Invention: The Master-key to Progress

The war between China and Japan, and in greater degree the result of that war, give clear and impressive demonstrations of the influence of invention on history; because the victors were victors simply because they had taken advantage of the inventions made in Europe and America. There was no marked difference physically in favor of the Japanese. Whether there was morally, we have no means of judging. Was there a difference mentally? We have an excellent means of judging this, – the fact that the Japanese had made a correct estimate of the situation and come to a correct decision, while the Chinese had not.

In the war that occurred ten years later, between Japan and Russia, the influence of invention was even more clear and striking, for the reason that Japan was a virtually semi-barbarous country in 1854, while Russia was one of the five great powers of civilization and Christendom; and yet in exactly fifty years, Japan demonstrated her equality with Russia in the decisive court of war on land, and beat her ignominiously in the equally decisive court of war on sea.

Why? Because during that fifty years Japan had availed herself of the aid of invention more than Russia had done; with the result that when they went before the supreme tribunal, Japan had better methods, better equipment, better plans, better soldiers, better ships, better tout ensemble. The most important single item was the naval telescope sight invented by the author. That was the cause of the immeasurably superior gunnery of the Japanese at the decisive naval battle of Tsushima.

Concerning Japan's war with China in 1894, the same truths may be uttered, though not with quite so much emphasis; for the results had not been so startling. Both wars demonstrate the same principles, though in unequal degrees of convincingness. Both wars show that the influence of invention has been to build up a Machine which is powerful not only for peace but for war; to assist those nations the most that avail themselves of it with the greatest skill and energy, and therefore to spur ambitious and far-seeing people to the study of whatever knowledge the world affords. The study most clearly indicated is that of the resources of physics and chemistry, and the experiences recorded in history.

In 1897, Henry A. Wise Wood invented the autoplate, a machine for making printing plates previously made by hand, which multiplied fourfold the reproduction of the type page in printing plates. This invention facilitated and cheapened the cost of printing, and was therefore a valuable addition to the Machine.

In 1898 a war, giving us lessons similar to those of the Japanese wars, broke out between the United States and Spain. The disproportion of material resources was great, and was in favor of the United States. Yet in the early part of the sixteenth century, Spain had been esteemed by many to be the greatest of all the powers, while the territory later held by the United States was the wild domain of savages. Why had Spain fallen so far below a country so new, living three thousand miles away from the civilization of Europe? Because she had lost her vision; because she had become infected with the disease of sordidness which quickly-gotten wealth, especially ill-gotten wealth, has often brought to nations; because she had ceased to encourage such bright visions as she had encouraged in the days of Columbus and Magellan, and settled down in the torpor of unimaginativeness. The United States, on the other hand, had been seeing such visions and following them to learn what lay beyond; and had been embodying all that could be embodied in practical projects and machines and methods and instrumentalities of all kinds. The United States had been taking all possible advantage of the potentialities of invention, but Spain had not.

An important result of this war was the proof, and its utilization on a large scale in Cuba and other Spanish-American countries, that the mosquito is a carrier of the infections of yellow fever and many other diseases.

Hardly had this war finished, when a war broke out in 1899 between Great Britain and the Boer Republic in South Africa. It is an evidence of the important influence of invention that it was possible for Great Britain to wage effective war so far away, and finally to triumph. She triumphed mainly because of the superior power of her military machine; but she had been able to construct and to improve it continually by her persistent utilization of the possibilities of invention. The possibilities that she had utilized became especially conspicuous when the necessity came for transporting the necessary troops and guns and munitions and supplies over the vast ocean spaces intervening, and for handling them on a foreign soil; under conditions very novel, and against a wary and yet skilfull and aggressive foe.

This war had not closed when the Boxer rebellion broke out in China, and a lesson even more clearly marked was given to the world. For the Chinese Government was perhaps the oldest in the world and the Chinese nation the most numerous. The revolt grew out of a series of aggressions by certain European powers, especially Great Britain, Germany, France and Russia, that consisted in virtually appropriating under various pretexts, certain important positions and valuable pieces of territory in China. Because of the fact that China had lost her vision, and had not even been stimulated to realizing facts by the example of Japan, China was at this time an incoherent aggregation of separate states and organizations; though she was supposed to be a coherent nation, under the emperor in Pekin. Because of a lack of such a nervous system as was given to each civilized nation by its railways, mails, newspapers, telegraphs and telephones, China was a soft and almost amorphous mass; with no definite purpose and no strength, either external or internal. China was not a machine in any proper sense of the word, and was therefore incapable of any action of an effective kind. The result was that, although the cause of the Boxers was not only just but laudable, the whole movement resulted in a series of pitiful atrocities committed by the Boxers in Pekin, followed by a forced entry into that ancient capital by a few thousand troops from the principal civilized nations, and a quick and complete suppression of the entire revolt.

