Archimedes esteemed mechanical inventions as greatly inferior in value to those speculations and demonstrations that convince the mind, and considered that his chief single work was discovering the mathematical relation between a sphere and a cylinder just containing it.
Whether this discovery and the discovery of the hydrostatic principle just mentioned were inventions or not, depends, of course, on the meaning of the word invention. Within the meaning of the word as employed heretofore in this book, both seem to have been inventions. Each made a definite creation and each caused something to exist, the like of which had never existed before. Furthermore, the mental processes followed resemble very closely the conception and formulation of a religion or a theory, the conception and composing of a new piece of music, story or poem, the conception and developing of any new plan or scheme; the conception and embodying in material form of any mechanical device.
It is not asserted, of course, that all inventions are on a dead level of equality, simply because they are inventions. Evidently there are degrees of excellence among inventions as among all other things.
We have noted, up to a time approximately that of Archimedes, a continual succession of inventions of many kinds, that formed stepping-stones to civilization so large and plain, that we can see them even from this distance.
We now come to a period lasting more than a thousand years, in the first half of which there was a gradually decreasing lack of inventiveness shown, and in the latter half a cessation almost complete.
The nation that followed Greece as the dominant nation of the world was Rome. She became more truly a dominant nation than Greece ever was; but her civilization was built on that of Greece, and her success even in war and government was due largely to following where Greece had led. That Rome in her early days should have followed the methods of Greece was natural of course; for the two countries were close together, and the methods of Greece had brought success. The early religion of Rome was so like that of Greece that even to this day the conceptions of most of us regarding Zeus and Jupiter, Poseidon and Neptune, Aphrodite and Venus are apt to become confused.
Like the Greeks, the Romans first were gathered in city-states that were governed by kings; and as with the Greeks, more republican forms were adopted later. In one important particular, the Roman practice diverged from the Greek, and that was in incorporating conquered states into the parent state, and granting their inhabitants the privileges of citizenship; instead of keeping them in the condition of mere subject states. The Roman system was somewhat like the system of provinces established by the Assyrians. It forms the basis of the "municipal system" of the free states of the present day, in which local self-government is carried on, under the paramount authority of the state.
It may be pointed out here that the conception of such an idea and its successful development into an effective machine of government by the Romans constituted an invention; though in view of what had been done before by Assyria and Greece, it cannot be called a basic invention.
The early Romans were very different in their mental characteristics from the Greeks; for they were stern, warlike, intensely practical, and possessed of an extraordinary talent for what we now call "team work." As a nation they were not so inventive as the Greeks; but the Roman, Cæsar, was the greatest military inventor who ever lived.
As might be expected, their early endeavors pertained to war, and their first improvements were in warlike things. One improvement that was marked by considerable inventiveness was in changing the phalanx into the legion. The phalanx, the historian Botsford tells us, was "invented by the Spartans, probably in the eighth century B. C.," and consisted of an unbroken line of warriors, several ranks deep. The Thebans improved on this; and from the Theban, Philip developed the Macedonian phalanx with which Alexander fought his way through Asia. The Romans under Servius Tullius developed this into the Roman phalanx, which was different only in detail. The essential characteristic of the phalanx was strength. This was gained by the close support given by each man to his neighbor, the personal strength of each man and the trained co-operation of all. A tremendous blow was given to an enemy's line when a phalanx struck it.
In the early wars among the hills of Italy, the Romans found the phalanx too rigid for such uneven country; and it was in endeavoring to invent a substitute that they finally developed the legion. This machine was much more flexible, the individual soldiers had more room for their movements, and yet the machine seemed to possess the necessary rigidity when the shock of impact came. The heavy infantry was in three lines, and each line was divided into ten companies, or "maniples." The burden of the first attack was borne by the first line. If unsuccessful, the first line withdrew through gaps in the second line, and the second line took up the task;—and then the third, composed of the most seasoned troops. The attack usually began with the hurling of javelins, and was followed at once by an assault with the Roman strong short swords.
Now the legion was just as truly an invented machine as a steam engine is; and it had a greater influence on history than the steam engine has ever had thus far. It was by means of their legions that the Romans passed outside of the walls of Rome, and conquered all of Italy. It was by means of their legions that the Romans conquered all the coast peoples that bordered the Mediterranean Sea, subdued Gaul, Europe and Egypt and Asia, and became the greatest masters of the world that the world has ever seen.
The first war of the Romans that history calls great was their war against the splendid and wealthy city of Carthage, situated on the opposite side of the Mediterranean, inhabited by descendants of the Phœnicians. They were an aggressive and energetic people, but only commercially. They were not of the warlike cast, and delegated the work of national defense to hired soldiers and sailors. They had one great advantage over the Romans in the possession of an excellent navy.
The Romans resolved to create a navy. With characteristic energy and practical ability, they devoted themselves at once to both the acquisition of the personnel and the material, and the adequate training of the crews. It is stated that within two months from the time of starting, Rome possessed a hundred quinqueremes, the largest galleys of those days, having five tiers of rowers; though they had had none when the war broke out. The first naval battle took place near the promontory of Mylæ. Naturally, the Romans were at a great disadvantage as compared with the experienced officers and sailors in the Carthaginian fleet; for though the Roman soldier was far better than the Carthaginian, the Roman sailor was inexperienced and unskilful. To remedy the difficulty, the Romans made a simple but brilliant invention. They provided each quinquereme with a "corvus," that consisted essentially of a drawbridge that could be lowered quickly, and that carried a sharp spike at its outer end; and then arranged a plan whereby each quinquereme should get alongside of a Carthaginian, drop the drawbridge at such a time that the spike would hold the outer end of the drawbridge in place on the Carthaginian deck, and Roman soldiers should then rush across the drawbridge and attack the inferior Carthaginian soldiers.
