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 Short
Stories
of Science and Invention A Collection of Radio Talks by Charles F. Kettering |
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The comparison of music and invention may not hold good in all
respects. The music to which we have been listening exists today as
composed by Richard Wagner. It is a perfected
idea like a painting, a statue, or a poem - it has been
transported to many countries, and played by many orchestras - but
it retains its original form. Today we have the music as originally
composed - and the masterly interpretations of Toscanini's
broadcast to millions of listeners. And through recordings, this
music is available for command performances at any time.The engine of Diesel's, on the other hand, was just the physical representation of an idea. The idea was a seed, a seed which, although it was transported to other parts of the world, kept growing and changing until today practically nothing is left of the original engine. This change is the result of the work of American engineers who in the last 20 years have entirely transformed the engine from a heavy, slow-speed source of power to one of high speed, great flexibility, and light weight. This new engine is one of America's most important contributions to the war. But in many ways ideas are more important than people - they are much more permanent. Just like the electrical idea which I mentioned some time ago, that was born 2,500 years ago - the Diesel engine grew out of something that happened hundreds of years before the inventor was born.   |
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