INVENTIONS. 237 



ties whereby he may open for himself a new field of action ; and 

 that, having accomplished his object, he will be guarantied by a 

 patent, the exclusive enjoyment of his newly acquired property. 

 In most cases, he knows but little of what he has to encounter, 

 or the uncertainty of his reward. The thing he attempts may 

 be foreign to his occupation, and he is obliged to resort to the 

 mechanic or machinist, to obtain as he can, various parts of the 

 thing he wishes to make ; he usually finds it the most difficult 

 thing of all tasks, to persuade other mechanics to do that for 

 him which is novel to them, or of which they do not perceive 

 the utility, and which they will most likely not perceive, if it 

 is a labor-saving machine, or an improvement in their line 

 of business. Oftentimes the plan is ever so well conceived, and 

 the inventor and those he has called to his aid, have done their 

 best in the execution of their work ; it even then happens that 

 the invention is a failure in the estimation of others, for the want 

 of proper selection of materials, or from defect or oversight in 

 its construction. Defeat only confirms him in his convictions 

 that he is right, and he renews his attempts until success attends 

 him, and he sees the machine which he has always seen to work 

 in his " mind's eye," working to the admiration of himself and 

 others. Hope revives, and for a time the satisfaction derived 

 from the work is a full equivalent for the suffering he has endured. 

 The individual has judged rightly as to his powers of invention, 

 but he has little idea how much remains to be done to make the 

 invention productive of profit ; he has probably exhausted his 

 own resources, and the resources and patience of his friends in 

 completing his improvements ; he has not the means to conduct 

 the manufacture of his article, and without this he cannot so 

 demonstrate the utility of his improvement, as to derive the ad- 

 vantage from it he expected. He takes the precaution to pro- 

 cure letters patent for his invention, which he counts as property, 

 but which amounts chiefly to this, that the government grants 

 him permission to fight his own battles. Next comes the Her- 

 culean task of convincing the public of the advantages of the 

 improvement, and the yet more difficult one of supplying the 