Few more brilliant inventions have ever been made; few have been more successful and effective. The battle ended in a perfect victory for the Romans, and constituted the initial step in the subjugation of Carthage by Rome.
There were three wars in all, called Punic Wars. The great Carthaginian General, Hannibal, invaded Italy by land in the Second War, and after a campaign marked with a high order of daring and ability, threatened Rome herself after a brilliant victory near Lake Trasimene. Another victory followed at Cannæ, but a decisive disaster later on the Metaurus River. So the Second War was won by Rome. But Carthage still existed, and menaced the commercial, naval and military dominance of Rome. Therefore war was brought about at last by Rome, and Carthage destroyed completely.
The conduct of Rome toward Carthage cannot be justified on any grounds of any system of morality accepted at the present day; and yet it cannot reasonably be denied that it was better for human progress that Rome should prevail than Carthage. The Romans, harsh and ruthless as they were, were less so than the Carthaginians; and they had an element of strong manliness and a comprehensive grasp of things beyond mere commerce and money-getting and ease and comfort that the Semitic Carthaginians wholly lacked. The effect of the conquest of Carthage by Rome was a little like that of the conquest of Persia by Alexander.
During the same year (146 B. C.) when Rome destroyed Carthage, she also destroyed Corinth in Greece, and brought Greece and Macedonia under her sway. She had previously (190 B. C.) defeated Antiochus the Great, and taken from him nearly all his territory in Asia Minor.
By the year 58 B. C., Rome had become the most powerful nation in the world and still preserved a republican form of government. In that year, 58 B. C., the man who probably is the most generally regarded as the greatest man who has ever lived, appeared upon the stage of history. His name was Julius Cæsar.
He appeared in that year, because he went then from Rome to Gaul, and started on those brilliant and in many respects unprecedented campaigns which have had so profound an effect on history, and which for originality in conception and execution have had no rivals since.
At this time, Italy and the lands of Africa and Asia on which Alexander had impressed the civilization of Greece, were prosperous and well-governed; but beyond those countries only barbarous customs prevailed, and only a primitive civilization reigned. The lands that lay north and northwest of Italy, throughout all Gaul, were inhabited by savage tribes that were in a state of continual war with each other. In the southern and middle parts the effects of Roman civilization might be dimly seen; but in the southwestern part, and in the north, especially among the German tribes on the Rhine, and the Belgæ near the North Sea, a condition of virtually pure savagery prevailed.
Into such a country Cæsar marched, at the head of a body of men wholly inferior in numbers to those they were to meet, not superior to them in courage or physical strength, but considerably superior to them in discipline, and vastly superior in the weapons and methods that had gradually been invented, with the progress of civilization. Thus, while the Roman machine was superior as a machine to any that the Gauls could bring to bear, it was smaller; so that the question to be decided was whether the superior excellence of the Roman machine was great enough to balance its inferiority in size. Looking back from our vantage ground on the history of the campaigns that followed, we feel inclined to answer the question in the negative, unless we consider Cæsar himself a part of the machine. It is true that the campaigns were decided in favor of the Roman machine; but there seems little ground for doubting that they would not have been so decided, if the genius of Cæsar had not managed the Roman machine and made improvements from time to time.
Cæsar had had little experience as a soldier, but his habits of life and traits of character were of the military kind. As the campaigns progressed, his courage, equanimity and rapidity of thought and action were continually displayed;—yet not to such a degree as to put him in a higher class than many other generals of history, or to account wholly for his marvellous successes. One peculiar ability, however, he possessed and exercised in a degree greater than any other general of history: and it was by the exercise of that ability that his most extraordinary victories were achieved, and his generalship especially distinguished from the generalship of others. That ability was inventiveness.
His first contact was with the Swiss (Helvetii), who were about to leave the barrenness of their mountain lands, and march west to the fertile lands beyond. As this would take them through Roman territory and tend to drive the Gauls into Italy, open Switzerland to occupation by the Germans, and point a road thence for them also into Italy, Cæsar hastened to the Rhône River, destroyed the bridge which they would naturally go over, and forbade the Swiss to attempt to cross the river. The Swiss pleaded with Cæsar to permit them to cross. As Cæsar realized that the Swiss were too greatly superior in force to be kept back, unless he could strengthen himself in some way, he asked time for reflection, and told them to return in two weeks. When the Swiss returned at the end of that time, their astonished eyes disclosed to them the fact that Cæsar had constructed walls and trenches and forts at every point where a passage could reasonably be attempted.
It may be objected that walls and trenches and forts were not new, and that therefore Cæsar invented nothing. This may be admitted as an academic proposition; but nevertheless, it was clearly the ingenious and wholly unexpected construction of certain appliances by Cæsar that opposed the barbarous Swiss with barriers which they could not pass. It may even be argued with much reason that the conception and successful execution of Cæsar's plan as a whole constituted an invention, even though the material used was old. Certain it is that a situation was created which did not exist before, and that it was the creation of this situation, and not the exercise of strength or courage, that was the determining factor in stopping the Swiss. Froude says of Cæsar, "He was never greater than in unlooked-for difficulties. He never rested. He was always inventing some new contrivance."
