In 1843 Charles Thurber invented the typewriter. Few inventions are more typical. In 1843, the conditions of life were such that the first stage in inventing the typewriter must have been the conception of an extremely brilliant and original idea. After that, the difficulties of embodying the idea in a concrete form must have been very great; for it was not until about 1875 that instruments of practical usefulness were in general use. Since then, typewriters have penetrated into virtually every office in the civilized world.
Though the typewriter is a very simple apparatus in both principle and construction, yet few machines stand out more clearly as great inventions. Few inventions also have exerted a greater influence—though the influence of the typewriter has been auxiliary, rather than dominant; it has merely enabled a greater amount of business to be transacted than could be transacted before. If anyone will go into any business office whatever, and note the amount of work performed in that office by means of one typewriter that could not be performed without it, and will then multiply that amount by the number of typewriters in the world, he will come to a confused but startling realization of the amount of executive work that is being done in a single day through the agency of the typewriter, that otherwise would not be done. If he will then go a step further, and multiply the number of days that have gone by since the typewriter was first employed, by one-half, or even one-tenth, of the amount accomplished by means of all the typewriters in a single day, he may then be able to appreciate in a measure the enormous influence on progress which the invention of the typewriter has already had. One would not make an exaggerated statement if he should declare that if the typewriter had not been invented, every great business organization in the world today would be much smaller than it is; the great industries would not exist in their present vastness; and all the arts of manufacture, transportation and navigation would be far behind the stage they now have reached.
The electric telegraph was patented by Morse in 1837, but the first telegram was not sent till 1844, along a wire stretched from Washington to Baltimore. It is said that the first official message was "What hath God wrought!" This message shows a realization of a fact which some people fail to realize: the people who say, "God made the country, but man made the city." The message showed a realization that God inspires the thoughts of men, as truly as He provides them with things to eat. It is inconceivable that it was intended to call attention to the fact that God wrought the wire along which the message ran, or the wooden poles that carried the wire, or the material zinc and copper of the battery. The only new thing evidenced in the telegraph so far as anyone could know, was the invention itself. God had wrought that through the agency of Morse. It is a known fact that no human mind, no matter how fine it may be, or how brilliant and correct its imagination, can have any images or ideas that are not based in some way on the evidence of the senses. We can imagine things, and even create things, that have never existed before; but those things must be composed of parts whose existence we know of through the evidence of our senses. So Morse, although he invented a thing that was wholly new, although he created something—did not create any of the parts that composed it. He used such well-known things as wire, iron, zinc and copper. Even in the creation of man, the Almighty himself used common materials: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul." (Genesis, Chapter II.)
If the Lord God breathed the breath of life into Adam, He inspired him according to the original meaning of the word inspire. If He inspired Morse with the conception of the electric telegraph, He inspired him according to the modern meaning of the word, which is not very different from the original meaning, and which is not at all different from the meaning according to which He is said to have inspired the prophets of old.
To bring before us clearly the whole influence of the telegraph on history would require a book devoted to no other subject; yet the telegraph belongs in the same class with the typewriter, in the sense that its main office is to assist the transaction of business. The telegraph does not of itself produce results. It is not in the class with the fist-hammer, or the weaving machine, or the gun, or the steam engine, or the electric light, or chloroform, or the telescope, or the discovery of America. It owes its reputation largely to the spectacular way in which it first appeared, and to the seeming wonderfulness of its success. Yet the telegraph seems no more wonderful than the typewriter, to a person who knows even a little of electricity; and the task of making it practicable was much easier. A very simple and crude apparatus sufficed for the telegraph: but a highly perfect mechanism was needed for the typewriter.
It is probably true, however, that the telegraph has had a greater influence on history than the typewriter, though modern civilization would not be even approximately what it is, if either had not been invented. And if by any combination of circumstances, either one should now be taken from us, the whole Machine would be thrown into inextricable confusion.
It may be objected that if Morse had not invented the telegraph, or if any inventor whoever had not invented whatever thing he did invent, some other man would have done so; and that therefore those inventors do not deserve to be placed in any especial niche of honor. There would be considerable reasonableness in such an objection, as is evidenced by the fact that in many cases two or more men have invented the same thing at about the same time. It may be pointed out, however, that while this has often happened in regard to improvements on basic inventions, it has not happened very often in regard to the basic inventions themselves; and also that, even if we include all the inventors the world has ever heard of, we find that there have been surprisingly few. Therefore, it really makes little difference to the race as a whole whether Smith or Jones made a certain invention, or whether Smith would have made it, if Jones had not made it. "The man who delivers the goods," receives, and as a rule deservedly, the recognition of mankind. Furthermore, this book, as has been stated, is not concerned mainly with inventors, but with inventions.
In 1844, the use of nitrous oxide gas (laughing gas) as an anæsthetic was introduced by Dr. Wells. It cannot be said that this invention has had any direct influence on history itself, though it has had a great deal of influence on the history of some individuals. It contributed a new and distinct part to the Machine, however, and certainly helped to ameliorate the conditions of living. Besides, it seems to be one of the lessons of history that most new and distinct creations, even if no use has been found for them for a long while, have ultimately found a field of usefulness. Furthermore, every new and useful thing, like nitrous oxide gas, attracts the attention of men to the advantages that the study of physical sciences and the prosecution of invention offer, and gives inspiration for further study and endeavor.
In the same year, Léon Foucault invented the first practical electric arc-light. Davy had made the basic invention of the Voltaic arc in 1808; but his invention was in the class just spoken of, in that it was not utilized for many years. Even the arc-light that Foucault produced in 1844 was not utilized then. In both cases, the cause of slowness of utilization did not rest so much in the invention as in the stage of civilization at the time. The world was not yet ready for the arc-light. In fact, it did not become ready, and it could not become ready, to use the arc-light in real service, until a cheaper means of producing electric current had been invented. This did not happen until the dynamo-electric machine had been invented and had been brought to such a point of practical development that it could supply electric current, not only adequately and economically, but reliably. A necessary step toward the utilization of the arc-light was made in 1845, however, by Thomas Wright, who invented a means whereby the carbons could be kept automatically at the correct distance apart for maintaining a continuous and uniform light.
In 1845, Robert Hoe made an important contribution in his double-cylinder printing press. In the same year, R. W. Thompson invented the pneumatic tire. This invention belongs distinctly in the class just spoken of, for the pneumatic tire did not come into general use until the bicycle did, about 1890. It may be asked if there is any use in inventing appliances long before they are needed. So far as the inventor is then concerned—no: so far as the public is eventually concerned, yes. All inventions made and patented are described and illustrated in the Patent Office Gazette; and many of them are described and illustrated in magazines and newspapers, even if they are not used in actual practice. These records form part of the general knowledge of mankind, just as much as do the facts of geography and history and arithmetic; and they can be drawn upon by investigators and inventors, and made to assist them in their work.
