
 money into its treasury, and soon Hubbard was leasing 
 out telephones at the rate of a thousand a month. 
 
 But none of these partners was exactly the man to 
 organize and build up such a business as this of the 
 telephone should be, and each of them knew it. Then 
 Hubbard discovered a young man in Washington who
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 227 
 
 impressed him as having remarkable executive ability. 
 Watson met him, and his opinion coincided with that 
 of Hubbard. The upshot of the matter was that the 
 partners offered the post of General Manager at a 
 salary of thirty-five hundred dollars a year to this man, 
 Theodore N. Vail, and Vail accepted the offer. Vail 
 himself knew little about the telephone, but his cousin, 
 Alfred Vail, had been the friend and assistant of Morse 
 when he was working on his first telegraph. 
 
 Hubbard had advertised Bell's telephone, Sanders 
 had financed it, and now Vail pushed it on the market. 
 He faced the powerful Western Union and fought 
 them. He sent copies of Bell's original patent to each 
 of his agents, with the message, " We have the only 
 original telephone patents, we have organized and in- 
 troduced the business, and we do not propose to have 
 it taken from us by any corporation." 
 
 His plan was to create a national telephone system, 
 and so he confined each of his agents to one place, 
 and reserved all rights to connect one city with another. 
 He made short-term contracts, and tried in every way 
 to keep control of the whole system in the hands of the 
 parent company. Then the Western Union came out 
 with Edison's new telephone transmitter, which in- 
 creased the value of the telephone tenfold, and which 
 in fact made it almost a new instrument. The Bell 
 Company was panic-stricken, for their customers de- 
 manded a telephone as good as Edison's. 
 
 Those were hard times for Vail and the partners back 
 of him. The telephone war had cut the price of service 
 to a point where neither company could show a profit.
 
 228 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Bell, now married, returned from England with word 
 that he had been unable to establish the telephone busi- 
 ness there, and that he must have a thousand dollars 
 at once to pay his most pressing debts. He was ill, 
 and he wrote from the Massachusetts General Hospital, 
 " Thousands of telephones are now in operation in all 
 parts of the country, yet I have not yet received one 
 cent from my invention. On the contrary, I am largely 
 out of pocket by my researches, as the mere value of 
 the profession that I have sacrificed during my three 
 years' work amounts to twelve thousand dollars." 
 
 At this juncture a young Bostonian named Francis 
 Blake wrote to Vail, announcing that he had invented 
 a transmitter that was the equal of Edison's, and offer- 
 ing to sell it for stock in the company. The purchase 
 was made, and the claim of the inventor proved true. 
 The Bell telephone was again as good as that of the 
 Western Union Company. A new company, called the 
 National Bell Telephone Company, was organized, with 
 a capital of $850,000, and Colonel Forbes of Boston 
 became its first president. 
 
 There have been few patent struggles to compare 
 with that which was waged over the telephone. 
 McCormick fought for years to uphold his rights to the 
 invention of the reaper, but he fought a host of com- 
 petitors, and the warfare was of the guerrilla order. 
 The Bell Company fought alone against the Western 
 Union, and it was a struggle of giants. The Western 
 Union was certain that it could find patents antedating 
 Bell's, and it went on that assumption, even after its 
 own expert had reported, " I am entirely unable to
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 229 
 
 discover any apparatus or method anticipating the 
 invention of Bell as a whole, and I conclude that his 
 patent is valid." It claimed that Gray was the original 
 inventor, and instructed its lawyers to bring suits 
 against the Bell Company for infringing on Gray's 
 patents. 
 
 The legal battle began in the autumn of 1878, and 
 continued for a year. Then George Gifford, the lead- 
 ing counsel for the Western Union, told his clients that 
 their claim was baseless, and advised that they come to 
 a settlement. The Western Union saw the wisdom of 
 this course, and went to the Bell Company with an 
 offer of compromise. An agreement was finally 
 reached, to remain in force for seventeen years, and the 
 terms were that the Western Union should admit that 
 Bell was the original inventor, that his patents were 
 valid, and should retire from the telephone business. 
 On the other side, the Bell Company agreed to buy the 
 Western Union telephone system, to pay them a 
 royalty of twenty per cent, on all their telephone 
 rentals, and to keep out of the telegraph business. 
 
 That ended the great war. It converted a powerful 
 rival into an ally, it gave the Bell Company fifty-six 
 thousand new telephones in fifty-five cities, and it made 
 that company the national system of the Unjted States. 
 In 1 88 1 there was another reorganization ; the Ameri- 
 can Bell Telephone Company was created, with a 
 capital of six million dollars. The following year there 
 was such a telephone boom that the Bell Company's 
 system was doubled, and the gross earnings reached 
 more than a million dollars.
 
 230 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 The four men who had taken hold of Bell's invention 
 in its infancy and brought it to maturity were ready to 
 surrender its care into the hands of the able business 
 men who headed the Bell Company. Sanders sold 
 his stock in the company for a little less than a million 
 dollars, Watson, when he resigned his interest, found 
 himself sufficiently rich to build a ship-building plant 
 near Boston and employ four thousand workmen to 
 build battle-ships. Gardiner G. Hubbard retired from 
 active business life, and transferred his remarkable 
 energy to the affairs of the National Geographical 
 Society. Bell had presented his stock in the company 
 to his wife on their wedding-day, and he now took up 
 afresh the work of his boyhood and youth, the teaching 
 of deaf-mutes. But he was no longer unheeded nor 
 unrewarded. In 1880 the government of France 
 awarded him the Volta prize of fifty thousand francs 
 and the Cross of the Legion of Honor. With the 
 Volta prize he founded the Volta Laboratory in Wash- 
 ington for the use of students. In Washington he has 
 made his home, and there scientists of all lands call to 
 pay their respects to the patriarch of American 
 inventors. 
 
 Shortly after the first appearance of the telephone at 
 the Centennial Exposition men were accustomed to 
 laugh at the new invention, and call it a freak, a 
 scientific toy. Its mechanism was so incomprehensible 
 to most people that they refused to regard it seriously. 
 A Boston mechanic expressed the general ignorance 
 when he stoutly maintained that in his opinion there 
 must be "a hole through the middle of the wire."
 
 BELL AND THE TELEPHONE 231 
 
 And the telephone is still to most people a mystery, far 
 more so than the telegraph or the incandescent light or 
 the other uses to which electricity has been put. It is 
 one thing to send a message by the mechanical process 
 of dots and dashes made by breaking and joining a 
 current. It is quite another to reproduce in one place 
 the exact inflection, tone, and quality of a voice that is 
 speaking hundreds of miles away, across rivers and 
 mountains. There is real magic in that, the wonder 
 that might be found in a Genii's spell in the Arabian 
 Nights. How can people be blamed for laughing at 
 such pretensions, and believing that even if such a 
 thing were true it was more fit for an exposition than 
 for public use ? 
 
 Yet this thing of magic has outdistanced every other 
 mode of communication. It is estimated that in the 
 United States as many messages are sent by telephone 
 as the combined total of telegrams, letters, and railroad 
 passengers. The telephone wires are eight times 
 greater than the telegraph wires, and their earnings six 
 times as great. It is true that the telephone is vastly 
 more used in America than in other parts of the world, 
 and yet it is figured that in the world at large almost as 
 many messages are now telephoned as are sent by post. 
 
 And the mystery of the telephone grows no less the 
 more one studies it. You speak against a tiny disc of 
 sheet-iron, and the disc trembles. It has millions and 
 millions of varieties of trembles, as many as there are 
 sounds in the universe. A piece of copper wire, 
 connected with an electric battery, stretches from the 
 disc against which you have spoken to another disc
 
 232 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 miles and miles away. The tremble of your disc sends 
 an electric thrill along the wire to that other disc and 
 makes it tremble exactly as yours did. And that 
 trembling sounds the very note you spoke, the very 
 note in millions of possible notes, and as accurately as 
 if the sound wave had only traveled three feet through 
 clear air. That is what happens when you telephone, 
 but when you realize it the mystery gains rather than 
 decreases. 
 
 Scores of men claimed to have invented telephones 
 before Bell did, but none ever proved their claims. 
 Men who were studying improvements on the telegraph 
 had glimpses of the ultimate possibility of transmitting 
 speech by wire, and Elisha Gray filed a caveat on that 
 point later on the very day that Bell filed his applica- 
 tion for a patent. But Gray's was a caveat, or a 
 declaration that the applicant believes he can invent a 
 certain device, and Bell's was the statement that he 
 had already perfected his invention. Bell's claim stood 
 against the world, and men now recognize that the 
 telephone was born on that afternoon in June, 1875, 
 when the young teacher of deaf-mutes first caught the 
 faint twang of a snapping reed sent across a few yards 
 of wire.
 
 XIV 
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 
 
 '847- . 
 
 To some men the material world is always present- 
 ing itself in the form of a series of fascinating puzzles, 
 to be solved as one might work out a game of chess. 
 The astronomer is given certain figures, and from 
 those he intends to derive certain laws ; the scientist 
 knows the properties of certain materials and from 
 those he is to reach some new combination that will 
 produce a new result. He is not an inventor as much 
 as he is a detective ; he picks up the clews to certain 
 happenings and constructs a working theory to fit 
 them. In mechanics this theory that he constructs 
 usually takes the form of a machine. And this machine 
 is not so much a new discovery as it is the practical 
 working-out of certain carefully-selected laws of nature. 
 
 Perhaps there has never been a man whose thoughts 
 were so continually asking the question why as Thomas 
 Alva Edison. Certainly there has never been one who 
 has found the answer to that question in so many lines 
 of scientific study. He has not merely happened on 
 his discoveries. He has not been as much interested 
 in the result as in the reasons for it. He belongs to the 
 experimenting age. Once on a time men took the
 
 234 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 facts of nature for granted. But if they had always 
 done so there would have been no telegraph, no tele- 
 phone, no electric light, no phonograph. Each of these 
 were achieved by working on a definite problem, and 
 in no haphazard way. The inventor has become a 
 scientist and a mechanic, and no longer an amateur 
 discoverer. Chance has much less to do with the 
 winning of new knowledge than it once had. 
 
 A visitor to Edison's laboratory tells how he found 
 him holding a vial of some liquid to the light. After a 
 long look at it he put the vial down on the table, and 
 resting his head in his hands, stared intently at it, as if 
 he expected the vial to make some answer. Then he 
 picked it up, shook it, and held it again to the light. 
 The visitor introduced himself. Edison nodded toward 
 the bottle. " Take a look at those filings," said he. 
 " See how curiously they settle when I shake the bottle. 
 In alcohol they behave one way, but in oil in this way. 
 Isn't that the most curious thing you ever saw 
 better than a play at one of your city theatres, eh?" 
 Again he shook the vial. " What I want to know is 
 what they mean by it ; and I'm going to find out." 
 There is the man, he wants to know " what they mean 
 by it," he continually asks the question why, he is the 
 great experimenter among great inventors. 
 
 Edison has shown the calibre of his mind in a score 
 of different ways. He has been showing it ever since 
 the days when he was a newsboy on the trains of the 
 Canadian Grand Trunk Railroad and the Michigan 
 Central. Then he fitted up a corner of the baggage- 
 car of his train as a miniature laboratory, and filled it
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 235 
 
 with the bottles and retorts that had been discarded at 
 the railroad workshops. Among his treasures was a 
 copy of Fresenius's " Qualitative Analysis/' engaging 
 reading for a boy only twelve years old. But he was 
 not only a chemist. When he was not working on the 
 train he would be hanging about machine shops, 
 listening and watching and considering. One day 
 the manager of the Detroit Free Press told him he 
 might have some three hundred pounds of old type 
 that had been used up. The newsboy found an old 
 hand-press and began to print a paper himself, 
 called the Grand Trunk Herald, and sold it to the em- 
 ployees and regular passengers on his line. Usually 
 he would set the type before the train started, and 
 print it in the spare moments of his trip. Sometimes 
 one of the station-masters on the run, who was also a 
 telegraph operator, would get a piece of important 
 news, write it down, and hand the paper to Edison as 
 the train stopped. Then the boy would go to his shop 
 in the caboose, set up the item, print it, and sell it, beat- 
 ing the daily newspapers that might be awaiting the 
 passengers at the end of the ride. 
 
