Reason and Invention. 853 



of such invention is original. It is an imitation ; a copy of something 

 seen in nature or art. But, as a whole, the invention may be original 

 in the sense that the details of it were never before in the same relation- 

 ship to each other. It is obvious that in the falling together of unre- 

 lated images, there will at times be formed a combination useful and 

 worth preservation. It is well known that many inventions, and some 

 of them of the most useful kind, have been purely accidental. In fact, 

 it is hardly asserting too much to say that they are all, in some sense, 

 accidental. The most that an inventor with the most earnest purpose 

 can do is to put himself in the way of the accidents. 



There is an implement for digging post-holes, the " invention " of 

 which is an illustration in point. The old-fashioned wagon wheel hubs 

 were bound at their outer end by a wide, thin band or thim- 

 ble of iron. Such a band had accidentally come off an old 

 hub, and was for a long time kicked about the barnyard, till 

 finally its sharp edge becoming pressed into the ground, it 

 was quite buried. In cleaning up the yard, it was observed 

 and pulled up, bringing with it all the earth inside of it, thus 

 leaving a cylindrical hole in the ground six inches in diam- 

 eter, and five inches deep. Here was an obvious suggestion. 

 If the band could be again sunk in the bottom of this hole 

 and pulled up, it would bring up five inches more of clay, 

 and thus the hole could be sunk indefinitely. Accordingly, 

 a handle was rigged to the band, and a patent for the ' < in- 

 vention " taken out. Subsequently, the band was accidentally 

 cracked longitudinally, and being used awhile in that con- 

 dition, and afterwards mended, it was discovered that the 

 crack improved it, giving an elasticity, which allowed it to 

 hold its load better, and to be emptied more easily. The 

 enterprising inventor would be entitled to an additional pal- 

 ent covering the crack, though I do not know whether he applied for it 

 or not. 



Nature is constantly exhibiting object lessons and throwing out hints 

 of new methods by which man can lighten his work. But the new thing 

 to be done must be exceedingly like an old method, and the step be- 

 tween the two must be extremely short, or else it will entirely escape 

 observation. Take the art of printing, for example, an art that has 

 made 100 years of the life of the race of more value than 1,000 without 

 it. For thousands of years men had been writing. Nature had fur- 

 nished numerous hints of the way they might shorten the labor of this 

 writing. Savages pursued their game, or gained knowledge of their 

 enemies by reading the printed characters they left on the ground in 

 foot tracks. Every horse and camel printed as he walked. Dirty, or 