In 1846, an invention was made by Elias Howe, that does not belong at all in the same category as that of the pneumatic tire, because it was utilized almost immediately. This is usually spoken of as the sewing-machine; but the essence of the invention was not a machine, but merely an instrument; for it consisted of a needle in which the eye was near the point, instead of at the other end, as in existing needles. The machine afterwards produced was merely an obvious means for using the new kind of needle.
The invention of the sewing-machine was one rich in influence on subsequent progress; and all the story connected with it is interesting in many ways. But the most wonderful fact connected with the invention is that it was not made before! Many inventions have not been made because the conditions at the time did not demand them, or make their successful utilization possible: and yet some inventions, like the Voltaic arc, were made despite the unfavorable conditions. But what conditions were unfavorable to the utilization of Howe's sewing-machine, even as far back in history as the days when the pyramids were built? The Howe sewing-machine was not so complicated an apparatus as the ballista, or the chariot, used by the Assyrians and the other nations in the "fertile crescent," that curved from Alexandria to Babylon; and it was much easier and cheaper to make. Its construction required immeasurably less scientific knowledge and carefulness than the printing press, the gun, the telescope and the microscope, and a score of appliances that had preceded it by several centuries. Why was the sewing-machine not invented before? Why, why? This question continually presents itself to the mind, when certain simple inventions appear, that (so far as we can see) could have been invented and ought to have been invented, long before.
In 1846, the printing-telegraph was invented by House. No such question as that just discussed is presented to our minds by this invention, because we realize that it could not have been invented before some means of generating continuous electric currents had been invented. The printing-telegraph was not an invention of the same order of influence as the sewing-machine; but it has assisted the work of the telegraph in supplying news, especially in reports of stock fluctuations.
In the same year, De Lesseps started his project of building the Suez Canal, and joining the Mediterranean to the Red Sea; so that ships could proceed to India from Europe by a direct route. Many centuries before, a canal had been cut and generally used that ran from the Nile River to the Red Sea. The canal that De Lesseps proposed was to be larger, and the engineering difficulties greater. The vast enterprise was finally carried out, at a cost of about $100,000,000. It seems to have passed through the three successive stages of conception, development and production. The idea of building a canal did not originate in 1846, or in the brain of De Lesseps; for the idea was very old, probably older than recorded history. But the only man who formed the mental picture in his mind and afterwards developed it into a concrete plan was De Lesseps. He did this; and his plan was so complete and coherent, and so evidently practical, that he finally succeeded in convincing engineers and capitalists of the fact, and forming a large company. The execution of the concrete plan was not begun until 1859, and it was De Lesseps who began it. Thus De Lesseps, though he did not conceive the basic idea, conceived and combined the various ideas necessary to embody the basic idea in a concrete plan, then constructed the concrete plan, and then produced the actual instrument.
This instrument (the canal) was a very useful instrument. An instrument, according to the Standard Dictionary, is "a means by which work is done." By means of the Suez Canal, the work of direct water transportation between the Far East and Europe was done; and it could not have been done, except by means of that instrument. It has been done by that instrument ever since, and at an increasing rate. The canal was completed in 1869, and widened and deepened in 1886. It has shortened the water distance between England and India by about 7600 miles, and has had a tremendous influence on history, especially on Great Britain's history. One of the largest stockholders is the British Government; three-fourths of the ships passing through it have been British; and though the whole world has benefited, the greatest single beneficiary has been Great Britain.
Yet De Lesseps was a Frenchman! This calls to our minds the fact that although some of the greatest names in History are French, yet the French nation, as a nation, has never shown the same concerted national purpose as the British. In this respect, the French seem to have borne somewhat the same relation to the British, as the Greeks did to the Romans: and yet the French are more nearly allied by blood and language to the Romans than are the British. The Greeks and the French aimed to make life pleasant, by the aid of the fine arts and a general utilization of all that is delightful; while the Romans and the British, early in their careers, conceived the idea of dominion, embodied the idea in a concrete plan, and proceeded to carry the plan into execution. The plan was continually accommodated to the changing conditions of the times, and the means of execution were continually accommodated also. The result has been that Greece and France never, as nations, acquired dominion even approximately; while Rome did completely, and Great Britain did, approximately.
The author does not wish to be understood as approving of the idea of acquiring dominion, or as failing to realize the sordidness of such an ambition, and the evil that men and nations have done, in order to achieve it. He begs leave to point out, however, that the Machine could not have been built, except under the stable conditions that large nations permit better than small nations do; and that it has been the endeavor to achieve dominion by aspiring tribes and nations, and the consequent endeavor to gain strength in order to prevent it, by other aspiring tribes and nations, which have caused the gradual building up of the great nations of today, with the comfort, security and culture that their existence permits.
In the same year, 1846, artificial limbs were invented, and so was the electric cautery. Neither of these inventions had a profound influence; but each was a new creation, and each formed a useful and distinct addition to the Machine. But another invention was made in 1846, that has had great influence.
This was the invention of gun-cotton, made by Schonbein in Germany by the action of nitric and sulphuric acids on cotton, or some other form of cellulose. It was the first practical explosive that depended for its usefulness on the decomposition of a chemical compound, and not on the combustion of a mechanical mixture, like gunpowder. The explosive power of gun-cotton was declared by the chemist Abel to be fifty times that of an equal weight of the gunpowder of that day; but this does not mean that it possessed fifty times the energy. The action of gun-cotton is very much more sudden than that of gunpowder; and for that reason, it exerts a much greater force for an instant, and has much greater efficacy for such purposes as breaking into structures, bursting shells, etc. On the other hand, the very fact that its energy is developed with such suddenness, causes its force to fall to zero very soon, and makes it useless for such purposes as gunpowder fulfils in firing projectiles from guns. In a gun, especially in a long gun, the endeavor is made to keep down the pressure of the gas and prolong its continuance; so that the projectile will receive a comparatively gentle but prolonged push, that will start it gradually from its seat, and will continue to push it, and therefore to increase its velocity, all the way to the muzzle.
