The greater the number of inventions that come into being, the more things a new inventor must know how to do; the first, earliest, and simplest inventions were made by completely uneducated people – but today’s inventions, particularly scientific ones, are products of the most highly educated minds. It means nothing that someone was a farmhand and later became a great engineer: before the farmhand could become a middling engineer, and before the middling engineer could become a great one, he had to learn a great many things. I repeat once again, therefore, that today's inventor must be a highly and comprehensively educated person. Inspiration, and the genius who was even reputed to abide in idleness, are illusions that only provincial aunties and grannies can embrace.
b) A second corollary concerns societies that wish to harbor inventors. I said that a new invention is created by combining the most diverse objects; let us see where this takes us.
Suppose I want to make an invention, and someone tells me: Take 100 different objects and bring them into contact with one another, first two at a time, then three at a time, finally four at a time, and you will arrive at a new invention. Imagine that I take a burning candle, charcoal, water, paper, zinc, sugar, sulfuric acid, and so on, 100 objects in all, and combine them with one another, that is, bring into contact first two at a time: charcoal with flame, water with flame, sugar with flame, zinc with flame, sugar with water, etc. Each time, I shall see a phenomenon: thus, in fire, sugar will melt, charcoal will burn, zinc will heat up, and so on. Now I will bring into contact three objects at a time, for example, sugar, zinc, and flame; charcoal, sugar, and flame; sulfuric acid, zinc, and water; etc., and again I shall experience phenomena. Finally I bring into contact
