Necessity not the mother of invention

Jane Jacobs

Adapted from 'Cities and the Wealth of Nations' by Jane Jacobs (published by Ramdom House, USA, ISBN 0 394 48047 3).

An emeritus professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cyril Stanley Smith, points out that historically, necessity has not been the mother of invention; rather, necessity opportunistically picks up invention and improvises improvements on it and new uses for it, but the roots of invention are to be found elsewhere, in motives like curiosity and especially, Smith noted, 'aesthetic curiosity.'

'Even wheels were at first frivolities; the most ancient known to us are parts of toys'

Metallurgy itself, he reminds us, began with hammering copper into necklace beads and other ornaments 'long before 'useful' knives and weapons' were made of copper or bronze. Possibly even wheels were at first frivolities; the most ancient known to us are parts of toys. Hydraulics and many mechanical ingenuities and tricks were first developed for toys or other amusements. The chemical industry grew from the need for quantities of mordants, bleaches, and alkalies for use in the finer textiles and glass. Rockets for fun came before their military use or space travel. The first successful railroad in the world was an amusement ride in London.

'All big things grow from little things,' Smith comments, with this cautionary addition, 'but new little things are destroyed by their environments unless they are cherished for reasons more like aesthetic appreciation than practical utility.'

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