Gun-cotton does not belong in the class with the typewriter and the telegraph, that merely assist men to transact business: gun-cotton transacts business "on its own account." Gun-cotton belongs in the class with the gun; and its main influence has been to increase the self-protectivity of the Machine. It has done this mainly by increasing the power of the submarine torpedo against the hulls of warships. It may be objected that both sides in a war between civilized nations would use torpedoes, that no persons except organizations controlled by civilized nations (such as those in warships) would use torpedoes, and that therefore, whatever effect the torpedo might have on the Machine is neutralized by the fact that two civilized bodies use it against each other. True; but the fact that the torpedo and the gun-cotton in it require a high degree of civilization in the people who use it, gives civilized people an immediate and tremendous advantage over uncivilized people; and furthermore, the fact that the torpedo and the gun-cotton in it depend for their ultimate effect not only on their being used, but on the degree of knowledge and skill with which they are used, gives an advantage to which every nation in any war is willing and able to utilize the most knowledge and exert the most skill. That is, the torpedo and the gun-cotton in it combine to give the advantage to the nations possessing the highest degree of civilization and willpower. They enable the Machine of the most highly civilized nation to protect itself if it will against the Machines of less highly civilized nations.
In the year following the invention of gun-cotton, came Sobrero's invention of nitro-glycerin, made by the action of nitric acid on glycerin (1847). The new explosive was more powerful than gun-cotton, but much more dangerous to handle. By reason of its extreme sensitiveness and the consequent danger of handling it, the use of pure nitro-glycerin has never been great.
In the same year, 1847, the time-lock was invented by Savage. This invention was in the class with the gun and gun-cotton, in the sense that it enhanced the self-protectiveness of the Machine. It did not enhance its self-protectiveness against a few great, open, external foes, however, but against a myriad of small, secret, internal foes. The Machine is very expensive to maintain in operation, and so is every one of the little mechanisms of which it is composed. And each one of these little mechanisms, each bank, its business corporation, each company, each department store, each little shop, requires that its money be kept safe from the burglar and the pilferer. Inasmuch as the time-lock assists in doing this, the time-lock has been a valuable contribution to the Machine, and has exerted a good influence on history since it was invented.
In the same year, 1847, R. M. Hoe invented his great printing press, that could make 20,000 impressions per hour. As it was a long step forward in the improvement of printing, this invention deserved the applause which it received; and the inventor deserved the financial reward which he received.
In 1848, Dennison invented a machine for making matches. This was a most useful contribution; but one is inclined to wonder why twenty years elapsed between the invention of matches and the invention of a machine for making them. Inventing was not going ahead so fast then as it is now. Surely, no such interval is allowed to pass unutilized, in the present inventing days.
In 1849, the "interrupted thread" screw, for use in closing the breeches of guns was invented. Many men have claimed the honor of this invention. Regardless of who the particular inventor was, the invention itself must be regarded as one of a very high order, from the standpoints of originality, constructiveness and usefulness. Though the screw itself was a very old contrivance, the idea of cutting a long slot lengthwise, so that the screw could be pushed forward quickly without the slow process of continuously turning it around, yet so arranged that the screw could be turned when near the end of its travel, and the force-gaining power of the screw-thread thus secured, seems to have been entirely new. Certainly the idea was original and brilliant and useful. To develop the idea into a concrete plan was not difficult, and neither was it difficult to carry the concrete plan into execution. This invention falls into the happy class of which the stethoscope is typical, in which the idea originally conceived was so perfect, that little else was needed. The main use of this invention has been that for which it was first intended, to close the breeches of guns. It is used in most of the navies and armies. Its principal rival is the famous sliding breech-block of Krupp.
In 1849, came an invention in the gun class, the magazine gun, made by Walter Hunt. This invention also seems to fulfil all the requirements of a real invention, in originality of conception, constructiveness of development and ultimate usefulness. But in this case, the original idea can hardly be declared as brilliant and spectacular as that of the "interrupted thread"; and certainly the labor of developing it was incomparably greater. The author feels the temptation of declaring that the more brilliant and valuable a conception is, the less will be the difficulty of developing it. He refuses to declare it, however, realizing that it would not be wholly true; and yet he wishes to point out that if a conception be wholly erroneous, it cannot be developed into any concrete plan whatever; and that many of the most brilliant conceptions, such as the fist-hammer, the flute, the telescope, the telegraph and the telephone were very easily developed into forms sufficiently concrete to make them practically usable. An idea itself is an extremely simple thing, even if it be developed ultimately into a highly complex machine. The idea of the steam engine, for instance, the idea which Hero conceived was, of itself, extremely simple; but see into what complex forms it has been developed! The original idea of Hero was easily developed into "Hero's engine." The improvements that have been made upon it have been the developments of separate ideas that were conceived later. Not one of these ideas has been nearly so brilliant as Hero's, and few of them have been so easily developed.
In 1849, Bourdon invented the steam pressure gauge that still bears his name, and made a contribution of distinct and permanent value, by which ability to keep track of the steam pressure in boilers was increased, and safety from explosion increased proportionately. In the same year, Sir David Brewster invented his lenticular stereoscope. In this beautiful instrument two separate pictures of the same object are put on one card, one picture showing the object as it would look to the left eye from a given distance, and the other picture showing the object as it would look to the right eye. The two eyes of an observer look at the two pictures through the two halves of two convex lenses, that are so shaped that the two pictures are seen as one picture, but so superposed as to represent the object in relief, as the actual object appears to the two eyes. Like the kaleidoscope, this later product of Sir David Brewster's brilliant imagination has had little influence thus far, except possibly to lead the way toward stereo-photography and the stereopticon: but it seems hardly probable that an important field will not be found some day for an invention so suggestive.
In the same year, Hibbert made an important improvement on the knitting machine, and Corliss invented his famous engine cut-off, which vastly economized fuel. Neither invention was especially novel or brilliant, but both were highly practical and useful contributions to the improvement of the Machine. In the same year also came Worm's improvement on the printing press, that concerned the making of "turtles" which held type in a curved shape, so that they could be secured to the cylinder of the press.
In 1850, Scott Archer succeeded in using collodion to fix silver salts on the surface of glass plates in photography. He cannot be credited with the basic invention, because the idea of doing this had been suggested long before. The invention made an important contribution to the growing art of photography, mainly by supplying a stepping stone for further advances. In the same year, an important improvement was made in watch-making by inventing a watch-making machine. This was one of the first of those distinctly American inventions, by which machine-work replaced hand-work, with great increase in speed of production and lessening of cost, but without decrease in accuracy of workmanship.
The influence of this invention has escaped the notice of many of us, for the reason that it has spread so gradually, and has been of such a character as to fail to strike the imagination from its lack of spectacularity. But the idea of what we now call "quantity production" has spread to all the fields of the manufacturing world, and is the basis of much of the enormous industrial progress of the last half century. It is rendered possible mainly by making the machinery automatic, or nearly so. Without such exaggeration, America may justly claim the contribution of automaticity to the Machine of Civilization.
In 1851, Dr. Charles G. Page produced the first electric locomotive. Like many pioneers, it did not achieve practical success itself, but it supplied a stepping stone to further progress. In the same year, Seymour produced his self-rakers for harvesters, and Gorrie invented the ice-making machine. Two more important inventions were the ophthalmoscope, invented by Helmholtz, and the "Ruhmkorff coil," invented by the man whose name still clings to it.
