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Who said: “Genius is two percent inspiration, ninety-eight percent perspiration.”
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Thumbnail of Arthur Edwin Kennelly (source)
Arthur Edwin Kennelly
(17 Dec 1861 - 18 Jun 1939)

Irish-American electrical engineer who made innovations in analytic methods in electronics, and co-discovered the radio reflecting properties of the ionosphere in the upper atmosphere.


Arthur Edwin Kennelly
“Scientifically developed production is the mother of scientific research”

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“If necessity is the mother of invention, scientifically developed production is the mother of scientific research.”
— Arthur Edwin Kennelly
Electrical World (1920),

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Dr. A.E. Kennelly contributed frequently to Electrical World. In 1920, shortly after the end of hostilities in the Great War (World War I), he wrote about the state of education in the engineering schools of the U.S. He regarded the response to the “after-burden of the conflict” was to place a greater emphasis on the role of engineering in increasing production or productiveness. During the war, applied science or engineering was of the greatest importance in the development, manufacture, test and transportation of the needs of the modern military.

The war produced a very great demand for technically trained men, but their availability was far below the need. With the return of peace, Kennelly indicated that a greater emphasis needed to be placed on providing a significant number of the technically trained graduates with additional industrial research study, with the schools co-operating with large factories in the teaching. He concluded:

Theory and practice originally started without mutual recognition. Then they came to a bowing acquaintance. Already they have reached the stage of good understanding. In time they will probably become inseparable friends. Instead of scientific research being set up merely at the instigation of theory, it is coming to be recognized that from practice comes the most urgent demand for its rapid development.

If necessity is the mother of invention, scientifically developed production is the mother of scientific research.

In 'Scientific Research in the Engineering Schools', Electrical World (1920), 75, 151. (source)


See also:

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.
Carl Sagan Thumbnail Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)
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