[5] See Industrial Biography, pp. 183-197,
[6] The story is told in Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine,
for April 1879. Ericsson's modest bill was only $15,000 for two
years' labour. He was put off from year to year, and at length
the Government refused to pay the amount. "The American
Government," says the editor of Scribner, "will not appropriate
the money to pay it, and that is all. It is said to be the
nature of republics to be ungrateful; but must they also be
dishonest?"
[7] Memoirs of the Life and Services of Rear-Admiral Sir William
Symonds, Kt., p. 332.
CHAPTER III.[1]
JOHN HARRISON: INVENTOR OF THE MARINE CHRONOMETER.
No man knows who invented the mariner's compass, or who first
hollowed out a canoe from a log. The power to observe accurately
the sun, moon, and planets, so as to fix a vessel's actual
position when far out of sight of land, enabling long voyages to
be safely made; the marvellous improvements in ship-building,
which shortened passages by sailing vessels, and vastly reduced
freights even before steam gave an independent force to the
carrier--each and all were done by small advances, which together
contributed to the general movement of mankind.... Each owes all
to the others. The forgotten inventors live for ever in the
usefulness of the work they have done and the progress they have
striven for.
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