The ophthalmoscope reminds one of the stethoscope; so simple it is, so perfect and so useful. It consists merely of a small concave mirror with a hole in it, a lamp and a small convex lens: the mirror being held so that one eye of a physician can look through it, and the lens being placed conveniently by the physician near the eye of a patient. The mirror reflects light from the lamp towards the patient's eye, and the convex lens concentrates them on whatever is to be examined—usually the interior of an eye. This instrument belongs in the small class of inventions already spoken of, in which the original conception was so perfect, that the acts of developing it into a concrete instrument and then producing the instrument were easily performed.
The Ruhmkorff coil is in the same class; for it consists merely of two coils of wire; one "primary" coil being of coarse wire and connected with a source of electric current, and the other "secondary" coil of fine wire placed around the coil of coarse wire. If the current in the primary coil be made or broken or changed in force or direction, currents are "induced" in the secondary coil; the strength of the two currents varying relatively according to the sizes and lengths of the wires in the two coils. This invention has an interest apart from its usefulness, in the fact that Ruhmkorff invented it for purposes of scientific study, and that no utilization of it for everyday life occurred until nearly half a century later. Then Ruhmkorff coils were made into "transformers" for use in "stepping down" the small high voltage currents needed for transmitting electric currents over long distances, into the larger but lower voltage currents needed for actuating electric lights and motors.
In the following year, 1852, Channing and Farmer invented the fire-alarm telegraph, an important contribution to the safety of the Machine, though it did not come into general use for several years. In the same year, Fox Talbot made another of his epochal contributions to photography, by inventing a process by which photographic half-tones could be produced. In the following year, a process was invented for making from wood a pulp that was very valuable as the basis of making paper,—and Faraday made three important discoveries. These were the laws of electro-magnetic induction, the relations of the dielectric to the conducting bodies in electro-static induction, and the laws of electrolysis.
These discoveries of Faraday were all inventions, in the sense in which the word invention is used in this book. Each one was the outcome of a series of careful and mathematically guided experiments, and the outgrowth of an idea. In the following year, Melhuish invented photographic roll films, and Herman invented the rock drill. The latter invention has been of the utmost practical value in blasting operations of all kinds, and must be regarded as a very distinct addition to the Machine.
In the same year, appeared the Smith & Wesson revolver; not a great invention, but an improvement in many ways over Colt's; Mr. A. B. Wilson brought out his four-motion feed for sewing-machines, and R. A. Tilghman invented his process for decomposing fats by hot steam. In the following year (1855), Lundstrom made the highly important invention of safety matches. When one reflects (as every one must at times) how great and absolutely irretrievable are the losses caused by fire each year, how the amount of possible destruction grows each year exactly as fast as the Machine grows, and realizes how large a fire many a small match has caused, he feels inclined to give a mental salute to Mr. Lundstrom of Sweden.
In the same year, iron-clad floating batteries were used in the Crimean War. This was not the first time that iron-clad vessels had been employed, for vessels protected on the sides with sheets of iron and copper had been used by the Coreans in their victorious war against the Japanese about three hundred years before; but it was the first time that such vessels had appeared in Europe. Cocaine was invented the same year, and one of the most valuable anæsthetics yet known was then produced.
But the most valuable contribution to the Machine in 1855 was Henry Bessemer's epochal invention of making steel by blowing air through molten cast iron, until enough of the carbon had been burnt off to leave a steel of whatever quality was desired. This invention reduced the cost of making steel, and the time required, in so great a degree as to place the manufacture of steel on a basis entirely new, and to extend its field of employment greatly. And, as with many previous great inventions, this one paved the way for still other inventions, by indicating the possibility of still wider fields. The Bessemer process is not in the class with the typewriter or the telegraph, but in the class with the gun; for it does things itself. It would be difficult to specify any invention (except one produced at a much earlier time) that has had more influence, and more good influence, on history than Bessemer's. No one can look out of his window in any town or city, without seeing some of the innumerable products of Bessemer's idea.
Our record has now brought us to the middle of the nineteenth century. The conditions of living in 1850 were greatly different from those of 1800. In fifty years, the physical conditions of living and of carrying on business of all kinds, had improved more than in the century between 1700 and 1800, more than in the two centuries preceding 1700, and more than in the ten centuries from 500 and 1500. Rapid transportation over the land in railroad trains for both passengers and freight had largely replaced the slow transportation methods of 1800; and, in an almost equal degree, steam transportation at sea had replaced transportation by sails. The printing press had been developed from a crude and slow contrivance, worked by a hand, to a magnificent mechanism worked by steam: the electric battery had been improved into an appliance of the utmost reliability and usefulness; telegraph lines stretched over the continents, and messages were sent surely and instantaneously over hundreds of miles of land; and the science of chemistry had arisen from the ashes of alchemy. As a result of this, the science of photography had been born, and had already begun its work, so varied and so useful. Physics had grown so surely and so greatly, that it had been divided into the separate but allied sciences of heat, light and electricity—including magnetism: the science of engineering had expanded so widely, that it also had been divided into other sciences—civil engineering, mechanical engineering, hydraulic engineering and electrical engineering: the science of medicine, because of the advances in chemistry and physics, had advanced at an equal rate: the gun had been so greatly improved, and gunpowder also, that such a degree of precision and range had been attained as to make the gun of 1800 seem crude indeed; and the improvement had been inevitably caused by the greater knowledge placed at the disposal of ordnance officers, by the advances in chemistry, heat, light, electricity, magnetism and the various engineering arts. The introduction of illuminating gas, the improvements in forging, casting and turning metals, had made possible the building of edifices, and the fabrication of better and cheaper utensils of every kind: improvements in the means and methods of spinning, knitting and weaving had bettered the materials that people wore upon their persons: improvements in rubber manufacture had made possible the use of waterproof garments; crops could be gathered more quickly and surely: safety from fire had been increased: methods of heating houses had been vastly improved: and the discovery of anæsthetics had relieved civilized man in great degree from his most distressing single enemy. As a result, the people of every civilized country lived under conditions of comfort far greater than had ever been known before in similar climates.
The facts and conditions detailed above relate almost wholly to the material conditions of living, and show that, for most people, they had been enormously improved: though it is noteworthy that for the very poor, they had not improved in many cases, and had been altered for the worse in other cases. The unfavorable changes were mainly those produced by "factory life" which in 1850 must have been worse than country life for the same class of people. These cases were so greatly in the minority, however, as not to affect the main proposition that the advance in civilization from 1800 to 1850, caused by new inventions, had improved the material conditions of living for the great majority of the people affected by them.