 The new invention of the telegraph, and the great pos- 
 sibilities of its use, early caught his attention. About 
 the time the Civil War began the newsboy adopted a 
 new idea in his business. He had always found it dif- 
 ficult to know how many newspapers to carry on each 
 trip. If he had too large a stock some would be left 
 on his hands, if he carried too few he would be sold out 
 early and lose a good profit. He made a friend of one 
 of the compositors of the Detroit Free Press, and got
 
 236 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 him to show him the proofs of the paper. That gave 
 him some idea of the news of the day, and he could 
 judge how many papers he would probably need. One 
 day the proof-slip told him that there had been a ter- 
 rific battle at Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, and that 
 sixty thousand men had been killed and wounded. He 
 knew that this would sell the paper. All he needed 
 was to let people get an inkling of what the news was. 
 
 Edison dashed to the telegraph-operator and asked if 
 he would wire a message to each of the large stations 
 on the railroad line requesting the station-masters to 
 chalk up a notice on their train bulletin-board, giving 
 the fact that there had been a great battle, and that 
 papers telling about it would reach the station at such 
 an hour. In return he offered the operator newspaper 
 service for six months free. The bargain was made, and 
 the boy hurried to the newspaper office. 
 
 He did not have enough money to buy as many 
 papers as he wanted. He asked the superintendent to 
 let him have one thousand copies of the Press on 
 credit. The request was instantly refused. Thereupon 
 he marched up the stairs to the office of the paper's 
 owner, and asked if he would give him fifteen hundred 
 copies on trust. The owner looked at the boy for a 
 moment, and then wrote out an order. "Take that 
 down-stairs," said he, " and you will get what you 
 want." As Edison said in telling the story afterward, 
 " Then I felt happier than I have ever felt since." 
 
 He took his fifteen hundred copies to his storehouse 
 on the train. At the station where the first stop was 
 made he usually sold two papers. That day as they
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 237 
 
 ran in to the platform it looked as if a riot had occurred. 
 All the town was clamoring for papers. He sold a 
 couple of hundred at five cents each. Another crowd 
 met him at the next stop, and he raised his price to ten 
 cents a copy. The same thing happened at each place 
 where they stopped. When he reached Port Huron he 
 put what was left of his stock in a wagon, and drove 
 through the main streets. He sold his papers at a 
 quarter of a dollar and more apiece. He went by a 
 church, and called out the news of the battle. In ten 
 seconds the minister and all his congregation were 
 clamoring about the wagon, bidding against each other 
 for copies of the precious issue. He had made a small 
 fortune for a boy, and felt that he owed it largely to 
 his use of the telegraph. Quick-witted he was, beyond 
 a doubt, of an inventive turn, but a shrewd business 
 man on top of all. 
 
 He wanted to be a telegraph-operator. Electricity 
 fascinated him, and he could watch the machines and 
 listen to the music of their clicking by the hour. He 
 set up a line of his own in his father's basement at Port 
 Huron, making his batteries of bottles, old stovepipe 
 wire, nails and zinc that he could pick up for a trifle. 
 He studied the subject in his shop in the corner of the 
 baggage-car, during the scant moments when he was 
 neither printer nor newsboy. Once a bottle of phos- 
 phorus upset and started a fire. The boy was thrashed 
 and his bottles and wires thrown out. But he was too 
 doggedly persistent to mind any mishap. He saved the 
 small son of the station-master at Port Clements from 
 being run down by a train, and in return the father of-
 
 238 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 fered to teach him telegraphy. So little by little he 
 learned his chosen work. 
 
 He obtained a position as night operator at Port 
 Huron. That kept him busy at night, but he refused 
 to sleep during the daytime as other night operators 
 did, and used that time to work on his own schemes. 
 To catch some sleep he kept a loud alarm- clock at his of- 
 fice, and set it so that he would be wakedwhen trains were 
 due and he was needed. But sometimes trains were off 
 schedule, and again and again he would oversleep. At 
 last the train despatcher ordered Edison to signal him the 
 letter " A " in the Morse alphabet every half hour. The 
 boy willingly agreed. A few nights later he brought an 
 invention of his own to the office, and connected it by 
 wires with the clock and the telegraph. Then he 
 watched it work. Exactly on the half hour a little lever 
 fell, sending an excellent copy of the Morse " A " to 
 the key of the telegraph. Another lever closed the cir- 
 cuit He kept his eyes on this instrument of his 
 making until he had seen it act faultlessly again at the 
 next half hour. Then he went to sleep. Night after 
 night the signal was sent without a mistake, and the 
 despatcher began to regain some of the confidence he 
 had lost in the young operator. Then one night the des- 
 patcher chanced to be at the next station to Edison's, 
 and it occurred to him to call the latter up and have a 
 chat with him. He signaled for fifteen minutes, and 
 received no answer. Then he jumped on a hand-car 
 and rode to Edison's station. Looking through the 
 window he saw the youth sound asleep. His eyes took 
 in the strange instrument upon the table. It was near
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 239 
 
 the half hour, and as the man watched he saw one lever 
 of the instrument throw open the key and the other 
 send the signal over the wire. The operator was still 
 sleeping soundly. The despatcher recognized the 
 young man's ingenuity, but he also realized that he had 
 been fooled, and so he woke Edison none too gently, 
 and told him that his services were no longer in de- 
 mand on that road. 
 
 Ingenuity, mechanical short-cuts, new devices for 
 doing old work, were what beset his mind. He was 
 not interested in doing the simple routine service of a 
 telegrapher, he wanted to see what improvements on 
 it he could make. Often this keenness for new ideas 
 led him into trouble with his employers ; occasionally 
 it was of real service. At one time an ice-jam had 
 broken the cable-line between Port Huron, in Michigan, 
 and Sarnia, over the Canadian line. The river there 
 was a mile and a half wide. The officers were wonder- 
 ing how they could get their messages across when 
 they saw Edison jump upon a locomotive standing in 
 the train-yard. He seized the valve that controlled the 
 whistle. He opened and closed it so that the locomo- 
 tive's whistles resembled the dots and dashes of the 
 telegraph code. He called Sarnia again and again. 
 " Do you hear this ? Do you get this ? " he sent by 
 the whistle. Four and five times he sent the message, 
 and finally the whistle of a locomotive across the river 
 answered him. In that way communication was again 
 established. 
 
 A little later, when Edison was employed as operator 
 in the railroad office at Indianapolis, he practiced re-
 
 240 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 ceiving newspaper reports in his spare hours at night. 
 He and a friend named Parmley would take the place 
 of the regular man, who was glad to have them do it. 
 " I would sit down," said Edison, " for ten minutes, 
 and ' take ' as much as I could from the instrument, 
 carrying the rest in my head. Then while I wrote out, 
 Parmley would serve his turn at ' taking,' and so on. 
 This worked well until they put a new man on at the 
 Cincinnati end. He was one of the quickest despatch- 
 ers in the business, and we soon found it was hopeless 
 for us to try to keep up with him. Then it was that I 
 worked out my first invention, and necessity was cer- 
 tainly the mother of it. 
 
 " I got two old Morse registers and arranged them in 
 such a way that by running a strip of paper through 
 them the dots and dashes were recorded on it by the 
 first instrument as fast as they were delivered from the 
 Cincinnati end, and were transmitted to us through the 
 other instrument at any desired rate of speed. They 
 would come in on one instrument at the rate of forty 
 words a minute, and would be ground out of our in- 
 strument at the rate of twenty-five. Then weren't we 
 proud ! Our copy used to be so clean and beautiful 
 that we hung it up on exhibition ; and our manager 
 used to come and gaze at it silently with a puzzled ex- 
 pression. He could not understand it, neither could 
 any of the other operators ; for we used to hide my 
 impromptu automatic recorder when our toil was over. 
 But the crash came when there was a big night's 
 work a presidential vote, I think it was and copy 
 kept pouring in at the top rate of speed until we fell an
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 241 
 
 hour and a half or two hours behind. The newspapers 
 sent in frantic complaints, an investigation was made, 
 and our little scheme was discovered. We couldn't 
 use it any more." 
 
 His fortunes rose and fell, for, although he was now 
 becoming a very expert operator, taking messages with 
 greater and greater speed, he would continue to stray 
 into new fields of experiment. When he started to 
 work in the Western Union office in Memphis, which 
 was soon after the end of the Civil War, he found that 
 all messages that were sent from New Orleans to New 
 York had to be received at Memphis, sent on from 
 there to Louisville, taken again, and so forwarded by 
 half a dozen relays to New York. Many errors might 
 creep in by such a system. To cure this he devised an 
 automatic repeater, which could be attached to the line 
 at Memphis, and would of its own accord send the 
 message on. In this way the signals could go directly 
 from New Orleans to New York. The device worked, 
 <and was highly praised in the local newspapers. But 
 it happened that the manager of the office had a rela- 
 tive who was just completing a similar instrument, and 
 Edison had forestalled him. Consequently he found 
 himself discharged. He got a railroad pass as far as 
 Decatur, and walked a hundred and fifty miles from 
 there to Nashville. So by alternate riding and walking 
 he finally reached Louisville. A little later he was 
 offered a place in the Boston office. 
 
 He had plenty of nerve, and was not at all put out at 
 the amusement of the other men when he walked into 
 the Boston office, clad in an old and shapeless linen
 
 242 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 duster. " Here I am," he announced to the superin- 
 tendent. "And who are you?" he was asked. 
 " Tom Edison. I was told to report here." 
 
 The superintendent sent him to the operating-room. 
 Shortly after a New York telegrapher, famed for his 
 speed, called up. Every one else was busy, and Edison 
 was told to take his message. He sat down, and for 
 four and a half hours wrote the messages, numbering 
 the pages and throwing them on the floor for the office 
 boy to gather up. As time went on the messages 
 came with such lightning speed that the whole force 
 gathered about to see the new man work. They had 
 never seen such quickness. At the end of the last 
 message came the words, " Who the devil are you ? " 
 "Tom Edison," the operator ticked back. " You are 
 the first man in the country," wired the man in New 
 York, "that could ever take me at my fastest, and 
 the only one who could ever sit at the other end of 
 my wire for more than two hours and a half. I'm 
 proud to know you." 
 
 This story may be legendary, but it is known to be 
 a fact that Edison was at this time the fastest operator 
 in the employ of the Western Union, and that he 
 could take the messages sent him with a careless ease 
 which amounted almost to indifference. He had 
 also cultivated an unusually clear handwriting, which 
 was of great help in writing out the messages. 
 
 As soon as he was settled at the Boston office he 
 opened a small workshop, where he might try to com- 
 plete some of the many devices he had in mind. He 
 took out his first patent in 1868, when he was twenty-
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 243 
 
 one years old, and it was obtained for what he called 
 an electrical vote recorder. This was intended for use 
 in Congress and the State Legislatures, and to take 
 the place of the slow process of calling the roll on any 
 vote. It was worked somewhat on the plan of the 
 hotel indicator. The voter, sitting at his desk, would 
 press one button if he wanted to vote "aye," and 
 another if he wanted to vote " no." His vote was 
 then recorded on a dial by the Speaker's desk, and as 
 soon as each member had pressed one or the other 
 button the total votes on each side could be known. 
 The machine worked perfectly, and Edison took it to 
 Washington in high hopes of having it adopted by 
 Congress. The chairman to whom he was referred 
 examined it carefully. Then he said, " Young man, it 
 works all right and couldn't be better. With an in- 
 strument like that it would be difficult to monkey with 
 the vote if you wanted to. But it won't do. In fact, 
 it's the last thing on earth that we want here. Fili- 
 bustering and delay in the counting of the votes are 
 often the only means we have of defeating bad legis- 
 lation. So, though I admire your genius and the 
 spirit which prompted you to invent so excellent a ma- 
 chine, we shan't require it here. Take the thing away." 
 " Of course I was very sorry," said Edison, in speak- 
 ing of this interview later, " for I had banked on that 
 machine bringing me in money. But it was a lesson 
 to me. There and then I made a vow that I would 
 never invent anything which was not wanted, or which 
 was not necessary to the community at large. And so 
 far I believe I have kept that vow."
 
