on, until under your Central ImageIdea you will find classified and grouped each and every particular related or associated imageidea. Stop a moment, and consider how valuable such a Thesaurus of ImageIdeas will be to you, or to any thinker, discoverer, investigator, researcher, or inventor, or business man, in the work of Constructive Imagination! The individual here performs his creative work surrounded by all the materials which he will require—all at hand!
Employing another illustrative figure of speech, we may say that, by following the previously mentioned plan of the collection and classification of the materials of imageideas, you have built and stocked for yourself a great and valuable Mental Laboratory. You have proceeded upon the same general plan as that employed by scientists in the creation of their experimental laboratories. In these laboratories—their workshops in which these scientists perform their experimental work—are to be found the various elements which, when combined in certain arrangements and proportions, produce the soughtfor synthetic compositions. The scientist in his laboratory, and in his actual work, follows the Same general plan which you are to follow in your experimental work along the lines of Constructive Imagination, i. e., he tries first this combination, and then that one, until he reaches the best working combination—the most satisfactory composition.
It is stated that Edison has perfected a similar laboratory, which he employs in his work of creative invention. It is reported that, several years ago, he proceeded to test out every conceivable substance which seemed at all possible of being used as a filament for the electriclight bulb; and that, step by step, by experiment after experiment, employing the process of test, trial, elimination, and selection, he finally settled upon the best possible known substance for that special purpose.
Luther Burbank is said to conduct his experimental work in Plant Creation in a similar way: he tests, trys, experiments; combines, separates, eliminates; and finally, selects and preserves the “fittest.”
Moreover, Nature, herself, in her creative evolutionary processes, is discovered to proceed along the same general lines; the history of Natural Evolution is but a record of ageslong series of experiments, tests, combinations, adaptations, and “natural selection,” ending in the “survival of the fittest” for the particular purpose at each particular stage of the process. The plan is but the taking of a leaf from the Book of Nature—it is based upon the sound, fundamental principles of Natural Creation.
Herbert Spencer once thought out a plan whereby the patterns for fabrics, woven, knitted, or printed, and for wall papers and other decorative material, might be easily and systematically discovered or created by means of the same general plan to which we have referred, and which is followed in laboratory work. His plan was that of combination and recombination of certain elemental patterns, figures, and designs according to a definite and systematic plan of test for desirable combinations and conjunctions. He said concerning this plan: “Could there not be a methodical use of components of designs, so that relatively few ideas should, by modes of combination, be made to issue in multitudinous products? And could not this be so done that draughtsmen might produce them with facility, the system serving, as it were, not as a physical kaleidoscope, but as a mental kaleidoscope?”
Elmer Gates, the psychologistinventor, is stated to have made many of his important discoveries and inventions in precisely the way indicated in our preceding consideration of Effective Constructive Imagination—the method of combining the elements of previously classified concepts and images. In fact, he is said to attribute his success in his inventive work directly to the psychological methods based upon this general principle, which he had previously worked out and systematized.
It is stated that Professor Gates has secured practically all of his many important discoveries and inventions in electricity and accoustics—his special branches of inventive work—in just this way. He is said to have spent several years and much money in acquiring the materials for his list of conceptimages which formed the elements of his constructive work in these branches. He is reported to have worked with a list of about 2,000 simple conceptimages in electricity alone, from which he has produced about 15,000 complex ideaimages. In acoustics, he is said to have worked with over 3,000 simple conceptimages, from which he has evolved nearly 10,000 complex ideaimages. Many believe that his methods and ideas, when finally known and adopted, will work a revolution in the world of inventive thought.
The general plan of the Mental Laboratory, or of the Mental Thesaurus, which we have outlined for you in this section of this book, is applicable not only for the inventor, the investigator, the researcher, but for the business man, the clerk, the salesman, the stenographer, or the worker in each and every line of business, trade or profession. The principle is universal and may be applied in every field of human endeavor and industry. In fact, it is not too much to say that some of the elements of this plan have been consciously or unconsciously employed by every individual who has worked his way up from a subordinate position to one of authority and command.
The essence and substance of the general idea is the gathering up and storing away of as many as possible of the facts associated with the work in which you are engaged—the ideas of the things likely to be needed at some time in that work—so that you may have them within easy mental reach at such times in which you have need for them. The task is twofold, viz., (1) the task of acquiring the necessary concepts, ideas and mental images in question; and (2) the logical, scientific classification and filing away of these facts, concepts and ideas, so that you may be able to “put your finger on them” easily and quickly when you have need for them. The individual who will saturate himself with these essential facts, and who will classify and store them away for future use, is certain to reap his reward of success, appreciation and achievement in his particular line of work.
Now then, let us proceed in the following section of this book to the consideration of the final steps or stages of the processes of Constructive Imagination; in them is performed the work of combination, adaptation, arrangement and composition of the elements or imageideas which form the “stock in trade” of your Mental Laboratory.
VI
THE LAWS OF INVENTION
HAVING ACCUMULATED a sufficient store of ideaimage materials, selected according to the principle of probable value in your work of Constructive Imagination, with the intent of achieving your Definite Purpose and Definite Ideal; and having classified these materials according to logical order or special relations of use, etc.; you are now ready to proceed to the task of combining, adjusting, adapting and creating these materials into new images, ideas or concepts, according to new plans of association, correlation or coordination.
You should never lose sight of the fact that all work of Constructive Imagination consists of joining together things already known—but in new combinations and orders of arrangement, correlation, or coordination. All great inventions are the result of evolution in recombination. We may trace the history of the evolution of the electric telegraph, the telephone, the electric light, the steam engine, the automobile, etc., through their many stages. Someone invented some simple recombination, but was unable to complete the task. Another added some new recombination; still another discovered an improvement; and so on, until at the last, some inventor by a bold stroke of Constructive Imagination effected a more complete recombination, adding some new and important combinations, and the invention was perfected. No, not perfected fully; for in after years many other “improvements” were added, and the simple thing grew into greater perfection.
In the Field Museum, in Chicago, at one time were exhibited a series of models showing the evolutionary history of the locomotive. From the simplest and crudest beginning, the invention was traced along the course of its history, each decided improvement being shown. It was almost impossible at first to realize