That it was desirable that these conditions should be improved, some people may be disposed to deny; pointing out that the improvement tended to develop "luxury, thou cursed of Heaven's decree." One of the effects of increasing material prosperity is undoubtedly a tendency toward luxury. But the number of people thus affected was so very small in the period from 1800 to 1850, and the degree of luxury attained then was so slight, that this question need hardly be discussed, at this point.
But the mental condition of the people had changed as greatly as the physical conditions of their environment. The immediate cause of this change was, of course, the printing press, which disseminated the thoughts of thinking men broadcast, and told of events that were occurring not only in places near, but also in places distant. This gave an enormous stimulation to the minds of the people by exciting their interest: and it also gave to their minds both "food for thought" and almost unlimited opportunity for exercise. Before this period, only a small part of the population had a wide range of knowledge, or a large number of subjects to think about. Their lives were exceedingly monotonous, and would have been exceedingly dull, had it not been for the continuous necessity of combating the inconveniences of every-day life by continual toil of one kind or another. There were very few subjects of conversation.
But the printing-press told the people of other things besides the events that were taking place; it told them also of new discoveries and inventions that were being made, and of the effects they would produce. The news of a great discovery or invention must have created more excitement in 1831 when the discovery of chloroform was announced, than almost any discovery would now, because we are so accustomed to new discoveries as almost to be sated. We know what excitement the first successful railway trips created. The coming of these new discoveries and inventions gave mental exercise in four ways:—first by stimulating the imagination with a picture it had never seen before, and whose possibilities reached no one could guess how far; second by stimulating the logical powers to reason out and understand the principles underlying each discovery or invention; third by stimulating the memory to engrave upon its tablets certain new and important facts; and fourth, by stimulating the inventive faculties, to carry inventions further.
Thus, the influence of new inventions was to change a man's environment, both physical and mental. Now every man is said to be the product of his environment and his heredity; so that the influence of these new inventions was to change men to a degree proportional to the degree by which they changed their environment. This does not mean that inventions have changed man biologically, or even changed him so much that he will act very differently from a savage, under abnormal conditions. It does mean, however, that they have caused men so to adapt themselves to the new environment which inventions have created, that, while in that environment, they will for all practical purposes, be very different from savages. It means that under nearly all the conditions of living, a gentleman in civilized society will be a gentleman—courteous, refined, law-abiding and moral. It does not mean that he will be perfect, but that he will be very much more courteous, refined, law-abiding and moral than a savage; and it means, in consequence that the society of civilized people in general will possess these characteristics much more than any society of savages does.
Not only, however, have these inventions changed the environment of civilized man, they have changed his heredity also; because they had previously changed the environment of his parents, grandparents and other ancestors. The graduate of Oxford of 1850, the son of an Oxford graduate who was also the son of an Oxford graduate, though he was biologically the same as his barbarian ancestors of ten thousand years before, was nevertheless a much more refined, intelligent and courteous gentleman. Under certain abnormal conditions, such as intense thirst, hunger, jealousy, passion or unlooked-for temptation he might act as badly as a savage:—in fact such men sometimes do. But nevertheless, the fact that in 99% of the conditions under which he lives he acts as a gentleman and not as a savage makes him 99% a gentleman, and only 1% a savage, during his mortal life.
Thus inventions, while originating (or seeming to originate) in the minds of men, change the environment of men, and this changes the men. Of the two changes, it would be easy to say that the change made in the men is the more important; but would it be truthful to say so? We have already noted the curious fact that inventions have the faculty of self-improvement to a degree far greater than men have it; for the reason that each new man must begin where his last ancestor began, whereas each new invention begins where his last ancestor finished. This suggests that the changes produced in environment are more profound than the changes produced in men; that in fact the changes in environment are very profound, and the changes in men quite superficial. That this is really the case is indicated by the very long time needed to build up the environments of civilization, and the very short time needed for men to adapt themselves to those environments, or to any changed conditions. The fact has often been noted (sometimes with chagrin) that highly refined gentlemen adapt themselves with extreme facility to the often primitive environments of hunting or campaigning, and history shows in many instances how quickly barbarians have adapted themselves to civilization.
This leads us to suspect that the Machine which inventions have built up may not be of so much permanence as we are prone to think, and makes us realize that it is not a natural production but one wholly artificial. Now nothing that is wholly artificial can reasonably be expected to be permanent, unless adequate and timely measures are taken to insure it.
While the period from 1800 to 1850 was alive with inventions of many sorts, it was alive also with the economic changes which the inventions caused and with political changes also. It was in the United States of America that the greatest changes of all kinds came. This was to be expected from the fact that before 1800 the United States were considerably behind the countries of Europe from which their own civilization had been derived; whereas in 1850, they had been able to get abreast of them, by reason of the quickness of transportation and communication that ocean steamers gave, and the energy and enterprise of the new American nation. During the period from 1800 till 1850, the United States went through three successful wars; one with Great Britain, one with Algiers and one with Mexico. They expanded also over a considerably greater territory, acquired a much greater population, added new states, and showed such aptitude in scientific discovery and invention as to achieve a place in the first rank of nations in this particular.
The Constitution of the United States may be characterized as a great invention, in the meaning of the word which is used in this book; and until 1850, it had worked with a success that surprised many of the statesmen and scholars of Europe. The problems placed before the nation had been many, various and difficult; but all had been solved with a sufficient degree of success for practical purposes; and the resulting situations had, on the whole, been met with courage, energy and intelligence. The Monroe Doctrine had been treated with respect, if not with entire acquiescence; the conduct of the Navy in the War of 1812 had demonstrated to Europe the fighting ability of our people; our scientific men, such as Franklin and Henry, ranked as high as any who had ever lived in any country; certain of our statesmen such as Franklin, held equal rank with statesmen anywhere; and the invention and first use of the electric telegraph had put America ahead of every other country in inventions of a basic kind.
When we realize the rapid growth of the United States in the half century 1800–1850, and realize also that it was a growth almost ab initio, and note that the engineering materials of all kinds and all the knowledge of science in the country had come from Europe, we must admit that it is to the influence of invention, more than to any other one thing, that we owe the rapid progress of our country. As is the case with individuals, nations are prone to extol their own successes, and to take the entire credit for them. Americans are apt to thank themselves only for their amazing progress; but, in fairness, they should admit that without the inventions made in Europe and by Europeans, they would have had no means for even starting. The first locomotive used in the United States was brought from England.
In Great Britain, the wars with France were under full headway in 1800, and her statesmen knew that she was faced with a danger so great that only the most strenuous exertions, and the utmost naval and military skill could overcome it. This danger was not overcome till the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Thereafter, the progress of the nation was fairly quiet and assured, the main difficulties centering in the deplorable condition of the working classes, serious disturbances in Ireland and the mutiny in India.
