Invention: The Master-key to Progress

It was also in 1865 that Bullock invented his web-feeding printing press, and Dodge invented the automatic shell-ejector for firearms. In 1866 Siemens and Martin invented the open-hearth process for steel making, Burleigh the compressed air rock-drill, and Whitehead the automobile torpedo.

The Whitehead torpedo was an invention of the highest order of brilliancy of conception; but, unlike many other inventions of this class, it has been a matter of the utmost difficulty to develop it. The possible usefulness suggested was so great that the principal European nations, especially the Germans and English, went about its development at once; but the practical difficulties encountered were so many and so great, and the opportunities of testing out its usefulness in actual warfare were so few, that it was not until after its successful and important use in the war between Russia and Japan in 1904–1905, that the torpedo was accepted as a major weapon. This invention is one of the most important contributions ever made to the self-protectivity of the Machine of Civilization; not only because of its immediate usefulness in war, but because its complexity necessitates such skill and knowledge in the operators, and its cost is so great, that only the most wealthy and highly civilized nations are able to use it successfully. As has been pointed out repeatedly in this book, one of the influences of invention on history has been to urge nations to a high degree of civilization, under pain of greater or less subjection to nations more highly civilized.

In 1866 Wilde in England and Siemens in Germany invented dynamo electric machines, in which the magnetic field was made, not by permanent steel magnets, but by electro-magnets of soft iron that were energized by the current which the machine itself produced. This was an invention of the utmost practical value; but who was the actual inventor does not seem to be exactly known. Its main value is in its ability to produce a much more powerful current than could be produced when using permanent magnets; caused by the fact that electro-magnets can create a "magnetic field" much stronger than steel magnets can.

In 1867 Tilghman invented his sulphite process for pulp making, and in 1868, Moncrief invented his famous disappearing gun-carriage. This was an invention requiring a high order of conception and constructiveness; it resulted in a considerable improvement in the art of sea-coast defense, and therefore in the self-protectiveness of the Machine, by keeping the guns safe behind fortifications except when actually being fired. Moncrief's carriage, although originally very good, has been improved upon from time to time; whenever the progress of the mechanic arts has made it possible, and some inventor has realized the fact.

Attention is here requested to the last clause in the last sentence. As civilization has progressed and various inventions have been made, the whole field of possible future invention has been narrowed, but a field of clear though limited opportunity has been mapped out. Each invention narrows the field by removing the opportunities for making that especial invention: after the printing press had been invented, for instance, the number of possible inventions was reduced by one; but see what a field for future invention was mapped out, and what immeasurable opportunities were suggested! Nevertheless, opportunity does not produce inventions, it merely invites them; and we have occasionally noted in this book that the opportunity to make a certain invention had existed for ages before it was realized: for instance, the sewing-machine and the little stethoscope.

In 1868 Sholes invented what is usually considered the first practical typewriting machine. The machine that Thurber had invented in 1843 had never been developed to a practical stage, and, consequently, it was not itself a direct contribution to the Machine. Whether it paved the way for Sholes's is a debatable point; if it did, it was an indirect contribution, like Hero's engine. Not for several years after 1868 did the typewriter take its place in the Machine: but now it plays an exceedingly useful, if not conspicuous, part in making it operate day after day.

In the same year Nobel contributed another of his notable inventions, and called it dynamite. It was the development of an exceedingly brilliant and original idea; and, as often happens with conceptions of that kind, it was easily developed into a concrete, usable and useful thing. It consisted merely in mixing nitro-glycerin with about an equal quantity of very finely divided earth. The resulting mixture was much less sensitive to shock and therefore much safer to handle than nitro-glycerin. It supplied the factor needed to render the utilization of nitro-glycerin possible, and therefore it was a valuable contribution to the Machine. In the same year, Mege invented oleomargarine, a comparatively inexpensive substitute for butter, and therefore an important factor in furthering the health and comfort of the poorer classes and a considerable forward step.

Shortly after 1866, Mrs. Eddy declared to many people that she had made a discovery which enabled her to cure the sick with Divine aid, and without the use of drugs. She healed many people and gradually gathered followers. In a few years, she developed a religion that is now called Christian Science; and in 1875 she published a book called "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures." Since then, the number of her followers has increased enormously, and Christian Science Churches have been erected in all the civilized countries of the world. Though the doctrines of Christian Science have not been accepted by many Christians, the great opposition directed toward them at first has now been largely overcome; and it is admitted by most fair-minded people that Christian Science seems to have made an important contribution to the spiritual, mental and physical welfare of mankind.