Cæsar realized fully the value in war of mechanical appliances, and took careful measures before he left Italy to supply his army adequately with them, and also with men trained to use them. Besides the fighting men strictly considered, Cæsar took a considerable number of engineers with him, and expert men for building bridges, and doing mechanical work of many kinds. The ingenious and frequent use that Cæsar made of these men and of mechanical appliances was the most powerful single factor that contributed to his success.
The Swiss departing from Switzerland by another route, Cæsar pursued them, and defeated a fourth of them in a battle on the banks of a river which the other three-fourths had crossed. He then built a bridge over the river and sent his army across. This feat alarmed the Swiss more than their defeat; because Cæsar had built the bridge and sent his army across in one day, whereas they had consumed twenty days in merely crossing. The Swiss pleaded to be allowed to proceed; but Cæsar was obdurate. A battle followed, in which the Swiss, though greatly superior in numbers and reinforced by 15,000 allies, were decisively beaten; not because of inferior courage or warlike skill, but by reason of inferior equipments, mechanical appliances and weapons.
Cæsar's next battle was with the Germans. It was won, if not precisely with inventiveness, at least with "brains." He learned that the German matrons had declared, after certain occult proceedings, that Heaven forbade them to fight before the new moon. Apprehending his opportunity, he advanced his forces right up to the German camp, thereby forcing them as valiant soldiers to come out and fight. Fight they did, but under an obvious psychological disadvantage, and with the natural result.
In this battle, as in others between the Romans and the barbarians, it was noticeable that although their first onslaught was fine, the barbarians seemed to be at a loss afterwards,—if anything unexpected occurred, or if any reverse was sustained; whereas the Romans—and especially Cæsar himself—never behaved so well as when threatened with disaster. This may be expressed by saying that the barbarians, as compared with the Romans, were wholly inferior in the inventiveness needed to devise a new plan quickly.
Not long afterward, Cæsar advanced against the town of Noviodunum. He soon saw that he could not take it by storm; and so he brought forward his mechanical siege appliances. The psychological effect of these on the barbarians was so tremendous that they at once pleaded for terms of surrender.
After a battle with the Nervii, in which Cæsar defeated them disastrously, largely because of his resourcefulness in emergency and their lack of it, he advanced against a great barbarian stronghold that looked down on steep rocks on three sides, and was protected by a thick, high double wall on the fourth side. Cæsar made a fortified rampart around the town, pushed his mantlets (large shields on wheels protected on the sides and top) close up to the wall, and built a tower. The barbarians laughed at this tower; seeing it so far away that, they thought, no darts thrown from it could reach them. But when they saw the tower actually moving toward them they were struck with terror and began at once to sue for peace.
During the following winter the Veneti, a large tribe on the northwestern coast, the most skilful seamen and navigators of Gaul, stirred up a revolt that quickly and widely spread. The situation at once became serious for Cæsar, for the reason that the Veneti could not be subdued, except on the sea; and neither the Roman sailors nor the Roman vessels were as good as were those of the Veneti. Nevertheless, Cæsar ordered war-vessels to be built on the Loire River, and seamen and rowers to be drafted from the Roman Province.
When the improvised fleet of the Romans and the thoroughly prepared fleet of the Veneti came together, the latter was superior even in numbers. Furthermore, the Romans were at a great disadvantage in the matter of throwing projectiles, from the fact that the Veneti's decks were higher than theirs.
But Cæsar had prepared a scheme that gave him victory. In accordance with it, the Roman galleys rowed smartly against the Veneti ships, and Roman sailors raised long poles on which were sharp hooks which they put over the halliards that held up the sails. Then each Roman galley rowed rapidly away, the halliards were cut, and down came the sails. The Veneti ships became helpless at once and were immediately boarded; with the result that, of all the number, only a few made their escape.
Somewhat later, Cæsar decided to cross the Rhine into the country of the Sueves, and to impress them with the power of Rome by building a bridge and marching his army across. This bridge and the quickness and thoroughness with which it was built are still models for engineers; for in ten days after he had decided to build it, at which time the material was still standing in the forest, a bridge 40 feet wide had been constructed. Across this Cæsar at once marched his legions. The effect on the barbarous Germans can be imagined. It made them realize that the Romans were a race superior to themselves in ways that they could not measure or even understand; and it impressed them with that fear which is the most depressing of all fears, the fear of the unknown.
Did Cæsar make an invention? This depends on the meaning of the word invention. Cæsar did not invent the bridge; but he did conceive and carry into execution a highly original, concrete and successful scheme. By it he accomplished as much as a victorious campaign would have accomplished, and without shedding any blood. He devised means which created a state of thought in the minds of his enemies that destroyed their will to fight. Therein lay his invention.
Cæsar then conceived the idea of going across the water to the island of Britain, about which little was known. After having a survey made of the coast, he took his legions across in about eighty vessels. He had to fight to make a landing, of course; but he succeeded, and then formed his camp. A Roman camp, we may now remind ourselves, was so distinctly a Roman conception, and so distinctly a part of the Roman system of conducting war, that it almost constituted an invention. Whenever a Roman army halted, even for one night, they intrenched themselves within a square enclosure, surrounded with a ditch and a palisade of stakes, and made a temporary little city, laid with streets. In such a camp they were reasonably safe against any attack that barbarians could make.
