13. Orukter Amphibolos A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering
Once in awhile, someone makes a prophecy that comes true with remarkable accuracy many years later. Tennyson, over 100 years ago in the poem "Locksley Hall," described "The nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue," and Jules Verne had written "Around The World in 80 Days." These men used their imaginations but their concepts were not factual enough to include things as they are actually happening today. These ideas or predictions though very interesting, usually have to wait a long time until some practical man can give them a physical form. The first concept of an idea is one thing the working model is another, and as every inventor knows, popular acceptance still another. But occasionally we see a fine example of a man's practical thinking that was a century or more ahead of industry. As a case in point, let us take that military vehicle called the "Duck." This unique land and water conveyance has been developed during this war to make possible invasion of enemy territory. Its versatility lies in the fact that it can leave a ship offshore and travel through the water as a boat. Upon reaching the land, it goes ashore and continues its course as a truck it can go from land to sea just as easily. Recently, in Philadelphia, thousands of people lined Market Street and the banks of the Schuylkill River to watch a "Duck" travel along the street, slide into the water and proceed up the river. It was an amazing demonstration.
However, just 140 years before the people of Philadelphia had gathered along the same street and river to witness a demonstration of inventor Oliver Evans ' strange vehicle which he called the Orukter Amphibolos or Amphibious Digger. Here is his own description of the event. "To show that both steam carriages and steamboats were practicable, I first put wheels to the boat and propelled it by the engine a mile and a half up Market Street and around Center Square to the River Schuylkill. I then fixed a paddle wheel at the stern and propelled it by the engine down the Schuylkill and up the Delaware sixteen miles leaving all the vessels that were under sail full halfway behind me." This was not only a demonstration of the first "Duck" but also an exhibition of the first self propelled vehicle to be built in this country preceding both the locomotive and steamboat by many years. It sometimes happens that men live in an age that has neither the market or production equipment to take advantage of their advanced ideas. Only after the motor boat and the automotive truck had been highly developed did the amphibious vehicle become a practical mechanism. Oliver Evans was one of those unusual persons who at an early age exhibited an exceptional skill and interest in things mechanical. At the age of 22 he developed a machine for making wire teeth used in carding wool. He also invented an automatic flour mill which processed the flour from the grain to the barrel without its being touched by human hands. He was also much interested in steam. One day he came across a book describing Newcomen's steam engine which had been developed in England. Newcomen used atmospheric pressure to do the work steam was condensed to produce a vacuum under the piston. Evans however, thought the steam should be used directly. Obsessed with this idea, he designed and built a high pressure engine. Newcomen was interested only in pumping water, but Evans visualized steam power being used to do all sorts of work. By 1803 he seriously entered the steam engine business, and one of his first jobs was to build a steam dredge ordered by the city of Philadelphia. This was the amphibious vehicle which he demonstrated and described in 1804. Unfortunately Evans was ahead of his time as far as a market was concerned for he found the building and selling of steam engines full of disappointments and financial reverses. A fire destroyed his factory in 1819 and ended his active work, but his contributions along with thousands of others have made this country a great industrial nation. Evans lived in the days when America was still largely undeveloped. The frontier then was a definite, physical thing to be overcome by whatever tools were available. Today, the geographical frontier has almost disappeared, but many other frontiers such as music, science and medicine are as great as ever. We must not only mentally explore these unknown fields by using our imaginations but, in addition to theorizing, we should put some of the advanced ideas into physical form and try them out, for we must build the future on fact as well as on fancy. ●