In few matters has the influence of invention been greater than in the relations between Great Britain and India. In 1564 a company called the Merchant Adventurers had been formed for competing with the merchants of Spain, Venice, Holland and other countries. A company coming into existence shortly afterward was the East India Company, formed for trading with India, Persia, Arabia and the islands in the Indian Ocean. The company was chartered by the Crown and had a monopoly of a certain territory. The object was that the company should not only make money for itself, but promote the welfare of Great Britain and her subjects, by taking out manufactured goods, and bringing back raw materials and coin. During the seventeenth century, naval wars took place with Holland, and in the eighteenth century with France; both originating in commercial and colonial rivalry—especially in regard to India. Both wars were won by Great Britain. The Seven Years' War in particular ended to the advantage of Great Britain, as regards India; for France was left with only a few trading stations. By 1773, the East India Company was in virtual control of India; but in 1784 William Pitt secured political control of it by the Government. Napoleon realized the importance of India and sent an army there to recover control, but without success. The Crimean War that began in 1853 between Russia and Turkey was joined by Great Britain in 1854 because she feared that Russia would flank the British route to India through the projected Suez Canal. This war ended to the advantage of Great Britain, and the danger to India was removed.
Now the whole area of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is only about 121,000 square miles, while that of India is about 1,803,000, nearly fifteen times as great. The population of the United Kingdom in 1917 was about 45,370,000, while that of India was about 315,156,000, or nearly seven times as great. Yet Great Britain has secured the complete mastery of India! How has she been able to do it? The easiest answer would be that the British are a "superior" people. Even if they are, such an answer would explain nothing, unless the means be indicated by which the superiority was made effective in conquering India. The superiority evidently did not consist in courage or physical strength, which were obvious factors in achieving the victories in the field that were necessary, for those qualities were shown equally by the Indians. But if we should answer that the British succeeded for the reason that they could bring to bear superior weapons, equipments, means of transportation, means of communication, methods of organization and methods of operation, we evidently would explain what happened adequately and convincingly. Now all these facilities the British had available; they had been invented and were ready.
One of the important influences of invention on history therefore, has been to give Great Britain control of India.
In France, the changes in economic and political conditions rivaled the changes that one sees take place in Sir David Brewster's kaleidoscope. In 1800 Napoleon had been First Consul, in 1804 emperor, in 1814 an emperor and then an exile, in 1815 an emperor and then an exile. France was a kingdom from then until 1848, and then a republic till 1852, when she again became an empire, under Napoleon III. The virtual anarchy following the Revolution had been crushed out and replaced with order; and the menace to republican institutions had been removed by the genius of Napoleon I, who then established an autocracy of a kind that, though arbitrary, was so wise and broad-viewed as to be beneficent on the whole. The result of all was that in 1850, France was in a condition of civilization and prosperity that was amazing to one who remembered the conditions of 1800.
When we analyze the causes of the evolution of order and prosperity out of the conditions of 1793, and the later conditions of 1800, we can hardly fail to realize the greatest single cause was the same cause as that of Napoleon's victories. It was the mind that conceived and developed and brought forth; the mind that invented so amazingly.
That many other causes may be named need hardly be pointed out. In the complex affairs of human life, every result is the resultant of many causes; but in most of those affairs, most of those causes are always present; so that we have to find an unusual cause to explain an unusual condition or event. It would be easy to say that the cause of France's return to a condition of law and order was that the condition of anarchy was abnormal; and that France simply returned to her normal state, as a wave does after it has risen above or fallen below the level of the sea. But would this be true? Is the condition of anarchy more abnormal than the condition of law and order? Which was the condition of primitive man? Which is an artificial product of man's invention? Is it not logical to conclude from the record of invention's influence that it was man's inventions that brought into existence the artificial condition of law and order which existed in France prior to 1793, and that it was also man's inventions that restored it afterward? Three ideas were conceived in France and developed into the Revolution: these ideas were the principles of equality, of the sovereignty of the people and of nationality. After the overthrow of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna met to readjust the affairs of Europe. The Congress seems to have conceived the idea of preventing the carrying out of those principles as their first starting point, and to have developed that idea with fixed determination. The Commissioners endeavored to restore everything to its condition before the Revolution, and to discredit the principles conceived and developed in France. They succeeded in accomplishing their intent, so far as remaking political boundaries, etc., was concerned; but they did not succeed in discrediting the principles. A great picture had been made in the minds of men, and the Commissioners could not wipe it out. As a result, three revolutions took place in 1820, 1830 and 1848, of which the second was more important than the first, and the third was more important than the second.
Shortly after the fall of Napoleon, the Czar Alexander, with the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia, invented the Holy Alliance. It was in pretense an alliance to advance the cause of religion, and to reduce to practice in political affairs the teachings of Christ; but it was in intention a league against the spread of the ideas embodied in the French Revolution. The League was not successful in the end, for the picture of liberty made in the minds of men was too brilliant and too deeply printed to be wiped out. One of the results of the Holy Alliance was the invention by the United States of the Monroe Doctrine which was made to prevent that intervention in affairs on the American continent which the proceedings of the Alliance foreshadowed.
Italy was very harshly treated by the Congress of Vienna, two of her largest provinces in the north being given to Austria, who forthwith proceeded then to try to control the entire peninsula. In 1820, a revolution broke out in Italy, but it was soon suppressed. Another broke out in 1830, simultaneous with that in France; and this was also suppressed. The third, in 1848, met a similar fate. But the revolutions in France were successful; the one of 1848 resulting in the formation of a republic. At the same time, a sympathetic revolution in Germany was in a measure successful also.
In Germany, the formation of the German Confederation in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna was the formation of a kind of political body that has never lasted long; for no political body has ever lasted long, except an actual and definite nation. The various components of the German Confederation were too loosely bound together. This invention, like others of mechanical machines, was not a practical invention because the machine invented was too easily thrown out of adjustment. The Customs Union was invented in 1828 to supply the necessary element of coherency. It was hardly adequate for its task, at the time; but it made the people think of national union; an idea that was finally developed in 1871.
In Russia, considerable progress was made from 1800 to 1850, though not so much as in the countries farther west. An adequate reason would seem to be that there were too few minds, in proportion to the entire population, that were able to conceive and develop the ideas that are needed to make progress.