But a storm arose that drove some of Cæsar's ships ashore and some out to sea. In this emergency, Cæsar's resourcefulness and energy directed the work of recovery and repair, and enabled the Romans to collect and put into good condition nearly all their ships. Cæsar returned shortly afterward to Gaul; arrived there, he gave directions for building and equipping another and larger fleet.
In the following July (54 B. C.), he started again for Britain. This time he took five legions and some cavalry and had about 800 vessels. He landed and formed his camp, and then advanced inland;—but another storm arose that scattered his ships. He returned at once to the coast, and instituted such prompt and resourceful measures that in ten days he was able to resume his march. On this march, which took him far inland, he was able to overcome all opposition; largely because, after the first onset, the barbarians seemed to be without any plan of action, while Cæsar was at his best.
Cæsar had the ability to invent under circumstances of the utmost danger and excitement.
Cæsar's remaining campaigns in Gaul were marked with the same resourcefulness and originality on his part, and the same lack of resourcefulness and originality on the part of the barbarians. Cæsar would continually do something that the barbarians had not expected him to do. True, they gradually learned some of his schemes and methods from him; but only to find that he had then some newer schemes and methods.
Cæsar at one time remarked that wise men anticipate possible difficulties, and decide beforehand what they will do, if certain possible occasions arise. Does not this process involve invention, in cases where the possible occasions are not of the ordinary and expectable kind? In such cases, does it not require imagination to foresee the possible occasions, and form a correct picture on the mind of the resulting situations? This being done, does it not require the exercise of the constructive faculty afterwards, to make a concrete and effective plan to meet them?
If it be so, then we may reasonably declare that, of all the factors that contributed to the successes in Gaul of Cæsar, the most powerful single factor was his inventiveness.
The final crisis came when Cæsar besieged Alesia, and Vercingetorix, who had taken refuge in it, sent out a call for succor, that was eagerly and promptly responded to; for it was plain to the barbarians that Cæsar, being held in position fronting a fortress that he could not successfully storm, would be in a precarious condition if attacked vigorously in his rear. Attacked vigorously he was; for the barbarians came in his rear with about 250,000 men; Cæsar having only 50,000, and the enemy in front having 80,000.
But it required somewhat more than a month for the barbarians to unite and reach Alesia. With his wonted energy and resourcefulness, Cæsar had by this time cast up siege works all around the fortress, placed camps at strategic points, and constructed twenty-three block-houses. He dug a trench twenty feet deep around the place, and back of this began his other siege works. These included two parallel trenches fifteen feet broad and fifteen feet deep. Behind these he built a palisade twelve feet high, and to this he added a breastwork of pointed stakes; while at intervals of eighty feet he constructed turrets. In addition, he had branches cut from trees and sharpened on the ends; and these he fastened at the bottom of the trenches, so that the points projected just above the ground. In front of these he dug shallow pits, into which tapering stakes hardened in the fire were driven, projecting four inches above the ground. These pits were hidden with twigs and brushwood. Eight rows of these pits were dug, three feet apart; and in front of all stakes with iron hooks were buried in the ground at irregular intervals. When all this had been done on the side toward the fortress, Cæsar constructed parallel entrenchments of the same kind, to protect his rear; the two sets being so arranged with respect to each other that the same men could man both. Having constructed all these material appliances, he instituted a comprehensive system of drills, so that his men would know exactly how to utilize them under all probable contingencies.
In the battle that followed the barbarians showed their wonted courage and dash; but an unexpected situation arose when Cæsar attacked a separated part in their rear. Then they were seized with panic, and the natural rout and disaster followed.
This battle decided the fate of Gaul; though its actual subduing, especially in the southwestern part was not accomplished immediately. The last major act was taking a strong fortress. This was accomplished by cutting a tunnel, by which the spring was tapped that supplied the garrison with water. As Vercingetorix said, the Romans won their victories, not by superior courage, but by superior science.
Cæsar's later passage across the Rubicon, the flight of the Senate, and his later operations by land and sea against Marseilles (Massilia) and hostile forces in northern Spain, are well known, and were characterized by the same high order of inventiveness. His later operations against Pompey, and later still against Pharnaces and Scipio, were conducted under conditions that gave him less opportunity to utilize the quality of inventiveness in such clear ways; but they were marked with the kindred qualities of foresight, skilful adaptation of means to ends, and presence of mind in emergencies.
In the minds of some, Cæsar's greatest influence on history has been due to his improvement of the Calendar, and especially his reforms of the public morals and the laws of Rome, after his campaign against Pharnaces. This subject has been the theme of jurists and scholars to such a degree that it might seem presumptuous in a navy officer to do more than mention it. At the same time it may be pointed out that Cæsar's work was not in any matters of detail, or in contributing any legal or juridical skill or knowledge, but in conceiving the idea of creating the Leges Juliæ, and then creating them.
Julius Cæsar was murdered in the year 44 B. C. He was followed in power by his grandnephew Octavius, one of the most fortunate occurrences in history; for Octavius possessed the ability and the character to carry on the constructive work that Julius Cæsar had begun. Under Octavius and his successors, the Roman Empire became increasingly large and strong, until the reign of Trajan in the second century, A. D., when it acquired its greatest territorial extent.
