PERSONAL POWER (Complete 12 Volume Edition). William Walker Atkinson
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his success in his inventive work directly to the psychological methods based upon this general principle, which he had previously worked out and systematized.
It is stated that Professor Gates has secured practically all of his many important discoveries and inventions in electricity and accoustics—his special branches of inventive work—in just this way. He is said to have spent several years and much money in acquiring the materials for his list of conceptimages which formed the elements of his constructive work in these branches. He is reported to have worked with a list of about 2,000 simple conceptimages in electricity alone, from which he has produced about 15,000 complex ideaimages. In acoustics, he is said to have worked with over 3,000 simple conceptimages, from which he has evolved nearly 10,000 complex ideaimages. Many believe that his methods and ideas, when finally known and adopted, will work a revolution in the world of inventive thought.
The general plan of the Mental Laboratory, or of the Mental Thesaurus, which we have outlined for you in this section of this book, is applicable not only for the inventor, the investigator, the researcher, but for the business man, the clerk, the salesman, the stenographer, or the worker in each and every line of business, trade or profession. The principle is universal and may be applied in every field of human endeavor and industry. In fact, it is not too much to say that some of the elements of this plan have been consciously or unconsciously employed by every individual who has worked his way up from a subordinate position to one of authority and command.
The essence and substance of the general idea is the gathering up and storing away of as many as possible of the facts associated with the work in which you are engaged—the ideas of the things likely to be needed at some time in that work—so that you may have them within easy mental reach at such times in which you have need for them. The task is twofold, viz., (1) the task of acquiring the necessary concepts, ideas and mental images in question; and (2) the logical, scientific classification and filing away of these facts, concepts and ideas, so that you may be able to “put your finger on them” easily and quickly when you have need for them. The individual who will saturate himself with these essential facts, and who will classify and store them away for future use, is certain to reap his reward of success, appreciation and achievement in his particular line of work.
Now then, let us proceed in the following section of this book to the consideration of the final steps or stages of the processes of Constructive Imagination; in them is performed the work of combination, adaptation, arrangement and composition of the elements or imageideas which form the “stock in trade” of your Mental Laboratory.
VI
THE LAWS OF INVENTION
HAVING ACCUMULATED a sufficient store of ideaimage materials, selected according to the principle of probable value in your work of Constructive Imagination, with the intent of achieving your Definite Purpose and Definite Ideal; and having classified these materials according to logical order or special relations of use, etc.; you are now ready to proceed to the task of combining, adjusting, adapting and creating these materials into new images, ideas or concepts, according to new plans of association, correlation or coordination.
You should never lose sight of the fact that all work of Constructive Imagination consists of joining together things already known—but in new combinations and orders of arrangement, correlation, or coordination. All great inventions are the result of evolution in recombination. We may trace the history of the evolution of the electric telegraph, the telephone, the electric light, the steam engine, the automobile, etc., through their many stages. Someone invented some simple recombination, but was unable to complete the task. Another added some new recombination; still another discovered an improvement; and so on, until at the last, some inventor by a bold stroke of Constructive Imagination effected a more complete recombination, adding some new and important combinations, and the invention was perfected. No, not perfected fully; for in after years many other “improvements” were added, and the simple thing grew into greater perfection.
In the Field Museum, in Chicago, at one time were exhibited a series of models showing the evolutionary history of the locomotive. From the simplest and crudest beginning, the invention was traced along the course of its history, each decided improvement being shown. It was almost impossible at first to realize that the crude contrivances, the clumsy machines representing the first attempts, were the actual ancestors of the latest and most improved types of the modern locomotive—but such was the fact. In this connection, it is interesting to note that some of these earlier types were as truly the ancestors of the automobile, as of the locomotive.
The rapid progress in the late stages of the evolution of the modern automobile from the crude “horseless carriage” of a quartercentury further back, is a matter of personal knowledge to the middleaged man of today. But the automobile had a much earlier history, as you may see by reading the article upon “Automobiles, in any good encyclopedia. It may surprise you to learn that as far back as 1802 a steam roadcarriage was driven from Cambridge to London, England—a distance of over 90 miles.
It is said that the inflated rubber tire of the bicycle was an important factor in the rapid development of the modern automobile; and that the improvements in the gasoline engines, made possible by the development of the automobile, solved the great difficulty in the case of “flying machines,” and thus made possible the modern aeroplane. Here you have typical examples of the “recombination” principle in Constructive Imagination. The history of the evolution of the telephone is also worth study in this connection; look it up in some standard encyclopedia.
Ribot says concerning this fact of the evolution of inventions: “Mechanical and industrial imagination, like esthetic imagination, has its preparatory period, its zenith and decline: the periods of the precursors, of the great inventors, and of mere perfecters. At first a venture is made, effort is wasted with small result,—the man has come too early, or he lacks clear vision. Then a great imaginative mind arises, blossoms; after him, the work passes into the hands of pupils, imitators, or perfecters, who add, abridge, modify. Such is the order.”
The history of the application of steam as a power for operating machinery is a long one; its beginnings are found in the Eolipile of Hero of Alexandria, its critical and thrilling period is found in the work of Newcomen and Watt, its period of fruitbearing lies in the present. The history of timekeeping, or timemeasuring, instruments furnishes us with another example of the evolutionary progress of invention. First, came the simple Clepsydra, or waterclock, in which time was measured by the flow of water; then came a watergauge causing a hand to move around a dial; the two hands, indicating hours and minutes, respectively. Then came a great improvement, i. e., the addition of weights, by means of which the Clepsydra became a true clock; this improved clock was at first cumbersome and massive, but gradually became smaller and lighter. Then, TychoBrahe contrived a clockform capable of measuring seconds of time. Then came another great improvement, i. e., Huygens’ invention of the spiral spring replacing the weights; the clock gradually evolved into the crude, large and cumbersome watch. The watch, in turn, by gradual steps evolved into the thin, small, and marvelously accurate modern watch.
Man observed the efficient natural instruments and implements of the lower animals—and began to improve upon them. He employed the models of the sharp cutting teeth of the rodents as the designs for his evolution of the axe, the chisel, the saw. From the woodpeckers, he borrowed the idea which he gradually worked out in the form of the auger, the gimlet, the wimble. From the tigers and other carnivorous animals, he took his model for his crude knives and other cutting implements. From the beaver, he learned how to make and use the trowel. From the claws of the digging animals, he evolved the idea of the hoe and the rake. From the fish’s fin, he secured the rudimentary idea of the oar. From the wing of the bird, he acquired his first idea of the sail. From the spinning insects, he learned the nature and use of the spindle and distaff. From these humble beginnings arose the marvelous array of the highly efficient implements, tools and machinery employed by civilized man today.
More than this: from his original weapons of offense and