Invention

t that they possessed or had invented the mariner's compass, there is considerable doubt. The history of the inven

the Mediterranean Sea in the early part of the fifteenth century A.

est coast of Africa as far as its southern end, later called the Cape of Good Hope. It was a tremendous undertaking, and it had tremendous results; for it demonstrated the possibilities of great ocean voyages, proved th

d reflection that the earth was spherical; and it was realized that, if it was spherical, it might be possible by sailing to the westward to

Voyages and

rth to sow, and tells us also that most of the grain fell on stony ground. So it is with most of the opportunities that are offered to us every day; and so it is even with most of the visions that are placed before our minds. But the Sav

been wonderfully powerful and clear, for it dominated all his life thereafter. But he could not make others see the vision that he saw. For many years he went from place to place, trying to get the means wherewith to prepare his exp

ccurrences started the new civilization with a tremendous impetus. This impetus was immediately reinforced by the voyage of the Portuguese Admi

India by way of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and to transfer the center of the sea-commerce of the world to the west coast

not? The voyage of Columbus had not answered it, because he returned by the same route as that by which he went. But Magellan started in a southwesterly course, and one of his ships again reached home, c

the making of a complete invention. This was a plan by which he should head an expedition to a certain part of the New World, and "convert" the heathen dwelling there; doing whatever killing and impoverishing and general

hat now we call Peru. Whether Pizarro improved on Cortez's scheme, or whether the conditions of success were better need not concern us

of the world were soon dominated by Spain, and that the people of Spain received large amounts of gold and treasure. The main result to them was that they succumbed under the enervating influence of t

nd courage to impress their thoughts upon great numbers of people. At the time when printing was invented, the Church of Rome had ceased to dominate European nations as wholly as it had done before; but it exercised a vast power in each c

mination of views on this matter: so that there gradually grew up a strong and widespread feeling of discontent. But despite considerable friction as to the limits of their respective functions, the Church and the State were so intimately allied in every count

out his work with so little tact and moderation, that he made the granting of indulgences seem even a more scandalous procedure than it really was. Luther had been preaching the doctrine of a simple following of the teachings of the Savior, and deprecating a too close adherence to mere forms and ritual. He now seems to have conceived a clean-cut plan of effective action; for on the evening before the indulgences were to be offered on All Saints Day, in the Church of W

ed or give him shelter, he was cared for secretly by men in high position, until he voluntarily came out of hiding, and appeared in Wittemberg. The emperor called a meeting of the Diet at Spires in 1526, and another meeting in 1529. Both meetings had for their obje

he Thirty Years' War" that began in 1618, and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. This Peace marked the end of the Re

gion was only a part of its total influence. In words, the protest was against certain abuses in the Roman Church; but in fact it was against a domination exercised over the minds and souls of men. Lut

rg in Poland. Copernicus at this time was thirty-four years old, but he had even then devoted the major activities of his mind to astronomy for several years. Naturally, his efforts had been devoted to mastering whatever of the science then existed. The efforts of most people in dealing with any subject end when they have gone thus far-and very few go even thus far.

ts of the heavenly bodies should be shown to be in accordance with a simple and harmonious law. Seizing on this idea, h

ound it, and that the earth revolved on its own axis once in twenty-four hours. So great was the insistence of the religious bodies in adhering to the Ptolemaic Theory, so set were the minds of all men of high position on it, that though Copernicus wrote a book expounding his own theory, he did not think it wise to

an Bell was the first to conceive the idea that speech could be transmitted by a suitable arrangement of magnet, diaphragm and electric circuit. But Copernicus was the first

rt can make and use it;" and to realize that this admirable phraseology may be utilized to distinguish any other novel endeavor of man entitled to be called an invention from any other not so entitled; for no system

on or discovery, but who did collect a great amount of data. Utilizing these, Kepler devoted many years to the study of Copernicus, and tried to invent a system which would explain som

lanets are ellipses hav

radius joining sun and planet is the s

the planets are proportional to the cub

racticability. Without this improvement, astronomy would not be what it is, navigation would not be what it is, the regulation of time throughout the world would not be what it is, and the present highly intricate but smoothly running machine of civil

. It was, in fact, definitely rejected, and people were subjecte

n was that he carried on his observations with exceedingly

, and were of the highest order of merit from the three main points of view,-originality, completeness and usefulness. Few inventions more perfectly possessing the attributes of a great invention can be specified. The originality of the concep

honors and fame and wealth and glory, the inventor of the telescope and the microscope received no reward of any

e himself in a day. It would be interesting to know just how much information Galileo received. It seems that his information was very vague. If so, a considerable amount of inventiveness may have been required, besides a high order of constructiveness. But the mere fa

f the telescope in making observations confirming the theory that his fame mainly rests. As late as 1632, nearly a century after Cop

avor of man. Yet most inventions have been resisted. The invention of Copernicus was resisted for more than a

illustrated by another invention virtually contemporaneous with those of Copernicus and Jansen, and