During the time when Rome was increasing in extent and power, the wealth of cities and of individuals increased also, and enormous public works of all kinds were constructed, many of which are still the admiration of the world. Material prosperity reached its highest point.
But the creative period had passed. Youth, with its dreams and vigor of doing had gone, and maturity, with the luxury of prosperity and the consequent dulling of the imagination, had assumed its place. Senescence followed in due course. Then the empire was divided into two parts, the Empire of the West and the Empire of the East. Finally, in 476 A. D., Rome died and with it the Empire of the West.
Triumphal Procession from the Arch of Titus
But the Eastern Empire stood, and Constantinople was its capital. And it stood, alone and unassisted, as the sole bulwark of Christianity and civilization for nearly 1000 years, until it finally fell before the Ottoman Turks in 1543. It could not have done this, if in the latter part of the seventh century when it was beleaguered by a Turkish fleet, much greater than its own, it had not suddenly received unexpected aid in the shape of a new invention. This was "Greek fire," which seems to have been a pasty mixture of sulphur, nitre, pitch, and other substances, which when squirted against wood set it on fire with a flame that water could not quench. In the very first attack, the Turks were so demoralized by the Greek fire that they fled in panic. They never learned the secret and were never able to stand up against it. On one occasion, fifteen Christian ships, using Greek fire, actually put to rout a Turkish fleet numbering several hundred.
During all the countless centuries before the dawn of recorded history, and during the approximately forty centuries that elapsed from the beginning of recorded history until the fall of Rome, we have observed the coming of many inventions of both material and immaterial kinds, and noted the influence of those inventions in causing civilization, and therefore in directing the line that history has followed.
It may be objected that a perfectly natural inference from what has been written would be that the only thing which had influenced the direction of movement of history was invention. To this, the answer may very reasonably be made that this book does not pretend to be a history, or to point out what have been the greatest factors that have influenced its line of movement; it attempts merely to emphasize the influence of one factor, invention, and to suggest that maybe its influence has not hitherto been estimated at its proper value.
Another objection like that just indicated might be made to the effect that all the progress of the world up to the fall of Rome is attributed in this book to inventors only; that all the work of statesmen, scientists, generals, admirals, explorers, jurists, men of business, etc., etc., is ignored.
Such an objection would be natural and reasonable; but to it an answer like the previous one may be made, to the effect that the purpose of this book is not to compare the benefits conferred by any one class of men with those conferred by any other, but merely to point out, in a very general way, what inventors have done.
Nevertheless, it does seem clear that inventors did more to map out the direction of the progress just traced than any other single class of men. If we will fix our attention on any one invention about which we know enough—say, the water-clock—we can see that the original inventor of the water-clock (no matter who he was) had more influence on the history of the clock than any other man has had; and that the inventors of clocks who followed him had more influence on the clock than any other equal number of men had. This does not mean that the men who risked their money in making novel clocks did not influence the history of the clock materially; and it does not mean that the men who made good materials for them did not influence the history of the clock greatly; and it does not mean that the engineers and mechanics who operated them successfully did not influence its history. It would be absurd to pretend that each one of these men did not influence the history of the clock; for without them there would have been no successful clock. Nevertheless, in the nature of things, the original inventors must be credited with influencing the history of the clock more than any other equal number of men did, just as a father must be credited with influencing the history of his children more than any other man can, from the mere fact of his having caused them to be born. The inventors of clocks were the fathers of the clocks that they invented, and also the forefathers of all the inventions that proceed directly or indirectly from them.
What has been said about the clock applies with equal force to every other invented thing. Therefore, it can hardly be gainsaid that, so far as invented things are concerned, their inventors have had more influence on the history that has resulted from them than any other men have had.
If anyone will glance through any book of ancient history, he will realize that it is mainly a record of wars; the political changes caused by wars, or rendered possible by their means; the growth of nations and other organizations; the invention of certain mechanisms, arts and sciences; and the construction of certain structures such as temples, palaces and ships. All these agencies influenced ancient history, of course; but it is clear that the agency that influenced it the most obviously and immediately was the wars.
Yet let us remind ourselves that the real effect on history of any war was not exerted by the war itself, so much as by the result of the war. Let us also remind ourselves that the result of any war was because of the material forces engaged and the skill with which they were handled.
Now the material forces put onto the field of battle on each side in any of the wars were the product of the material resources of the country, of its wealth, its ability to manufacture weapons and transport troops; that is, of its utilization of invented mechanisms, processes and methods. The skill with which they were handled—(especially when supreme skill was exerted, as in the cases of Alexander and Cæsar)—was the outcome not of mere laborious training, not of mere knowledge, or courage, or carefully detailed arrangement, but of plans so conceived, developed and produced (invented) as to confront the enemy with unexpected situations that they were not prepared to meet. So the influence of even the wars seems to have been due fundamentally to invention.
As to the other agencies that influenced the course of ancient history, they seem to owe their influence even more obviously to invention than war does. Every department of ancient civilization seems traceable back to some invention or inventions. The whole of ancient civilization seems to rest primarily on inventions.
As inventions were made by inventors, we seem forced to the conclusion that inventors influenced ancient history more than any other one class did. This does not mean that the inventor of a child's toy influenced history more than did any one of the millions of wise and good men in each generation who helped to keep the machine of civilization working smoothly; for it refers to inventors as a class, and not to inventors as individuals.
