Inventions.—Among the many evidences of German moral and intellectual obliquity cited to justify our indignation was their lack of inventive genius, Prof. Brander Matthews in particular alleging that the Germans had contributed nothing to making possible the automobile, the aeroplane, the telephone, the submarine, the art of photography,etc.

The aeroplane, the automobile and the submarine were each made possible by the invention of the gas engine, and the gas engine was invented by Gottlieb Daimler. By combining Lillienthal’s “glider” with Daimler’s gas engine, the aeroplane became feasible. The first employment of the modern gas engine was by Daimler in running a motorcycle.

Wilhelm Bauer, a Bavarian corporal, in1850 constructed a submersible craft at Kiel, which though it eventually came to grief, was practically operated and served to spread terror in the Danish navy, which discreetly withdrew from its blockading operations. It was equipped with torpedoes but was navigated by manual operation, no other power being available at that early period. (Boston Transcript.)

The first man to speak over a wire with the aid of electric power and to call his instrument a “telephone,” was Philipp Reis, of Frankfort. In1868 the inventor wrote as follows: “Incited thereto by my lessons in physics in the year 1860, I attacked a work begun much earlier concerning the organs of hearing, and soon had the joy of seeing my pains rewarded with success, since I succeeded in inventing an apparatus by which it is possible to make clear and evident the functions of the organs of hearing, but with which one can also reproduce tones of all kinds at any desired distance by means of the galvanic current. I named the instrument ‘telephone.’” In Manchester, before the Literary and Philosophical Society, Reis’ telephone was shown in1865 by Professor Cliften. The invention was however too soon for the world. To Reis’ great disappointment, the Physical Society of Frankfort took no further notice of the invention, the luster of which shone upon them. Other societies treated it as a scientific toy. The Naturalists’ Assembly, including all the leading scientific men of Germany, had, indeed, welcomed him at Giesen; but too late. His sensitive temperament had met with too many rebuffs, and the fatal disease with which he was already stricken told upon his energies. In1873 he disposed of all his instruments and tools to Garnier’s Institute. To Herr Garnier he made the remark that he had shown the world the way to a great invention which must now be left to others to develop. On January14, 1874, he was released by death. In December, 1878, a monument was erected to him in the cemetery of Friedricksdorf with the inscription under a medallion portrait: “Here rests Philipp Reis, born January7, 1834; died January14, 1874. To its deserving member, the Inventor of the Telephone, by the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-Main. Erected 1878.” (See “Philipp Reis, Inventor of the Telephone; a Biographical Sketch with Documentary Testimony, Translation of the Original Papers of the Inventor and Contemporaneous Publications,” by Sylvanus Thompson, B.A. DSc., Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol.)

The first modern photographic lens was invented by J.Petzval, of Vienna; the rectilinear lens by Steinheil; the Jena glass and anastigmatic lens by Abbe and Schott, of Jena, Prussia.