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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 1921)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN. PORTLAND, JANUARY 2. 1921 NEXT CENTURY TO SEE MORE PROGRESS, SAYS FRENCHMAN Rene Bache Confident Achievements of Man Will Equal if Not Exceed Past Century's Advance BY RENE BACHE. THE progress of Invention In the next century will, in my belief be not less treat than in the last 100 years; its achievements will be not less remarkable. What we may call the century of in vention began in 1820. when photog raphy took the world by surprise. The hundred years since then elapsed have done more for the advancement of mankind in the mechanical arte than all the previous ages. They have elevated civilization to an entirely new plane. A century from now the human race, thanks to indentions as yet un thought of, is likely to be as far be yond where we are today as we are ahead of our forebears of 100 years ago. To suppose that we are ap proaching a limit is absurd. There is no more end to invention than to science. Every new scientific dis covery gives rise to thousands of in ventions What was it Sir Isaac Newton said? That in the gathering of knowledge we had but picked up a few grains of sand on the seashore. We are only Just beginning to invade the realms of science, and therefore are but just entering the era of invention. Where the fine arts are concerned, ft seems as if mankind could get so far and no farther. Architecture found its culmination in the Parthe non at Athens. For our best archi tectural ideas we go back to the an cients. We do not pretend to equal the ancient Greek3 in sculpture, or the old masters in painting. Litera ture reached its climax in Shake speare. Inventton, on the other hand, knows no climax, no culmination. We are climbing a ladder whose top is lost In the sky. That is where science, which deals with the concrete, dif fers from imagination, which inspires the fine arts. Yet, of course, without Imagination there would be no inven tion. Who reads these words may puzzle out that paradox for himself. There are so many things about which we know little or nothing. It Is wonderful how little we know, relatively to what remains to be found out. As yet we have but touched the fringe of knowledge. In the last 100 years America has produced at least two-thirds prob ably I would not be beyond the mark If I said three-fourths ofthe epoch making inventions. A few among them are the telephone, the telegraph, the phonograph, the sewing machine, harvesting and other agricultural ma chines, the submarine boat, and the flying machine. I do not know why it is. but the Europeans seem to excel us in work ing out details of inventions. We are foremost in originating ideas, but when it comes to developing them they are superior. Wc invented the flying machine, but they developed It and make better airplanes than any we have. It is the same way with the submarine boat, the task of per fecting which was left mainly to for eign mechanicians. It Is impossible to say in what lines Invention seems likely to progress from this time on. Nobody can pre dict its trend. In the early '90s. we, in the patent office, thought that elec trical invention had about reached its climax, and that chemistry would spring to the front. But it did not work out that way. Electrical in ventions since then have outnumbered chemical inventions. On the other hand, the flying ma chine was by no means so great a surprise as might be supposed. We expected it, notwithstanding the fail ure of innumerable attempts in that direction. Who can say that during the next hundred years human beings may not find out how to derive power from the sun, to harness the tides, or even to communicate with other worlds? We do not venture to ex pect these achievements, yet they may arrive. During the recent European conflict about 50,000 inventions were submit ted to the war department fox con sideration. All were studiously ex amined, but none proved utiligazle, I think, though possibly one or two may have been turned to account. Nearly all of them were crude and unprac tical. A few would have been valu able, doubtless, if developed. To be useful, an invention must be developed. A patent gives a man a monopoly which enables him to get capital for developing his invention; and the development of an invention is as important as the making of it. The originator of a clever Idea does not deserve ail the credit; the man who makes it available for use merits an equal share of applause. If we stopped Issuing patents In the United States the progress of the country would stop. There would be nobody to develop new inventions. No body would take hold of a new thing and put it on the market if John Smith, an outsider, could come along, grab the idea and absorb the profits. . , People generally are far from real izing the value of our patent system. Holland, -'0 years ago, said. "What's the use? We are surrounded by oth er countries England, France, Ger many, Belgium. We'll get our ideas from them, and do without any patent system of our own." They did do without it, and progress stopped righ there. After a while they saw their mistake, and today Holland has one of the best patent systems in the world. Engines and, other contrivances for the production and utilization of en ergy since the American revolution have multiplied the power of man kind a thousandfold. If man were dependent so'ely upon his muscular efforts, civilization in its present state could not exist. The reaper and thresher alone have done immeasurably more to augment the supply of food than ail education al and institutional agencies put to gether. One could not even try to reckon the increased property