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قراءة كتاب How to Succeed as an Inventor Showing the Wonderful Possibilities in the Field of Invention; &c.
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How to Succeed as an Inventor Showing the Wonderful Possibilities in the Field of Invention; &c.
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From the Encyclopedia Americana.
"There are no elevators in the house of success."—Silent Partner.
Since the above list (taken from the Encyclopedia Americana) was published, there have been a large number of very important inventions brought out.
In 1898 Professor and Madam Curie, of Paris, discovered radium. This remarkable substance is extracted from pitch-blende. It is said to require the reduction of about five thousand tons of the blende to produce one pound of radium. The cost of one pound of radium is variously estimated at from one to three millions of dollars. Radium overturns all the laws of chemistry and physics. Scientists state that if a method of producing it cheaply is ever discovered it will create the greatest revolution in industrial circles. One pound of radium is said to be capable of lighting an enormous area for one billion years without reducing its size or substance by one thousandth part. In other words, it exerts abnormal energy without any appreciable loss.
In 1902, January, Peter Cooper Hewitt, of New York City, announced the invention by him of his Mercury Vapor tube electric light. This light is red-less,—gives off all colors except red. It is in present use in many large establishments. It is practically indestructible, and gives eight times as much light with the same amount of electricity as other lights. Mr. Hewitt is a wealthy man, having inherited money. He comes of the famous New York Hewitt family, whose members have been in the forefront of progress. Mr. Hewitt also invented the "Hewitt Electrical Converter" and the "Hewitt Electrical Interrupter," both inventions of unusual merit.
In 1903, January 18th, Guglielmo Marconi sent a wireless message from Cape Cod, Mass., to Cornwall, England, a distance of 3000 miles. Such a thing, a few years ago, would have been considered absolutely impossible,—unbelievable,—a wild flight of the imagination. Marconi's achievement was accomplished only after the most prolonged experimentation and many disappointments.
In 1908, September 12th, Hudson Maxim filed an application for a patent on an electrical invention for the prolongation of human life.
In 1908, Professor Alexander Graham Bell and Professor Emile Berliner, famous inventors in telephones, are working on new styles of flying machines. With these experts in the field, aerial navigation will, no doubt, shortly be a problem completely solved.
NOTES.
In 200 B.C., Hero, of Alexandria, gives an account of an ingenious steam toy.
In 1543, one Blasco de Garay is said to have shown in the harbor of Barcelona, Spain, a vessel of two hundred tons' burden, moved by a paddle wheel driven by steam power.
In 1663 Edward Somerset, the ingenious Marquis of Worcester, contrived the first steam engine.
In 1742, when Benjamin Franklin invented the "Franklin Stove," or as it is sometimes called, the "Pennsylvania Fireplace," he refused to accept a patent on it, saying, "we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, so we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by an invention of ours." An unscrupulous London manufacturer made some light changes in Franklin's stove, we are sorry to state, got a patent on it, and made a fortune from its sale.
An invention of the greatest utility was that brought out in 1788 by William Symington, a young Englishman, for a method of converting the reciprocating motion of an engine into the rotary.
About 1790, Claude Chappe, a Frenchman, while at school at Angers, contrived an apparatus consisting of a post bearing a revolving beam and circulatory arms with which he conveyed signals to three of his brothers who were at another school about half-a-league distant, who read the signals with a telescope. In 1792 the French Legislature voted Chappe 6000 francs ($1200) to enable him to make experiments in Paris. This invention of Chappe was called the "Semaphore Telegraph." Of course, misty or foggy weather would preclude the use of this signalling device. During the war between England and France an amusing incident is related of the use of the "Semaphore Telegraph." The admiral at Plymouth started a "wigwag message" to Whitehall, but was able to forward only part of the message, a thick fog gathering over a portion of the line and interrupting the message. The first part of the message was "Wellington defeated," which caused great distress and anxiety in London. The remainder of the message, "the French at Salamanca," received next day, changed the metropolitan sorrow into gladness.
About the year 1790, Signor Galvani, a professor of anatomy at Bologna, discovered the principle of Galvanic electricity. This was brought about in a very peculiar way. Mrs. Galvani was ill, and her physician prescribed some frog broth. Accordingly, frogs were procured, skinned, washed and laid on a table in the professor's laboratory, which seemed to serve a double purpose of a room for scientific and culinary operations. One of the professor's assistants was engaged in experimenting with a large electric machine which stood upon the same table, and had occasion to draw sparks from the machine. The wife of Galvani, who was present, was surprised to observe that every time he did so the limbs of the frogs moved as if alive. She immediately communicated this strange incident to her husband, who repeated the experiments with, of course, the same result. From this experiment was later developed the so-called zinc and copper wet jars used in the art.
In 1807, Robert Fulton, who was of Irish Descent, made his famous trip in his steamboat, the "Clermont," from New York to Albany, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, in thirty-two hours, and returned in thirty hours, averaging about five miles per hour. Many stories are told of the consternation the