PURPOSE-WILL OF AN INVENTOR

came to ask for English capital. And he
received nothing.

All the snipers began to snipe, and the
doubters began to doubt. ‘‘ He is an acrobat,”
said one newspaper. ‘‘ I will give £1,000,000
to the first aviator who can fly 100 yards,” said
another newspaper. Whitehall looked down
with indifference. Nobody believed it. It was
a joke.

It was the Folly of the day; and Wilbur
Wright was practically chased to Paris by a
roar of derision. In Paris and New York he
found capitalists who believed in his story and
who gave him the money with which he built
the first aeroplane factory in the world.

There was Fokker, the Dutch inventor of a
new type of aeroplane. He first offered it to
the British Government. It was refused, and
later he took it to Germany and had it accepted.

This long list of rejected inventions proves
that an inventor must have a strong will, if he
is to succeed in Great Britain. We show no
kindness to Pioneers. We regard old things as
sacred and new things as profane. An inventor
must oppose his single will to the mass-will
of public opinion, and he must have almost
superhuman tenacity in order to succeed.
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