values due to the steam engine, the steam ship and the railroad. To figure the addicd prosperity giyen to the world by the Bessemer process would stag ger imagination. Electrical and chem ical inventions in the last 40 years have yielded an increment of wealth, productivity and comfort beyond com putation. Look back over those 40 years, only as far as 1880, and observe how prim itive were many of the conditions of existence as viewed from our present-day standpoint. How did the peo ple of those days manage to get along without the telephone, the typewrit er, the cash register, the safety bi cycle, the electric street car. the play er piano, the skyscraper building with steel skeleton, the "wireless," the au tomobile and a multitude of minor conveniences now in common use, but then unknown? Look back 100 years, and it is like taking a jump into the dark ages. To speak only of the family dwelling, there was no bathroom, no running water, no plumbing, no central heat ing system, no carpets, no wall paper, no fly screens, no means of illumina tion better than candles or lamps, no kitchen range and not even a match with which to light the fire! The United States patent office has never done such a rushing business as at the present time. The people have turned from war to the arts of peace, and inventions are pouring in. In 1913 the increase in number of in ventions submitted was 35 per cent. A few figures showing the growth of invention in this country ought to be interesting. In 1838 the number of patents granted was 10?. Evidently in those days Americans did not go in for inventing things to any great extent. But if one looks back only as far as the year when the civil war came to an end, it is found that the patents for that twelvemonth num bered not many more than 6000. Immediately after the civil war, however, they took a jump. In 1866 8000 patents were issued, and in the next year 12,000. After that there was no material increase for 13 years. The number granted in 1880 was less than 13,000. But in 1900 it rose well above 24,000; in 1909 it was more than 36,000, and in 1917 .we Issued over 41,000 patents. Another after Lhe-war rise, corresponding to tha which began' in 1866, is now in prog ress. It seems manifest that war has a tendency to stimulate invention. Some of our modern inventions are in reality very ancient. A notable example is the familiar safety pin which, made of bronze, was in com mon use by the Romans long before Christ was born. Another is the little metal paper fastener with ends that bend over, for holding sheets to gether. Exactly the same contrivance was employed to fasten the leather covering upon the bronze belts of Caesar's legionaries. The Chinese, who first domesticated the silkworm and- wove its product Into cloth, are credited with a num ber of inventions which today we re gard as fundamentals of civilization and which did not become known in Europe until several centuries had passed. Among them were paper, ink and printing from wooden blocks with raised letters. Porcelain was in ventea Dy tnose orientals who as early as the seventh century were manufacturing a beautiful semi transparent ware that excited great admiration in Europe. Even now we call this kind of ware "china." Before patents were granted, an in ventor had only ,one way to obtain j return from his invention, and that was to keep it secret. Inventions in early days were the most Valuable possessions of many families and guilds. Secret industrial processes were called "mysteries," and were hiost jealously guarded. Thus, for in stance the secret of making Venetian srlass was considered so precious that workers at the craft who strayed into other fields of endeavor were liable to be assassinated as suspected trait ors. So. well was the secret of porcelain manufacture 'guarded by the Chinese that nearly a thousand years passed before it found its way to Europe. In the year 1710 so goes the story the Elector of Saxony learned that a man named Boettcher had discovered the process. He shut the man up In a casMe. holding him prisoner, but promising him liberty and high re ward in return for a disclosure of the much-desired knowledge. Boettcher, being provided with materials and workmen to help him, succeeded in perfecting the process, and it was thus that the prduction of the famous Dresden ware was begun. Later, the secret was carried to France, where it was. the foundation of the manu facture of the celebrated pottery of Sevres. The patent system, for the reason I have mentioned, has had a most pow erful influence in accelerating in vention. No longer Is the inventor obliged to keep his idea secret; the government guarantees to him ex clusive rights in Its use for a long term of years. Thus ingenuity Is stimulated by prospect of substantial reward. A record, which includes a drawing and description, is kept of every in vention patented, and made readily accessible by card index classification, so that skilled examiners can with little effort determine whether an invention submitted for patent is new or old. Theoretically at least, a patent is never allowed unless the Invention is new. What a stimulus, then, does the pat ent system give to the development of new things! It Is a remarkable fact that more new things have been developed since the beginning of the patent systems of the world, little more than 200 years ago, than were brought to light in all the previous time of man's existence on the earth. The notion that the gentler sex pos sesses no aptitude for the mechanical has been generally accepted until very recent years. Nevertheless, the patent office can offer plenty of evi dence to disprove it. American women are going ..In for invention on no in considerable scale. Up