244 



DISCOVERY 



en. 



many industrial discoveries ; high-speed cutting tools were not 

 a necessity which preceded, but an application which followed, 

 the discovery of the properties of tungsten-chromium-iron alloys ; 

 so, too, the use of titanium in arc lamps and of vanadium in steel 

 were sequels to the industrial preparation of these metals, and 

 not discoveries made by sheer force of necessity. Prof. W. R. 

 Whitney. 



It would be easy to give many further instances of the 

 foundation of great industries upon results obtained in 

 scientific investigation. Credit is, of course, due to the 

 engineers who convert laboratory experiments into 

 commercial undertakings, and to inventors for making 

 use of scientific results in the production of instru- 

 ments and devices for the convenience and comfort 

 of man ; but in both cases they are adapters of new 

 knowledge rather than creators of it. The new field 

 is opened by the man of science, but he is usually 

 forgotten by those who afterwards take possession 

 of it. 



Facts which seem trivial in themselves may be rich 

 in suggestion to the thoughtful mind. From observing 

 the structure of wasps' nests, which are constructed of 

 a papery-like material produced by the insects by the 

 mastication of bits of stick and other vegetable sub- 

 stances, the naturalist, Reaumur, in the early part of the 

 eighteenth century, was led to suggest that wood-fibre 

 should be used for making paper. Out of that observa- 

 tion has arisen the great industry of paper manufacture 

 from wood-pulp, the demand for which is now so immense 

 that it threatens to exhaust the forest resources of the 

 world. 



So long ago as 1755 Priestley observed that when 

 electric sparks pass through air, the nitrogen and oxygen 

 are caused to combine together and form certain com- 

 pounds of these two elements. Not long after, Cavendish 