There, in Pekin, in the closing days of the year 1900, could be seen, in two contrasting groups, peoples representing the highly organized and effective Machine of Civilization on one side and its crude and ineffective predecessor on the other side. What was the cause of the enormous difference between the groups? In physical strength and size and courage, little difference if any was observable; – yet one went down before the other, like tenpins before a bowling ball. Some may say that the difference was due to the difference in race. Yet the Japanese were of the same race as the Chinese, and the Japanese troops were as markedly superior to the Chinese as were the troops of any other nation: in fact, it was the consensus of opinion that the Japanese troops were superior to all the others, except the German. Some may say it was because of the difference in religions. Yet the Japanese were of virtually the same religion as the Chinese. Of course, the paramount difference was in the degree of civilization. What was this difference in civilization due to? Clearly, it was due to numberless causes; but there seem to be two causes more important than the others: a difference in attitude toward the possibilities of invention, and a difference in what has been called "the fighting spirit."

But the fighting spirit and a receptive attitude toward invention are usually found together, though the fighting spirit may sometimes lie dormant in inventive and enterprising people; may lie dormant, even for considerable periods, when conditions are peaceful, and prosperity prevails. But Achilles – (so the legend runs) – dwelt at one time in hiding, dressed in woman's garb, quiet and unsuspected. Yet when suddenly the bugle rang, he grasped the sword and shield. So, in 1914, and for some years before, Great Britain, the United States and France slumbered under the narcotic spell of pacifism; yet when suddenly the German War Machine advanced upon them, each nation and all three nations together rose in quick and yet majestic armed reply, and proved their fighting spirit was not dead, although it had been sleeping.

CHAPTER XIV

THE FRUITION OF INVENTION

The twentieth century was the fruition of all that invention had achieved during the ages of the past. When it opened, the world was a world far different from what it had been, even in times not long gone by. It was far different from the world of 1850, or even 1875; for many inventions had been made and utilized during the passing years.

The last quarter of the nineteenth century, the interval between 1875 and 1900, has been called the "industrial age," because of the great advances made in all industrial appliances, and the consequent advance made in the size and wealth and power of industrial organizations of all kinds. In especial, the organizations dealing with systems of transportation and communication, and with manufacturing the many appliances needed by them had expanded greatly. Other organizations had expanded also; for the improvement and extension of the means of transportation and communication rendered possible the existence and successful operation of organization in many branches of effort, to a degree impossible before. Cities grew in area and population; the buildings in size and especially in height; railroads increased in number, length of route and speed of travel; locomotives and cars grew commensurately; colleges, hospitals, churches, clubs, scientific bodies, benevolent societies – all seemed to take a start about 1875 and to grow at increasing speed, as year succeeded year. But the greatest single advance was made in ocean transportation; for the sea, by the year 1900, had become a plane across which steamers moved with a speed and a certainty and a safety, rivaling that of railway trains on land.

The factors most immediately and importantly to be credited with all these advances were the improvements in the steam engine, the electric telegraph, and the manufacture of steel; also the invention of the dynamo-electric machine, the electric light and the telephone. These factors had given such power and certainty and speed to the Machine of Civilization that the nations which joined it and became contributory parts of it, advanced rapidly in prosperity and wealth, both actually and also relatively, as compared with nations that did not.

In the year 1900, the great nations of the world were Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States and Japan. Of these Japan had advanced the most in civilization during the preceding half century, then the United States, then Germany, then Great Britain, and then France. The nation that had increased the most in territorial extent was Great Britain. In 1900, the British Empire, including India, covered about one-fourth of the whole surface of the earth. It comprised, besides Great Britain and Ireland, five self-governing colonies, the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Union of South Africa, New Foundland and New Zealand, in addition to the 1,800,000 square miles of British India and her three hundred million people. France had "expanded" in both Africa and Asia; that is, she had conquered territory in those partially civilized continents. Germany had done similarly; and Russia had subjugated the nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of Central Asia. The United States had taken only a little territory, that included in the Philippines and Porto Rico; for she had expanded her constructive energy and skill in developing the vast and fertile area within her own boundaries. Japan had expanded only slightly in actual territory; the exercise of her constructive talents being urgently required at home.

It may be declared that invention should not be credited with any of this expansion, for the reasons that to increase one's possessions is an instinct of human nature, and that the colonization of savage and barbarous lands has been a favorite activity with great nations always. True: but the inventions enumerated in this book, and the agencies which they supplied for going quickly, surely and safely to places far away; of taking to those places certain tools of conquest, such as guns and powder; and of supplying afterward to the conquered people finer conveniences of living, juster laws and better government of every kind, have been the effective means to an end that could not have been attained without them.

It may be objected that the principal factors in all of these achievements have been omitted, the commercial enterprise of the merchants, the farseeing wisdom of the statesmen, the valor and skill of the strategists, and (back of all) the courage and enterprise of the original explorers. That these have been omitted, is true; for the reason that this discussion is intended to point out only what invention has done. It is obvious that the main incentive of colonization has been commercial gain, and that the initiators of colonization schemes have usually been merchants. It is equally obvious that the statesmen are to be credited with the framing and execution of the measures needed to make any colonization scheme effective; and it is equally obvious that strategists and explorers did work without which no expansion whatever would have been possible. Nevertheless, it must be clear that the essential difference between the conquerors and the conquered, by reason of which the uncivilized were conquered by the civilized, lay in the aids which civilization had supplied to the civilized. Colonization and conquest have been going on ever since the beginning of recorded history and before; but from the days of Thutmose III in ancient Egypt until now, the conqueror and the colonizer have in almost every case been more civilized than were their victims. It is true also that savages have sometimes overrun civilized countries, and even conquered them, for Alaric captured even Rome: but up to the present time, the fruits of such conquests have not been permanent, whereas the fruits of colonization have been.

In 1900, then, the Machine of Civilization was in operation in all parts of the world; in the dark continent of Africa, the deserts of Asia, the wild regions of Australia, and even on the ocean. In fact, it was on the ocean that the Machine was operating with the most efficiency and effectiveness; for nowhere else are the power and the harmony of machinery of all kinds, inert and human, seen in such perfection as in great steamships on the sea.

We seem safe in concluding, therefore, that while invention was only one of many factors in bringing about the world-wide conditions that prevailed in 1900, invention was the initiating factor. It was invention that suggested to the explorer that he explore; to the merchant that he launch his enterprise; to the statesman that he encourage the merchant and assist him with wise laws; to the strategist that he make such and such plans, to meet the emergencies that arose. Finally, it was invention that made possible the actual transportation of explorers and merchants and troops to designated spots, and made successful the operations which ensued there.

But the Machine still continued growing. In 1900 Hewitt invented his beautiful mercury-vapor electric light, and in 1901 Santos-Dumont invented his air-ship and demonstrated its practicability by going around the Eiffel Tower in Paris in it and returning to the spot from which he started. This feat began that great succession of feats with dirigible balloons with which we are so familiar now, and which promise to be succeeded by a condition of world-wide transportation through the air.

In 1900, the author of this book patented the method of controlling the movements of vessels, which consists in using radio telegraphy. This invention has recently been brought to the stage of practicality by the United States Navy. It was utilized in July, 1921, for steering the Iowa when bombed by airplanes.

In 1903 came the first successful flight by aeroplane, which was made by the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This was an epochal adventure; it inaugurated an age which is already called the Aerial Age, and which will bring about changes so vast that our imagination cannot picture them.

An interesting and instructive fact connected with this flight, and with the aeroplane in general, is that the aeroplane was not practicable and could not be made practicable before the internal-combustion engine had been invented and developed; because all preceding engines had been too heavy. This illustrates the fact occasionally adverted to in this book, that one of the most important factors in the influence of invention is that each new invention facilitates later inventions. The influence of invention is cumulative.

In 1905, Elmer Sperry invented his gyroscopic compass which is unaffected by terrestrial magnetism and points to the true north. In 1907, he invented his gyroscopic stabilizer which reduces greatly the rolling of ships, aeroplanes, etc.

Meanwhile, the endeavor to accomplish photography in color had been receiving persistent attention from many scientific experimenters, but without much practical success. The achievements of Becquerel, Lippman, Joly, Lumière, Finlay and others have doubtless laid the initial stepping stones; for color-photography by their efforts has been made an accomplished fact. As yet, however, the art is still in its infancy, and has not, therefore, reached the stage of maturity that enables us to estimate what importance it will eventually assume.

In 1908 Goldschmidt invented the thermit process of welding; thermit being a mixture of aluminum with some metallic oxide such as oxide of iron. When this mixture is ignited, the oxygen leaves the iron and unites with the aluminum, causing an enormous rise of temperature, and the consequent formation of molten iron. This molten mass being poured around the ends of two pieces of iron, welds them together at once. In the following year, Hiram Maxim invented his silencer for fire arms, by means of which the noise resulting from firing a gun is greatly lessened. How valuable a contribution this will be to the Machine, it is impossible at the moment to predict with confidence.

In 1910, Henry A. Wise Wood invented his printing press that more than doubled the speed of printing, produced a thousand newspapers of the largest size per minute, and directly enhanced the solidarity of the Machine.

