. The street railway review . un is an expressionfrequently made by those whose historical researches bringthem upon an illustration or description of some mechanicaldevice that contains the essential features of some new inven-tion that is heralded as a useful appliance, sure to work arevolution in present methods of doings things, or highlyvaluable as a labor saving device. Again it is often said, The possibilities of scientific dis-coveries are beyond all imagination. It is a sign of igno-rance and superstition to hold always to the first statement,and deny that nothing new can be, while it
. The street railway review . un is an expressionfrequently made by those whose historical researches bringthem upon an illustration or description of some mechanicaldevice that contains the essential features of some new inven-tion that is heralded as a useful appliance, sure to work arevolution in present methods of doings things, or highlyvaluable as a labor saving device. Again it is often said, The possibilities of scientific dis-coveries are beyond all imagination. It is a sign of igno-rance and superstition to hold always to the first statement,and deny that nothing new can be, while it is equally a signof ignorance to receive all new things as really new becausethey have never before come into ones experience. The newold things, however, may be adopted and serve our purposejust as fully as though they had never before been known toothers, or had never been lost and foimd. It is a curious factthat many so-called modern inventors spend a great deal oftime and money developing a device that has been tried and. found wanting years before. Some of them, being entirelyignorant of previous experiments along the same line, mayjustly lay claim to originality, while others, perchance, mayknow of former efforts along the same line, and thinking toimprove on some points, that had baffled some formerinventor, may produce a useful device, but not be able topatent it, or if patented, not be able to sustain the claimsshould the existence of the former device come to the light. For the above reasons the presentation of some of theprimitive railway appliances will prove historically interest-ing to those who like to watch evolutionary processes, whilesome of the contrivances, although they may have failed intheir object on first application, or turned to very littleaccount, either from inherent defects, or from being onlyuseful under circumstances which rarely occur, may never-theless exhibit such admirable comljination of parts thatultimatelv they may be rendered subservient
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectstreetrailroads
