Invention: The Master-key to Progress

Оглавление

Fiske Bradley Allen. Invention: The Master-key to Progress

PREFACE

CHAPTER I. INVENTION IN PRIMEVAL TIMES

CHAPTER II. INVENTION IN THE ORIENT

CHAPTER III. INVENTION IN GREECE

CHAPTER IV. INVENTION IN ROME: ITS RISE AND FALL

CHAPTER V. THE INVENTION OF THE GUN AND OF PRINTING

CHAPTER VI. COLUMBUS, COPERNICUS, GALILEO AND OTHERS

CHAPTER VII. THE RISE OF ELECTRICITY, STEAM AND CHEMISTRY

CHAPTER VIII. THE AGE OF STEAM, NAPOLEON AND NELSON

CHAPTER IX. INVENTIONS IN STEAM, ELECTRICITY AND CHEMISTRY CREATE A NEW ERA

CHAPTER X. CERTAIN IMPORTANT CREATIONS OF INVENTION, AND THEIR BENEFICENT INFLUENCE

CHAPTER XI. INVENTION AND GROWTH OF LIBERAL GOVERNMENT, AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

CHAPTER XII. INVENTION OF THE MODERN MILITARY MACHINE, TELEPHONE, PHONOGRAPH, AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

CHAPTER XIII. THE CONQUEST OF THE ETHER – MOVING PICTURES – RISE OF JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES

CHAPTER XIV. THE FRUITION OF INVENTION

CHAPTER XV. THE MACHINE OF CIVILIZATION, AND THE DANGEROUS IGNORANCE CONCERNING IT, SHOWN BY STATESMEN

CHAPTER XVI. THE FUTURE

Отрывок из книги

Our original ancestors dwelt in caves and wildernesses; had no sewed or fabricated clothing of any kind; subsisted on roots and nuts and berries; possessed no arts of any sort; were ignorant to a degree that we cannot imagine, and were little above the brutes in their mode of living. Today, a considerable fraction of the people who dwell upon the earth enjoy a civilization so fine that it seems to have no connection with the brutish conditions of primeval life. Yet, as these pages show, a perfectly plain series of inventions can be seen, starting from the old conditions and building up the new.

The progress of man during the countless ages of prehistoric times is hidden from our knowledge, except in so far as it has been revealed to us by ruins of ancient cities, by prehistoric utensils of many kinds, and by inscriptions carved on monuments and tablets. The sharp dividing line between prehistoric times and historic times, seems to be that made by the art of writing; for this epochal invention rendered possible the recording of events, and the consequent beginning of history.

.....

Who they were, and where and when they lived, is not known and probably never will be. For countless centuries their names and personalities have been forgotten as wholly as those of many beasts. But maybe other achievements like those that have exposed the history of certain Oriental kings and wise men to our knowledge, will some day tell us who were the inventors who started the march of human progress, and pointed out the road that it should follow.

Yet, if we infer the probable conditions of the remote past from the conditions of the present and recent past, we shall have to conclude that, while the names and deeds of prehistoric rulers may some day become known to us, and even the names of authors, poets and song singers, the names of the original inventors will be forever hid. For inventors have ever been depreciated in their day; even at the present time, despite the known facts as to what inventions and inventors have done for every one of us, the inventor as an inventor is lightly regarded, and so are his inventions. So are his inventions until they have ceased to be regarded as inventions, and have been accepted as constituent parts of the machine of civilization. By that time the inventor has often been forgotten.

.....