During this half-century, while the names of many men stand out as having done constructive work in invention and discovery, and while many great statesmen existed, the names of three statesmen stand out more brightly than the rest: Pitt, Talleyrand and Metternich. Each had the mind to conceive, develop and produce; and each did conceive, develop and produce. Of the three, William Pitt was, according to almost any accepted standard by far the greatest, and Talleyrand was second. Without the force and guidance of such a mind as Pitt possessed and utilized, it is hard to estimate what would have been the rôle of England in the Napoleonic wars, and what would have been her fate. In the actual course of events, it was England that announced the "mate in four moves" to Napoleon at Trafalgar, and that finally checkmated him at Waterloo. True, Pitt died long before Waterloo; but the policy which he conceived and developed was the policy which was followed; and the influence of his mind lived in almost unabated strength after his poor, frail body had ceased to live.
Talleyrand seems to have been what I have asked permission to call an "opportunistic inventor"; quick to conceive, develop and produce plans for meeting difficult situations as they arose, but without any ultimate objective, or any moral or other principles of any kind. Metternich, on the other hand, though lacking the brilliancy of Talleyrand, exerted his talents devotedly to the interests of his country, as he saw them. But he failed to realize how deep the ideas of the French Revolution had been engraved in the minds of men, and finally saw the Machine of the Austrian Government almost destroyed in 1848. He himself was forced to flee; and the Emperor was forced to abdicate in favor of his nephew, who granted the people a Constitution, in order to save the Machine. In Prussia, affairs went almost as far as in Austria, though not nearly so far as in France. The Machine in Prussia was saved by the promise of the granting of a constitution.
The main ultimate political result of the agitations of all kinds during the half century 1800 to 1850, was the granting to greater numbers of people of a part in directing the affairs of State. In France, the whole Machine of Civilization had been menaced with destruction in the years just previous to 1800; but destruction had not resulted, and actual improvement had been begun by 1800, though in an experimental and tentative way. During the fifty years now under consideration, the idea conceived and developed in France spread to all other civilized countries; and in all those countries it exercised its benignant influence, especially in the new nation across the Atlantic, the United States of America. Reciprocally, the news of the formation of that republic, and the adoption of its Constitution in 1787, had exercised considerable influence in giving support to the idea of the people of France, although the United States of America was very far away indeed, and her experiment in government was as yet untried. Then, as the years went by, between 1800 and 1850, and as the American experiment became increasingly successful, and as the ocean steamships brought prompt and adequate information about all of its developments, the American idea joined with the French idea, to advance the cause of government by the people.
It may be pointed out here that the discoveries in the physical sciences and the utilization of those discoveries in the invention of material instruments and mechanisms were more fruitful in creations of a permanent and definite character than were the achievements of statesmen, generals, admirals and "opportunistic inventors" in general. The same remark is true of discoveries and inventions in systems of government, ethics and religion. These also have developed monuments of extraordinary permanency; witness, for instance, the inventions of the kingdom, of democracy and of the Buddhist, Shinto, Taoist, Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan religions. The distinctive feature in securing permanency seems to have been the intent to secure it. The sudden conception, development and production of a campaign, political maneuvre or business enterprise, seems to have produced a creature that was merely a temporary expedient, adapted only to meet emergencies that themselves were temporary.
This does not mean that the influence of these temporary expedients has not sometimes been great: it does not mean, for instance, that the influence of the victory at Salamis was not great. It does not mean to deny the plain fact that it has been the succession of the results of temporary expedients that has brought affairs to the condition in which they are today. It does mean, however, that the actual pieces of the existing Machine of Civilization are the permanent inventions which have been made; while the opportunistic inventions have in some cases prevented, and in other cases have furthered, the making of those inventions, and the incorporation of them in the Machine. The invention of printing, for instance, produced an actual part of the Machine; while the successful wars waged by civilized nations with the gun against savages, barbarians and peoples of a lower order of civilization, made possible the further development of printing, and its continual use in upbuilding the Machine. The use of the opportunistic inventions seems to have been in assisting the inventors of permanent creations and in directing the efforts of the operators of the Machine.
An analogue can be found in the case of the invention, development and operation of the smaller machines of every-day life: the inventor of each machine merely invents that machine; when he has done this his work is virtually finished. When his machine is put to work (say, an electric railroad) the operators carry on the various routine tasks; just as the president of a bank operates his bank, or the president of a nation administers the affairs of the nation. But there arise occasions when something goes wrong, when something besides supplying coal and oil and electricity is necessary for the successful running of the railroad, when something more than routine administration is required of the president of the bank, or the president of the nation. Then the ingenious and bright mechanic or electrician invents a practical scheme for circumventing the difficulty with the railroad; or Napoleon invents a campaign to save the French Republic.
In 1855 Taupenot made the important invention of dry-plate photography, by which dry plates can be prepared and kept ready for use when needed, and Michaux invented the bicycle. Both of these were fairly important contributions of a practical kind; so was Woodruff's invention of the sleeping-car, and so was Perkins's discovery of aniline dyes, both of which came in 1856. None of these was a brilliant invention, though each was a useful one. But they were immediately followed by one of a high order of brilliancy and usefulness, Siemens's regenerative furnace, in which the waste heat of the combustion gases was utilized to heat the air or gas just entering. In the same year, Kingsland invented a refining engine for use in making paper pulp. In the following year the first ocean-going iron-clad ship of war, La Gloire, appeared, and in 1858 the first cable car, invented by E. A. Gardner.
In the same year Giffard invented his famous injector, which performs the feat (seemingly impossible at first thought) of using steam at a certain pressure in a boiler to force water into that same boiler against its own pressure! The explanation of course is that the area of the stream of water that enters the boiler is less than the area of the stream of steam that leaves the boiler. This invention was one of a very high order of brilliancy of conception, excellence of construction and usefulness of final product. It was a valuable contribution to the Machine.
In the same year Cyrus Field of New York succeeded in laying the first Atlantic cable between Ireland and Newfoundland. It is difficult to declare whether this achievement constituted an invention or not, and it may not be so classed by many people. Nevertheless, it created something that had not existed before, and it progressed by the same three stages of conception, development and production by which all inventions progress. It was a contribution of enormous value to the Machine, moreover; for though the first cable was not a practical success, and though the second cable broke while being laid in 1865, it was recovered and re-laid and afterward operated successfully. Since that time, submarine cables have been multiplied to such an extent that there were more than 1800 in operation in 1917, and they formed a network under all the seas. Such important parts of the Machine of Civilization have these submarine cables become that the Machine as it is could not exist without them. That is, it could not have existed before the wireless telegraph came. The wireless telegraph has made the Machine less dependent on submarine cables than it was before, and yet not wholly independent.
In 1858 the Great Eastern was launched, the largest steamship built up to that time. The case of the Great Eastern is interesting from the fact that she was too large to fit in the Machine as it then existed, and that by the time that the Machine had grown large enough the Great Eastern was obsolete!
