was also true of Stephenson when he constructed the Manchester- 
Liverpool Railroad. 
“It would be an almost endless task to cite all the instances 
where unjust treatment was accorded to discoverers and in¬ 
ventors by high officials who were designated with various kinds 
of scientific titles and wished to display their official importance. 
Let it suffice to enumerate a few of the most striking examples: 
A scholar occupying a high official position, whose special duty 
it was to give as much publicity as possible to the latest dis¬ 
coveries and inventions in a periodical devoted to physics and 
chemistry, rejected two of the most brilliant contributions of the 
19th century because they were not offered by professional col¬ 
leagues, but by a physician and a private teacher respectively. 
One of these contributions covered the law of the preservation 
of force, which was destined to become so significant to the art 
of engineering and physics. The other consisted of the tele¬ 
phone, which might have been employed to the disadvantage of 
the enemy in the war of 1870-71, had it not been for the official 
stupidity above mentioned. 
8 
