22 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
creates new compounds, — calcium carbide, the source of 
acetylene gas; carborundum, the abrasive of the future; 
and calcium nitride, which promises a new source of nitro- 
gen to fertilize and renew exhausted soils everywhere. It 
assists in the synthesis by which the chemist builds out of 
the inorganic the dye, the perfume, the essence, and soon 
perhaps the food which nature builds only by the processes 
of life. Such are some of the functions of the new muscular 
system with which electrical science has equipped the 
body social. 
It is not claimed that pure science is the only factor in 
industrial progress. Invention, business sagacity, and 
many other causes co-operate. But the work of science is 
essential, fundamental, creative. How far unaided inven- 
tion can go may be seen in China. Here is a people once 
pliant of intellect and inventive. As artificers they still 
are given high praise. But Chinese invention, destitute of 
all scientific foundation, stopped with the fire cracker, the 
movable type and the directive loadstone. It could not 
go on to the Lyddite shell, the Hoe press, and the compass 
of Kelvin with its eight balanced magnets protected from 
the influence of the metal of the ship. Invention is 
applied science, and, as has been well said, science must 
first exist before it can be applied. Between the scientific 
investigator, the discoverer of principles, and the inventor 
who applies them, there need be no jealousy. If the latter 
has the popular fame and the financial reward of the 
present, it is often to the former that the future belongs, 
and in any event, in the words of the generous Schley at 
Santiago, “ there is glory enough for all.” And, after all r 
why should the name of science be refused to that vast 
body of knowledge, classified and tested, which is in daily 
use in the laboratories of the industries of the world. 
But to science, even in its most restricted sense, the 
debt of society is incalculable. It has evoked those good 
genii, steam and electricity. Watt was led to the inven- 
tion of the steam engine, not by a boy's glance at his 
mother’s tea kettle, but through the discover by Black of 
latent heat, and after two years of profound study of such 
