VI--EDISON--INVENTOR
Thomas Edison is one of the greatest inventive mechanical geniuses who ever lived. His life story is outwardly uneventful. He was born in Ohio in 1847, and at twelve became a train boy; he took advantage of an empty express room in a car and printed a little newspaper called _The Grand Trunk Herald_, and also carried on chemical and electrical experiments there. These came to an end when he set fire to the car accidentally, and was dismissed by the angry conductor.
He learned telegraphy and practiced it in several cities, coming after a time to New York. There he invented a printing telegraph machine, known as "the ticker," to record stock quotations. This brought him in forty thousand dollars and enabled him to set up his famous laboratory at Menlo Park, in New Jersey.
His first really great invention was the quadruplex telegraph, which makes it possible to send four messages over one wire at the same time.
Next came the carbon transmitter. Edison"s third great work was the discovery of the carbon filament for the incandescent light, and his next the phonograph, which has developed into extended and various use.
His work on the cinematograph has brought moving pictures into a conspicuous place not only for amus.e.m.e.nt but for education.
Read from "Edison--His Life and Inventions," by F. L. Dyer (Harper).
Clubs interested in modern discoveries, should take up in this connection the work of Marconi and the Wright brothers; there is material here for several meetings.
VII--MORGAN--FINANCIER
No study of the men of our time would be complete without considering one of the famous financiers of the present age of wealth. Among a group of several, J. Pierpont Morgan stands easily first as the greatest organizer.
Born in Connecticut in 1837, he studied in Boston and later in Germany, and at the age of twenty became a banker. His first large business deal, however, was in the acquisition of a railroad, taking it from the hands of an infamous ring who controlled it and reorganizing it. After this he adopted the syndicate method for floating bonds.
He financed many trunk lines of railway, the ocean steamship business, the coal and railway business of Pennsylvania, the Guarantee Trust Company, with a capital of $150,000,000, and the United States Steel Corporation, with a capital of $1,400,000,000. It is said that he controlled three billion dollars of railway properties.
The secret of Morgan"s success lay in his skill in estimating railway values, his unerring memory, and his extraordinary genius for detail. He had immense determination and force hidden behind a profound reticence.
His aims were broad and his outlook was over the country as a whole. His fame rests on his ability both as a financier and as a great collector, for he used much of his enormous wealth in building up one of the world"s great collections of books, ma.n.u.scripts, pictures, and curios.
Read from "The Life Story of Pierpont Morgan," by Carl Hovey (Sturgis and Walton). Study the lives of other financiers of our time, comparing and contrasting them, taking especially the two men of great wealth, Rockefeller and Carnegie.
VIII--KELVIN--SCIENTIST
William Thomson, later Sir William, and later still Baron Kelvin, the greatest exponent of physical science in our age, was born in Belfast in 1824, the son of a teacher of mathematics. At twenty-two he was made professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow, and he held this position for more than fifty years.
In 1851 he read his first paper before the Royal Society; its subject was "The Dissipation of Energy," and it was the original statement of the law now universally accepted. He made many leading discoveries concerning elasticity, electricity, heat, vortex motion, and magnetism, and was recognized as the leading authority upon them. He was also a practical inventor, with fifty-six patents to his credit. He devised the instrument which made ocean telegraphy practical, the device now universally used for measuring electricity, the present form of the marine compa.s.s, the tide gauge, and the deep sea sounding apparatus. He was knighted for his work in 1866 and made Lord Kelvin in 1892, besides receiving countless honors from universities, academies, and governments. He died in 1907.
Read from "Lord Kelvin," by Andrew Gray, in the English Men of Science series. Clubs may also study the work of Sir William Ramsay and the Curies.
IX--PEARY AND AMUNDSEN--EXPLORERS
The finding of the North and South Poles is among the great events of our times. The discoverer of the former was Robert E. Peary, who was born in 1856 in Pennsylvania, was educated at Bowdoin College, and became an engineer in the United States Navy, ranking as lieutenant. In 1886 he explored Greenland and five years later headed an expedition to that country and proved that it is an island.
Four northern trips succeeded this, the latter two under the auspices of the specially formed Peary Arctic Club. He was then given the rank of commander and was made president of the American Geographical Society.
In 1905 and 1908 he went north in the ship _Roosevelt_, and on the latter trip the Pole was reached April 6, 1909.
Clubs should read Peary"s own book, "The North Pole," published by Stokes, and also the book written by his wife, "The Snow Baby," the story of the little daughter who was born in the Far North. Read also the account of the claims of Doctor Cook to have found the Pole.
