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THE HONG KONG DAILY PRESS
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1930.
ENGINEERS AS SAVIOURS OF CHINA.
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1.),
In the streets of London, some
The Beauty of Simplicity. thirty years ago, a young graduate
If you are willing to pay for it, in engineering, who now has the
you get, nowadays almost anything honour to be President of your Society was seated on an omnibus that you fancy. An engineer in drawn by horses. One of the then said to be a man who can do for one dollar what anyone else can do new-fangled motorcars tried to pass for two, The cause of the success us. The driver of the horses, with the ready wit of his kind, called of a few and the (commercial) failure of many patents is, general. out:-"Now then, Elijah, set only, not the ingenuity of the inven with your chariot of fire! will remember the legend in Jewish tion, but the cost of production. history which tells how the puri-For nearly all new patents are in- tanical prophet ascended to the genious, but not many make fortunes
You
by the sights of suffering eried Kill, kill, Watt was working out the beginning of the great economic salvation of mankind. Ignoring" those who cried out for blood, be patiently pursued his experiments. and studies. A penniless prophet, William Blake in his wild desire to free the manual workers from their condition of semi-slavery, could sing only of weapons. In his enthu- sins to improve mankind he piped! bravely on
Bring me my bow of burning
gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire! Bring me my spear! O clouds,
unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fre
clouds in a chariot of fire. The for the inventors. It is, however, Little did he dream that, as if in
Londen busman was reminded of it by the noise and dense smoke from the motorcar. The motorcar
is very different to-day. The horse now no longer competes with the machine as a means of transport The petrol-engine has penetrated into every part of the world. It has carried men nearer to the skies than any other agency of which we have any deginite knowledge,
It is certain that, but for the invention of the steam-engine, cheap! steel, and the electrical dynamo, we should not have had the chariot of fire that ascends daily, and is often to be seen flying over Hong Kong. For the source of the power of the engine is fire. Within it are tem peratures greater than that at which cast iron melts.
Let us examine the various steps in the evolution of the dying. machine, man's great triumph over gravity, space and time. We are already inclined to accept it as commonplace, but it is something very remarkable. Take it, all in all, it represents the finest thing that man as a gregarious animal has ever produced. Into it he has put as much of his human patience, common sense, forethought, experi- mental philosophy, habits of order and obedience, carefully-wrought handiwork, defiance of brute ele- ments, and careless courage as can well be put into anything that has yet been made on earth.
Instead of fashioning everything anew by manual labour, the modern plan is to manufacture by pro- cesses of copying. A century ago, in Europe, as in most parts of China to-day, everything was slowly and imperfectly made by the work 'man's hand. The machine works more rapidly, more efficiently.
The Revolution,
encouraging to how that in some cases inventors have made enormous sums of money.
Simplicity in a hallmark of good invention. Within limits any clever mechanic can devise a machine to do anything, provided you do not mind it being complicated and cost- y. The genius comes along and does the same thing in a simple manner. Everybody then says "Why didn't I think of that, my self?"
It may be as well to emphasise the beauty of simplicity. Take case noticeable on the railway. The early experimenters with the steam locomotive believed that, in order load, the rails must have; to pull teeth and the engine a toothed wheel to work in them. genius showed that smooth wheels can grip, and run on, smooth rails. We admit that the motor-car of to-day is far too complicated, a machine. Thousands of engineers are at work trying to invent simpler methods of power transmission, etc.
Fundamental Inventions,
The
In the University" workshops and engineering laboratories you can see thousands of ideas that once were original." We can show you a machine which, automatically, takes in a rod at one end and turns out hundreds of cheese-headed screws at the other end without
hand touching machine or metal. Every day there is the possibility of aee- ing, hearing, or reading of some new marvel.
