EXTEACT OF MEAT. 
293 
others. The sole aim was ‘"‘’to know;^"’ to know exactly^ 
snrely^ thoroughly. If, however^ some wanderer on this 
world^s many thoronghfares observe the thing thus lying on 
the road-side^ and suddenly perceiving how it may be applied 
carries it away and employs it for the delight and astonish- 
ment of the worlds and for his own immediate profit^ then also 
is science perfectly satisfied^ and rejoices that the result of its 
labours should prove a blessing to mankind. 
But that which_, when thus founds proves such a godsend^ 
may long he unheeded. One passer after the other goes by ; 
they all see it_, but to them it is a mere fact^ — a bare and 
barren fact. At last one comes that way who for years 
has been brooding over some cherished plan_, some notion 
which he is unable to reahze. Difficulties which he cannot 
evade always present themselves ; mysteries which he cannot 
solve puzzle and defeat him. If he could but resolve them ! 
And so he carries about with him this one thought_, this 
undying hope_, this plan of half his life^ which is always about 
to quicken and have existence^ but which always^ just at the 
boundary-line_, fails to receive vitahty. It is as though the one 
thing — the sparky the breath_, the vivifying contact — ^were 
wanting. It has not yet been founds and so the embryo 
thought cannot ripen and come forth. 
Now this chance wayfarer^ with the ever-present thought in 
his brain^ passes on his road the fact cast there by science. 
He glances at it. A sudden light seems to burst in upon 
him. With an electric shock the vital spark is communicated 
to the thought which wanted but this to make it quicken^ to 
give it animation_, to cause it to come forth^ and have a being, 
and live. The mysteries which so bewildered him are cleared 
up; the difficulties which opposed h-ini he now can overcome. 
At last the discovery is complete. He carries out his plan, 
the new method is successful, and he and many others have 
reason to rejoice. 
In this manner a result has just now been arrived at which 
promises to be a boon to man. And as it is interesting to sec 
how the thought originated, then lay in abeyance, and finally, 
after fourteen years, was rekindled by the chance finding 
of a fact thrown by science on the wayside, the following- 
account has been written as a record. For it is from this verv 
Ki 
wayfarer, with the ever-present thought in his brain, that 
I have the interesting story. And as he one day related to 
me the first conception of his idea, of his defeats, misgivings, 
hopes, and final success, so do I here repeat the tale that 
others may profit by it, and learn never to despair. 
George Christian Giebert, a German civil engineer, had 
been employed by the Brazilian Government in the con- 
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