The South Pole was discovered by Roald Amundsen, who was born in Norway in 1872. Like Peary, he became a naval lieutenant. In 1891 he made observations of the East Greenland currents, and two years later he gave nineteen months to observations connected with the magnetic pole. In 1904 he made the Northwest Pa.s.sage.
In 1910 there was a race to discover the South Pole, between the British, led by Scott, who perished after reaching the goal, and the Danish, led by Amundsen. The latter sailed in the little ship _Fram_, landed on the Great Ice Barrier, marched rapidly on more than eight hundred miles and, December 16, 1911, reached the South Pole.
Read the discoverer"s own account: "The South Pole," published by Keed.i.c.k. Clubs may make a serious study of polar expeditions, which have been many, and of their stories of bravery and tragedy. Read the books of Sven Hedin.
X--GOETHALS--ENGINEER
The construction of the Panama Ca.n.a.l is one of the striking engineering feats of to-day, and its success is owing mainly to George W. Goethals.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1858, was graduated at West Point, and began his career as a second lieutenant of engineers. He taught at West Point for a time, and was chief of engineers during the Spanish-American War and also a member of the Board of Fortifications.
After 1907 he was chief engineer of the Panama Ca.n.a.l, and it is his work here that has made him famous. To secure efficiency great power was placed in his hands. He was chairman of the Isthmian Ca.n.a.l Commission, president of the Panama Railway, and governor of the Ca.n.a.l Zone. He had forty thousand men working under him in different departments.
The completed ca.n.a.l cost $375,000,000 and is one of the most colossal engineering achievements of history.
Read "Panama, Past and Present," by Farnham Bishop (The Century Company), "Panama and the Ca.n.a.l To-day," by Forbes Lindsay (The Page Company), and "Old Panama," by C. L. G. Anderson (The Page Company).
Clubs should study also the history of the ca.n.a.l in past years and especially the story of De Lesseps.
CHAPTER XVI
THE LITERATURE OF THE BIBLE
The study of the Bible, not from a theological or critical point of view but from that which is solely literary, makes a fascinating subject for clubs. Many distinguished writers have treated it in this way, and by using their books in connection with the suggested Bible readings clubs will find a year all too short to do justice to the subject.
I--THE BEGINNINGS
The first meeting will be on the Creation, with three main topics for papers,--the Creation narrative, the idyl of the Garden of Eden and the entrance of sin,--with readings from Genesis to ill.u.s.trate each point.
The emphasis should be laid on the simplicity, dignity, and navete of these early chapters, and their high literary value as a poetic attempt to describe the origin of the world. Compare with this Hebrew account that found in the Babylonian myths on the clay tablets discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, and also the Chaldean account of the victory of their chief G.o.d Marduk over chaos. These will be found in "The Religion of the Babylonians and a.s.syrians," by Morris Jastrow, Jr. (Ginn & Co.).
Read these, and also Milton"s account in "Paradise Lost."
The next meeting should take up the leading men of early times, beginning with Noah.
Notice the recurrence of the story of the Flood in the primitive legends of many lands. Look up the Deucalion story in Greek mythology, and see the Hindu, Australian, and American Indian myths on this point, and read the translation of the Chaldean account of the Deluge. The period closes with the story of the Tower of Babel, which is to be read from the Bible.
A study of the Patriarchs follows next. Abraham"s life should be read, wholly or in part, and a picture should be drawn of him as a wealthy Oriental, pastoral chief, and the immense importance of his character in the thought of Jews, Moslems, and Christians. Select and read some of the traditions embedded in the Koran.
To introduce the topic of Isaac read first the charming love story of the wooing of Rebekah. Then read the story of the selling of Esau"s birthright, and Jacob"s dream. Compare the characters of the brothers.
The most complete story in the Bible from a literary standpoint is that of Joseph. After the description of his childhood give the outline of his earlier dreams and their result, his life in Egypt and his prison dreams, his release, the visit of his family, and his later life. This will all lead up to the topic of the next meeting.
II--THE MAKING OF A NATION
The civilization of early Egypt is of great interest, and material for a study will be found in Breasted"s "History of the Ancient Egyptians"
(Scribner), and the "Short History of Ancient Egypt," by Newberry and Garstang (Dana Estes). To ill.u.s.trate, read quotations from "The Book of the Dead," in "Literature of All Nations" (Hawthorne"s Library).
Show pictures of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Nile, and any others which may be obtained, and have a talk on the relations between masters and slaves at this time.