PURPOSE-WILL OF AN INVENTOR

been sewing with needles which had eyes at the
top and not at the point.
Howe made the first needle that had the eye
in the point. Every woman in the world said
he was wrong. Nothing could have been more
absurd from the point of view of a sewing
woman than an eye in the point of a needle. It
was silly—foolish—ridiculous—incredible.
But Howe was right. The needle that he
made was the first of all needles that was
properly made. Howe’s needle attached to a
machine could make 6oo stitches a minute.
To-day practically all the sewing of the world
is done with Howe needles, which have the
eyes in the points.

There was Perkin, the inventor of aniline
dyes. He was compelled by lack of apprecia-
tion to sell his great secret to Germany. In
1914, when we suddenly found that we did
not know how to make the best dyes, we learned
to put a right value on the genius of Perkin.
There was Bell. He came running here to
offer us his first telephone. He went up and
down Great Britain in 1877, begging British
capitalists to take notice of his invention.

His appeals were disregarded. We called
the telephone a ‘‘scientific toy.” Not one

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