Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Vol 017 1932

THE SCIENTIST AND INVENTOR IN ELECTRICAL COMMUNICATIONS* By PAUL A. NORTHROP In the age of fable Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, sprang from the brain of her father, Jupiter, fully grown and fully armed. This was an unusual occurrence even amongst the gods and we do not find its counterpart in life on the earth.

Each individual, in either the plant or animal kingdom comes into existence with an identity of its own and with a certain inheritance from that which has gone before. It has, however, to acquire much in its own individual contact with its surroundings before it is said to be fully grown. The lowly amoeba divides, to form two new amoebae each of the daughter cells Each, however, must pass swims off to care for herself. through a period of growth before it is a full-grown amoeba.

Up through the scale of life we find increasingly longer periods during which the young are cared for by the parents. The more complex the form of life, the greater the amount of care and training the young must receive before being able to carry on the part of an adult. Thus in the more highly civilized parts of the world, we find many youths cared for and guided by adults for a third or a fourth of the probable span of their lives. Neither the individual nor the race springs forth fully grown and completely armed.

In the field of science and invention we find a close parallel to these facts of biology. It is true that in the popular conception many of the inventions and devices which have added so much to the comfort of our lives have been brought forth in a complete state as the result of the mental and physical labor of some one person. It may be that there are instances in which this has been true of some comparatively simple device. If so I am not aware of it, and it certainly is not true for *A paper read by Paul A. Northrop, professor of physics in the faculty of Vassar College, at the luncheon of the Dutchess County Historical Society, October 21, 1932.

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