548 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



It is not really necessary iii thousands of cases that human life 

 sacrificed before the remedy is providtd for ihe preveiition of 

 future causes of accidents, in fact I am so well convinced that in 

 proportion as we may hope or expect to achieve success in every 

 pursuit of life, whether it be mechanism, trade, philosophy, poli- 

 tics or what not, our success depends upon earnest, deep, and 

 intelligent thought of the future; and depend upon it, he who 

 whether he be philosopher, politician, tradtsman, mechanic, mer- 

 chant or inventor, who cannot carefully and earnestly study 

 and analyze, his theory, measure, scheme, machine, enterprise or 

 invention, is doomed in 99 cases out of the hundred to failure. 

 A true plain principle or invention never loses by this cour^e, 

 truth is eternal in mechanics as well as minerals and philosophy^ 

 and one of the most striking beauties of it is that the mi-re 

 earnestly and thoroughly it is searched and investigated the 

 brighter it appears. This remark is based on \he experience cf 

 ages, and yet we every day see around us thousands who do not 

 seem to realize it. To illustrate, take the true man, does not 

 every step in analyzing his character prove his truthi'alness, do 

 w^e not have our esteem and regarl for him increased the more 

 we know of him; and yet we see around us daily thousands 

 whose sole object in life seems to be an endeavor to pass them- 

 selves off for what they are not. This general remai-k holds good 

 in everything in life true greatness or merit of anything is not 

 know^n by the mass at first sight. It is true we can judge of the 

 prominent traits or characteristics of men often, at a glance, but 

 art, science, mechanism, &c., must be analyzed and studied before 

 a correct judgment can be formed. 



Real accidents are of rare occurrence. An accident to my idea 

 is something which takes place that cannot by any ordinary 

 degree of forethought be prevented; 



I do not consider a steam boiler explosion an accident; it is 

 culpable carelessness on the part of some one, because a proper 

 degree of knowledge and care will prevent it. We daily sre 

 chronicled in the papers railroad accidents, a large proportion of 

 which are not accidental, but a culpable neglect of the applica- 

 tion of known principles of mechanical science. 



It is an acknowledged principle in mechanics, that what can 

 be done by mechanism can be better done than by manual labor. 

 A moment's thought of clocks, pins, nails, hooks and eyes, ^loth, 

 and a thousand things that are noAT better made by machinery 

 than formerly by hand, will convince any one of the superiority; 