 244 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 It was very evident there was a keen-witted man at 
 work in the Boston office. The operators there had 
 been much annoyed by an army of cockroaches that 
 used to march across the table where they put their 
 lunches and make a raid on the sandwiches and 
 pies. One day Edison appeared with some tin-foil 
 and four or five yards of fine wire. He unrolled the 
 tin-foil, and, cutting two narrow strips from the long 
 sheet, he stretched them around the table, keeping 
 them near together, but not touching, and fastening 
 them with small tacks. Then he connected the 
 ribbons of foil with two batteries. 
 
 The leaders of the cockroach army arrived. The 
 advance guard got his fore-creepers over the first 
 ribbon safely, but as soon as they touched the parallel 
 ribbon over he fell. In a very short time the invading 
 army had met its Waterloo, and the lunches were safe 
 from any further attack. 
 
 At another time the tin dipper that hung by the tank 
 of drinking-water temporarily disappeared. When it 
 was returned Edison put up a sign, reading, " Please 
 return this dipper." He also connected the nail on 
 which the dipper hung with a wire attached to an 
 electric battery. After that the dipper stayed in its 
 place under penalty of a wrenched arm for moving it 
 without first disconnecting the battery. 
 
 Edison had now determined to become an inventor, 
 and as soon as he was able gave up his position in the 
 Boston telegraph office, where his routine work took 
 too much of his time, and went to New York to look 
 for other opportunities. It happened that one day
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 245 
 
 soon after his arrival he was walking through Wall 
 Street and was attracted to the office of the Law Gold 
 Indicator. The indicators or stock-tickers of this com- 
 pany were a new device, and were distributed through 
 most of the large brokerage houses of the city. On 
 the morning when Edison casually looked in, the ma- 
 chines had stopped work, no one could find out what 
 was the matter, and the brokers were much disturbed. 
 Edison watched Mr. Law and his workmen searching 
 for the trouble. Then he said that he thought he could 
 fix the machines. Mr. Law told him to try. He re- 
 moved a loose contact spring that had fallen between 
 the wheels, and immediately the tickers began to work 
 again. The other workmen looked foolish, and Mr. 
 Law asked the newcomer to step into his private 
 office. At the end of the interview the owner had 
 offered Edison the position of manager at a salary of 
 three hundred dollars a month, and Edison had ac- 
 cepted. 
 
 He determined to improve this stock-indicator, and 
 set to work at once. Soon he had evolved a number 
 of important additions. The president of the com- 
 pany sent for him and asked how much he would take 
 for these improvements. The inventor said that he 
 would leave that to the president. Forty thousand 
 dollars was named and accepted. Edison opened a 
 bank account, and gave more time to working in his 
 own laboratory. He had got well started up the rungs 
 of the ladder he planned to climb. 
 
 His work lay along the lines of the telegraph, and 
 he was anxious to win the support of the Western
 
 246 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Union for his new ideas. His chance came when 
 there was a breakdown of the lines between New 
 York and Albany. He went to the Western Union 
 president, who had already heard of him, and said, 
 " If I locate this trouble within two or three hours, will 
 you take up my inventions and give them honest con- 
 sideration ? " The president answered, " I'll consider 
 your inventions if you get us out of this fix within 
 two days." Edison rushed forthwith to the main 
 office. There he called up Pittsburg and asked for 
 their best operator. When he had him he told him to 
 call up the best man at Albany, and get him to tele- 
 graph down the line to New York as far as he could, 
 and report back to him. Inside of an hour he received 
 the message, "I can telegraph all right down to 
 within two miles of Poughkeepsie, and there is trouble 
 with the wire there." Edison went back to the presi- 
 dent and told him that if he would send a repair train 
 to Poughkeepsie they would find a break two miles the 
 other side of the city and could have it repaired that 
 afternoon. They followed his directions, and com- 
 munication was restored before night. After that the 
 Western Union officials gave the most careful consid- 
 eration to every new invention that Edison brought 
 them. 
 
 As soon as he had money in bank Edison carried 
 out a plan he had long had in mind. He gave up his 
 workshop in New York and opened a factory and ex- 
 perimenting shop in Newark, New Jersey, where he 
 would have plenty of room for himself and his assistants. 
 He began by manufacturing his improved " stock-
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 247 
 
 tickers," and he met with very considerable success. 
 But he felt that manufacturing was not his forte. He 
 said of this venture later, " I was a poor manufacturer, 
 because I could not let well enough alone. My first 
 impulse upon taking any apparatus into my hand, from 
 an egg-beater to an electric motor, is to seek a way of 
 improving it. Therefore, as soon as I have finished a 
 machine I am anxious to take it apart again in order 
 to make an experiment. That is a costly mania for a 
 manufacturer." 
 
 In his Newark shop Edison now turned his attention 
 to improvements on the telegraph. His first important 
 invention was the duplex, by which two messages 
 could be sent over the same wire in opposite directions 
 at the same time without any confusion or obstruction 
 to each other. This doubled the capacity of the single 
 wire. Later he decided to carry this system farther, 
 and perfected the quadruplex device. By this two 
 messages could be sent simultaneously in each direction, 
 and two sending and two receiving operators were 
 employed at each end of a single wire. The principle 
 involved was that of working with two electric currents 
 that differ from each other in strength or nature, and 
 which only affect receiving instruments specially 
 adapted to take such currents, and no others. This 
 invention changed a hundred thousand miles of wire 
 into four hundred thousand, and saved the Western 
 Union untold millions of dollars which would otherwise 
 have had to be expended for new wires and repairs to 
 the old ones. 
 
 Along somewhat similar lines Edison perfected an
 
 248 ' HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 automatic telegraph, an harmonic multiplex telegraph, 
 and an autographic telegraph. The harmonic multi- 
 plex used tuning-forks to separate the several different 
 messages sent at the same time, and the autographic 
 telegraph allowed of the transmission of an exact repro- 
 duction of a message written by the sender in one 
 place and received in another. And in addition to all 
 these leading inventions he was continually improving 
 on the main system, and his improvements were rapidly 
 bought and taken over by the Western Union Com- 
 pany. 
 
 In almost as many diverse ways Edison improved 
 upon the telephone. He had left his factory in Newark 
 in charge of a capable superintendent, and moved his 
 own laboratories to Menlo Park, a quiet place about 
 twenty-five miles from Newark. His striking dis- 
 coveries soon earned for him the nickname of " The 
 Wizard of Menlo Park." Here he experimented with 
 the new apparatus known as the telephone. He said 
 of his own connection with it, " When I struck the 
 telephone business the Bell people had no transmitter, 
 but were talking into the magneto receiver. You 
 never heard such a noise and buzzing as there was in 
 that old machine ! I went to work and monkeyed 
 around, and finally struck the notion of the lampblack 
 button. The Western Union Telegraph Company 
 thought this was a first-rate scheme, and bought the 
 thing out, but afterward they consolidated, and I quit 
 the telephone business." As a matter of fact Edison 
 has done a great deal of other work besides inventing 
 his carbon transmitter in the telephone field, and the
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 249 
 
 Patent Office is well stocked with applications he has 
 sent them for receivers and transmitters of different 
 designs. 
 
 Edison has himself told of the main incidents in 
 his perfection of the electric light. In the Electrical 
 Review he said, "In 1878 I went down to see Pro- 
 fessor Barker, at Philadelphia, and he showed me an 
 arc lamp the first I had seen. Then a little later I 
 saw another I think it was one of Brush's make and 
 the whole outfit, engine, dynamo, and one or two lamps, 
 was traveling around the country with a circus. At 
 that time Wallace and Moses G. Farmer had succeeded 
 in getting ten or fifteen lamps to burn together in a 
 series, which was considered a very wonderful thing. 
 It happened that at the time I was more or less at 
 leisure, because I had just finished working on the 
 carbon-button telephone, and this electric-light idea 
 took possession of me. It was easy to see what the 
 thing needed : it wanted to be subdivided. The light 
 was too bright and too big. What we wished for was 
 little lights, and a distribution of them to people's 
 houses in a manner similar to gas. Grovernor P. 
 Lowry thought that perhaps I could succeed in solving 
 the problem, and he raised a little money and formed 
 the Edison Electric Light Company. The way we 
 worked was that I got a certain sum of money a week 
 and employed a certain number of men, and we went 
 ahead to see what we could do. 
 
 " We soon saw that the subdivision never could be 
 accomplished unless each light was independent of 
 every other. Now it was plain enough that they could
 
 250 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 not burn in series. Hence they must burn in multiple 
 arc. It was with this conviction that I started. I was 
 fired with the idea of the incandescent lamp as opposed 
 to the arc lamp, so I went to work and got some very 
 fine platinum wire drawn. Experiment with this, 
 however, resulted in failure, and then we tried mixing 
 in with the platinum about ten per cent, of iridium, but 
 we could not force that high enough without melting 
 it. After that came a lot of experimenting covering 
 the wire with oxide of cerium and a number of other 
 things. 
 
 "Then I got a great idea. I took a cylinder of 
 zirconia and wound about a hundred feet of the fine 
 platinum wire on it coated with magnesia from the 
 syrupy acetate. What I was after was getting a high- 
 resistance lamp, and I made one that way that worked 
 up to forty ohms. But the oxide developed the phenom- 
 ena now familiar to electricians, and the lamp short- 
 circuited itself. After that we went fishing around and 
 trying all sorts of shapes and things to make a filament 
 that would stand. We tried silicon and boron, and a 
 lot of things that I have forgotten now. The funny 
 part of it was that I never thought in those days that a 
 carbon filament would answer, because a fine hair of 
 carbon was so sensitive to oxidation. Finally, I thought 
 I would try it because we had got very high vacua and 
 good conditions for it. 
 
 " Well, we sent out and bought some cotton thread, 
 carbonized it, and made the first filament. We had al- 
 ready managed to get pretty high vacua, and we 
 thought, maybe, the filament would be stable. We
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 251 
 
 built the lamp and turned on the current. It lit up, and 
 in the first few breathless minutes we measured its re- 
 sistance quickly and found it was 275 ohms all we 
 wanted. Then we sat down and looked at that lamp. 
 We wanted to see how long it would burn. The prob- 
 lem was solved if the filament would last. The day 
 was let me see October 21, 1879. We sat and 
 looked, and the lamp continued to burn, and the longer 
 it burned the more fascinated we were. None of us 
 could go to bed, and there was no sleep for any of us 
 for forty hours. We sat and just watched it with anx- 
 iety growing into elation. It lasted about forty-five 
 hours, and then I said, ' If it will burn that number of 
 hours now, I know I can make it burn a hundred.' 
 We saw that carbon was what we wanted, and the next 
 question was what kind of carbon. I began to try vari- 
 ous things, and finally I carbonized a strip of bamboo 
 from a Japanese fan, and saw that I was on the right 
 track. But we had a rare hunt finding the real thing. 
 I sent a schoolmaster to Sumatra and another fellow up 
 the Amazon, while William H. Moore, one of my asso- 
 ciates, went to Japan and got what we wanted there. 
 We made a contract with an old Jap to supply us with 
 the proper fibre, and that man went to work and culti- 
 vated and cross-fertilized bamboo until he got exactly 
 the quality we required." 
 
 This is the inventor's own statement, but it gives a 
 very meagre notion of the many months' experimenting 
 in his workshop while he hunted for a suitable filament 
 for his electric light. 
 
 As he said, after he had first seen the Brush light,
 
 252 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 and studied it, he decided that the main problem was 
 one of distribution, and thereupon considered whether 
 he should use the incandescent or the voltaic arc in the 
 system he was planning. At last he decided in favor 
 of the incandescent light. 
 
 Then began the long months of testing platinum 
 wire. He wanted to find some way of preventing this 
 hardest of all metals from melting when the full force 
 of the electric current was turned into it. He worked 
 out several devices to keep the platinum from fusing, an 
 automatic lever to regulate the electric current when 
 the platinum was near the melting-point, and a dia- 
 phragm with the same object ; but all of them had to 
 be discarded. Although he was still searching for the 
 right clue he seems to have had no doubt of his final 
 success. He said at this time, " There is no difficulty 
 about dividing up the current and using small quanti- 
 ties at different points. The trouble is in finding a 
 candle that will give a pleasant light, not too intense, 
 which can be turned off and on as easily as gas. Such 
 a candle cannot be made from carbon points, which 
 waste away, and must be regulated constantly while they 
 do last. Some composition must be discovered which 
 will be luminous when charged with electricity and that 
 will not wear away. Platinum wire gives a good light 
 when a certain quantity of electricity is passed through 
 it. If the current is made too strong, however, the wire 
 will melt. I want to get something better." 
 