In 1868, Westinghouse made his epochal invention, the railway air-brake. It was the result of a brilliant mental conception that was put into practical form without very serious difficulty. At first sight, this invention might not be considered of very great importance, because one might assume that its only office was to prevent collisions and consequent loss of life and property. Doubtless that was its only direct effect; but its indirect effect was to increase the confidence of the people in the safety of railway travel, consequently the number of people who traveled, consequently the prosperity of the railway companies, consequently the faith of people in railway investments, consequently the number and magnitude of railway projects, consequently the number and length of railways, consequently the speed and general excellence of transportation and communication over the land in every civilized country, and consequently the coherency and operativeness of the entire Machine.

CHAPTER XII

INVENTION OF THE MODERN MILITARY MACHINE, TELEPHONE, PHONOGRAPH, AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

In 1866, one of the most important inventions of history was put to test, in a war between Austria and Prussia. The invention was the Prussian Military Machine, of which the inventor was von Moltke, the Chief of Staff of the Prussian Army. Moltke was not the original inventor of the Military Machine, any more than Watt was the original inventor of the steam engine; but he was the inventor of the modern Military Machine, just as Watt was the inventor of the modern reciprocating steam-engine.

Moltke had been made Chief of Staff in 1858, and had proceeded at once to embody an idea that his mind had conceived some years before. This idea was to utilize all the new inventions of every kind that had been made, especially in weapons, transportation and communication; and to continue to utilize all new inventions as each reached the useful stage, in such a way that the Prussian Army would be an actual weapon, which could be handled with all the quickness and precision that the products of modern civilization could impart to it. Philip of Macedon, Julius Cæsar, and Frederick William of Prussia evidently had had similar ideas; but no one after them, save Moltke, seems to have realized fully that armies and navies must utilize all the new methods and appliances that can be made to assist their operations, if those armies and navies are to attain their maximum effectiveness. It is true that no very great changes in arms or in methods of transportation and communication had recently taken place, at the time when Napoleon went to war; but this only emphasizes the new conditions with which Moltke was confronted, and the courage and resourcefulness with which he met them.

Moltke's Machine was, of course, much more comprehensive and detailed than the paragraph above would indicate; but almost every machine, after it has been perfected, is comprehensive and detailed, even if the original idea was simple. It is true also that the direct means which Moltke employed to perfect his Machine was to train officers to solve independently certain problems in strategy and tactics, just as children at school were taught to solve problems in arithmetic. It is true also that more attention has usually been fixed on Moltke's system of training than on his utilization of inventions, and it may be true that Moltke himself fixed more attention on it. But the idea of training officers as he did, seems also to have been original with Moltke; and it is certain that Moltke was the first to develop such a system, and therefore, that he was the inventor of that system.

We see, therefore, that Moltke made two separate inventions, and combined both in his machine. Both inventions were condemned and ridiculed, but both succeeded. The result was that, when war was declared in 1866 between Prussia and Austria, a reputedly greater nation, the Prussian machine started smoothly but quickly when the button was pressed, advanced into Austria without the slightest delay or jar, collided at once with the Austrian machine, and smashed it in one encounter. This encounter was near Sadowa and Königgrätz, and took place only seventeen days after war began. The most important single invention that Moltke had utilized was the breech-loading "needle gun," a weapon far better than the Austrians had, not only in speed of loading, but in accuracy. The two armies were not very different in point of numbers: so that, even if von Moltke's other measures had not been taken, the superiority of the Prussian musket over the Austrian must of itself have caused the winning of the war, though not so quickly as actually was the case.

But in the war with France, Moltke's machine demonstrated its effectiveness even more completely, because its task was harder. For France was esteemed the greatest military nation in the world; it was the France of Napoleon the Great, then ruled by his nephew Napoleon III. In the usual sense of the word, the French were a more "military" people than the Prussians. The Empire of Napoleon III was much more splendid than the poor little Kingdom of Prussia, the army was more in evidence, there were more military pageants, the people were more ardent. But the military leaders of the French included no such inventor as von Moltke, there was no one who conceived any such ideas as were pictured in Moltke's imaginative brain; and consequently it never occurred to anyone to utilize strenuously all the new inventions, or to train officers like school boys, in the practical problems of war. The result was that Moltke's machine got into France before the French machine had been even put together. The pieces of the French machine had not been got together even when the war ended. When war was declared by France, her military machine was in three parts. Two of them got together fairly quickly, so that the French machine was soon divided into only two parts; one under Marshal Bazaine, and the other under Marshal McMahon. But Moltke's machine was together at the start, and it stayed together throughout the war. This does not mean that all its parts stood in the same spot; but it does mean that the parts were always in supporting distance of each other. The two parts of the French machine were not in supporting distance of each other, and the German machine prevented them from uniting. When McMahon and Bazaine tried to unite, McMahon was defeated at Wörth, and Bazaine at Gravelotte. McMahon was forced to surrender his entire force, including the emperor at Sedan; and Bazaine was shut up in Metz. Paris was then besieged. Bazaine was soon forced to surrender and Paris to capitulate.

