Evolution of the Mechanic Arts. . 203 



vestibule-train that our civilization has produced. The 

 same is true as to water-transportation appliances, com- 

 mencing with the log-raft, and the dug-out, and ending with 

 cuts '^nd plans of the three-pipe steamship-flyer, which 

 makes the trip from America to Europe inside of six days. 

 So also in Aveapons of war and of the chase, fishery ap- 

 pliances, household implements of every kind and type, 

 wood-working tools, metal-working tools, stone-working 

 tools, musical instruments, and many others. 



Here we have the plan of the museum of the future, one 

 of the functions of which will be to put us quickly in pos- 

 session of a knowledge of what has been done, and of how 

 it has been done, leaving us more of the precious hours of 

 life in which to find out what can yet be done. The lesson 

 everywhere taught in this way will be that invention and 

 human progress are practically one. 



Probably in no other place in the world is there such a 

 store and treasure-house of facts showing that the progress 

 of man and civilization is, and only is, along the lines of 

 secondary evolution, or that kind of evolution to which di- 

 rection is given in part by the human mind, as is to be 

 found in the Patent Office at Washington. It is not too 

 much to say that here are to be found counterparts to every 

 prototype to be found in the history of primary evolution. 

 A digest of patents in any and every branch or class of in- 

 ventions, in the order of their dates, is not merely a study 

 in evolution, it is evolution itself ; for not only are new 

 species being originated, but also new genuses, new classes, 

 and new orders of inventions, all covered with evolutionary 

 earmarks. Whenever any invention is made, the first thing 

 to be done is to obtain a list of all the patents in tliat and 

 closely related classes ; and, studying them backward, but 

 with evolutionary principles in mind, we find the true rela- 

 tions of the new invention to the old. And only when 

 these are ascertained, embodied in the specifications and 

 claims, and accepted by the Office, can the respective rights 

 of the inventor and the public be ascertained. 



What, then, is the genesis of invention ? At the first, 

 brute animal strength and natural mechanical forces are the 

 dominant powers in the world ; and what better could weak- 

 ness do than escape to the trees for refuge, and, once secure 

 there, for the time being, seek to reinforce weakness with 

 intelligence by taking time to think ? It was Aveakness 