 It was generally known that Edison was working 
 along this line. An English paper, commenting on 
 the matter, said, " The weak point of the lamp is this,
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 253 
 
 that in order to be luminous, platinum must be 
 heated almost to the point of melting. With a slight 
 increase in the current, the lamp melts in the twinkling 
 of an eye, and in practice the regulator is found to 
 short-circuit the current too late to prevent the damage. 
 It is this difficulty which must be overcome. Can it be 
 done?" 
 
 After long study Edison concluded that pure plat- 
 inum was not suited to successful electric lighting. 
 Then he incorporated with it another material of a 
 non-conducting nature, with the result that when the 
 electric current was turned on one material became in- 
 candescent and the other luminous. This gave a clear, 
 but not a permanent, light. He tried many different 
 combinations, and experimented month after month, 
 but none of his trials produced the result he wanted, 
 and at last he concluded that he was on the wrong 
 track, and that neither platinum nor any other metal 
 would give the right light. 
 
 There is something very dramatic about his real dis- 
 covery. He was sitting in his laboratory one evening, 
 when his right hand happened to touch a small pile of 
 lampblack and tar that his assistants had been using in 
 working on a telephone transmitter. He picked up a 
 little of it, and began to roll it between his finger and 
 thumb. He was thinking of other things, and he rolled 
 the mixture absent-mindedly for some time, until he had 
 formed a thin thread that looked something like a piece 
 of wire. Glancing at it, he fell to wondering how it 
 would serve as a filament for his light. It was carbon, 
 and might be able to stand a stronger current than plat-
 
 254 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 inum. He rolled some more of the mixture, and de- 
 cided to try it. 
 
 His experiments had already resulted in the produc- 
 tion of an almost absolute vacuum, only one-millionth 
 part of an atmosphere being left in the tube. Such a 
 vacuum had never been obtained before. With his as- 
 sistant, Charles Bachelor, he put a thread of the lamp- 
 black and tar in a bulb, exhausted the air, and turned 
 on the current. There was an intense glow of light ; 
 but it did not last, the carbon soon burned out. There- 
 fore he started to study the reason why the carbon had 
 failed to withstand the electric current. His conclu- 
 sion was that it was impossible to get the air out of the 
 lampblack. Besides that the thread became so brittle 
 that the slightest shock to the lamp broke it. But he 
 felt certain now that a carbon filament, made of some- 
 thing other than tar and lampblack, was what he wanted. 
 
 He next sent a boy to buy a reel of cotton, and told 
 his assistants he was going to see what a carbonized 
 thread would do. They looked doubtful, but began 
 the experiment. A short piece of the thread was bent 
 in the form of a hairpin, laid in a nickel mould and 
 securely clamped, and then put in a muffle furnace, 
 where it was kept for five hours. Then it was taken 
 out and allowed to cool. The mould was opened and 
 the carbonized thread removed. It instantly broke. 
 Another thread was put through the same process. As 
 soon as it was taken from the mould it broke. Then a 
 battle began that lasted for two days and two nights, 
 the object of which was to get a carbonized thread that 
 would not break. Edison wanted that thread because
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 255 
 
 it contained no air, and might stand a greater current 
 than the lampblack. Finally they took from the mould 
 an unbroken thread, but as they tried to fasten it to the 
 conducting wire it broke into pieces. Only on the 
 night of the third day of their work, in all which time 
 they had taken no rest, did they get a thread safely 
 into the lamp, exhaust the air, and turn on the current. 
 A clear, soft light resulted, and they knew that they had 
 solved the problem of the incandescent light. 
 
 Edison and Bachelor watched that light for hours. 
 They had turned on a small current at the start, to test 
 the strength of the filament, but as it stood it, they 
 turned on a greater and greater current until the thread 
 was bearing a heat that would have instantly melted 
 the platinum wire. The cotton thread glowed for forty- 
 five hours, and then suddenly went out. The two 
 watchers ended their long vigil, exhausted, but very 
 happy. They knew that they had found the light that 
 was to be the main illumination for the world. 
 
 But Edison realized that he had not yet found the 
 ideal filament. The cotton thread had only lasted 
 forty-five hours, and he wanted one that would burn for 
 a hundred hours or longer. He wanted a more homo- 
 geneous material than thread, and he began to try car- 
 bonizing everything he could lay his hands on, straw, 
 paper, cardboard, splinters of wood. He found that 
 the cardboard stood the current better than the cotton 
 thread, but even that did not burn long enough. Then 
 he happened upon a bamboo fan, tore off the rim, and 
 tried that. It made a filament that gave better results 
 than any of the others.
 
 256 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Now he began his exhaustive study of bamboo. He 
 learned that there were more than twelve hundred 
 known varieties of bamboo. He wanted to find the 
 most homogeneous variety. He sent out a number of 
 men to hunt this bamboo, and it is said that the search 
 cost nearly $100,000. Six thousand specimens of bam- 
 boo were carbonized, and he found three kinds of bam- 
 boo and one of cane that gave almost the result he 
 wanted. All of these grew in a region near the 
 Amazon, and were hard to get on account of malarial 
 conditions. But at last he discovered the bamboo 
 species that suited him, and he was ready to give his 
 new light to the world. 
 
 The world was waiting for it. Scientists and the 
 press reported his invention everywhere. He hung a 
 row of lamps from the trees at Menlo Park, and the 
 thousands who came to see them wondered when they 
 found they could burn day and night for longer than a 
 week. The lamps were small and finely made, they 
 could be lighted or extinguished by simply pressing a 
 button, and the cost of making them was slight. The 
 last doubters surrendered, and admitted that Edison 
 had given the world a new light, and one which was 
 not simply a scientific marvel, but was eminently prac- 
 tical and useful. 
 
 But Edison is never satisfied with what he has done 
 in any line ; he must try to increase the service each 
 invention gives. Therefore he now conceived the idea 
 of having a central station from which every one might 
 obtain electric light as they had formerly obtained gas. 
 There were gigantic difficulties in the way of such an
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 257 
 
 undertaking. Hardly any one outside of Edison's 
 own laboratory knew anything about electric light- 
 ing, and there were only a few of them who could be 
 trusted to put a carbon filament in an exhausted globe. 
 
 He went about this new development in the most 
 methodical way. He got an insurance map of New 
 York City, and studied the business section from Wall 
 to Canal Streets and from Broadway over to the East 
 River. He knew where every elevator shaft and boiler 
 and fire-wall was, and also how much gas each resident 
 used and what he paid for it. This last he learned by 
 hiring men to walk through the district at two o'clock 
 in the afternoon and note how many gas lights were 
 burning, then to make the rounds again at three, and 
 again at four, and so on into the hours of the next 
 morning. 
 
 With the field carefully examined he formed the New 
 York Edison Illuminating Company, and had his 
 assistants take charge of factories for making lamps, 
 dynamos, sockets, and the other parts necessary for his 
 lights. It was very difficult to get the land he wanted 
 for his central station, but he finally bought two old 
 buildings on Pearl Street for $150,000. He had little 
 room space and he wanted to get a big output of elec- 
 tricity. So he decided to get a high-speed engine. 
 They were practically unknown then, and when he 
 went to an engine builder and said that he wanted a 
 150 horse-power engine that would run 700 revolutions 
 per minute he was told it was impossible. But he 
 found a man to build one for him, and set it up in the 
 shop at Menlo Park. The shop was built on a shale
 
 258 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 hill, and when the engine was started the whole hill 
 shook with the high speed revolutions. After some 
 experimenting and changing they got the power that 
 Edison wanted, and he ordered six more engines like 
 the first. 
 
 In the meantime workmen had been busy digging 
 ditches and laying mains through the district that 
 Edison intended to light. The engines were set up in 
 the central station and tried out. Then the troubles 
 began. The engines would not run evenly, one would 
 stop and another go dashing on at a tremendous speed. 
 Edison tried a dozen different plans before he brought 
 anything like order out of that engine chaos. Finally 
 he had some engines built to run at 350 revolutions and 
 give 175 horse-power, and these proved what was re- 
 quired. September 4, 1882, he turned the current on to 
 the mains for the needed light service, and it stayed on 
 with only one short stoppage for eight years. 
 
 In this way Edison invented the electric light and 
 evolved the central station that should provide the 
 current wherever it was needed. At the same time he 
 had worked out countless adjuncts to it, the use of the 
 fine copper thread to serve as a fuse wire and prevent 
 short-circuiting, the meter, consisting of a small glass 
 cell, containing a solution in which two plates of zinc 
 are placed, and which shows how much current is sup- 
 plied, the weighing voltameter, and other instruments 
 for estimating the current, and improvements on the 
 motors and engines. There was no field remotely 
 connected with electric lighting that he did not enter. 
 Yet as soon as the invention was actually before the
 
 EDISON AND THE EARLY PHONOGRAPH
 
 EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 259 
 
 world business competitors sprang up on every hand. 
 There was more litigation over this than over any 
 other of Edison's inventions. " I fought for the lamp 
 for fourteen years," he said, " and when I finally won 
 my rights there were but three years of the allotted 
 seventeen left for my patent to live. Now it has 
 become the property of anybody and everybody." 
 
 Edison had always wanted a model laboratory, one 
 that should be fitted with the most perfect instruments 
 obtainable, and supplied with all the materials he could 
 possibly require in any of his extraordinary experi- 
 ments. In 1886 he bought a house in Llewellyn Park, 
 New Jersey, and near the house ten acres of land, on 
 which he built the laboratory of his dreams. Here he 
 had a large force of skilled workmen constantly en- 
 gaged in developing his ideas, and the expenses were 
 paid by the many commercial companies in which he 
 was interested, and which profited by the improve- 
 ments he was continually making in their machinery. 
 
 Many volumes might be written to tell of the " Wiz- 
 ard's" achievements. There has been no inventor who 
 has covered such a field, and each step he takes opens 
 new and fascinating vistas to his ever-inquiring eyes. 
 Electricity is always his main study, and electricity he 
 expects in time will revolutionize modern life by making 
 heat, power, and light practically as cheap as air. But 
 other subjects have concerned him almost as much. 
 He ranges from new processes for making guns to the 
 supplying of ready-made houses built of cement. 
 Everything interests him, every object tempts him to 
 try his hand at improving on it.
 
 260 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 The phonograph is his achievement, and the practical 
 development of the kinetoscope. He has built electric 
 locomotives and run them, he has made many discov- 
 eries in regard to platinum. His better known patents 
 include developments of the electric lamp, the telephone, 
 storage-batteries, ore-milling machinery, typewriters, 
 electric pens, vocal engines, addressing machines, cast- 
 iron furniture, wire-drawing, methods of preserving 
 fruit, moving-picture machines, compressed-air ma- 
 chines, and the manufacture of plate glass. He took 
 out a patent covering wireless telegraphy in 1891, but 
 other matters were then absorbing his attention, and he 
 was quite willing to yield that field to the brilliant Ital- 
 ian, Marconi. He feels no jealousy for other invent- 
 ors. He knows how vast the field is, and how many 
 paths constantly beckon him. 
 
 It is doubtless true that the great inventors are born 
 and not made, but many of them seem, nevertheless, 
 to have drifted into the work that gave them fame, or 
 to have hit by chance on their compelling idea. It was 
 not so with Edison. He was beyond any doubt born 
 an inventor. With him to see was to ask the question 
 why, and to ask that question was to start his thoughts 
 on the train that was to bring him to the answer.
 
 XV 
 
 MARCONI AND THE WIRELESS 
 TELEGRAPH 
 
 1874- - 
 
 AT first sight the wireless telegraph seems the most 
 wonderful of all inventions and discoveries, the one 
 that is least easy to understand, and that most nearly 
 approaches that magic which is above all nature's laws. 
 Even if we do come to understand it it loses nothing of 
 its wonder, and the last impression is very like the first. 
 We can understand how an electric current travels 
 through a wire, even if we cannot understand electricity, 
 but how that current can travel through limitless space 
 and yet reach its destination strains the imagination. 
 Yet wireless telegraphy is not a matter of the imagina- 
 tion, but of exact, demonstrable science. 
 
