268 DISCOVERY cir. 



for all purposes where toughness as well as hardness is 

 required, whether for arts of peace or purposes of war. 

 Ten years' persistent research upon the influence which 

 different percentages of manganese exert upon the 

 properties of steel were required before that remarkable 

 metal, manganese-steel, was discovered, and showed 

 the way to the production of dozens of other alloys 

 possessing qualities required in arts and industries. 



It is much easier to accept things as they are than 

 it is to inquire into them and decide whether they 

 are capable of improvement. Throughout the world's 

 history, progress has been accomplished by the men 

 who were not content to do as their forefathers did, 

 but were continually asking, " Why ? ", " Wherefore ? ", 

 " Is that the best way ? ", " Is this the best possible 

 thing ?". Lord Kelvin was a brilliant example of this 

 type of scientific mind, ever critical of defects, alert as 

 to practical needs, and fertile with possible improvements. 

 His views as to the practical value of science were 

 definite and unmistakable. 



The life and soul of science is its practical application ; and 

 just as the great advances in mathematics have been made 

 through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which 

 were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in 

 physical science many of the greatest advances that have been 

 made from the beginning of the world to the present time have 

 been made in the earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the 

 properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind. Lord 

 Kelvin. 



When Lord Kelvin turned his attention to the mariner's 

 compass, about 1870, that instrument had been in use 

 in much the same form by European navigators for 

 about six hundred years, and by the Chinese long before. 

 The compass in the simple form in which it was used for 

 many centuries was in many respects unsatisfactory. 



