Abstract
FOR several reasons it is a profitable exercise to trace back a modern invention, or commercial appliance, to the fundamental discoveries froni which it sprang. In the first place, the debt of commerce to pure science is thus demonstrated; for it is safe to say that none of the numerous inventions and devices which are of such immense commercial importance at the present day could have come into existence had it not been preceded by one, or possibly many discoveries arising out of research pursued in a purely academic spirit. But, as being of far more importance from the point of view of the ardent beginner in scientific re search, the tracing of the germinal discoveries upon which an invention is based is of value as showing how all academic research, remote though it may appear from the service of mankind, may contain within it the germ from which is to develop an influ ence capable of tincturing the whole fabric of a nation's existence. A moving pebble may start an avalanche.…
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The Utility of the Useless1. Nature 100, 176–178 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/100176b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/100176b0