In 1911 Glenn Curtiss produced his epochal flying-boat, Just and Hanaman invented the tungsten electric light, and Drager his pulmotor, for reviving persons who have been asphyxiated or partially drowned, by forcing oxygen into their lungs. The pulmotor has come into use to a surprising degree, and has already been established as a part of the Machine with a recognized value. It belongs in the class of remedial agents, about which nobody questions the beneficence, and for which everyone recognizes the debt of gratitude owed by mankind to the inventors.

In 1912, the author of this book invented the torpedoplane, a simple combination of the automobile-torpedo with the aeroplane, so designed that an aeroplane can carry a torpedo to a predetermined point near an enemy's ship and then drop it, while simultaneously operating the torpedo's starting mechanism: so that the torpedo will fall into the water, and then continue under its own power toward its victim. As the torpedoplane combines the most powerful weapon with the swiftest means of transportation, many Navy officers think it an invention of the first rank of importance, that threatens to wipe all surface fighting vessels off the seas. During the World War, it played only a subordinate part, though it was used effectively by the British and the Germans. Our Navy did not use it at all, as Secretary Daniels rejected it. The British Navy has already adopted it as a major instrument of war, and constructed two especially designed fast vessels, each of which carries twenty torpedoplanes. It seems obvious that such a ship, if sufficiently fast to keep out of the range of a battleship's guns, could sink her without much trouble.

In the same year Flexner discovered his antitoxin for cerebro-spinal meningitis, and Edison invented the kinetophone, a combination of the phonograph and the kinetoscope. As yet, this has not been made to work with such complete success as to warrant its introduction into use. The probabilities seem to be that someone will eventually supply the link that is evidently necessary, and make the voice and the picture on the screen cooperate in unison as they should. Two years later, Flexner isolated the bacillus of infantile paralysis and Plotz that of typhus fever.

The World War that broke out in August, 1914, was marked with far greater utilization of new inventions than had marked any war before, and foreshadowed even greater utilization of new inventions in the next war.

The first evidence of any new appliance was a rain of heavy projectiles on the tops of the Belgian forts; the forts having been designed to resist projectiles on their sides. The projectiles, it was discovered later, came from mortars of a kind the existence of which had not been suspected. Soon after, the German submarines showed qualities of endurance and radius of action that bespoke new appliances; and then came attacks on the Allied troops with poison-gas that almost were successful. The Allies replied with new inventions, especially in wireless telegraphy and telephony, mines, "depth-bombs" and "listening devices;" the latter being employed under water to detect the movements of submarines. Many other inventions were almost on the point of practicality when the Armistice was signed, but were not quite ready; showing what had often been shown before, that inventions for use in war, like all other preparations for war, should be complete ready for use, before the war begins.

As soon as the war broke out in Europe, the present author began to urge that the United States develop naval and military aeronautics to the utmost; in order that, when we should finally enter into the war, we should have available a large force of bombing aeroplanes and torpedoplanes. When we finally entered into the war, in April, 1917, he urged continually that we develop a great aeronautical force and send it to Europe to prevent the exit of German submarines from their bases, to destroy those bases and to sink the ships of the German fleet. These suggestions were rejected by Secretary Daniels as impracticable; but subsequent developments have proved that they were thoroughly practicable; in fact, an expedition was organized in England to carry them out, when the Armistice was signed.

It is interesting to consider what would have been the effect on the war (and, therefore, on all subsequent history) if the United States had sent a large force of bombing aeroplanes and torpedoplanes to Europe shortly after we entered the war in the Spring of 1917. This we easily could have done, if we had started to get them ready, when the suggestion was first made; or even at a considerable time thereafter. Certainly, the war would have been greatly shortened, and much suffering averted.

The inventions and discoveries made since the Great War began, though some are evidently important, are so recent that we cannot state with any confidence what their effect will be; and for this reason the author craves permission to close his brief story at this point.

*****

A noteworthy fact observable in the history of invention is that it has been confined almost wholly to Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, China, Persia, Greece, Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain, and the United States, and to a few men in those countries. Now it is in those countries that the highest degree of civilization has been developed, and it is from them that other nations have drawn theirs. The almost total absence of invention in women is more noteworthy still; for Mrs. Eddy and Madame Curie seem to be the only women who have contributed really original and important work.

Another noteworthy fact is that the idea-germs from which all inventions have been developed have been very few and very tiny. But what a numerous and important progeny has been brought forth; and how wholly impossible civilization would be now, had it not been for a few basic inventions and certain improvements made upon them! We can realize this, if we try to imagine the effect of removing a single one of the basic inventions (and even of certain derived inventions) from the Machine of Civilization.