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Men of Invention and Industry-Part11_Samuel Smiles(1812-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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necessary to do something for the inventor. The Civil Engineers,

with Robert Stephenson, M.P., in the chair, entertained him at a



dinner and presented him with a handsome salver and claret jug.

And that he might have something to put upon his salver and into



his claret jug, a number of his friends and admirers subscribed

over 2000L. as a testimonial. The Government appointed him



Curator of the Patent Museum at South Kensington; the Queen

granted him a pension on the Civil List for 200L. a year; he was



raised to the honour of knighthood in l87l, and three years later

he died.



Francis Pettit Smith was not a great inventor. He had, like many

others, invented a screw propeller. But, while those others had



given up the idea of prosecuting it to its completion, Smith

stuck to his invention with determined tenacity, and never let it



go until he had secured for it a complete triumph. As Mr.

Stephenson observed at the engineer's meeting: "Mr. Smith had



worked from a platform which might have been raised by others, as

Watt had done, and as other great men had done; but he had made a



stride in advance which was almost tantamount to a new invention.

It was impossible to overrate the advantages which this and other



countries had derived from his untiring and devotedpatience in

prosecuting the invention to a successful issue." Baron Charles



Dupin compared the farmer Smith with the barber Arkwright: "He

had the same perseverance and the same indomitable courage.



These two moral qualities enabled him to triumph over every

obstacle." This was the merit of "Screw" Smith--that he was



determined to realize what his predecessors had dreamt of

achieving; and he eventuallyaccomplished his great purpose.



Footnotes for Chapter II.

[1] In the Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects



for 1860, it was pointed out that the general dimensions and form

of bottom of this ship were very similar to the most famous



line-of-battle ships built down to the end of last century, some

of which were then in existence.



[2] According to the calculation of Mr. Chatfield, of Her

Majesty's dockyard at Plymouth, in a paper read before the



British Association in 1841 on shipbuilding.

[3] The phrase "wooden walls" is derived from the Greek. When



the city of Athens was once in danger of being attacked and

destroyed, the oracle of Delphi was consulted. The inhabitants



were told that there was no safety for them but in their "wooden

walls,"--that is their shipping. As they had then a powerful



fleet, the oracle gave them rational advice, which had the effect

of saving the Athenian people.



[4] An account of these is given by Bennet Woodcraft in his

Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation, London,



1848.

[5] See Industrial Biography, pp. 183-197,



[6] The story is told in Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine,

for April 1879. Ericsson's modest bill was only $15,000 for two



years' labour. He was put off from year to year, and at length

the Government refused to pay the amount. "The American



Government," says the editor of Scribner, "will not appropriate

the money to pay it, and that is all. It is said to be the



nature of republics to be ungrateful; but must they also be

dishonest?"



[7] Memoirs of the Life and Services of Rear-Admiral Sir William

Symonds, Kt., p. 332.



CHAPTER III.[1]

JOHN HARRISON: INVENTOR OF THE MARINE CHRONOMETER.



No man knows who invented the mariner's compass, or who first

hollowed out a canoe from a log. The power to observe accurately



the sun, moon, and planets, so as to fix a vessel's actual

position when far out of sight of land, enabling long voyages to



be safely made; the marvellous improvements in ship-building,

which shortened passages by sailing vessels, and vastly reduced



freights even before steam gave an independent force to the

carrier--each and all were done by small advances, which together






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