 On December 12, 1901, a quiet, dark-skinned young 
 man sat, about noontime, in a room of the old barracks 
 building on Signal Hill, near St. John's, Newfound- 
 land. On the table in front of him was a mechanical 
 apparatus, with an ordinary telephone receiver at its 
 side. The window was partly open, and a wire led 
 from the machine on the table through the window to 
 a gigantic kite that a high wind kept flying fully 400 
 feet above the room. The young man picked up the
 
 262 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 receiver, and held it to his ear for a long time. His 
 face showed no sign of excitement, though an assist- 
 ant, standing near him, could barely keep still. Then, 
 suddenly, came the sharp click of the "tapper" as it 
 struck the " coherer." That meant that something was 
 coming. The young man listened a few minutes, and 
 then handed the receiver to his assistant. " See if you 
 can hear anything, Mr. Kemp," said he. The other 
 man took the receiver, and a moment later his ear 
 caught the sound of three little clicks, faint, but distinct 
 and unmistakable, the three dots of the letter S in the 
 Morse Code. Those clicks had been sent from Poldhu, 
 on the Cornish coast of England, and they had traveled 
 through air across the Atlantic Ocean without any 
 wire to guide them. That was one of the great mo- 
 ments of history. The young man at the table was 
 Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian. 
 
 We know that it is no injustice to a great inventor 
 to say that other men had imagined what he achieved, 
 and had earlier tried to prove their theories. It takes 
 nothing from the glory of that other great Italian, 
 Columbus, to recall that other sailors had planned to 
 cross the sea to the west of Europe and that some had 
 tried it. So James Clerk-Maxwell had proved by math- 
 ematics the electro-magnetic theory of light in 1864, 
 and Heinrich Hertz had demonstrated in 1888 by actual 
 experiment that electric waves exist in the free ether, 
 and Edison had for a time worked on the problem of a 
 wireless telegraph. Marconi devised the last link that 
 made the wonder possible, and caught the first click 
 that came across the sea, and to him belong the palms.
 
 MARCONI AND WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 263 
 
 Judge Townsend, in deciding a suit in a United States 
 court in 1905, declared, " It would seem, therefore, to 
 be a sufficient answer to the attempts to belittle 
 Marconi's great invention that, with the whole scientific 
 world awakened by the disclosures of Hertz in 1887 
 to the new and undeveloped possibilities of electric 
 waves, nine years elapsed without a single practical or 
 commercially successful result, and Marconi was the 
 first to describe and the first to achieve the transmission 
 of definite intelligible signals by means of these Hertz- 
 ian waves." 
 
 Marconi was born at Villa Griffone, near Bologna, in 
 1874, so that he was under thirty when he caught that 
 first transatlantic message. He studied at Leghorn 
 under Professor Rosa, and later at the University 
 of Bologna with Professor Righi. He was always 
 absorbed in science, and experimented, holiday after 
 holiday, on his father's estate. He was precocious to 
 an extraordinary degree, for in 1895, when only twenty- 
 one, he had produced a wireless transmitting apparatus 
 that he patented in Italy. Within a year he had taken 
 out patents in England and in other European countries, 
 and had proposed a wireless telegraph system to the 
 English Post-Office Department. That Department, 
 through Sir William Henry Preece, Engineer-in-Chief 
 of Telegraphs, took up the subject, and reported very 
 favorably on the Marconi System. Marconi himself, at 
 the House of Commons, telegraphed by wireless across 
 the Thames, a distance of 250 yards. In June, 1897, he 
 sent a message nine miles, in July twelve miles, and in 
 1898 he succeeded in sending one across the English
 
 264 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 Channel to France, thirty-two miles. In 1901 he 
 covered a space of 3,000 miles. 
 
 Let us now see what it was that Marconi had actually 
 done. 
 
 Wireless signals are in reality wave motions in the 
 magnetic forces of the earth, or, in other words, dis- 
 turbances of those forces. They are sent out through 
 this magnetic field, and follow the earth's curvature, in 
 the same way that tidal waves follow the ocean's sur- 
 face. Everywhere about us there is a sea of what 
 science calls the ether, and the ether is constantly in a 
 state of turmoil, because it is the medium through which 
 energy, radiating from the sun, is carried to the earth 
 and other planets. This energy is transmitted through 
 the free ether in waves, which are known as electro- 
 magnetic waves. It was this fact that Professor Hertz 
 discovered, and the waves are sometimes called the 
 Hertzian waves. Light is one variety of wave motion, 
 and heat another. The ether must be distinguished 
 from the air, for science means by it a medium which 
 exists everywhere and is to be regarded as permeating 
 all space and all matter. The ether exists in a vacuum, 
 for, although all the air may have been withdrawn, an 
 object placed in a vacuum can still be seen from out- 
 side, and hence the wave motions of light are traveling 
 through a space devoid of air. 
 
 Professor Hertz proved in 1888 that a spark, or dis- 
 ruptive discharge of electricity, caused electro-magnetic 
 waves to radiate away in all directions through the 
 ether. The waves acted exactly like ripples that 
 radiate from a stone when it strikes the water. These
 
 MARCONI AND WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 265 
 
 Hertzian waves were found to travel with the same 
 velocity as light, and would circle the world eight times 
 in a second. As soon as the existence of these waves 
 was known many scientists began to consider whether 
 they could not be used for telegraphy. But the prob- 
 lem was a very difficult one. The questions were 
 how to transmit the energy to a distance, and how to 
 make a receiver that should be sensitive enough to be 
 affected by it. 
 
 Let us picture a body of still water with a twig float- 
 ing upon its surface. If a stone is thrown into the 
 water ripples radiate in all directions, these waves be- 
 coming weaker as the circles they form become larger, 
 or in other words as they grow more distant from the 
 point where the stone struck the water. When the 
 waves reach the floating twig they will move it, and 
 when they cease the twig will be motionless again. 
 Should there be grasses or rocks protruding up from 
 the water the motion given to the twig by the waves 
 would be lessened, or distorted, or changed in many 
 ways, depending on the intervening object. Whether 
 the waves will actually impart motion to the twig will 
 depend on the force by which these waves were started 
 and upon the lightness of the twig, or its sensitiveness 
 to the ripples as they radiate. If the water were dis- 
 turbed by some other force than the stone the twig 
 would be moved by that other force, and the observer 
 could not tell from what direction the motion had come, 
 or how it had been caused. Applying this to wireless 
 telegraphy one may say that a device must be used 
 that will send out waves of a certain length, and that
 
 266 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 the receiver must be constructed so that it will respond 
 only to waves of the length sent by that transmitter. 
 
 There must therefore be accurate tuning of the two 
 instruments. Let a weight be fastened at the end of a 
 spiral spring and then be struck. The weight will 
 oscillate at a uniform rate, or so many times a minute. 
 If this be held so that it strikes the water the movement 
 of the spring will create a certain number of waves a 
 minute. If now a second weight, attached to a second 
 spring, be hung down into the water, the waves caused 
 by the first will reach the second, and if the springs be 
 alike the movements or oscillations will correspond. 
 But if the springs were not alike, or if, in other words, 
 the two instruments were not in tune, the wave motions 
 would not be received and copied accurately. There- 
 fore in wireless telegraphy the instrument that is to 
 impart the motion to the electro-magnetic waves that 
 fill the ether must be tuned in accord with the instru- 
 ment that is to receive the motion of those waves. 
 
 The sending of the wireless message requires a source 
 of production of the electro-magnetic waves. This is 
 obtained by what is known as capacity, or in other 
 words, the power that is possessed by any metal surface 
 to retain a charge of electricity, and by inductance, pro- 
 cured when a constantly changing current is sent 
 through a coil of wire. This capacity and inductance 
 must be adjusted to give exactly the same frequency of 
 motion to the waves, or the same oscillations, if the re- 
 ceiver that is tuned to vibrate to those waves is to re- 
 ceive that message accurately. The receiving station 
 must have the means to intercept the waves, and then
 
 MARCONI AND WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 267 
 
 transform them again into electrical oscillations that 
 shall correspond to those sent out from the transmitting 
 station. 
 
 As early as 1844 Samuel F. B. Morse had succeeded 
 in telegraphing without wires under the Susquehanna 
 River, and in 1854 James Bowman Lindsay, a Scotch- 
 man, had sent a message a distance of two miles through 
 water without wires. Sir William Henry Preece, by 
 using an induced current, had telegraphed several miles 
 without a connecting wire. But the discoveries made 
 in regard to the Hertzian waves placed the subject on 
 a different footing, and the possibility of an actual usa- 
 ble wireless telegraph was now looked at from a new 
 view-point. 
 
 Professor Hertz had used a simple form of apparatus 
 to obtain his free ether waves. A loop of wire, with 
 the ends almost touching each other, had been his re- 
 ceiver, or detector. When he set his generator, or in- 
 strument to create the oscillations, in operation, and 
 held the detector near it, he could see very minute elec- 
 tric sparks passing between the ends of the loop of 
 wire. This proved the existence of the electro-magnetic 
 waves. 
 
 In 1890 Professor Eduard Branly found that loose 
 metallic filings became good conductors of electricity 
 when there were electric oscillations at hand. He 
 demonstrated this by placing the filings between metal 
 plugs in a glass tube, and connecting this in circuit 
 with a battery and electric indicator. Professor Oliver 
 Lodge named this device of Branly's a " coherer," and 
 when he found that it was more sensitive than the Hertz
 
 268 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 detector he combined it with the Hertz oscillator. This 
 was in 1894, and the combination of oscillator and co- 
 herer actually formed the first real wireless set. 
 
 Wireless stations on shore are marked by very tall 
 masts, which support a single wire, or a set of wires, 
 which are known as the antenna. The antenna has 
 electrical capacity, and when it is connected with the 
 other apparatus needful to produce the oscillations it 
 disturbs the earth's magnetic field. For temporary 
 service, as in the case of military operations, the antenna 
 is frequently attached to captive balloons or kites, and 
 so suspended high in air. On ships the antenna is fast- 
 ened to the masts. The step that led to this addition 
 was taken by Count Popoff in 1895, when he attached 
 a vertical wire to one side of the coherer of the receiver 
 of Professor Lodge, and connected the other side with 
 the ground. He used this to learn the approach of 
 thunder-storms. 
 
 With a knowledge of electro-magnetic waves, with a 
 high-power oscillator, and a sensitive coherer, it re- 
 mained for Marconi to connect an antenna to the trans- 
 mitter, and thus secure a wide and practicable working 
 field for the sending and receiving of his messages. 
 This he did in 1896, and it was this addition that made 
 the wireless telegraph of real use to men. Improve- 
 ments in the transmitter and receiver have constantly 
 increased the power of the invention, and have grad- 
 ually allowed him to employ it over greater and greater 
 distances. 
 
 With Marconi's successful demonstrations of wireless 
 in England its use at once began. The Trinity House
 
 WIRELESS STATION IN NEW YORK CITY, SHOWING THE ANTENNA
 
 MARCONI AND WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 269 
 
 installed a station at the East Goodwin Lighthouse, 
 which communicated with shore and proved of the 
 greatest value in preventing shipwrecks. The Marconi 
 Wireless Telegraph Company was organized in 1897, 
 and made agreements to erect coast stations for the 
 Italian, Canadian, and Newfoundland governments, and 
 for Lloyd's. The great shipping lines established wire- 
 less stations on their vessels, and the antenna were soon 
 to be seen on points of vantage along every coast. On 
 December 12, 1901, Marconi in Newfoundland caught 
 the message sent from Cornwall ; on January 19, 1903, 
 President Roosevelt sent the first "official" wireless 
 message across the Atlantic to Edward VII, and in 
 October, 1905, a message was sent from England across 
 the mountains, valleys and cities of Europe to the bat- 
 tle-ship Renown, stationed at the entrance to the Suez 
 Canal. 
 
 The system of operating wireless telegraphy is in 
 some respects similar to that of the ordinary telegraph. 
 The Morse Code is largely used in America, and a 
 modification of it, called the Continental Code, in 
 Europe. When the wireless operator wishes to send a 
 message to another station he "listens in," as it is 
 called, by connecting his receiving apparatus with the 
 adjacent antenna and the ground. He has the tele- 
 phone receiver attached to his ears. Next he adjusts 
 his receiving circuits for a number of wave lengths. If 
 he catches no signals in his telephone receiver he un- 
 derstands that no messages are being sent within his 
 area. Then he "throws in" the transmitting appa- 
 ratus, which automatically disconnects the receiving
 
 2/o HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 end. He gives the letters that stand for the station 
 with which he wants to communicate, and adds the let- 
 ters of his own station. He does this a number of 
 times, to insure the other station picking up the call. 
 Then he "listens in," and if he receives the clicks that 
 show that the other station has heard him he is ready 
 to establish regular telegraphic communication. 
 