The main immediate result was the establishment of the German Empire. A later result was the establishment of what is sometimes called militarism. Of the two, the latter was probably the more important in future consequences; for the influence of Moltke's conception of military preparedness has been to make all civilized nations keep up enormous and highly organized military and naval establishments, under pain of being caught unprepared for war and beaten to subjection.

The German Empire has vanished, but militarism has not vanished. There seem to be no signs that it will soon vanish, for it is simply part of a general preparedness movement that embraces many fields of life, that is necessitated by the existence of this cumbrous Machine of Civilization, and that is advanced by the realization that everyone must cultivate foresight. The physicians tell us, the financiers tell us, the lawyers tell us, the clergymen tell us, even the business men of every day and the housewives tell us that we must continually look ahead and continually prepare to meet what may be coming. Now this is what Militarism urges as applied to the coming of war. Militarism is the doctrine of preparedness for war; it holds the same relation to national health that preventive medicine does to individual health. It would make us do many unpleasant things, and refrain from doing many pleasant things. But to do many unpleasant things and to refrain from doing many pleasant things is necessary, in order to lead even a moderately virtuous and prudent life. Militarism may be pushed to an undue extreme; but so may any course of conduct.

It may be interesting to note that Moltke was not an "opportunistic inventor," like most men of action typified by Napoleon, but that Bismarck was. Moltke made inventions of a permanent nature, but Bismarck did not. Yet Moltke was a soldier and Bismarck was a statesman. Bismarck's German Empire has already passed away, but Moltke's method of preparedness is with us still, and is gathering more and more prestige as the years go by. Judged by the standard of permanent achievement, Moltke was a greater man than Bismarck; though a belief to the contrary was held during their lifetimes, and is generally held by most men now.

In 1870, Gramme invented the famous Gramme dynamo-electric machine, which was so excellent a machine for producing a smooth and unidirectional electric current, that it gave the start to that wonderful succession of electrical inventions which established the Age of Electricity. The main part of Gramme's machine was a modification of the Pacinnoti ring, invented by Pacinnoti in 1862, which seems never to have been put to practical use, and never to have been heard of by Gramme. The Pacinnoti ring consisted of a ring around which a continuous coil of wire was wound. This ring being rotated in a magnetic field, the various parts of the wire at any instant lay at different angles to the lines of force, instead of at the same angle to them, as was the case with the flat coil of previous dynamo machines. The result was that some coil was always cutting the magnetic lines-of-force at the maximum speed, while others were cutting them at varying speeds, down to zero; so that the aggregate of all was approximately the same at all instants. The result was that the current was nearly uniform in strength. The influence of this invention on subsequent history need hardly be pointed out; for it is impressed on us every day and every night, in every part of the civilized world.

In the same epochal year that ushered in the Franco-Prussian War and the Gramme machine, the Hyatts invented celluloid. The invention was of the simplest character, involving mainly the compression of camphorated gun-cotton by hydraulic or other force. This was not a great invention, but a useful one; making it possible to fabricate many useful articles at low cost.

In the following year of 1871, Goodyear invented his welt shoe-sewing machine and Maddox made his epochal discovery. This was that when nitrate of silver was added to a solution of gelatine in water containing a soluble bromide, silver bromide was formed, which did not subside even after long standing; that the emulsion could be made quickly and in large quantities, and that by thus substituting gelatine for collodion on the surface of glass plates used in photography, greater sensitiveness, and therefore, greater speed could be obtained. This led to an important improvement, and paved the way to others, and thus became the basis of rapid photography.

By 1871 the work of several inventors had produced a press that printed an endless sheet of paper on both sides and folded it automatically. In the same year Ingersoll invented his compressed air rock drill. In 1872, Lyall invented his positive-motion weaving loom, and Clerk Maxwell propounded his electro-magnetic theory of light. According to this theory, luminous and electric disturbances are the same in kind, the same medium transmits both, and light is an electro-magnetic phenomenon. This was a most important invention in the field of physical science, and is now accepted by the majority of scientists. It is not so applicable to the needs of men at the present moment as the weaving loom; but in the future, it may be more so.

In the same year, Westinghouse invented an improvement on his original air-brake that made it automatic under some conditions, and in the following year Janney invented the automatic car-coupler. Both of these were brilliant inventions, though not nearly so brilliant as Clerk Maxwell's. They were immeasurably more important, however, from the standpoint of material contributions to the Machine. One result was that the inventors were immeasurably more rewarded in a material way than was that great mathematical physicist, Clerk Maxwell.

