Inventors and Inventions.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 90, 1 October 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

Inventors and Inventions.

"MAKE FOOLS OF THEMSELVES."

Not infrequently great inventors do not comprehend the significance of the thing they have produced. An interesting anecdote of two famousi men of science whose foresight did not equal their inventive ability follows. When Hertz first began to obtain satisfactory results from his now famous researches into the possibility of transmitting electric waves certain men of science suggested that some day similar vibrations might serve to transmit messages through 6pace. Hertz laughed at the hypothesis, and assured all comers that his experiments were for laboratories only. Now, after a few short years, it is hard to find a single issue of a daily paper that does not record some noteworthy example of the use of wireless telegraphy. Levassor was the great engineer who sketched the motor-car with such skill that his design has not been materially changed to this day. After Levassor accomplished his historic trip from Paris to Bordeaux and return, at the dizzy speed of fifteen miles an hour, his admirers gave him a banquet. During the toasts, one of them, stirred by the sprit of the occasion, rose and enthusiastically called on the assembly to drink to the approaching day when carriages should travel at the speed of sixty miles an honr. Levassor turned to his nearest neighbour and asked, in a quick undertone, "Why fa it that after every banquet some people feel called on to make fools of themselves?"