Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/77

Rh The practical value of new scientific knowledge as a source of wealth and progress is incomparably greater than that of all the coal-deposits, petroleum-springs, and gold-fields of the earth. This great truth, though familiar to scientific investigators, is but little perceived or appreciated by our rulers or by the mass of their electors; and the chief reason for this is the fact that they possess insufficient knowledge of science. Even governments can only appreciate that which they understand, and can only act as circumstances and public opinion allow them, and when fettered by an ignorant population are powerless to preserve a nation from decay.

There can not be a more complete error than to suppose that new knowledge discovered by means of scientific research is not practical. Its immense practical value has been abundantly proved in a multitude of cases. It was largely by means of such knowledge respecting coal, its properties, constituents, and products gained by means of experiments, that coal was applied to so many uses. One of the most recent proofs of the practical value of such knowledge is the conversion of the heat of coal into electric current and light in the dynamo-electric machine and electric lamp; the entire existence of these instruments arose from new knowledge discovered in purely scientific researches by Davy and Faraday. It is not necessary to describe here the exact beginnings of gas-lighting, phosphorus-matches, photography, the voltaic battery, electro-plating, aniline dyes, telegraphy, the telephone, etc. These, and a multitude of other utilities in common use, had their earliest origin more or less completely, not in the labors of the inventor or of the more directly practical man, but in those of philosophical investigators whose experiments were made with the far more widely practical object—the discovery of new scientific knowledge.

It is not the mere possession of good things, but making the best and earliest use of them that most conduces to success. Our great stock of coal lay comparatively useless as a source of national wealth until philosophical investigators discovered its constituents and properties, and inventors applied these to useful purposes. Other nations also possessed coal, and our greater success than theirs was largely and essentially due to the fact that we were the earliest in applying it to important and varied uses. We must not wait, therefore, for those nations to discover for us new knowledge respecting natural forces and substances, but discover it ourselves, in order that we may have the first chance of applying those forces and substances to practical uses, and of offering the useful products for sale or in exchange for food and other commodities.

It is well known that a man who has no faith in medicine will not apply to a physician until death stares him in the face. Similarly the average politician and the ordinary elector, having but little knowledge of philosophical experiments or faith in them, will probably not