INVENTION AND DISCOVERY. 553 



INVENTION AND DISCOVERY. 



By Hon. CHARLES A. PARSONS, M.A., F.R.S., M.Inst.C.E., 



PRESIDENT OF THE ENGINEERING SECTION OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



ON this occasion I propose to devote my remarks to the subject of 

 invention. 



It is a subject of considerable importance, not only to engineers, 

 but also to men of science and the public generally. 



I also propose to treat invention in its wider sense, and to include 

 under the word discoveries in physics, mechanics, chemistry and 

 geology. 



Invention throughout the middle ages was held in little esteem. 

 In most dictionaries it receives scant reference except as applied to 

 poetry, painting and sculpture. 



Shakespeare and Dryden describe invention as a kind of muse or 

 inspiration in relation to the arts, and when taken in its general sense 

 to be associated with deceit, as ' Return with an invention, and clap 

 upon you two or three plausible lies.' 



As to the opposition and hostility to scientific research, discovery 

 and mechanical invention in the past, and until comparatively recent 

 times, there can be no question, in some cases the opposition actually 

 amounting to persecution and cruelty. 



The change in public opinion has been gradual. The great inven- 

 tions of the last century in science and the arts have resulted in a large 

 increase of knowledge and the powers of man to harness the forces of 

 nature. These great inventions have proved without question that the 

 inventors in the past have, in the widest sense, been among the greatest 

 benefactors of the human race. Yet the lot of the inventor until recent 

 years has been exceptionally trying, and even in our time I scarcely 

 think that any one would venture to describe it as altogether a happy 

 one. The hostility and opposition which the inventor suffered in the 

 middle ages have certainly been removed, but he still labors under 

 serious disability in many respects under law as compared with other 

 sections of the community. The change of public feeling in favor of 

 discovery and invention has progressed with rapidity during the last 

 century. Not only have private individuals devoted more time and 

 money to the work, but societies, institutions, colleges, municipalities 

 and governments have founded research laboratories, and in some in- 

 stances have provided large endowments. These measures have in- 

 creased the number of persons trained to scientific methods, and also 