About 1859, Kirchhoff and Bunsen invented the spectroscope, an optical instrument for forming and analyzing the spectra of the rays emitted by bodies and substances. In 1860 Gaston Planté invented his famous "secondary battery," formed by passing an electric current through a cell composed of two sheets of lead immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, the two sheets separated by non-conducting strips of felt. The acid being decomposed, hydrogen formed on one plate, while oxygen attacked the other plate and formed peroxide of lead. There being now two dissimilar metals in an acid solution, a Voltaic battery had been created, that gave a current which passed through the liquid in a direction the reverse of the current ("charging current") that had caused the change. Planté's secondary battery was an important and practical contribution to the Machine; but the credit for the basic invention does not belong to Planté, but to Sir William Grove, who had invented the "Grove's gas battery." In this battery, two plates of platinum were immersed in dilute acid, and submitted to a charging current that decomposed the liquid and formed an actual though practically ineffective "secondary battery"; the two elements being oxygen and hydrogen.
In the next year Philip Reis invented the singing telephone, by which he could transmit musical tones over considerable distances. Whether or not Philip Reis invented the speaking telephone has been a much controverted question, for the reason that speech was occasionally transmitted over Reis's telephone,—though not by intention. The invention that Reis conceived, developed and produced was a singing telephone only; the apparatus by which he sometimes transmitted speech was his singing telephone, slightly disadjusted. That Reis should have failed to invent the telephone is amazing, in the same sense that it is amazing that Galileo did not invent the thermometer and the barometer; and the fact is extremely instructive in enabling us to see distinctly what constitutes invention. To make an invention, a man must himself create a thing that is new, and produce it in a concrete form, such that "persons skilled in the art can make and use it." Reis did not do this: and yet Philip Reis's telephone could be made to speak in a few seconds, by simply turning a little thumb-screw! Reis did not know this, and consequently could not give the information to "persons skilled in the art." Reis did not invent the speaking telephone, for the fundamental reason that his original conception, although correct for his singing telephone, was wholly incorrect for a speaking telephone; because the speaking telephone requires a continuous current, while Reis's conception included an intermittent current.
Apologies are tendered for going into what may seem a technicality at such great length; but the author wishes to utilize this example to emphasize the importance of the original conception, the image pictured on the mind by the imagination. This original conception is of paramount importance in making inventions, not only of material mechanisms, but of all other things that can be invented, such as religions, laws, systems of government, campaigns, books, paintings, etc., etc. The final product cannot be better than the original conception, except by chance; for even if the development be absolutely perfect, the invention finally brought forth can be only equal to the original conception. It is obvious that the simpler the invention is the more easily it can be made equal to the original conception, and vice versâ. For this reason the stethoscope is a more efficient embodiment of the original conception than is that very inefficient product—the steam engine.
The fact that the final product cannot be better than the original conception (except by chance) is the bottom reason for placing men of fine minds at the head of important organizations. It is the ideas conceived by the man at the head in any walk of life, that are developed by his assistants: at least, this is the intention, in all organizations, and the only efficient procedure. We see an analogue in the actual life of every individual. Now the conception is the work of the imagination, and not of the reasoning faculties: the reasoning faculties develop and construct what the imagination conceives. It is because of this that men of fine mentality sometimes devote their talents to evil ends: their imaginations have conceived evil pictures. Sometimes this is the result of a bad environment in childhood. The environment of Talleyrand's childhood, for instance, caused the conception in his imagination of evil aims.
In 1860 Carré made the important invention of the manufacture of ice with the use of ammonia. In 1861 Craske improved stereotyping by making it possible to reproduce curved printing plates from flat forms of type. Green invented the driven-well in the same year, and McKay invented the shoe-sewing machine.
The most important event of 1861 was the outbreak of the Civil War in America, when the invention of the American Constitution was put to its severest test. It had been known ever since the adoption of the Constitution that the instrument was faulty in not defining clearly the relative rights of the Federal Government and the separate states; but it had been found impossible to secure the assent of a sufficiently large body of citizens to any proposition that defined them clearly; and so the machine of Government had operated for nearly three-quarters of a century, with the disquieting knowledge in the minds of its operators that conditions might put it to a test that would break it down, and perhaps destroy it totally. The most dangerous condition was seen to be the one associated with the question of slavery in the Southern States. This question, and the consequent condition of antagonism between the North and the South, became rapidly worse during the period from 1846 to 1861, when war between them finally broke out.
The war was ultimately decided in favor of the North, despite the fact that the South was much the better prepared; in fact, that the North was wholly unprepared. The main weakness in the Confederate situation was the fact that cotton was virtually the only product with which she could raise money for feeding and equipping her army, that she had to get the equipments from Europe, and that the line of communication to Europe was across the Atlantic Ocean, 3000 miles wide. The weakness seemed, during a period of about twenty-four hours, to be removed by the invention of the iron-clad Merrimac; for the Merrimac destroyed the Cumberland and Congress, two of the finest warships on the Union side, without the slightest difficulty in one forenoon, and threatened the destruction of all the other Union ships. The Union ships having been destroyed or made to flee to port, complete freedom from blockade of the Confederate coast would follow immediately. The Monitor had been invented years before; but no steps had been taken to build her, despite the insistence of the great inventing engineer, John Ericsson. News of the work of constructing the Merrimac had reached the North, however, and stimulated the northern imagination to the extent that it was able to see in the Monitor a savior (and the only savior) from the Merrimac. By the exercise of amazing engineering skill, Ericsson constructed his invention with such speed and precision that the Monitor was able to meet and defeat the Merrimac the very day after she had destroyed the Union ships.
The result was an immediate and absolute reversal of conditions. It was the North now that controlled the sea and the South that was to be blockaded. And not only this; for the fact that the North possessed a warship that was not only the most formidable in the world, but was of such simple construction that many of them could be launched in a very short time, showed to those European powers who were deliberating as to whether or not they should recognize the Confederacy, the futility of their attempting to carry into effect on the American coast any naval policy of a character unfriendly to the United States. The victory of the Monitor was the announcement of the "mate in four moves." Victory for the South became immediately impossible, no matter how long the final checkmate might be delayed. We know, of course, that checkmate was delayed until April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox.
In few cases has the influence of invention on history shone more clearly than in the case of the Monitor. The Monitor was the deciding factor in the Civil War. This does not mean that the Monitor alone won the Civil War. No one event or person or maneuver won the Civil War: for the Civil War was won by the resultant effect of many events, persons and maneuvers. It does mean, however, that the victory of the Monitor made it virtually impossible for the issue to be otherwise than it eventually was; provided, of course, that a course of conduct not wholly unreasonable was pursued by the North. All the other factors in the war were what might be called usual: the Monitor alone was unusual. The Monitor's battle was the only battle in which the light of genius shone, on either side.