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Timebinder, v. 1, Issue 2, 1945
11
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THAT DUSTY SHELF. (By Capt. Donn P. Brazier, U. S. Army.) So many times it has been said that the world was not ripe for this discovery or that invention; and, in that manner, we justify the failure of the world to recognize true worth at the time that true worth is presented. What is this world -- a perpetually green apple? There are discoveries, new thoughts, and inventions being made today which are skimmed and quickly forgotten. They're put up high on that dusty shelf, forgotten because no thought was expended by the reader. The words with which the idea was cloaked rattled like ice cubes in a tray, then melted and were gone. It's not a question of ripeness or lack thereof; rather, it's a question of the wood obscuring the tree; the rain, the drop; the words, the thought. Man is a Simian, and monkey-like, he chatters incessantly. An invention, which enables him to chatter with greater ease or at more length is hailed as the greatest invention of mankind. Consider the great stress your history book placed upon the invention of the printing press. Books -- as Clarence Day would say: "Bottled chatter!" Take a look at the telephone and telegraph industry, and the honor we bestow upon Bell and Morse, two Simians who gave wings to our chatter. What will the history books of the future do with the radio, that glorious chatterbox? Through all the years how much of value has been forever lost because it was cast into words and buried in some obscure publication to gather dust on a dusty shelf. Some publication, it is true, read by a few men too busy bottling their own chatter to take the time to reflect, concentrate, and extend the thoughts of another. Why is the obvious sometimes so hard to see? I think it is because we are so impatient mentally that we do not, or possibly cannot, take the time to reflect on the problem and examine it from all angles. What seems sufficient to our branch-swinging, chatter-filled minds is in reality only a fraction of the time and energy needed to arrive at a true values. The rare instances of remarkable discoveries re-discovered point out only too well the possibilities for mankind's profit languishing on the dusty shelf where we keep our bottled chatter. Consider Dr. Fleming of St. Mary's Hospital, London, announcing his discovery that a contaminating mold had killed a bacterial culture, and advancing the theory that a useful anti-bacterial agent was indicated. That was in the year 1929! In the eleven years before his announcement was to bear fruit ((in penicillin) how much might have been done, how many lives might have been saved! 7
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THAT DUSTY SHELF. (By Capt. Donn P. Brazier, U. S. Army.) So many times it has been said that the world was not ripe for this discovery or that invention; and, in that manner, we justify the failure of the world to recognize true worth at the time that true worth is presented. What is this world -- a perpetually green apple? There are discoveries, new thoughts, and inventions being made today which are skimmed and quickly forgotten. They're put up high on that dusty shelf, forgotten because no thought was expended by the reader. The words with which the idea was cloaked rattled like ice cubes in a tray, then melted and were gone. It's not a question of ripeness or lack thereof; rather, it's a question of the wood obscuring the tree; the rain, the drop; the words, the thought. Man is a Simian, and monkey-like, he chatters incessantly. An invention, which enables him to chatter with greater ease or at more length is hailed as the greatest invention of mankind. Consider the great stress your history book placed upon the invention of the printing press. Books -- as Clarence Day would say: "Bottled chatter!" Take a look at the telephone and telegraph industry, and the honor we bestow upon Bell and Morse, two Simians who gave wings to our chatter. What will the history books of the future do with the radio, that glorious chatterbox? Through all the years how much of value has been forever lost because it was cast into words and buried in some obscure publication to gather dust on a dusty shelf. Some publication, it is true, read by a few men too busy bottling their own chatter to take the time to reflect, concentrate, and extend the thoughts of another. Why is the obvious sometimes so hard to see? I think it is because we are so impatient mentally that we do not, or possibly cannot, take the time to reflect on the problem and examine it from all angles. What seems sufficient to our branch-swinging, chatter-filled minds is in reality only a fraction of the time and energy needed to arrive at a true values. The rare instances of remarkable discoveries re-discovered point out only too well the possibilities for mankind's profit languishing on the dusty shelf where we keep our bottled chatter. Consider Dr. Fleming of St. Mary's Hospital, London, announcing his discovery that a contaminating mold had killed a bacterial culture, and advancing the theory that a useful anti-bacterial agent was indicated. That was in the year 1929! In the eleven years before his announcement was to bear fruit ((in penicillin) how much might have been done, how many lives might have been saved! 7
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