The period from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the fourteenth century was almost destitute in the matter of inventions that can be distinctly named: though the conception and carrying into effect of Mohammedanism in the seventh century, the campaigns and governmental systems of Charlemagne in the ninth century, the invasion of England by William of Normandy in the eleventh century, and the Crusades in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as well as all the numerous wars and campaigns that succeeded each other so rapidly, indicate a mental and nervous restlessness which sought relief in action, and which received guidance in seeking that relief from the suggestions of invention.
During the interval, paper is supposed by some to have been invented, or at least the art of making it from rags. Paper itself, however, had been invented long before in China.
The early part of the twelfth century opened a new era in Europe with the introduction of one of the most important inventions ever made, the gun. It is often said that gunpowder was invented then. Gunpowder, of course, had been invented or discovered many centuries before.
There is much obscurity about the invention of gunpowder. It is usually supposed to have been invented in China, and to have crept its way first to the western Asian nations, and afterwards to Europe by way of the Mediterranean. There can be little doubt that gunpowder was known to the Romans in the days of the empire; and some accounts of Alexander's campaigns declare that he used mines to destroy the walls of Gaza.
It is supposed by many that the Chinese had cannon, from certain embrasures in some of their ancient walls; but there seems to be no absolute proof of this. It seems fairly well established that the Moors used artillery in Spain in the twelfth century; though some writers hold that what were called firearms in Europe before the fourteenth century were only engines which threw fire into besieged places.
It seems probable that the gun was invented as the result of an accident that occurred while some man was pounding the (gunpowder) mixture of charcoal, saltpetre and sulphur in a receptacle of some kind. According to one story, the mixture exploded and threw the pestle violently out of the mortar. From this incident, the man who was handling the pestle, or a bystander, is supposed to have conceived the idea that the powder could be used intentionally to throw projectiles, and he is supposed also to have actually proved that it could be done at will, and to have produced a concrete appliance for doing it. From the history of the case, it would seem that the first gun was what we still call a "mortar."
It may occur to some that (conceding the story to be true, which it possibly is, in essentials) the gun was not an invention so much as a discovery. It may be pointed out, however, that while the fact that gunpowder would blow a pestle out of a mortar might be truly called a discovery, yet the conception of utilizing the discovery by making a weapon, and the subsequent making of the weapon constituted an invention of the most clean-cut kind.
Let us realize the extreme improbability that the phenomenon of the expulsive force of gunpowder was then noted for the first time. It seems probable that accidental ignition of the mixture had often occurred before, and missiles hurled in all directions in consequence. But, as happens in the vast majority of all incidents, no one imagined any possible utilization of the facts disclosed by the incident; and if the man who invented the gun, after witnessing the expulsion of the pestle from the mortar, had not been endowed with both imagination and constructiveness, he would have treated it as most of us treat an incident—merely as an incident. But the imagination of this man must at once have conceived a picture of what we now call a mortar, which should be designed and constructed so that projectiles could be expelled from it at will, in whatever direction the mortar were pointing; and then his constructive faculty must have taken up the task that imagination had suggested, and developed the conception into a concrete thing.
Into the long, elaborate and exciting history of the development of the gun, that has been carried on with enormous energy ever since, it is not necessary at this point to enter. Since the sixteenth century, its history is accurately known, and many large books are filled with descriptions and diagrams and mathematical tables and formulæ that recount its progress in detail; while the histories of all the nations blaze with stories of the battles in which guns have been employed. Of all the inventions ever made, it is doubtful if the development and improvement of any other has enlisted the services of a greater number of men and of more important men, than the gun. It is more than doubtful if a greater amount of money has been expended on any other invention, if a greater number of experiments have been made, or if more mental and physical energy has been expended. Certain it is that no other invention has had so direct and powerful an effect on human beings; for the number of men it has killed and wounded must be expressed in terms of millions.
This phase of the influence of the gun on history is clearly marked. Not so clearly marked, but really more important, has been its influence in deciding wars; for the ways in which wars have been decided have been the turning points in the march of history. The issue of Alexander's wars, for instance, had decided that Greek civilization should not perish, but survive; the issue of Cæsar's wars in Gaul had decided that Roman civilization should extend north over Europe, and that the western incursion of the savage Germans should be stopped; the issue of the wars between the vigorous Goths and degenerate Rome had decided that Rome must die; and so forth, and so forth. So, after the invention of the gun, the issue of every succeeding war supplied a new turning point for history to follow. Naturally, those nations that took the most skilful, prompt and thorough advantage of the power, range and accuracy of the new invention gained in almost every case the victory over their opponents.
So long as no weapons existed, struggles between men had to be decided by physical strength and cunning and quickness only. When the first flint fist-hammer was invented, a man who was sagacious enough and industrious enough and skilful enough to make one, could gain the victory over many another man of greater physical strength and quickness, but who had not the sagacity, industry and skill to provide himself with a flint fist-hammer.
Supposing the flint fist-hammer to be the first invention ever made, as many think it was, we see here the first instance of the influence of invention on history; because this first invention influenced the course of history in favor of men possessing sagacity, industry and skill, as against men not possessing those qualities. By doing this, it not only decided that such men (and tribes composed of such men) should prevail, but did even more to influence history; it induced men and tribes to make and develop and utilize inventions. This resulted in what we call civilization.
