182 



8CIE]^CE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 186 



violent one has continued to rage among physicists. 

 Is the electricity of the galvanic cell due to chemi- 

 cal action or to contact of dissimilar substances ? 

 It is to the history of the attempts to answer this 

 question that the address is devoted. 



PROGRESS OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 



The recent enlargement of the scope of this sec- 

 tion to include all branches of engineering, and 

 the increasing interest manifested in its meetings, 

 warrant my making some remarks as to the true 

 objects of the section, and the means of increasing 

 its usefulness in the future. 



In marked contrast with the past, the present 

 age is one of pronounced material development. 

 Formerly the brightest and most gifted men de- 

 voted themselves to religion, philosophy, politics, 

 exploration, art ; but for the past hundred years 

 the attention of the leading men of the civilized 

 world has been directed to increasing and cheap- 

 ening those products which minister to the daily 

 life and comfort of man. Farmers, mechanics, 

 and laborers live now more comfortably than did 

 the middle classes of feudal times ; the duration of 

 human life has been materially lengthened, and 

 all portions of society recognize the importance of 

 further progress, and the advantage of organiza- 

 tion and invention in securing it. 



This era of material progress may be said to 

 have commenced with the final perfecting of the 

 steam-engine, which, together with the various at- 

 tendant machines, takes the place of hand and 

 animal labor, and which has increased and cheap- 

 ened the production of the necessaries and luxu- 

 ries of life ; and it has pushed the inventor and the 

 engineer to the front rank in modern society. It 

 may be useful to point out the absolute necessity 

 of verbal and written intercourse between investi- 

 gators and inventors, that the speculation and cu- 

 riosity of the former may ripen into the effective 

 invention of the latter. Nothing is more remark- 

 able than the multitude of minds and facts which 

 are required for the perfecting of even a simple 

 machiue, nor how little the last man may need to 

 add to complete the invention. Facts and natural 

 laws, known for years as curiosities, are taken up 

 by some inventor, who fails in the attempt to 

 render them of practical use ; then a second genius 

 lays hold, and, profiting by the mistakes of the 

 first, produces, at great cost, a working machine. 

 Then comes the successful man, who works out the 

 final practical design, and, whether making or los- 



Abstraet of an address before the section of mechanical 

 science of the American association for the advancement of 

 science at BufEalo, Aug. 19, 1886, by O. Chanute, Esq., Kansas 

 City, vice president of the section. 



ing a fortune, he yet permanently benefits man- 

 kind. 



The faculties of invention and discovery are 

 generally separate. One set of men observe facts,, 

 and deduce laws therefrom ; and another set en- 

 deavor to turn the results of this observation and 

 deduction to practical account in the production 

 of labor-saving appliances. This section should 

 be the place where these men may meet one an- 

 other, and profit by the interchange of ideas. 

 Many of the men whom I see before me are devot- 

 ing their lives to the study of nature, with no de- 

 sire to make money out of it, but simply to in- 

 crease human knowledge ; and some of their dis- 

 coveries will eventually be put into practical shapes- 

 for the use and convenience of man. History 

 proves, too, that the scientific observers have the 

 safer and happier part. Their success may not be 

 so dazzling as that of some great inventors, but 

 they do not have to bear such bitter trials and dis- 

 appointments. To deduce natui-al laws requires 

 mental accuracy in observing and reasoning ; to 

 make them useful in doing the world's work re- 

 quires imagination and ingenuity. Sometimes 

 long years must pass, and generation after genera- 

 tion of inventors wear their lives out, before a 

 needed machine becomes an accomplished success. 

 Evidently, then, the greater the number of minds 

 that can be brought to bear upon a particular prob- 

 lem, the greater is the chance of early success. I 

 believe that it is the particular j)rovince of this 

 section of the association to bring these two classes 

 of minds together, and to promote their inter- 

 course, that the discoverer may learn in what di- 

 rection fresh information is needed, and that the 

 inventor may be advised as to what is already- 

 known. 



The well-worn history of the steam-engine gives, 

 us an instance of an invention which did not 

 spring full-grown from the brain of the inven- 

 tor. History informs us that it commenced to 

 exist two thousand years ago, in the eolipile of 

 Hero of Alexandria. His treatise remained hid- 

 den until translated and printed in 1547 ; and then 

 Branca, the Italian architect, constructed one for 

 pounding drugs. Hero's book ran through eight 

 editions in different languages, and attracted the 

 attention of a French inventor, who tried vainly 

 to raise water by steam pressure. Then came the 

 Marquis of Worcester, who died a disappointed 

 man after spending $250,000. Then de Morland 

 tried using steam in cylinders, instead of in con- 

 tact with the water ; Papin built a steamboat, only 

 to have it seized and destroyed while on its way 

 to England, and he, too, died broken-hearted and 

 poor ; Savery went back to using the steam directly 

 in contact with water ; and finally Newcomen 