In the same year of Our Lord, 1873, Willis invented his platinotype photographic process, in which finely divided platinum forms an image virtually permanent, and Edison invented his duplex telegraph. This was the first of those wonderful inventions that made Edison famous; and it embodied possibly as brilliant an idea as he ever conceived. The principle was exceedingly simple, and consisted merely in using currents that increased in strength as the key was pressed to actuate an ordinary electro-magnet for one message, and using currents whose direction was reversed when the key was pressed, to actuate a polarized relay for another message. By combining this scheme with one long before proposed, of putting the receiving instruments across the arms of a Wheatstone Bridge, the entire system could be duplicated, and two messages sent at the same time in each direction. This, of course, constituted quadruplex telegraphy.

In the same year, Gorham invented the twine-binder for harvesters, Bennett improved the gelatine-bromide process of Maddox; and Locke and Wood invented the self-binding reaper. In 1874, Glidden and Vaughan invented a machine for making barbed wire, and Sir William Thomson invented his super-excellent siphon-recorder for receiving messages over the Atlantic cable. This invention combined the three elements that constitute a great invention; brilliancy of conception, excellence of construction and concrete product. It was of immediate usefulness also, which a great invention may not necessarily be. But Sir William Thomson was a "canny Scot," a good mechanic, and a man of the world, as well as a mathematical physicist of the highest order; with the result that even on his loftiest flights, he held tight to a string that connected him to the earth, and that kept his flights within the regions of the practical and immediate. His siphon-recorder was very much more sensitive to electric currents than any recorder ever invented before; a quality which made feebler currents utilizable, decreased induction and therefore increased speed. Coming when it did, and coming because Sir William Thomson saw a need for it, it was a great and important contribution to submarine telegraphy, and therefore to the Machine; for the Machine has now become very large and complicated, and needed the best possible communication among its various parts. Some of these parts were far distant from each other.

In the following year, 1875, Brown invented his cash-carrier. This was not so brilliant or important an invention as Sir William Thomson's; but it can hardly be doubted that a hundred thousand times as many cash-carriers and their children, cash-registers, have been made as siphon-recorders. In the same year, Lowe invented his illuminating water-gas; Wegmann his roller flour mills; Smith his middlings purifier for flour; and Pictet his ice-machine. The last four inventions were of that distinctly practical kind that contribute directly to the operativeness of the Machine, by facilitating the conditions of living in large communities, and make great cities possible. Of the four, the invention of Pictet was the most brilliant and scientific, and the least directly useful.

In 1876, Bell made an invention that is usually conceded to be the most important of modern times, and that was also of the highest order of brilliancy of conception, excellence of construction and concreteness of result. The invention was that of the speaking telephone.

The telephone is not in the class with the actual doers of things, like the weaving machine and the gun, but rather in the class with the telegraph and the typewriter, in being an assistant to the doers of things: that is, it is an instrument rather than a machine. This does not mean that a machine is more important than an instrument, though possibly machines have done more work directly in furthering civilization than instruments have. A machine does something itself; an instrument is a means or agency or implement with which men do something. As a class, machines have probably been more directly useful than instruments; but this does not mean, of course, that any machine that one may name has been more useful than any instrument. A machine (generally speaking) does only one class of work; the sewing-machine, for instance, does no work save sewing; while such an instrument as the telephone is an aid to men in directing the work of thousands of machines.

It may be pointed out here that, in the broad meaning of the word instrument, every machine that does actual work is an instrument in the hands of men for doing that work; but that every instrument is not necessarily a machine. A machine, by definition, is composed of various parts that work together to a common end, and it carries with it the ideas of movement and of power. An instrument, on the other hand, need not be composed of more than one part; it may of itself be incapable of moving or exerting power; and yet, in the hands of men and women, it may be the means of doing the most useful work. A familiar illustration among many is the needle.

Now the telephone can hardly be called a machine: it can of itself do nothing. It is not like an engine that can do work hour after hour, without external interposition, supervision or assistance. Yet, for the reason that the only value of a machine lies in the fact that it is an instrument whereby men can get results, an instrument is not necessarily in a lower class than a machine.

The essential value of the telephone seems to lie in the fact that the Machine has become so complicated, and composed of so many separate parts, that, without the telephone, those parts would not be adequately linked together. The telephone, like the telegraph, acts in the Machine of Civilization as do the nerves in the human organism. The human organism could not be an organism without the nervous system; and the present Machine could not exist in its present form without the telegraph and the telephone. These two instruments have so greatly improved the Machine as to raise it toward the dignity of an organism. They have not made it an organism, because they have not endowed it with life. They have, however, raised it to the dignity of an automatic machine, by supplying such a ready and sure means of conveying information and instructions, that a blow to the Machine anywhere is felt everywhere, and assistance to the part attacked can be summoned from everywhere.