With the many and superb tools now at our service, of which our fathers knew comparatively nothing--steam, electricity, the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, and the camera--we and our descendants ought to accomplish even greater wonders than these. As invention thus rises in the scale of importance to humanity, the history of the pioneers and, to the shame of mankind be it said, the martyrs of the art, becomes of intense interest. In the annals of hero-worship the inventor of the perfecting press ought to stand before the great general, and Elias Howe should rank before Napoleon. Whitney, Howe, Morse, and Goodyear, to mention but a few of our Americans, contributed thousands of millions of dollars to the nation's wealth and received comparatively nothing in return. Their history suggests as pertinent the inquiry whether our patent laws do not need a radical change. The burden and cost of proving that an invention deserves no protection ought to fall upon whoever infringes a patent granted by the Government. At present it is all the other way. P.G.H., JR. NEW YORK, September, 1893. CONTENTS PAGE I. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 9 II. ROBERT FULTON, 45 III. ELI WHITNEY, 69 IV. ELIAS HOWE, 99 V. SAMUEL F.B. MORSE, 111 VI. CHARLES GOODYEAR, 155 VII. JOHN ERICSSON, 178 VIII. CYRUS HALL MCCORMICK, 207 IX. THOMAS A. EDISON, 223 X. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, 264 XI. AMERICAN INVENTORS, PAST AND PRESENT, 270 James M. Townsend, E.L. Drake, Alvan Clark, John Fitch, Oliver Evans, Amos Whittemore, Thomas Blanchard, Richard M. Hoe, Thomas W. Harvey, C.L. Sholes, B.B. Hotchkiss, Charles F. Brush, Rudolph Eickemeyer, George Westinghouse, Jr. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FULL-PAGE FACING BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, (_Frontispiece._) PAGE DEPARTURE OF THE CLERMONT ON HER FIRST VOYAGE, 60 CHARLES GOODYEAR, 155 JOHN ERICSSON, 178 CYRUS HALL MCCORMICK, 207 THOMAS A. EDISON, 223 EDISON IN HIS LABORATORY, 247 PROFESSOR BELL SENDING THE FIRST TELEPHONE MESSAGE FROM NEW 264 YORK TO CHICAGO, ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT PAGE