Page:Aleksander Głowacki - O odkryciach i wynalazkach.djvu/8

 from those in Europe; in short, he had discovered a new part of the world that others would later name “America.” We say that Columbus had discovered America because America had already long existed on Earth.

Invention is the making of a thing that has not previously existed, and which nature itself cannot make. Example: As late as 500 years ago, gunpowder was unknown in Europe, and it was only about 1379 that Berthold Schwarz, a Freiburg monk, on mixing saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, found that these three materials could be made into an explosive substance. Since gunpowder does not form, of itself, in nature and must be made by man, we say that Schwarz invented gunpowder. Similarly, 50 years ago locomotives were unknown, and no one knew how to build one; it was only in 1828 that the English engineer Stephenson built the first locomotive and set it in motion. So we say that Stephenson invented the locomotive because this machine had not previously existed because it could not of itself have come into being in nature and could only have been made by man.

Let us bear in mind, then, that if an astronomer, using a choice telescope, makes out in the sky a tiny light that has hitherto been unknown, we shall say that this person has made a discovery.

Likewise, a mariner shall make a discovery if, while sailing a sea, he sights an island unknown to any.

Likewise, we shall say that a naturalist has made a discovery if he has found a hitherto unknown plant, animal, or stone.

But if someone builds a harvester, a clock, a sewing machine – if he obtains paints from coal, if he makes a steel different from that which exists today – then this person makes an invention, that is, makes a thing previously unknown, which nature itself could not make and maintain.

History, the study of what has happened among people in the past,