THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 19, 1937.
Many of the world's greatest discoveries were by amateurs whom
Women drove to distraction
The Talking Encyclopedia
N amateur may be defined as time his wife had left him, but he might waste his ti
so Darwin California, discovered three-inch
A somebody whose wife thinks fortunately he needed no more white adopted natural history as a hobby. through his
he is wasting his time. He is a kid gloves. man who does what he wants to do
teurs.
On this trip he made the observa- The comet bears his name. tions for his theory of the origin
=
she
when he ought to be doing some It is curious to note that monks of the species.
Merchants, barbers, and tea thing else. Woman is naturally and artists abound among the great
ers, as well as monks and painters, constituted to resent such behaviour, amateurs of history. Both types, It is of course impossible to speak are among the great amateurs, but If a man has a hobby such as as- in their divergent ways, are noted of artist-inventors and bachelor- it must be admitted that a few of tronomy, photography, ΟΙ radio for their independence of woman- artists without mentioning Leonardo them were stimulated to activity by transmission he has constantly to hood. The modern law of heredity Da Vinci, the universal genius who, women folk Elias Howe wan be reminding his spouse that some was worked out by Mendel, a monk, like Friar Bacon, wrote backwards, railroad engineer, and, like the Rev. of the greatest scientific discoveries who conducted a series of breeding and theorised on flying machines. Lee, got bored with watchin in the world, some of the inventions experiments with mice. The mon- Da Vinci anticipated the camera, man's handiwork. In this that have turned the course of the astery refused to allow the amat and made the first stereopticon, woman was his wife, human race, were made by ama eur biologist to publish his work, as Through his "pinhole box," a light- eternally sewing. He
it dealt with the lewd subject of ed candle projected a painting onto sewing machine in mating. Mendel repeated all of his a wall:
might get through earlier Paradoxically enough, the word work, using peas instead of mice. amateur means lover.
The reproduction of peas was not Like most artists, Robert Fulton The classic example of the ama considered immoral, and the world was a super-energetic lazy man. teur everything is Ben Franklin, learned about heredity.
At fourteen, he built a paddle-wheel bachelor.. Perhaps the most perfect illus-
No one can say them boat in order to avoid poling while was a lack of women in Franklin's *tration of the conflict between ama- teur and amatory pursuits is the
Women meant nothing in the life fishing. When away from his easel, life, but he allowed himself plenty case, of William Lee, a young Eng- of Roger Bacon, Franciscan friar he didn't deem it necessary to ac of leisure, and there was no one lish clergyman who flourished at of the thirteenth century, who is count for all his spare time to any around to stop his bubbling mind the beginning of the industrial era. credited with the discovery of gun- one lady, and consequently became from adventuring into all fields of Rev. Lee was wasting his evenings powder. Friar Bacon was a philo- an amateur inventor of torpedoes knowledge. He invented "paying his addresses" to a certain sopher and mathematician, the first and submarines; then, perhaps seek- bowl xylophone called the armani- young woman. But every time he to use the scientific method" of ex- ing something-for the torpedoes to ca,
bifocal spectacles, lightning rods, electric treatment for. called, he found her "busily employ-
sis, the Franklin stove ed in knitting." What Was she
lights, and daylight knitting? we ask of history. The answer is obvious. She was knitt- ing stockings. All evening he would sit around listening to the click of
By Dr. Eric Clarkson
served that
would be saved
every year by
for its enfor
steam- "Every
rises, church be
her needles, while she "would pay perimentation. He planned flying sink, Fulton developed the no attention to his addresses? This machines, worked with lenses, and boat. conduct she pursued for so long a left a backward-written cryptogram period that the lover became dis which indicates he was the first man The astronomer is probably the is not gusted, and he vowed to devote his to examine cells and spermatozoa by most austere of amateurs; he must in every leisure, instead of dancing attend- means of a microscope. But the ance on a capricious woman, who
put by women to indulge his night- gards effectual wife will try to make something of treated his attention with cold neg the fact that Friar Bacen died of few years ago, Masani. Nagata, a time peerings at the sky. Only a
He had no lect, in devising an invention that pneumonia, contracted while he was melon patch foreman in Brawley, asleep w would effectually supersede her fav getting snow to stuff a dead chic- ourite employment of knitting. So
ken, which was trying to pre sedulous was Mr. Lee in his new occupation, that he neglected thing
mplish this ject of his
Satter
found
late
too
serve.
ob
The English clergy, though per his Tmitted to marry, don't seem to have spent much time dallying with wives Joseph Priestley, or sweethearts. who amateurishly discovered oxygen, derived most of his satisfaction in life out of theological dispute, che mical and electrical experimenta- tting tion, and revolutionary writing. of An English mob burned his house, point chapel, laboratory, and books when 18 he espoused; the French revolution-
ary cause
he
-ma-
kept distance.
Our knowledge of high blood pressure is due to the "fooling around" of the Rev. Stephen Hales, Another clergyman who knew the perpetual curate of Teddington comparative worth of a wife and a from 1709
hobby was the Rev. J. BReade in his weekdays tying spent all
down mares.
ventor of one of the basic pro and cutting holes in their fe ses in photography. Eev. Reade arteries "in order to see how high accidentally found that negative the blood would rise in a tube which prints turned out better on leather he hummediately inserted. than on paper. Naturally
in need of leather upon which
continue his experiments,
ther he could find
in his w
John Napier, the Scotch theofo- time for women,
the
YOU
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