 A number of distant stations may be sending mes- 
 sages simultaneously. In that case the operator tunes 
 his instrument, or in other words adjusts his apparatus 
 to suit the wave length of the station with which he 
 wishes to communicate. In this way he " tunes out " 
 the other messages, and receives only the one he wants. 
 If, however, the stations that are sending simultane- 
 ously happen to be situated near together, as in the 
 case of several vessels near a shore station, the operator 
 is often unable to do this " tuning out," and must try 
 to catch the message he wishes by the sound of the 
 "spark" of the transmitting station, if he can in any 
 way distinguish it from the " sparks " of the other 
 messages. 
 
 There are several ways of determining when the two 
 circuits are in tune. One is to insert a hot-wire current 
 meter between the antenna and the inductance, which 
 indicates the strength of the oscillatory current that has 
 been established. A maximum reading can then be 
 made by manipulating the flexible connections, and 
 this will show whether the two circuits are in accord. 
 The other method is by using a device that indicates 
 the wave length. This measures the frequency of one 
 circuit, and then the other circuit can be adjusted to
 
 MARCONI AND WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 271 
 
 give a corresponding wave length. The larger the 
 antenna the longer will be the wave length and the 
 greater the power of the apparatus. It is usual to em- 
 ploy a short wave length for low-power, short-distance 
 equipments, and a long wave length for the high-power, 
 long-distance stations. 
 
 Wireless telegraphy has already proved itself of the 
 greatest value on the ocean. It has sent news of storms 
 and wrecks across tossing seas and brought rescue to 
 scores of voyagers. Ships may now keep in constant 
 communication with their offices on shore. The great 
 lines send Marconigrams to each other in mid-ocean, 
 and publish daily papers giving the latest news of the 
 whole world. Greater distances have so far been 
 covered over water than over land, but this branch of 
 the service is being rapidly developed, and it must 
 prove in time of the greatest value across deserts and 
 wild countries, where a regular telegraph service would 
 be impracticable. In such a country as Alaska, where 
 there are constant heavy sleet and snow storms, the 
 wireless should prove invaluable. 
 
 The telegraph and cable companies did their best to 
 ignore the claims of the wireless systems, but they have 
 been compelled to acknowledge them at last. Rival 
 companies have sprung up, using slightly different 
 varieties of apparatus. Each of the big companies that 
 were ready to compete with the Marconi Company by 
 1906, the German Telefunken Company, the American 
 National Electric Signaling Company, the American 
 De Forest Company, and the British Lodge-Muirhead 
 Wireless Syndicate, had certain peculiar advantages
 
 272 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 over the others. The laws relating to the uses of wire- 
 less, and especially the rights of governments to the 
 sole use of the systems in case of war, are in a confused 
 condition, but eventually order must come from this 
 chaos as it did in the history of the telephone and tele- 
 graph. 
 
 Wireless has brought the possibility of communica- 
 tion between any two individuals, no matter where they 
 may be situated, within the realm of fact. A severing 
 of communication with any part of the world will be 
 impossible. Storms and earthquakes that destroy 
 telegraph systems, enemies that cut submarine cables, 
 cannot prevent the sending of Marconigrams. The 
 African explorer and the Polar adventurer can each 
 talk with his countrymen. The use of this agency is 
 still in its earliest youth, but it has already done so 
 much that it is impossible to say to what a stature it 
 may grow. It should cut down the rates for using wire 
 and cable systems, and ultimately place the means of 
 communicating directly with any one on land or sea 
 within the reach of every man. All the world's infor- 
 mation will be at the instant disposal of whomsoever 
 needs it, and all this is due to those electro-magnetic 
 waves that permeate the ether, waiting to be put into 
 service at the touch of man.
 
 XVI 
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 
 
 Wilbur Wright 1867- 
 Orville Wright 1871- 
 
 MEN have always wanted to be able to fly. So long 
 as there have been birds to watch, so long have men 
 of speculative minds wondered at the secret of their 
 flight. Early in recorded history men built ships to 
 sail across the seas, but the problem of air navigation 
 has always baffled them. The balloon came into being, 
 but the balloon for years was only a toy, dependent on 
 the wind's whim, and of the least possible service to 
 men. The problem of aerial navigation was to master 
 the currents of the air as the sailing-vessel and the 
 steamship had overcome the waves and tides at sea. 
 
 The history of invention often shows that some great 
 thinker, or school of thinkers, has stated a scientific con- 
 clusion that generations of later men have never dared 
 to question. The laws of Aristotle in regard to falling 
 bodies were never doubted until Galileo began to 
 wonder if they could be true. Sir Isaac Newton had 
 stated, and mathematical computations had proved his 
 words, that a mechanical flying-machine was an im- 
 possibility. Any such machine must be heavier than 
 the air it flew in. The weight of Newton's authority 
 and the weight of figures were compelling facts, such 
 as scientists had no mind to doubt. But in spite of
 
 274 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 these facts men could see that birds flew, although they 
 were often a thousand times heavier than the air they 
 went through. And that sight kept men speculating, 
 in spite of all the figures and scientific dicta of the ages. 
 
 It was known for centuries that if a kite was held in 
 position by a string reaching to the ground the wind 
 blowing against it would keep it supported in the air. 
 Now if the kite, instead of being stationary in moving 
 air, were to be moved constantly through quiet air it 
 would also stay up. The motive power might be sup- 
 plied by a motor and propellers, but in order to do 
 away with the string which holds the kite in position 
 the aeroplane, which is only a big kite in principle, must 
 have some way of balancing itself so that it will stay in 
 the proper position in the air. 
 
 A German engineer, Otto Lilienthal, made a study 
 of the mechanics of birds' flights, and determined to 
 learn their secret by actual trial. He built wings that 
 were similar to those of the hawk and buzzard, the 
 great soaring birds, and in 1891 he began to throw 
 himself from the tops of hills, supported by these wings, 
 and glided through the air into the valleys. In this 
 way he learned new laws of flight, contradicting many 
 theories of the scientists, and opening a new world of 
 speculation. But in August, 1896, his wings broke in 
 a sudden gust of wind, he fell fifty feet, and died of a 
 broken back. 
 
 It was this problem of balancing that had cost Lil- 
 ienthal his life. He had tried to balance himself by 
 throwing his weight quickly from side to side as he 
 held to his " gliding machine." His pupil, Percy S.
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 275 
 
 Pilcher, an Englishman, continued his experiments, 
 trying the same method of balancing, but in September, 
 1899, his wings broke, and he met the same fate as his 
 teacher. It seemed that men could not shift their weight 
 quickly enough to meet the gusts of wind. 
 
 Meantime new theories of flight were being worked 
 out in the United States. Professor S. P. Langley, of 
 the Smithsonian Institution, had made experiments with 
 plates of metal moved through the air at various rates 
 of speed and at different angles, and had published his 
 new conclusions in regard to the support the air would 
 furnish flying-planes in 1891. In 1896 he built a small 
 steam-aeroplane that flew a distance of three-quarters 
 of a mile down the Potomac River. And in the same 
 year Octave Chanute, of Chicago, with the aid of A. 
 M. Herring, built a multiple-wing machine and tried it 
 successfully on the banks of Lake Michigan. But the 
 problem of balancing was not yet solved, and here 
 Wilbur and Orville Wright entered upon the scene. 
 
 The Wrights' home was in Dayton, Ohio, and there 
 they had spent their boyhood, in no way distinguished 
 from their neighbors. Their father had been a teacher, 
 an editor, and a bishop of the United Brethren Church. 
 He had traveled a great deal, and was an unusually 
 well-educated man. Their mother had been to college. 
 Their two older brothers and their sister were college 
 graduates, and the younger boys would have had the 
 same education had their mother not died and they de- 
 cided to stay at home and look after affairs for their 
 father, who was often away. In telling the story of 
 their invention in The Century for September, 1908, they
 
 276 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 said, " Late in the autumn of 1878 our father came into 
 the house one evening with some object concealed in 
 his hands and, before we could see what it was, tossed 
 it into the air. Instead of falling to the floor, as we ex- 
 pected, it flew across the room and struck the ceiling, 
 where it fluttered a while and finally sank to the floor. 
 It was a little toy known to scientists as a helicoptere, 
 but which we, with sublime disregard for science, dubbed 
 a ' bat.' ... It lasted only a short time, but its 
 memory was abiding." At that time Wilbur was eleven 
 and Orville seven years old. 
 
 These two brothers, scientifically minded, started a 
 bicycle shop, and bade fair to become ordinarily pros- 
 perous citizens of Dayton, much like their neighbors. 
 They were, however, deeply interested in news from 
 the world of science and invention, and when they read 
 in 1896 that Lilienthal had been killed by a fall from 
 his glider they began to wonder what were the real dif- 
 ficulties that must be overcome in flying. Further 
 reading awakened a deep interest in the problem of the 
 airship, and they worked upon it, at first as a scientific 
 pastime, but soon in all seriousness. They built mod- 
 els in their workshop, and experimented with them. 
 Then, in 1900, Wilbur wrote to his father that he was 
 going On a holiday to a place in North Carolina called 
 Kitty Hawk, to try a glider. 
 
 The Wrights realized in 1900 that the only problem 
 to be solved was that of equilibrium. Men had made 
 aeroplanes that would support them in motion, and also 
 engines that were light enough to drive the planes and 
 carry their own weight and that of the aviator. But
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 277 
 
 when the wind blew the aeroplane was as likely as not 
 to capsize. Their study was how to keep the machine 
 from turning over. 
 
 The air does not blow in regular currents. Instead, 
 near the earth, it is continually tossing up and down, 
 and often whirling about in rotary masses. There is 
 constant atmospheric turmoil, and the question is how 
 to maintain a balance in these currents that bear the 
 machine. Put in technical form it is how to make the 
 centre of gravity coincide with the centre of air- 
 pressure. 
 
 The shifting of the air-currents means that the centre 
 of air-pressure moves. The aeroplane is sailed at a 
 slight angle to the direction in which it is heading, and 
 the centre of air-pressure is on the forward surfaces of 
 the machine. The wind strikes the front, but rarely 
 touches the back of the plane, and so gains a great 
 leverage that adds materially to its power to overturn 
 the machine. As the wind veers continually it is easy 
 to see the aviator's difficulty in keeping track of this 
 centre of pressure. 
 
 Both Lilienthal and Chanute had tried to balance by 
 shifting their weight, but this was extremely exhaust- 
 ing, and often could not be done in time to meet the 
 changing currents. The Wrights realized that a more 
 automatic method of meeting these changes must be 
 found, and they worked it out by shifting the rudder 
 and the surfaces of the airship as it met the air- 
 currents. 
 
 The earlier aviators had found that two planes, or 
 " double-deckers," gave the best results. The Wrights
 
 278 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 adopted this type, believing that it was the strongest 
 form, and could be made more compact and be more 
 easily managed than the single plane, or the many- 
 winged type. They built their gliding-machine of cloth 
 and spruce and steel wire. But instead of the avia- 
 tor hanging below the wings, as in the other planes, 
 he lay flat across the centre of the lower wing. A 
 horizontal rudder extended in front of the plane in- 
 stead of behind it. This not only guided the flight of 
 the machine, but counterbalanced the changes of the 
 centre of air-pressure. To steer, the wings were moved 
 by cords controlled by the aviator's body. They con- 
 sidered that the shiftings of the air were too rapid to 
 be followed by conscious thought, and so their plan 
 was to have a plane that would balance automatically, 
 or by reflex action, as a bicycle is balanced. 
 
 Langley had adopted wings that slanted upward 
 from the point at which they joined, copying the wings 
 of a soaring buzzard. The Wrights doubted whether 
 this was the best form for shifting weather, and built 
 theirs more on the pattern of the gull's wings, curving 
 slightly at the tips. They were made of cloth, arched 
 over ribs to imitate the curved surfaces of bird's wings, 
 and were fastened to two rectangular wooden frames, 
 fixed one above the other by braces of wood and wire. 
 
