Short Stories
of Science and Invention

A Collection of Radio Talks by
Charles F. Kettering

INDEX

24.  A Man Who Groped in the Dark


Pallisey    If he had discovered the white enamel, which he so painfully sought, he would never have been known. It was the new thing which he discovered, more or less accidentally, that makes him famous as a creative artist. I did not realize when I read of Palissey that, instead of this being a story of a specific incident, it was really the universal history of all development.

    The Palissey principle can often lead to new and valuable results. Not always the results sought for, but frequently things of far greater value.

    On many research problems, after all scientific methods have been tried, I prefer the cut-and-try method of groping in the dark, with the possibility of bumping into something, to just sitting still and philosophizing.  



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