50 
Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
sanctions  their  being  treated  together,  as  it  does 
not  distinguish  between  them.  And  while  speak- 
ing of  the  law,  it  may  help  to  furnish  a definition. 
For  a patent  is  of  the  nature  of  a compact  between 
an  inventor  and  the  Crown.  The  State  desires  to 
possess  the  inventor's  secret,  in  order  to  prevent 
its  being  lost,  ns  several  important  inventions 
have  been,  and  also  that  the  invention  may  not 
be  worked  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  inventor,  but 
that  the  State  may  enjoy  the  advantage  of  its  use, 
generally.  On  the  other  hand,  the  inventor  is 
glad  to  be  saved  the  risk  and  inconvenience  of 
keeping  his  secret,  and  to  have  the  advantage  of 
the  arm  of  the  law  for  the  protection  of  his  rights. 
It  follows  from  this  view  of  the  matter,  by  im- 
plication at  least,  that  an  invention  must  fulfil 
four  conditions.  It  must  be  new.  It  mutt  fulfil 
a useful  purpose.  It  must  be  successful,  and  the 
secret  of  it  must  be  so  fully  disclosed  in  the  speci- 
fication, that  any  expert  in  the  business  to  which 
it  refers,  should  be  able  to  carry  it  out,  without 
any  other  help  than  that  of  the  description  given 
in  the  patent.  These  conditions  are  all  essential. 
Indeed,  it  stands  to  reason  that  the  secret  of  an 
idea  that  is  not  new,  or  which  fails  to  fulfil  its 
purpose  would  not  be  worth  buying  or  preserving. 
These  conditions  thus  restrict  the  menning  of  the 
term  within  narrow  limits,  and  show  that  many 
ideas  that  are  patented  do  not  prove  to  be  inven- 
tions. The  patent  office  therefore  becomes  a sort 
Of  lottery,  in  which  there  are  many  blanks  and 
only  a comparatively  few  prizes.  This  fact  gives 
the  key  to  the  curriculum  of  Technical  education. 
For,  seeing  that  invention  is  its  ultimate  object,  it 
follows  that  the  teaching  should  be  such  as  to 
secure  success  and  avoid  failure.  Technical  stu- 
dents are,  in  short,  to  be  instructed  in  the  secret  of 
success  and  armed  as  well  as  warned  against  the 
causes  of  failure. 
It  would  be  difficult  for  me  to  prescribe  a curri- 
culum suitable  to  answer  that  purpose  on  the  pre- 
sent occasion,  and  it  would  pr u t your  patience  to 
too  severe  a test.  I purpose  there? ore  to  illustrate 
the  sort  of  instruction  that  is  required,  by  means 
of  examples  of  familiar  cases  of  success  and  failure. 
In  doing  this,  however,  it  will  not  be  possible 
within  the  compass  of  a lecture,  to  give  more  than 
the  merest  sketch  of  each  invention  adduced,  so 
much  only  in  fact  as  will  serve  to  indicate  the 
secret  of  success,  or  the  cause  of  failure. 