 Their next step was to try to find some method by 
 which they might keep their gliding-machine continu- 
 ously in the air, so that they might gain an automatic 
 balance. The old method of launching the plane from 
 a hill gave little chance for a real test. Study taught 
 them that birds are really aeroplanes, and that buzzards
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 279 
 
 and hawks and gulls stay in the air by balancing on or 
 sliding down rising currents of air. They looked for a 
 place where there should be winds of proper strength 
 to balance their machine for a considerable time as it 
 slid downward, and decided to make their experiments 
 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on the stretch of sand- 
 dunes that divided Albemarle Sound from the Atlantic 
 Ocean. They calculated that their gliding-machine, 
 with 165 square feet of surface, should be held up by a 
 wind blowing twenty-one miles an hour. The machine 
 was to be raised like a kite, with men holding ropes 
 fastened to the end of each wing. When the ropes 
 were freed the aviator would glide slowly to the ground, 
 having time to test the principle of equilibrium. This 
 plan would also do away with the former need of 
 carrying the plane up to the top of a hill before each 
 flight. 
 
 They found in practice that their plan of raising the 
 plane like a kite was impracticable, and that the wind 
 was not strong enough to support it at a proper angle. 
 They had to glide from hills as others had done, but 
 they discovered that their theory of steering and bal- 
 ancing by automatically shifting surfaces worked very 
 much better than the old method of shifting the avia- 
 tor's weight. 
 
 In 1901 and 1902 the Wrights continued their glid- 
 ing experiments at Kitty Hawk. Their new machines 
 were much larger, and they added a vertical tail in 
 order to secure better lateral balance. Sometimes the 
 wind was strong enough to lift the aviator above the 
 point from which he had started and hold him motion-
 
 280 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 less in the air for half a minute. They made new 
 tables of calculation for aerial flight, and found that a 
 wind of eighteen miles an hour would keep their plane 
 and its operator in the air. 
 
 Their next step was to place a gas-engine on their 
 aeroplane and attempt actual mechanical flight. After 
 many experiments they succeeded, and on December 
 17, 1903, the first airship made four flights at Kitty 
 Hawk. In the longest flight it stayed in the air fifty- 
 nine seconds, and flew against a twenty-mile wind. It 
 weighed, with the aviator, about 745 pounds, and was 
 propelled by a gas-engine weighing 240 pounds, and 
 having twelve or thirteen horse-power. That test as- 
 sured them that mechanical flight was possible. 
 
 The Wrights had now solved the real problem of 
 aviation, equilibrium. They were ready to try mechan- 
 ical flights in places where the wind-conditions were 
 less favorable than at Kitty Hawk. They secured a 
 swampy meadow eight miles east of Dayton, and, using 
 that secrecy which they have always believed was 
 necessary to the protection of their interests, began to 
 fly there. Their airship flew well in a straight course, 
 but there was difficulty in turning corners. Some- 
 times it could be done, but occasionally the plane would 
 lose its balance as it turned, and have to be brought to 
 the ground. In time they remedied this, and on Sep- 
 tember 20, 1904, they were able to make a complete 
 circle. Later in that same year they made two flights 
 of three miles each around a circular course. 
 
 The Wrights' system of balance, the great original 
 feature of their invention, is attained by what is called
 
 0<8 5 
 0:0 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 ** 4 
 
 
 * s 
 
 r-< & 
 
 a 
 
 s 
 
 S 2

 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 281 
 
 the warping of the wings. When they are flying, and 
 some cause, such as a change in their position, or a 
 sudden gust of wind, makes the airship tip, a lever is 
 moved, and the two planes warp down on the end that 
 is canting toward the earth. Simultaneously the two 
 opposite ends of the planes warp up. The lower ends 
 at once gain greater lifting power, the upper ends less. 
 Therefore the airship stops tilting and comes back to 
 an even flight. The lever is instantly moved to keep 
 the machine from tipping to the other side. 
 
 When the airship came to turn a corner it was apt 
 to " skid." It slid from its balance, owing to the change 
 in its course against the currents of air. The Wrights 
 overcame this by having the planes of their machine 
 warp at the same instant that the rudder shifts the 
 course, by this raising one wing and lowering the 
 other, so that the aeroplane cants over and makes the 
 circle leaning against the wind, on the same principle 
 that a bicycler takes a curve on an angle instead of 
 riding upright. The problems of balance and of turn- 
 ing corners were therefore both met and solved by 
 warping the planes to meet the conditions of the air- 
 ship's contact with the wind. 
 
 One of the chief reasons for the Wrights' success 
 was that they had studied their subject long and faith- 
 fully before they tried to fly. They had worked with 
 their gliders several years, and had made new calcu- 
 lations of the changing angles and currents of air. 
 They had been in no hurry, and when they built their 
 first real airship they made use of all the principles of 
 aerodynamics that they had discovered. They knew
 
 282 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 that their machine would fly before they tried it, be- 
 cause they knew exactly what its various surfaces 
 would do in the air. The propeller was the only part 
 of their airship they had not studied when they began 
 to build. When they found that they could not use 
 the figures that had governed the construction of 
 marine propellers they set to work to solve this prob- 
 lem in the same thoroughgoing way. They mastered 
 it, and their success with their propeller is the 
 feature of their airship in which they take the greatest 
 pride. 
 
 The first official statement of their progress in flying 
 was made in letters of the Wrights in the Aerophile 
 in 1905, and to the Aero Club of America in 1906. 
 These declared that they had begun actual flight with 
 a motor-driven aeroplane on December 17, 1903, had 
 then spent the year 1904 in experimenting with flights 
 in circular courses, and had so learned the proper 
 methods of control of the planes by 1905 that they had 
 at last made continuous flights of eleven, twelve, 
 fifteen, twenty, twenty-one, and twenty-four miles, at a 
 speed of about thirty-eight miles an hour, and had 
 been able to alight safely in each instance, ready to 
 fly again as soon as their fuel was replenished. 
 
 Until that date the inventors had been singularly 
 successful in keeping their experiments from public 
 knowledge. They had reached agreements with the 
 farmers who lived near their field outside Dayton, 
 and with the local newspapers, that no notice should 
 be taken of their flights. But finally one of their flights 
 attracted so much attention that a score of men ap-
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 283 
 
 peared with cameras, and the Wrights decided that it 
 was time to stop their experiments. They dismantled 
 their machines, made public statements of what they 
 had accomplished, and started to negotiate with vari- 
 ous governments for the purchase of their aeroplanes 
 for use in war. 
 
 In December, 1907, the Signal Corps of the United 
 States army invited proposals for furnishing a " heavier 
 than air flying machine." The Wrights submitted a bid, 
 proposing to deliver a machine that would meet the 
 specifications for $25,000. Their offer, with those of two 
 others, was accepted. By now their names and some- 
 thing of what they had accomplished were very gener- 
 ally known, and when they began the preliminary tests 
 of their machines at their old grounds at Kitty Hawk, 
 near Kill Devil Hills, a legion of reporters was on 
 hand. The Wrights still tried to preserve as much 
 secrecy as possible, and the newspaper men to furnish 
 as much publicity. The flights could not be concealed 
 and the trials were announced as thoroughly satis- 
 factory. On May 10, 1908, ten ascensions in the 
 government airship were made, the longest being over 
 a mile and a half. On succeeding days longer flights 
 were made, one of two miles at a speed of forty-six 
 miles an hour. Orville Wright made a flight with a 
 passenger on board, and a little later Wilbur flew eight 
 miles, at a rate of forty-five miles an hour. The re- 
 porters assured the world that the Wrights had proved 
 the success of the " heavier than air " machine. As one 
 of them wrote, " Then, bedraggled and very sunburned 
 they tramped up to the little weather bureau and in-
 
 284 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 formed the world, waiting on the other side of various 
 sounds and continents and oceans, that it was all right, 
 the rumors true, and there was no doubt that a man 
 could fly." 
 
 Kitty Hawk, the place the Wrights had chosen be- 
 cause the Weather Bureau had told them the winds 
 were strongest and steadiest there, now became one of 
 the chief foci of the world's attention. The Wrights, 
 still quiet and unassuming, suddenly jumped into fame. 
 The public could not understand how these two men, 
 bicycle-makers of Dayton, had learned so much about 
 airships. They did not appreciate that the brothers 
 had mastered every detail of flight long before, that 
 they had learned the fundamental principles of soaring 
 and floating, diving and rising, circling and gliding, 
 before they attached the first motor to their planes. 
 They had been far more thorough and more resource- 
 ful than those Europeans who had for some time ex- 
 perimented with aviation. Henri Farman, who had 
 caused a sensation in Europe by flying a kilometer 
 (five-eighths of a mile) over a circular course on January 
 13, 1908, came to this country, and heard what the 
 United States government was requiring in the tests. 
 " I have done some flying," said he, " but I do not try 
 to do what your inventors must do at Fort Myer. I 
 never fly in winds. Once I had a spill in France when 
 I attempted it" 
 
 The government trials were held at Fort Myer, out- 
 side Washington. Here the Wrights took their ma- 
 chines when they were satisfied that they were in shape 
 for the tests. Mr. Augustus Post, secretary of the
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 285 
 
 Aero Club of America, has graphically described in 
 The World's Work for October, 1909, his impression of 
 Orville Wright's flying in 1908. He says that Mr. 
 Wright and he left Washington about six o'clock on a 
 clear, still morning, bound for the flying field. " The 
 conditions for flight were perfect," he continues. " Mr. 
 Taylor, Mr. Wright's mechanic, got out the machine 
 and it was placed on the starting-rail. The weights 
 were raised, and Mr. Wright took his place. None of 
 us expected anything more than a short flight down 
 the field, with possibly a circle. The machine was re- 
 leased, and away he went, rising higher and higher, 
 circling when he came to the end of the field and con- 
 tinuing round. I had taken the time of starting and 
 marked on the back of an envelope each circle of the 
 field. From a position of strained attention and fixed 
 gaze, Mr. Wright gradually became more confident 
 and comfortable ; round and round he went for fully 
 twenty minutes, and then we began to realize that 
 something wonderful was taking place. Thirty min- 
 utes passed ; we could hardly believe it. Mr. Taylor 
 came up and said : ' Don't make a motion ; if you do, 
 he'll come down ' ; and we all stood like statues, watch- 
 ing the flying man, every nerve as tense in our bodies 
 as though we were running the machine ourselves. 
 Mark after mark I made on the back of the old envel- 
 ope so many that I had lost track of the number ; it 
 seemed an age since the machine started, and it ap- 
 peared to be fixed in the sky. We were impressed 
 that it could circle on forever, or sail like a bird over 
 the country, so positive and assuring and complete
 
 286 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 was this demonstration. We knew that the problem 
 of flight by an aeroplane had been solved." 
 
 An accident caused the flights to be suspended for a 
 time, but a year later the Wrights were ready for the 
 official endurance test, a flight of one hour, carrying a 
 passenger. President Taft and a great audience were 
 present. Lieutenant Lahm was the passenger. Signal 
 Corps men raised the weight and fastened the end of 
 the starting rope to the aeroplane. Wilbur Wright, at 
 the rear, turned the propellers and started the motor. 
 Orville Wright adjusted the spark, and took his seat. 
 He grasped the levers, spoke a few words of instruc- 
 tion to his passenger, seated beside him, and gave the 
 word to release the machine. It glided down the 
 track, gathering speed until it left the rails. Then the 
 forward planes rose, and the plane soared into the air, 
 flying swiftly. It circled around and around, each 
 circle taking about one minute. For the first ten 
 minutes the motor did not move smoothly, but after 
 that it settled to perfection. The great audience, 
 watches in hand, kept their eyes on the airship. The 
 hour mark was passed, and there were wild shouts of 
 applause and encouragement. Then the plane broke 
 the world's record of one hour, nine minutes, and 
 forty seconds, that Wilbur Wright had made earlier in 
 the year. Wilbur Wright led in a cheer to those 
 circling above. Then the airship began to descend, 
 taking the circles easily, and finally skimming down to 
 the ground. The motor was shut off, and the test was 
 ended, the machine having flown for one hour, twelve 
 minutes, and forty seconds. President Taft crossed
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 287 
 
 the field and shook Orville Wright's hand. "I am 
 glad to congratulate you on your achievement," said 
 he ; " you came down as gracefully and as much like 
 a bird as you went up. I hope your passenger be- 
 haved himself and did not talk to the motorman. It 
 was a wonderful performance ; I would not have 
 missed it." Then he turned to shake hands with 
 Wilbur Wright. " Your brother has broken your 
 record." " Yes," said the other, smiling, " but it's all 
 in the family." 
 