2
The wheel was probably the first great invention; at any rate, it was the first effort to improve transport. Nearly all great inventions are for the purpose of conveying motion from one place to another; or to convert motion from one form to another; or else to change the direction or speed of motion. Every man on a bicycle illustrates how we can change up and down, motion, into reciprocating. or rotary motion. His knees move up and down, and the lower parts of his legs acts as connecting rods, to connect his knees with the cranks on his cycle. So the up and down motion of his knees is changed into the rotary motion of the wheel. James Watt applied this idea to the steam-engine; and the up and The invention of the steam-engine down motion of the piston is was the event in history that has changed by means of a connecting had had the greatest effect on the rod and crank to drive the shaft This happens human race. Although the internal round and round. combustion engine and turbine may daily in millions of motor-cars. The displace it, the change from one to up and down motion of the piston the other is only a matter of degree causes the rear wheel of the car to of economy, The change wrought rotate, and these wheels push the car forward. In the ordinary by the invention of the steam-sewing machine the reverse takes engine revolutionized all manufac place. The part which holes the tures and all modes of travel needle takes its up and down motion Machinery, actuated by the forces from a wheel which is turned by of Nature, but invented by man, hand or an electric motor. then came into "being. Because of the astonishing results of his work, and on account of the number and ingenuity of his inventions. James Watt must have a place in the anaals of mankind incomparable to anyone else. Probably many, men almost unknown were as clever Kelvin was undoubtedly an amazing genius. We cannot compare the re- lative ability of men like Faraday, Kelvin. Daimler, and other inven- tors. It is however, obvious that the work of Watt was unique in its results. He made possible all over the world the use of coal and oil for power-production. Everything material in our modern life, includ ing transport, depends on that,
Every new invention, evers triumph of engineering skill, in an embodiment of some scientific idea. The purpose of a University is to provide you, not only with definite facts, but to stimulate your imagina tion. If an apology were needed for training engineers in a Univer- sity, it can be said that nearly all of the great inventions have been closely associated with seats of learning. The greatest invention of all, the steam-engine, was mainly the work of Watt in the University The steam and gas engine arc of Glasgow. Faraday, doing his machines which change the heat of researches in London, produced that fuel into mechanical work. We can wonderful machine, the electric do the reverse by using mechanical dyhalo. In King's College, Lon work to pump out heat. from let don. Wheatstone sent the first us say, water, and "then we get incasago by telegraph. Kelvin, who ice. The cold production of the re- made so many inventions concerned frigerating-machine is a compara with the sea, and electricity, was tively new invention, but it is a Professor in the University of already beginning to make life in Glasgow. In University College, the tropica much more comfortable. Liverpool, Sir Oliver Lodge sent That grow out of the steam-engine. and received the first wireless news. It is capable of very great improve- And so the story might be con ment. We look for simplicity. tinued Let us discuss the actual That is why the recent invention inventions rather than the remark of the freezing apparatus which has able men who gave these great gifts no moving parts is so admirable. to mankind, although it is well to We merely supply, heat, but there remember that they were all men of is no mechanism. It is so simple.. great industry and fine character." We shall have cheaper and simpler The records of the British Patent methods of freezing and heating in Office commenced in 1617. In that our houses at no distant date. vehr only five patents were grant- ed, some being privileges given to favourites and not really inven- tione. Nowadays there are about 90,000 patents Bled annually in Eng
land.
The grant of a patent does not confer upon the recipient the legal right to priority. All that it means
Mental and Manual Work.
No one works by hand except for recreation if he can get some power. to do it for him. During the last hundred years there has been s very great increase in mental work and a great decrease in manual work in countries which have bene fitted by inventions. Manual drud- gery elevates no one. Therefore it is fair to say that using the power produced by oil, coal or water has raised mankind, to a higher state af civilization. Indeed, we may say that a nation is civilised when it substitutes thought and meekanism for muscle power. A chauffeur is higher in the scale than a rickshaw coolic..
The day must come when in all parts of the world we shall regulate the condition of the air, in our houses, so that it shall be just at the most suitable temperature and hamidity. Then the human machine will work more efficiently in Hong Kong.
It is only about 150 years ago id that certain engineering, or that Watt took out the first of his scientifically trained, Government many patents in, connection with officials have searched through the steam, It was at a period when records of the Patent Office, and, revolution and bloodshed was being so far as they can discover, the Freached as the panacea for the ides described in the application is evils of life. Poverty was the main original. But any one can challenge cause of the French Reign of the owner of the patent in the law-Terror as it is of China's chaos to-day. While reformera, inflamed courts.
time forging a chariot of fire in the answer to his cry, Watt was at that precints of the University of Glas Row. All of Blake's gestures were futile that ghastly work of the French revolutionaries left only a Watt's work re- legacy of hate.
maina immortal. It substituted
mental for manual labour.
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It is of interest to note that the inventor frst turned his attention because & pump works that way. If the turbine machine much earlier. to steam, as a substitute for man-Watt had tried to produce a steam It will finally triumph, for it is. power and borse-power, for pumping motor-car or a steamship instead of simpler than the alternative.
[Tho
Professor remainder of water out of coal and other mines. & pumping-engine, he might have ex-
perimented with wheels instead of Middleton Smith's lecture will ap-. That is why he thought of the up and down, or reciprocating, motion, pistons. Then we might have had pear in to-morrow's issue.]
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