THE MASTER WORKER 



power of the piston. Even the road locomotive, as 

 illustrated by that first wonderful one of Trevithick's 

 and such colliery locomotives as "Puffing Billy" and 

 "Locomotion," utilized the same plan. It was not 

 until almost a generation later that it became clear to 

 the mechanics that in many cases, indeed in most 

 cases, this awkward means of transmitting power was 

 really a needlessly wasteful one, and that with the aid 

 of fly-wheel and crank-shaft the thrust of the piston 

 might be directly applied to the wheel it was destined 

 to turn, quite as well as through the intermediary 

 channel of the additional lever. 



The utility of the beam has, indeed, still commended 

 it for certain purposes, notably for the propulsion of 

 side-wheel steamers, such as the familiar American 

 ferryboat. But aside from such exceptional uses, the 

 beam has practically passed out of existence. 



There was no new principle involved in effecting this 

 change. It was merely another illustration of the famil- 

 iar fact that it is difficult to do things simply. As a rule, 

 inventors fumble for a long time with roundabout and 

 complex ways of doing things, before a direct and simple 

 method occurs to them. In other words, the highest 

 development of ten passes from the complex to the simple, 

 illustrating, as it were, an oscillation in the great law 

 of evolution. So in this case, even so great an inventor 

 as Watt failed to see the utility of doing away with the 

 cumbersome structure which his own invention had made 

 no longer a necessity, but rather a hindrance to the appli- 

 cation of the steam engine. However, a new generation, 

 no longer under the thraldom of the ideas of the great 



tin] 