The  first  example  I shall  adduce  is  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  illustrious  achievements  of  the 
human  intellect  , the  invention  by  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
of  the  law  of  gravitation.  You  know  it  is  said 
to  have  been  suggested  to  his  mind  by  the  fall  of 
an  apple.  And  no  doubt  it  was  so,  but  the  wonder 
is,  that  the  fall  of  an  object  in  a straight  line  to 
the  earth,  should  have  suggested  the  law  that  re- 
gulates the  motions  of  the  planets,  in  elliptical 
orbits,  round  the  sun,  and  that  of  the  satellites 
round  their  principles.  We  may  perhaps  take  a 
step  to  help  towards  that  grand  conception  by 
considering  that  when  the  apple  was  liberated, 
and  fell  perpendicularly  to  the  earth,  it  had  no 
motion  of  its  own,  and  obeyed  the  single  force  of 
attraction  to  the  earth.  If,  however,  at  the  time 
of  its  liberation  from  the  tree,  it  had  possessed  a 
motion  of  its  own,  at  right  angles  to  the 
•traight  line  cf  its  fall,  and  supposing  that  force 
was  just  equal  to  the  force  of  attraction,  then,  in- 
stead of  reaphin^  the  ground  in  a direct  line  it 
would  have  obeyed  both  forces  and  would  have 
reached  the  ground  in  a curve  at  a distance  equal  to 
the  length  of  the  fall.  Similarly,  if  the  rectilinear 
force  it  had  when  liberated  wa6  twice  as  great,  the 
distance  at  which  it  would  have  reached  the  earth 
would  have  been  correspondingly  great.  It  ii 
thus  conceivable  that  the  object  might  have  pos- 
sessed a force  so  great  that  it  would  not  reach  the 
earth  at  all,  hut  would  either  go  circling  round  it, 
in  a more  or  less  elongated  ellipse,  or  escape  from 
it  in  a parabolic  curve  into  space.  Such  in  fact 
must  have  been  the  mighty  conception  of  the  in- 
ventor of  the  law  of  gravitation.  To  test  his 
theory,  he  resorted  to  various  expedients,  w hich 
confirmed  its  truth,  and  at  length,  being  so  far 
satisfied,  he  applied  the  theory  to  the  motion  of 
the  moon,  with  which  he  was  well  acquainted,  a6 
it  had  been  long  known  by  observation.  For  the 
purpose  of  this  test,  however,  it  was  necessary 
to  ascertain  the  magnitude  of  the  earth,  and  this 
he  obtained  from  the  French  savants,  who  had 
computed  it  from  a measurement  they  had  made 
of  an  arc  of  a meridian.  With  this  datura,  Sir 
Isaac  proceeded  to  ascertain  if  the  moon,  in  her 
ci bit  round  the  earth,  obeyed  his  new  law.  Alas  ! 
The  test  failed.  The  invention  was  laid  aside, 
and  for  Hi  years  remained  in  abeyance.  At  the 
end  of  that  time,  the  French  philosophers,  being 
distrustful  of  the  accuracy  of  their  first  measure- 
ment, induced  the  Government  to  institute  another 
and  much  more  careful  one.  This  gave  the  earth 
a magnitude  considerably  different  from  the  first ; 
and  when  Sir  Isaac  repeated  his  trial  of  the  moon's 
motions  with  the  new  datum  they  were  found 
conformable  to  his  law,  and  he  therefore  disclosed 
to  a wondering  world  the  grandest  invention 
science  had  ever  suggested  to  the  human  mind. 
This  example  shows  the  importance  of  employ- 
ing reliable  data.  For  Sir  Isaac’s  first  failure  he 
was  not  himself  responsible.  Nevertheless,  his 
experience  affords  a useful  lesson  on  the  employ- 
ment of  data  in  inventions.  But  this  example  is 
cited  mainly  for  the  wonderful  power  of  logic ; 
that  is,  of  reasoning  that  it  exhibits,  and  the  still 
more  remarkable  resources  of  calculation  that 
were  brought  into  requisition.  These,  and  the 
marvellous  industry,  perseverance  and  patience  he 
devoted  to  his  task,  constituted  the  secret  of  Sir 
Jssac’s  success.  Such  are  the  lessons  taught  to 
technical  students  by  that  illustrious  example. 
The  next  example  to  which  I will  ask  your 
attention  is  one  which  has  probably  affected  the 
progress  of  mankind  even  more  than  the  one  just 
mentioned.  The  steam  engine  prior  to  Watt’s 
time  was  comparatively  of  little  use  ; but  in  his 
hands  ic  was  converted  into  a most  powerful 
agent  in  the  progress  of  the  race.  It  is  true  that 
it  has  since  been  improved,  in  many  ways,  and  has 
been  the  subject,  probably  of  a hundred  patents. 
Nevertheless,  all  those  features  of  Watt's  inven- 
tion on  which  its  efficiency  depends  are,  at  this 
day,  exactly  the  same  as  he  left  them.  The  crank, 
that-  beautiful  contrivance  for  regulating  the 
movements  df  the  piston  in  the  cylinder,  and 
preventing  it  from  alternately  butting  against  the 
ends  serves  its  purpose  so  admirably  that  it 
must  persist  for  all  time.  The  parallel  motion, 
which  adapts  the  linear  motion  of  the  piston  rod 
to  work  in  harmony  with  the  curved  motion  of 
the  end  of  the  oscillating  beam,  solved  a great 
problem ; and  though  the  piston  rod  ife  not  guided 