operations and many figures, as in astronomy. It has been in continual use since Napier invented it, and is used still. In order to indicate the simplicity and the value of Napier's invention, it may assist those who have forgotten what a logarithm is, or who have been so fortunate as never to have been compelled to study about them, to state that logarithms are numbers so adapted to numbers to be multiplied, divided, or raised to any power, that one simply adds their logarithm, subtracts one logarithm from the other or multiplies or divides a logarithm by the number represe

s valuable in the highest degree, more valuable than that of most inventors; and yet it was more inductive and deductive than inventional. It is not the purpose of this book to suggest that invention has been the only kind of work that men have done which has had an influence on history; and the work of Gilbert gives the author an opportunity to emphasize the value of c

raday showed the possibilities of utilizing electricity for practical purposes. Then the facts which Gilbert had established, and the discoveries

wholly the outcome of individual genius, and not the result or the indication of any widespread intellectual movement. But soon after it opened, the influen

n England that took great hold on the minds of thinking men, not only in

recision to the thoughts of men in his own day, by convincing them of the necessity of first ascertaining exact facts, and then inferring correct conclusions from those facts. This seems to us an easy thing to do, looking at the matter in the light of our civilization. But it was not easy, though Bacon's high position gave him a prestige exceptional for a philosopher to possess; and this smoothed his way considerab

n business of their lives to seek for facts from Nature herself. This does not mean that men had not sought for facts before from

ed into a concrete instrument. That Bacon so regarded it is evident from the title that he gave it. Furthermore, he described it as "the science of a better and more perfect use of reason in the investigation of things and of the true aids of th

in the Standard Dictionary is "to get first sight or knowledge of"; so that the mere announcement that an investigator has "discovered" something gives to many people an incorrect idea of his achievement. Harvey discovered the fact of the circulation of the blood after years of experimentation and r

constitute an invention of the most definite kind. The whole influence of that invention on history, only a highly equipped physician could describe; but, nevertheless, one may feel amply justifi

n by "Boyle's Law," which is usually expressed as follows: "When the volume of a mass of gas is changed, keeping the temperature constant, the pressure varies inversely as the volume; or the product of the pressure by the volume remains constant." While it has been found that this law is not absolutely true with

′ v′ =

than "discover" these things, no one else would have been the wiser, and the world would have been no richer. What these two men did that made us wiser and the worl

temperature. The tube was long and ended in a bulb at the top. The bulb being warmed with the hand of Galileo, and the open lower end of the tube being immersed in water, and then the warmth of the hand removed, water rose in the tube to a height depending on the warmth of the air in the bulb. The height of the water the

the weight of air, and finally had succeeded in ascertaining it. The barometer was invented or rather discovered by Galileo's successor, Torricelli, in 1645. Torricelli, in investigating the action of suction pumps, constructed what now we call a barometer; bu

clear-cut kind, resulting from an idea that occurred to Guericke that he seized upon promptly and put to work to serve mankind. Its influence in giving impetus to the science and art of pneumatics, and the influence of pneumatics on the progress

s in physics, especially optics. In 1671 he invented a special form of the reflecting telescope, called after him the Newtonian telescope. He made many experiments in optics, in consequence of which he discovered and announced that white light consists of seven colors, having diffe

theory or law of gravitation, which he announced in his Principia, publ

ets are ellipses havin

radius joining sun and planet is the s

the planets are proportional to the cub

un, that varies inversely as the square of its distance from the sun: otherwise, it would fly away from the sun or toward it. From this, Newton inferred that all masses, great and small, attra

published in his Principia, but not so general

r of moving with constant velocity in a straight

e force and to the time during which it acts

there is an equal an

nd useful. Certainly no more brilliant inventions have ever yet been made. These two wonderful products of Newton's genius underlie the whole structure of modern astronomy and

solar system is that of a machine in rapid motion, of

Hooke, is credited by some with the original suggestion, and John Hadley, still another astronomer, with having adapted it to practical sea use. Numerous other scientific inventions, however, that have formed the basis of much of the scientific work of later experimenters and invent

er, to whom it was declared our Savior had given the keys of heaven. Coincidentally, the multitudinous barons had gradually built up the Feudal System. This was a loose-jointed contrivance, under which Europe was virtually divided into little geographical sections, ruled over

except in England) and the conditions improved so much that the people realized that it was better to be ruled by one king, or emperor, than by a multitude of barons. The sovereigns finally acquired so much power that they dared to oppose the Pope in many of his aggressions; but no very important situations

s and great nations, tended to prevent the excessive domination of a religious organization, and, by recognizing the fact that every sovereign's power comes from the Almighty, it suggested the sovereign's responsibility to Him. At first this suggestion evidently bore little fruit; for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were characterized by ge

a good influence during the time it was in vogue; and it supplies a clear illustration of the power of

s to their children. Without toys, children find the days very long, and parents find their children very trying. The usefulness of toys seems to be mainly, not so much in giving children pl

, the results are similar also. Toy temples have been built of building blocks, and then have been destroyed. Civilizations also have been built and then destroyed. And in the case of both the building blocks and the civilizations, the p