SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICA 



according to local needs; the hoe gave way to the horse-cultivator, and 

 the flail to the horse-power thresher, the neighborhood water-mill to the 

 steam-driven roller-mill grinding for all the people of a whole state; and 

 the farmer learned to live by the strength of his beasts and the craft of 

 his machines merely guided by his own intelligence. The mechanic arts 

 were regenerated; steam was harnessed more effectively than before, and 

 our railway-making and locomotive-building became and remains a revela- 

 tion to the world; for within this year, 1898, European engineers have 

 been compelled to swallow incredulity as to the rapidity of American 

 bridge-building, while British promoters hastening to supply Egypt with 

 locomotives have saved half the time required for delivery, despite the 

 doubling of distance, by ordering from American builders. The tide of 

 foreign importation was soon stayed, and then turned, and now Amer- 

 ican steel tools are sold in Sheffield and fine American hardware in Nor- 

 way, while products of American machines in the form of foodstuffs and 

 fabrics are carried into ev^ery quarter of the globe. The characteristic of 

 American inventiveness is its diffusion. Invention is as free as the fran- 

 chise, and open competition gives life to genius no less than to trade. 

 American devices (temporarily protected by patents) are so diffused that 

 every citizen is in contact with the products of physical science and 

 mechanical skill: everv^body may have a machine-made watch better than 

 the average hand-made product of Geneva, nearly equal to the tested 

 Swiss chronometer; every family may have its sewing-machine and tele- 

 phone; and every man, woman, and child wears machine-made buttons, 

 pins, hats, and textile fabrics. 



A typical American device is the bicycle. Invented in France, it long 

 remained a toy or a vain luxury. Redevised in this country, it inspired 

 inventors and captivated manufacturers, and native genius made it a 

 practical machine for the multitude; now its users number millions, and 

 it is sold in every country. Typical, too, is the bicycle in its effect on 

 national character. It first aroused invention, next stimulated commerce, 

 and then developed individuality, judgment, and prompt decision on the 

 part of its users more rapidly and completely than any other device; 

 for although association with machines of any kind (absolutely straight- 

 forward and honest as they are all) develops character, the bicycle is 

 the easy leader of other machines in shaping the mind of its rider, and 

 transforming itself and its rider into a single thing. Better than other re- 

 sults is this: that the bicycle has broken the barrier of pernicious differ- 

 entiation of the sexes and rent the bonds of fashion, and is daily impress- 

 ing Spartan strength and grace, and more than Spartan intelligence, on 

 the mothers of coming generations. So, weighed by its effect on body 

 and mind as well as on material progress, this device must be classed as 

 one of the world's great inventions. 



With the advance of the half -century in simply applied mechanics, 

 there have been still greater advances in the knowledge of the more 

 obscure powers of nature, manifested in electricity and magnetism, in 

 sun and wind and storm, even in vitality and mental action. Some of 

 these have been made in Europe, but more in America. Fifty years ago 

 Morse and Henry were doing the final work required to transform the 



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