 Lieutenant Lahm said, "The machine was under 
 perfect control at all times. He apparently had 
 given no conscious thought either to his hands or to 
 the levers. His actions all seemed involuntary. It 
 had hardly started on one of its dips before his hands 
 were moved in the proper direction to restore the 
 balance. It seemed impossible for anything to go 
 wrong. I never knew an hour to pass so quickly as 
 that one up in the air. The first half seemed like ten 
 minutes, and the second scarcely longer. I hardly felt 
 the vibrations of the engine, but at first the rising and 
 dipping were hard to get used to. The only disagree- 
 able sensation I experienced was a deafness from the 
 whirring motor. Sometimes the undulating movement 
 was noticeable, but that was all. The sensation of rid- 
 ing the air in an aeroplane is indescribable." 
 
 The speed test came on the day following the en- 
 durance flight. This was to be made over a measured 
 course of five miles from Fort Myer to Alexandria, and 
 back, making a total flight of ten miles over trees, 
 railroads, and rough country. Aviators declared this
 
 288 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 a more difficult course than the crossing of the English 
 Channel, owing to the great rises and drops of the 
 land, which made it almost impossible to maintain a 
 level course. Speed was a very important factor in 
 the government's specifications for a successful airship, 
 and the price to be paid depended on this, which had 
 been calculated to be forty miles an hour. The gov- 
 ernment was to pay the Wrights $25,000 for the air- 
 ship, and a bonus of ten per cent., or $2,500, for every 
 mile made above the forty. For every mile less, to 
 the minimum limit of thirty-six miles an hour, the 
 government was to deduct the same percentage. 
 
 The machine that was making these tests was 
 very similar to the one that had been used at Fort 
 Myer the year before. The amount of supporting 
 surface had been reduced by about eighty square feet, 
 and a change had been made in the lever that turned 
 the rudder and controlled the equilibrating device. 
 This had originally consisted of two levers, placed side 
 by side. Now the top of one lever was jointed, so 
 that a sideways movement of the wrist was sufficient 
 to move the rudder for steering in the horizontal plane. 
 Simultaneously the lever could be pushed forward and 
 pulled back to lift or lower the opposite tips of the 
 wings. In this way one hand could control both the 
 steering and the balancing of the planes. 
 
 In spite of the fact that the wind conditions were not 
 exactly as he wished Orville Wright decided to make 
 the flight for speed on that day. He made a good 
 ascension, carrying Lieutenant Benjamin D. Foulois 
 with him as passenger. Twice he circled the field in
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 289 
 
 order to get up speed and reach sufficient elevation. 
 Then, amid cheers of encouragement from the immense 
 throng that was watching, he turned sharply past the 
 starting-tower and flew between the flags that marked 
 the starting-line. Two captive balloons had been 
 floated to show the course and also to give an indication 
 of the proper altitude to maintain. The wind tended to 
 carry the aeroplane to the east, but Orville Wright 
 was able to hold it on a fairly even course, and to 
 reach the balloon at Shuter's Hill that marked the 
 turning point. Here the official time was taken by 
 officers of the Signal Corps. On the return the air- 
 ship met with strong downward currents of air that 
 bore it groundward until it was hidden by the tops of 
 trees. Mr. Wright said afterward, " I had to climb 
 like forty all the way back." But he managed to send 
 his aeroplane higher and higher, and to bring it back 
 over the heads of the crowds at the finish line. There 
 it swept about in a circle, and landed easily near the 
 aeroplane shed. What aeronautical authorities de- 
 clared to be the greatest feat in the history of aviation 
 had been successfully accomplished. The elapsed time 
 of the flight was fourteen minutes and forty-two seconds, 
 which meant that the airship had attained a speed of a 
 little more than forty-two miles an hour. The condi- 
 tions of the Wrights' contract with the government had 
 been in every respect more than fulfilled. 
 
 The Wrights carried Europe by storm, being re- 
 ceived there with even greater acclamations than in 
 America. The French, as a nation, had for some time 
 been more interested in aviation than any other people.
 
 290 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 France was the home of Montgolfier, Santos-Dumont, 
 and Farman. At first France looked with incredulity 
 and suspicion on the Wrights' claims. The French 
 papers accused them of playing le bluff, and said that 
 " they argued a great deal and experimented very 
 little," which, as a matter of fact, was exactly the op- 
 posite of the Wrights' whole history. But as soon as 
 Wilbur Wright showed what he could actually do, all 
 this changed, and the French could not say enough 
 that was good about him. Delagrange, his nearest 
 competitor, acknowledged frankly that Wilbur Wright 
 was his superior as an aviator. But he could not under- 
 stand the American's quiet methods, and plan of pur- 
 suing his own way regardless of public opinion. He 
 found that Wilbur Wright actually preferred to fly 
 without an audience, and thought nothing of disap- 
 pointing the crowds that gathered to watch him. On one 
 such occasion, when Wilbur Wright found the weather 
 conditions unsatisfactory, he declined to fly. " If it had 
 been I," said Delagrange, " I would have made a flight 
 if I had been likely to smash up at three hundred meters 
 rather than disappoint those ten thousand people." 
 
 This novel charm of simplicity caught the French 
 fancy. The Wrights wanted to do everything for 
 themselves. At Kitty Hawk they had lived in a small 
 shack, and cooked their own meals. Wilbur Wright 
 had a similar shack built on his flying-field in France, 
 and planned to do his own cooking. But this was too 
 extreme for the French mind. When he went to his 
 shack he found a native cook installed there, and had 
 to submit to the hospitality of his hosts.
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 291 
 
 The Wrights were organizing companies in the differ- 
 ent countries of Europe, and wanted to attend strictly 
 to their business. But wherever they went they were 
 feted. They met the French President, the Kaiser, the 
 King of England, and the King of Spain, and they 
 were dined and publicly honored in all the great 
 capitals. Germany turned from its native hero, Count 
 Zeppelin, to admire them. But everywhere they kept 
 that same quiet tone. They showed that they cared 
 nothing to perform hazardous feats simply because of 
 the hazard, nor to establish records. Wilbur Wright 
 was asked if he would not try for the prize offered to 
 the first man to fly across the English Channel. He 
 said he would not at that time, because it " would be 
 risky and would not prove anything more than a journey 
 over land." And the public knew that this was sensible 
 caution, and not lack of courage. 
 
 Daring aviators sprang into fame at once. Most of 
 these built their machines according to their individual 
 ideas, and there was a great trying-out of different 
 patterns. Bleriot, a Frenchman, flew across the English 
 Channel in a monoplane in thirty-eight minutes. In- 
 stantly he became the French idol. When he reached 
 Paris at five in the morning an enormous crowd wel- 
 comed him, and the cries of " Vive Bleriot ! " could be 
 heard for squares. He was dined at the H6tel de Ville, 
 given the Legion of Honor, and money was sub- 
 scribed for a monument to mark the place near Calais 
 where he commenced his flight. Shortly after Roger 
 Sommer rose in the country outside Paris on a moon- 
 light night, and flew for two hours, twenty-seven
 
 292 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 minutes, and fifteen seconds, the longest flight made to 
 that time. The world recognized that the actual in- 
 vention of the airship was one of the greatest achieve- 
 ments of the ages. Said the London Times, " It is no 
 wonder that there should be great enthusiasm in France 
 over the cross-Channel flight of M. Bleriot, and that the 
 French papers should talk of nothing else. Further 
 enthusiasm will doubtless greet the gallant attempt, 
 which was all but successful, of M. Latham yesterday, 
 to repeat the achievement. Since the discovery of 
 the New World no material event has happened 
 on this earth so impressive to the imagination as 
 the conquest of the air which is now half achieved. 
 Indeed, the conquest of the air is likely to be more 
 vast and bewildering in its results than even the 
 discovery of the New World, and one is inclined 
 to wonder that men should take it as calmly as they 
 do." 
 
 A great aviation week was held at Rheims, and 
 almost all the world's famous aviators, except the 
 Wrights, were there. Control of the airships was 
 shown to a remarkable degree. On one of the prep- 
 aratory days three heavier than air machines were 
 manoeuvring in the great aerodrome at the same time. 
 They were flying at high speed, when suddenly Glenn 
 H. Curtiss, an American, saw an Antoinette aeroplane 
 approaching him at right angles, and flying upon the 
 same level. Instantly he elevated the planes of his 
 machine, and his aeroplane obeyed his touch, shot up- 
 ward, and flew over the Antoinette. There was great 
 applause from those who had been watching him.
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 293 
 
 The manoeuvre showed how easily the airships were 
 controlled. 
 
 Germany meantime was intensely interested in Count 
 Zeppelin's dirigible balloons, which, although as long 
 as a battle-ship, had flown with great success. The 
 German government paid $1,250,000 into the Zeppelin 
 fund for experiments, and contributed a large sum in 
 addition to the maintenance of a balloon corps. The 
 German people showed themselves as proud of Count 
 Zeppelin as the French were of Bleriot, and the Ameri- 
 cans of the Wrights. 
 
 The aviation week at Rheims was followed by other 
 great airship meets in other countries. The Hudson- 
 Fulton Celebration in New York in the autumn of 1909 
 was the occasion of new records in flying, and served 
 to awaken Americans to a more intense interest in 
 navigation of the air. That meeting was followed by 
 others in all parts of the United States, and competitions 
 for height and city-to-city flights became matters of 
 weekly occurrence. Yet America has not so far reached 
 the intense enthusiasm over flying that fills the lands 
 of Europe. 
 
 The airship is on the market, ready to be purchased 
 by whomsoever will pay the price. The London daily 
 papers advertise an agency that will supply buyers 
 with either the Bleriot monoplane of the type Calais- 
 Dover, the Latham or Antoinette monoplane, or the 
 Wright and Voisin biplanes. Moreover the art of 
 handling the aeroplane does not seem unusually 
 difficult to master, provided one has the taste for it. 
 Roger Sommer first sat in an airship on July 3d, yet
 
 294 HISTORIC INVENTIONS 
 
 on August yth following he made a world's record 
 flight outside Paris. " It is easier to learn to fly than it 
 is to walk," Wilbur Wright has said. 
 
 The only American machines besides the Wrights' 
 biplanes which have made a name for themselves are 
 the Curtiss biplanes. Mr. Curtiss is one of the most 
 daring aviators in the world, and his flight down the 
 Hudson River attracted the widest attention. But 
 there are questions as to whether his aeroplanes do not 
 infringe on certain patent claims of the Wrights, and 
 his flight was made under a bond that should protect 
 the Wrights in case it proved later that his biplane did 
 infringe on their title. Here it should be said that the 
 Wrights are as excellent business men as they are 
 inventors, and intend to receive due compensation for 
 their years of work. At one time they offered to sell 
 their invention outright for $100,000, but since then 
 their patents have been upheld by the courts, and 
 those patents cover a very large area of the field of 
 airship manufacture. The American market is largely 
 in their hands. 
 
 Every year lighter and lighter gas-engines are being 
 made, and this means that the surplus carrying power 
 of the aeroplane can be increased. Fuel can be carried 
 for flights of greater and greater distances, and rapid 
 increases of speed can be attained. With improve- 
 ments in safety there seems no limit to the possibilities 
 of flight. So far a long train of casualties has marked 
 the airship's progress. This was inevitable when men 
 came to imitate the birds, and trust themselves to the 
 fickle currents of the air. But many aviators have
 
 THE WRIGHTS AND THE AIRSHIP 295 
 
 been drawn from a reckless class, and many accidents 
 have been due to a desire to thrill an audience rather 
 than to learn more about the laws of flight. The 
 Wrights have held to the wise course. They care 
 nothing for spectacular performances or establishing 
 new records for their own glory. Their work is in the 
 shops, devising improvements that will make the air- 
 ship safer and better fitted for commercial uses. They 
 are men of remarkable balance, and it was their quality 
 of unremitting care that made them the wonder of 
 Europe, used above all things else to the dramatic in 
 men's flights through air.
 
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