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ENCYCLi IPEDIA <
scientious, and was always keenly alive to the b
interests of this i Born
of
I with
in I
its reli and
I [art ford, yel he never losl
.i resi-
welfare of hi wn, and could always be
relied upon to lend his most earnest effort for
the I
board '
' munity.
I" his death this
and a
chei 1 [is family has been b
husband, and
the State of one of its mo
:
father, and
direct thai this min n the rec
of this 1 to his
family. W. I!. Edwards, Secretary.
Portland, Connecticut, July 15, 1902.
DES JARDINS, Benjamin M.,
Inventor of Worldwide Fanie.
In the preamble to a narrative of the
life and achievements of Benjamin Myrrick
Des Jardins, inventor, it is unneces-
sary to indulge in elaborate eulogy of the
man ;
pen-pictures
descriptive of his in-
dustry, his ingenuity, his versatile qualities
and meritorious characteristics, would
be superfluous; to plainly record his triumphs
in and contributions to the world's
mechanical arts is sufficient to indicate his
superlative qualities : his achievements
show the eminence to which his genius
has exalted him among the meritorious
inventors of the latter half of the nine-
teenth and the early decades of the twen-
tieth century. Furthermore, his name has
found honored position in so many na-
tional and international publications of
this period, his achievements have been
recounted so often in American and
foreign journals, technical periodicals,
magazines, and like literature, and his in-
ventions have wrought such definite effect
upon one phase, in particular, of this gen-
eration's progress in mechanics, that his-
torical students of the next and subsequent
generations, in analyzing the world's
progress of the present period, will readily
363
>F BK IGRAPHY
become cognizant of the apprei iable Berv-
rendered the inventive and 1
nical
art- by Benjamin Myrrick De Jardins,
and will all^t to him his rightful pi
among the American inventors of this
age.
Invention, in the main, ha- been the
outcome of the possession and exertion of
an invaluable composite quality, in which
are embraced courage, intellect, imagina-
tion, determination, persistence, perti-
nacity, and indifference to poverty, and a
wonderful optimism. All these, and -ome
others, have place in the requi ite compo-
site quality, but all would fail to attain the
resull sought unless genius, that intangi-
ble something which so often appears to
run contrary to apparent practicability
and theoretical supposition, b< it as
the main component. Very few of the
worth-while inventors of this age, or for
that matter of past ages, have been de-
ficient in these qualities, and there have
been very few who have not in their initial
efforts lamentably lacked the finances
without which even the most valuable in-
ventions may not be able to pass the em-
bryonic stage. Benjamin M. Des Jardins
cannot be excepted from this generality,
for he has demonstrated that he pos-
sesses all of the above-enumerated quali-
ties, as well as some additional and
equally creditable qualities which were
developed during his early struggle for
his mere material existence, and for the
instilling of life within the inventions of
his fertile brain. One of the additional
qualities brought to light by the strenu-
ous efforts of M. Des Jardins to circumvent
the dire threatenings of poverty was
a manifested literary capacity of much
merit, though his literary power has been
neglected in his concentration upon his
inventions, which, particularly those having
bearing on the printing trade, have