to the present date they have taken out more than 50,000 patents. It is not .true that women lack me- would like to be sealed up In a wine cask for a hundred years, and then come out and view the world, as it would be at the end of that time. It has been our privileged fortune to enjoy the opportunity he so much desired. And what a privilege It has been. We can imagine how amazed and delighted Franklin would be If he were permitted 4o behold the me chanical and other marvels of the 20th century. For us it would be much the same way, could we see the world as It will I ence something new from which won be a century from now, when, as we derful new Inventions may grow." may well suppose, civilization will Who knows bow soon the scientific have again ascended to a new and world may unlock that secret hinted different plane, and our descendants look back upon the conditions of to day as primitive and uncomfortably antlquated. Some day, and it may not take a century to span the time H. G. Wells' mythical "atomic engine" will be working, and In that event all we will have to do will be to turn a at by Sir Oliver Lodgs the unlocking of the atom.' Lodge, et al., you will recall, have said that once the secret of the atom is unloosed unending stores of energy will lighten the bur dens of mankind. When such a renowned scientist as Edison, begins to talk about new ma chine that may enable us to com- 1 v". . - tkBBIkaJi,! . . MJOHWHmi ' .M'.-:i1' ; . ..twi'J 'J.itri u' I - if "r i mm m wm 'ymmmtm&mm m i i n in' i chanical ingenuity. One of the most noteworthy of American inventions, the ice cream freezer, was patented in 1843 by a Philadelphia woman, Mrs. Nancy Johnson. The paper bag with satchel botton, is a woman s in vention. So likewise is the artificial "comb foundation," which saves the bee imlf her labor in honeycomb con struction. We are putting women into the patent office to do highly skilled work. Girls nowadays get, a good modern education in the women's colleges, and they know how to use it. We have had in the patent office 15 women assistant examiners, and un doubtedly some of them will rise to be chle'f examiners. The march of invention has only begun. If we watch its progaess as the years go by, we shall not find that it is slowing up. There are plenty of "epoch-makers" still to ap pear. As I have said, to invention there can be no end. Ahead of us are waiting innumerable discoveries, every one of which will give rise to Inventions. Benjamin Franklin said that he BS'y'i -7. -i 7r .r "J' r.v : V'SV.! - - i - I couple of pounds of old, lead or scrap iron into the hopper and, presto! out will come endless stores of energy to perform the various labors of life and give us what we want in the way of light, power and heat at virtually no cost. "Shucks!" you say But that is what they said a hundred years ago when the "dreamer's were scanning the possibilities in the realm of sci ence for the next century. That was what they said of Eli Whitney's cot ton gin; of McCormlck's reaper; of Langley's flying machine: of Edison's talking machine; oi the wireless tele phone and telegraph, and of alt the other marvels of this 20th century. Only the other day a learned scien tist engaged in research work in this country said: "A few years from now I venture the world will not be talking about the Jugo-Slavia problem or the ties that bind Argentina and Bolivia. You will find the most conspicuous thing out of the year 1920 may turn out to be some such thing as Rutherird's discovery anent the possibilities of the helium gas particle. Why? Be- cause "ne has given the world of scl- munlcate with the spirit world, what may we expect within the next era? Science now is evolving principle af ter principle: in a few years will con' the Inventors who will combine the e principles Into unheard-of inventions TALKS WITH ROOSEVELT (Continued Frrnn Page 3.) do a task and had then shameful, y abandoned them to the mercy of the foes who know no mercy. "Those are the shadows proper for Shadow Lawn; the shadows of deed? that were never done: the shado I of brave words that were follow I by no action; the shadows of the tor tured dead." With his final gesture the houe was on its feet. It was storming tin platform as he reached toward th a exit, throwing himself through th1 group on the platform after the man ner of the expert in such work anl in a moment was on the eldewall boarding the car that was to take him to another meeting on the eas: side. Two years later I referred to thlf speech in the course of a chat, aayln? his close was quite the best thing 1 had ever heard him do. "Down front," said I. "you could almost see the ghosts rising at your call." - "Yes?" he anev-ered in query form. "Well, Mr. Wilson is not dead yet. He is a very fortunate man If he does not live to be tortured by many, many ghosts." (THE END ) Democrat Will Be Lonely. OLYMPIA, Wash. When the next state legislature meets here in Janu ary. E. F. Banker of Wlnthrop will have the honor of being the lone dem ocratic representative in Olympla. Out of 92 members of the lower house elected November 2, 89 are repub lican, two farmer-labor, and Banker is the sole survivor of the democratic organization. He was a member of the last legislature and author of the Banker bill, which became a law, providing for the state reclamation board. Name of Money Preferred. SEATTLE, Wash. Two brothers named Ruebsamen had their names changed to Mooney in the superior court because they said their friends had called them Mooney from early childhood. The name Ruebsamen literally translated means "turnip seed" they told the court, and their friends had been for many years call ing them "Moon Face" or "Mooney" because of the fullness of their faces. jpl