298 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



to persons who desire scientific assistance in some new branch of art, of 

 conimunicatin<j with those who are capable of giving it. 



TECHNOLOGY. 



Few are aware of the vast amount of labor lost from ignorance of experi- 

 ments and demonstrations previously made. A single incident between 

 two late members of the Institute will illustrate this point. Henry Fitz^ 

 the celebrated optician, when a young man, stated to Prof. Renwick some 

 of the difSculties he had encountered in manufacturing lenses. The Pro- 

 fessor lent him a work relating to the modifications of light in passing 

 through different media, and on returning it Fitz remarked "the early 

 reading of that book would have saved me years of toil." 



The importance of Technology in developing the resources of a compara- 

 tively new country is now beginning to be appreciated. The march of 

 improvement has often been retarded for want of competent pioneers. 

 While on the one hand visionary schemes have been pursued with reckless- 

 ness, on the other, enterprises of great promise have been abandoned for 

 want of scientific knowledge. Thus everywhere throughout our vast terri- 

 tory, in projects of melioration, conception outruns performance. It is 

 hoped that in future our colleges and higher seminaries of learning will 

 furnish scholars who are thorough!}'- versed in the application of science to 

 the arts. Formerly the course of studies in these institutions was specially 

 adapted to those who intend to follow the professions which aid but indi- 

 rectly in material progress. On questions relating to Motors, Mechanics, 

 Civil Engineering, Architecture, Navigation, Agriculture, Botany, Chem- 

 istry, Mineralogy and Mining, the scholars of so called liberal education 

 were not expected to throw much light. Yet such questions were con- 

 stantly presented for solution. At an early day in the history of this 

 country self-educated mon met the emergency and were often rewarded by 

 fortune and reputation. 



In order to show the kind of knowledge required, it will be interesting 

 briefly to review the progress of material improvements on this Continent 

 which, from the wonderful changes effected, must be regarded as forming 

 the most remarkable era in the history of civilization. With the exception 

 of the trapper and fowler, Surveyors were the first white men who \yene- 

 trated in every direction the primeval forest. In general these pioneers 

 performed their arduous tasks with fidelity and accuracy, yet their errors — 

 owing chiefly to the want of correct measuring instruments — have been the 

 source of illimitable litigation. The history of the location of the pre-emp- 

 tion line in Western New York, running North to Sodus Bay on Lake 

 Ontario, illustrates how wide a gore may arise by the slightest deviation 

 from an original direction. 



By the labors of these men territory greater in extent than all Europe, 

 excluding Russia, has been divided into towns and sections, and repre- 

 sented by maps; yet the work thus far does not embrace more than one 

 half of the lands within the limits of the United States. The hardy settlers 

 at first followed in the wake of the theodolite; latterly the tide of emigra- 

 tion has been more rapid, and the squatter is now far in advance of the 

 surveyor. 