As each improved weapon followed its predecessor, a new demand was made;—not only for a new kind of skill on the part of the man making the weapon and on the part of the soldiers using it, but also for foresight on the part of the tribe or nation that would supply the weapon to its troops. It is easily realized that, if there were two contiguous tribes about to go to war against each other, one of which was ruled by a sagacious, energetic and far-seeing chief, while the other was ruled by a dull, slothful and short-sighted chief, the former chief would probably provide his warriors with the newest weapon (say, the bow and arrow) and train them in its use; whereas the other would ignore it and go to battle with clubs and javelins only. As between two tribes otherwise equally matched, the result would be obvious; and doubtless it was exceedingly obvious in hundreds of tribal battles, before the dawn of history.
It is a characteristic of evolution, as has been pointed out by wise men, that complexity eventually evolves from simplicity. In no one department of man's endeavor does this truth stand out more clearly than in the evolution of weapons. For the oldest weapon that we know of was probably a stone, or a stick used as a club; and each succeeding weapon has been more complicated than its predecessor,—needing additional parts with which to secure the additional results achieved. This increased complexity has entailed increased liability to derangement, because the failure of any one part has entailed the failure or the decreased effectiveness of the weapon as a whole. This increased liability to derangement has entailed a demand for not only increased care and skill in fabricating the weapon, but for increased knowledge, diligence and skill in caring for it, and using it.
The superiority of the gun over all previously existing weapons was quickly recognized, and every civilized nation soon adopted it as its major implement of war. As the gun was a piece of mechanism, it possessed the attribute which seems to give to pieces of mechanism an element of superiority over every other thing in the universe, the attribute of continual improvability. Human beings do not possess this attribute, nor does any other thing in nature, so far as we know. Every human being begins where his father did—and so does everything else on the earth; though human invention has recently made it possible for certain plants to be improved. No new invention ever dies as a man does, even if the material parts or immaterial parts that compose it are destroyed. On the contrary, it lives, in the sense that it exists as a definite usable entity, and also in the sense that it continues to propagate. And the things that it propagates do not begin as helpless and useless babies, but as mature creations. The first completed gun is still the model for the guns that men make now, and will continue to be the model for all guns in the future. The man who made the first gun has been succeeded by other men, as the first gun has been succeeded by other guns; but the human successors have been no improvement on the inventor of the first gun, while the guns that have succeeded the first gun have been improvements on it to a degree that it is difficult—in fact, impossible, to realize.
The relations of the gun to civilization are reciprocal, and are therefore in accord with most of the other phenomena of our lives; for just as the gun furthered the improvement of civilization, civilization furthered the improvement of the gun. Nearly every step taken in the physical sciences, and afterward in engineering and general mechanics, has had a direct effect in improving the gun. The gun began as an exceedingly rough, awkward and crude appliance; the gun today is one of the most highly specialized and perfect appliances that the world possesses.
But it is not only the gun itself that has been improved; the powder has also been improved, and to a degree almost equal, if not quite. When we realize that modern gunnery is so exact that if a gun is fired in any direction and at any angle of elevation, the projectiles will fall so close to a designated spot that all considerable variations in the points of fall from that spot are usually attributed to other causes than imperfection in the powder; and if we realize also that a variation of one per cent. in the initial velocity imparted to a projectile by its powder would result in a variation (practically speaking) of one per cent. in the range attained, we then may realize how perfectly understood the laws of the combustion of powder and the development of powder gas have become, and how perfect are the methods of manufacturing, storing and using it. Books upon books have been written on the subject of making and using gunpowder; and as high a grade of experimental ability has been employed as on the development of any other art.
It is not quite clear whether stationary cannon or small guns carried by soldiers were the first to be used; but the probability seems to be that cannon were the first. It soon became desirable to devise and to make appliances for holding the cannon in position, elevating them to predetermined angles, and transporting them from place to place. To accomplish these things, gun-carriages were invented. These appliances have kept pace with guns and gunpowder in the march of improvement; countless minor inventions have been made; countless experiments have been conducted; countless books and articles have been written; countless millions of money have been expended. That the field has been large can readily be realized, when we remind ourselves of the numberless situations that gun-carriages have had to be adapted to, on the level plains of Central Europe, in the mountains, on the sands of the desert,—in cold and heat and wet; and on the ocean also, in small vessels and great battleships, to handle cannon great and small, on the uneasy surface of the sea. But it will not be enough for us to realize that it has been necessary to construct gun-carriages so ingeniously that guns can be handled on them under all these circumstances; for we will fall short of a realization of what must be attained, unless we realize that the guns must be handled with safety, and (which is more difficult of attainment) with precision and yet with quickness.
Now to bring the gun and its accessories to the high standard they have now reached, the resources of virtually all the physical sciences have been required and utilized; so that, while modern civilization was made possible by the gun, and could not have been made possible without it, the modern gun has been made possible by civilization, and could not have been made possible without it.
This mutuality between civilization and the gun is evident in the relations between civilization and every other great invention. It is very clearly evident in the case of material mechanism; for it has been plainly impossible for any material invention to exist without directly and indirectly contributing to the improvement, and even to the birth, of others. Any improvement in the process of making any metal or any compound has always been of assistance to every mechanism using that metal or that compound; and it seems impossible to name any mechanism or process whose invention has not helped some other mechanism or process. In the matter of the invention of immaterial things, the effect may not be quite so obvious; and yet it is plain that most of those inventions have contributed to the safety, intelligence and stabilization of peoples, and therefore to a condition of mentality and of tranquillity that permitted and often encouraged the improvement of existing appliances, and the invention of new ones. Of one class of immaterial invention, such as new books on the physical and engineering sciences, the influence on material inventions is, of course, as obvious as it is profound.
