November 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



75 



laboratory wliich would suuly the South American 

 rubber problem in a most thorough manner. 



One of the rubber experts made this sugjj;cstion at 

 one of the sessions of the Conference : "Brazil stands 

 today at the point of decision. It will be possible for 

 her now to take out 'insurance' for her rubber forests; 

 or, if she chooses, she may neglect the opportunity, 

 and lose forever her hold on that commodity. If she 

 wishes to protect it, she will receive from America the 

 most friendly co-operation and ad\ ice. The best solu- 

 tion of the problem lies very probably in the establish- 

 ment of a permanent testing laboratory here in the 

 North, and possibly an additional one at Para, under 

 the direct management of the Federal Government oi 

 Brazil. The \ew York laboratory would then be in 

 a position to test the rubber according to conditions 

 which prevail in the United States. This station would 

 also be available as an umpire in cases of dispute be- 

 tween manufacturers and brokers." 



The suggestion provoked not a little discussion. 

 Something may yet come of it. 



THE APPARENT HAPHAZARDNESS OF GREAT 

 DISCOVERIES. 



^OME modern philosopher has observed that "it's 

 *^ generally the fellow who doesn't know any bet- 

 ter who does the thing that can't be done. You see, 

 the blamed fool doesn't kncjw it can't be done, so he 

 goes ahead and does it" — a sententious observation, 

 which contains more truth than is usually the case 

 with such aphorisms. 



Many of the most revolutionary inventions and dis- 

 coveries in the history of industrial development ap- 

 pear to have been reached in a thoroughly haphazard 

 way — seem in fact to have been stumbled upon in the 

 dark. There was Goodyear, for example — to come 

 down at once to the realm of ruljber. Everybody 

 knows how he got the idea of vulcanization. Practi- 

 cally speaking, it flew up and hit him. He was the 

 most surprised man in a dozen townships — he could 

 scarcely believe his eyes. 



Then there was Christopher Columbus, whose dis- 

 covery of America our Italian citizens and a few others 

 celebrate with much fervor with every recurring Oc- 

 tober 12. When the great American continent and its 

 outlying islands popped up in front of him it was the 

 surprise of the centuries. 



But this haphazardness is apparent — rather than 



real. It is true enough that Columbus stumbled on a 

 new continent, but that was because he was looking 

 for a continent. He made a great discovery because 

 he was bent on a great discovery. The thing he found 

 was not the thing he was looking for, but he never 

 would have located .America if lie had not been out 

 looking for Asia. 



Goodyear's case was very much the same. That 

 accidental knock against the stove told him that heat 

 and sulphur were the secret of rubber. That partic- 

 ular hit was pure accident, but he had been hitting 

 around in all directions for a number of years, and 

 tiiat was the way he came to hit the stove. 



^'car after year he had been at work trying to tind 

 sometiiing that would make rubber work. First he 

 mixed it with magnesia. That seemed to hold out 

 promise ; but it was a blind lead and he had to abandon 

 it. Then he boiled his rubber and magnesia in quick- 

 lime and water, but that didn't yield up the secret he 

 was after. i'lun he washed his rubber with nitric 

 acid. He was going in the right direction, but still 

 was far from the goal. 



l!ut it was only a question of time when his per- 

 sistence — you might say his fanaticism — in this quest 

 would C( impel success. Great discoveries seem to 

 come by accident, but it is a noticeable fact that they 

 come to those who are bent on making great discov- 

 eries. That quick transformation that took place in 

 (loodyear's handful of rul^ber and sulphur when it 

 struck the hot stove would not ha\e meant anything 

 to the ordinary man — he never would have given it 

 a second thought. But to Goodyear's mind — as sen- 

 sitive to rubber impressions as the delicate mechanism 

 of wireless telegraphy is to its own peculiar electrical 

 waves — it was a complete revelation. His years of 

 search were over — the secret was his. So it may be 

 stated, without much fear of contradiction, that great 

 discoveries, so far. from being of incidental and hap- 

 hazard origin, follow as definite a law of cause and 

 effect as any that obtain in the ordering of the uni- 

 verse. 



The aphorism quoted at the beginning of this 

 humble disquisition may therefore properly be revised 

 as follows : "The fellow who does the thing that can't 

 be done is the fellow who knows that it can be done, 

 if he can only find out the way to do it, and who keeps 

 hunting around for the way to do it twenty-four hours 

 a day — year in and year out — until all of a sudden he 

 plumps straight into it." 



