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 -1890] Inventions and patents. Immigration. 701 economic result till perfected and made financially successful in the United States. The practical sense of the American has been quick to turn ideas into dollars. Sewing machines and typewriters, for example, though first experimented with abroad, are practically the products of American ingenuity. Further, Americans have shown a peculiar capacity, not only for improving old processes, but also for inventing new instru- ments with purposes never before known, and for applying machine methods to industries into which they had not previously entered, as, for example, in the manufacture of watches, shoes, and silk-goods, in which hand-labour has been entirely displaced. To enumerate the inventions in the greater industries is impossible. In the manufacture of iron and steel, railroad supplies, electrical machinery, and the like, they have been countless, although frequently following an example first set by foreign investigators. In the manufacture of hardware and tools, frequently of a complicated nature, the Americans have easily led all other peoples. It is here, perhaps, that American ingenuity has found its most fertile field. No small share of the credit for this constant succession of inventions belongs to the system of patent right, which, despite occasional abuses in the undue maintenance of monopolies, has been a powerful incentive to constant improvement. The patent law is based on the Act of 1836, its chief characteristics being a careful investigation of the claim to novelty and priority, and the grant of monopoly right for a considerable period, at present seventeen years. Whether we maintain that a patent should protect the discoverer of the invention or the capitalist who risks his money in putting the invention on the market, the system has been justified by its results. Endowed with such qualities for industrial success, the people were rapidly increasing through natural causes while receiving enormous additions to their labour force through immigration. The influence of immigration on the economic conditions of the country has been a subject of much discussion ; but that it has materially hastened industrial expansion can scarcely be disputed. The first great wave of immigration came in the nine years following 1845, and was largely Irish and German, due to the conditions of distress in those countries. This move- ment continued, but at a reduced rate, down to the Civil War. As soon as hostilities closed, immigrants again came in large numbers down to the depression following 1873, when the numbers again decreased, only to rise again in a still greater wave in the years from 1880 to 1884. In 1882 the enormous total of 789,000 was reached. Down to this time nearly 90 per cent, of European immigrants were from the good stock of western Europe. They were chiefly unskilled labourers, but vigorous, quick to learn, and easily assimilated ; and a large percentage were in the ages of greatest productivity. The quick rise of the capitalistic system of production is not easy where a vigorous and independent CH. XXII.