The boom of the gun may be said, by a not forced figure of speech, to have ushered in the new civilization that rose from the mental lethargy of the Middle Ages; for it was the first great invention of all in the long line that have followed since. As it was the first, and because without it the others would have been impossible, we can hardly avoid the conclusion that it was the most important.
The mutual reactions between the gun and civilization have resulted, and are still resulting, in widening the distance between the civilized and the uncivilized, placing more and more power in the hands of the civilized, and putting the uncivilized more and more into subjection by the civilized. The process that began with the invention of the fist-hammer, and was continued through the centuries by all the improvements in weapons that followed, was brought to a halt when Rome fell, and not revived until the gun came into general use in the fourteenth century. During the interval of nearly nine hundred years, civilization indeed went backward with the advance of the barbarians into Europe, checked but not wholly stopped by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732, and later by Charlemagne, his grandson, in numerous campaigns. But the gun, being adopted and improved by peoples having the mentality needed to discern its usefulness, stabilized the conditions of living afterward by keeping in check the barbarians, especially east of Europe. Its greatest single usefulness followed from this by making possible the development and utilization of the next great invention. This invention was next to the gun in point of time. It was next to the gun in influence on history also; and some people think it has had even more influence than the gun. This invention is usually called the invention of printing.
Of course, printing had been invented centuries before, probably in China, and had been practiced during all the intervening centuries, in China, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Greece, Rome, the Hellenistic countries and Italy. But the printing had been done from blocks on which were cut or carved many characters, that expressed whole words or sentences. Naturally, printing done from them was not adaptable to the recording of discussions, the making of connected narratives, or the publishing of books.
Suddenly, about the year 1434, John Gutenberg, who lives at Mayence, conceives the idea of cutting only one letter on each block, putting the blocks in forms so arranged that the blocks can be put in such sequence as may be desired for spelling words, and all the blocks secured firmly in position. In other words, he invented movable type.
Objection may be made to this statement, and the declaration urged that movable type were used in China before the Christian era. Possibly they were; some declarations have been made to that effect. But even if they were, we cannot see that their invention there had any considerable influence on history. China was separated from western Asia and from Africa and Europe by the long stretch of the dry lands of Central Asia, across which little communication passed. It is more nearly certain than most things are in ancient history, that the civilized peoples of western Asia, Africa and Europe, including Gutenberg himself, did not know of movable type until Gutenberg invented them.
It is absolutely certain that virtually the whole of the influence that printing by movable type has exercised on history sprang from the invention of Gutenberg. It started almost immediately; and it increased with a rapidity and a certainty that are amazing. No invention made before, not even the gun, was seized upon with such avidity. The world wanted it. The world seemed to have been waiting for it, though unconsciously.
It may be well at this point to impress upon our minds the fact that no invention has ever been recognized as an invention, unless it has been put into a concrete form. The U. S. Patent Office, for instance, will not award a patent for any invention unless it is described and illustrated so clearly that "any one skilled in the art can make and use it." It is an axiom that a man "cannot patent an idea." In many countries a patentee is required to "work" his invention, to make apparatus embodying it, and to put the apparatus to use. The underlying idea of the patent laws of all countries is that the good of the public is the end in view, and not the good of the inventor; that rewards are held out to the inventor, merely to induce him to put devices of practical value into the hands of the people. From this point of view, which seems to be the correct one, the mere fact that a man conceives of a device, even if he afterward develops his device to the degree that he illustrates it and describes it to someone in such a way that a person skilled in the art can make and use it, does not entitle him to any reward. He must use "due diligence" in communicating full knowledge of his invention to the public, through the Patent Office, ask for a patent, and pay to the Government the prescribed fee.
Now, Gutenberg "worked" his invention so energetically that, with the assistance of Faust, Schaeffer and others, an exceedingly efficient system of printing books was in practical operation as early as 1455. The types were of metal, and were cast from a matrix that had been stamped out by a steel punch, and could therefore be so accurately fashioned that the type had a beautiful sharpness and finish. In addition, certain mechanical apparatus of a simple kind (printing presses) were invented, whereby the type could be satisfactorily handled, and impressions could be taken from them with accuracy and quickness.
News of the invention spread so rapidly that before the year 1500 printing presses were at work in every country of Europe. The first books printed were, of course, the works of the ancient authors, beginning with three editions of Donatus. These were multiplied in great numbers, and gave the first effective impulse to the spread of civilization from the Græco-Oriental countries, where it had been sleeping, to the hungry intellects of Europe.
The new birth of civilization (usually called the Renaissance) began in Italy, where civilization had never quite died out, at some time during the fourteenth century, and took the form at first of the study of classical literature. This led naturally to a search for old manuscripts; and so ardent did this search become that the libraries of cathedrals and monasteries in all the civilized countries were ransacked. Many new libraries were founded, especially in Italy, to hold the old manuscripts that were discovered. A great impetus was given to the movement by the exodus of scholars from Constantinople, and their migration west to Italy, during the half century between the year 1400 and the fall of Constantinople before the Ottoman Turks in 1453.