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diff --git a/41219-0.txt b/41219-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bee7790 --- /dev/null +++ b/41219-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5243 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41219 *** + +STORIES OF USEFUL INVENTIONS + + +[Illustration: + + Guglielmo Marconi + Benjamin Franklin + Thomas Edison + Sir Henry Bessemer + Robert Fulton + Alexander Graham Bell + Hudson Maxim + +A GROUP OF INVENTORS] + + + + + STORIES OF + USEFUL INVENTIONS + + BY + S. E. FORMAN + + AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," + "ADVANCED CIVICS," ETC. + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + THE CENTURY CO. + 1911 + + + Copyright, 1911, by + THE CENTURY CO. + + _Published September, 1911_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +In this little book I have given the history of those inventions which +are most useful to man in his daily life. I have told the story of the +Match, the Stove, the Lamp, the Forge, the Steam-Engine, the Plow, the +Reaper, the Mill, the Loom, the House, the Carriage, the Boat, the +Clock, the Book, and the Message. From the history of these inventions +we learn how man became the master of the world of nature around him, +how he brought fire and air and earth and water under his control and +compelled them to do his will and his work. When we trace the growth of +these inventions we at the same time trace the course of human progress. +These stories, therefore, are stories of human progress; they are +chapters in the history of civilization. + +And they are chapters which have not hitherto been brought together in +one book. Monographs on most of the subjects included in this book have +appeared, and excellent books about modern inventions have been written, +but as far as I know, this is the first time the evolution of these +useful inventions has been fully traced in a single volume. + +While preparing the stories I have received many courtesies from +officers in the Library of Congress and from those of the National +Museum. + + S. E. F. + + May, 1911. + Washington, D. C. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + THE FOREWORD ix + + I THE MATCH 3 + + II THE STOVE 13 + + III THE LAMP 28 + + IV THE FORGE 38 + + V THE STEAM-ENGINE 54 + + VI THE PLOW 73 + + VII THE REAPER 85 + + VIII THE MILL 97 + + IX THE LOOM 109 + + X THE HOUSE 123 + + XI THE CARRIAGE 144 + + XII THE CARRIAGE (_Continued_) 156 + + XIII THE BOAT 166 + + XIV THE CLOCK 187 + + XV THE BOOK 203 + + XVI THE MESSAGE 222 + + + + +A FOREWORD[1] + + +These stories of useful inventions are chapters in the history of +civilization and this little book is a book of history. Now we are told +by Herodotus, one of the oldest and greatest of historians, that when +the writer of history records an event he should state the _time_ and +the _place_ of its happening. In some kinds of history--in the history +of the world's wars, for example, or in the history of its +politics--this is strictly true. When we are reading of the battle of +Bunker Hill we should be told precisely when and where the battle was +fought, and in an account of the Declaration of Independence the time +and place of the declaration should be given. But in the history of +inventions we cannot always be precise as to dates and places. Of course +it cannot be told when the first plow or the first loom or the first +clock was made. Inventions like these had their origin far back in the +earliest ages when there was no such person as a historian. And when we +come to the history of inventions in more recent times the historian is +still sometimes unable to discover the precise time and place of an +invention. + +It is in the nature of things that the origin of an invention should be +surrounded by uncertainty and doubt. An invention, as we shall see +presently, is nearly always a response to a certain want. The world +wants something and it promises a rich reward to one who will furnish +the desired thing. The inventor, recognizing the want, sets to work to +make the thing, but he conducts his experiments in secret, for the +reason that he does not want another to steal his ideas and get ahead of +him. We can see that this is true in respect to the flying machine. The +first experiments with the flying machine were conducted in secret in +out of the way places and pains were taken that the public should know +as little as possible about the new machine and about the results of the +experiments. The history of the flying machine will of course have to be +written, but because of the secrecy and mystery which surrounded the +beginnings of the invention it will be extremely difficult for the +future historian to tell precisely when the first flying machine was +invented or to name the inventor. If it is so difficult to get the facts +as to the origin of an invention in our own time, how much more +difficult it is to clear away the mystery and doubt which surround the +beginnings of an invention in an age long past! + +In a history of inventions, then, the historian cannot be precise in +respect to dates and places. Fortunately this is not a cause for deep +regret. It is not a great loss to truth that we cannot know precisely +when the first book was printed, nor does it make much difference +whether that book was printed in Holland or in Germany. In giving an +account of an invention we may be content to treat the matter of time +and place broadly, for the story is apt to carry us through a stretch of +years that defies computation, a stretch that is immensely longer than +the life of any nation. For our purpose these millenniums, these long +stretches of time, may be thought of as being divided into three great +periods, namely: the _primitive_, the _ancient_, and the _modern_ +period. Even a division so broad as this is not satisfactory, for in the +progress of their inventions all countries have not kept equal step with +the march of time. In some things ancient Greece was modern, while in +most things modern Alaska is primitive and modern China is ancient. +Nevertheless it will be convenient at times in this book to speak of the +_primitive_, the _ancient_ and the _modern_ periods, and it will be +useful to regard the _primitive_ period as beginning with the coming of +man on earth and extending to the year 5000 B. C.; the _ancient_ period +may be thought of as beginning with the year 5000 B. C. and ending with +the year 476 A. D., leaving for the _modern_ period the years that have +passed since 476 A. D. + +In tracing the growth of an invention the periods indicated above can +serve as a time-guide only for those parts of the world where the course +of civilization has taken its way, for invention and civilization have +traveled the same road. The region of the world's most advanced +civilization includes the lands bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, +Central and Northern Europe, the British Isles, North America, South +America and Australia. It is within this region that we shall follow the +development of whatever invention is under consideration. When speaking +of the first forms of an invention, however, it will sometimes be +necessary, when an illustration is desired, to draw upon the experience +of people who are outside of the wall of civilization. The reason for +going outside is plain. The first and simplest forms of the useful +inventions have utterly perished in civilized countries, but they still +exist among savage and barbarous peoples and it is among such peoples +that the first forms must be studied. Thus in the story of the clock, +we must go to a far-off peninsula of Southern Asia (p. 190) for an +illustration of the beginning of our modern timepiece. Such a departure +from the beaten track of civilization does not spoil the story, for as a +rule, the rude forms of inventions found among the lowest races of +to-day are precisely the same forms that were in use among the Egyptians +and Greeks when they were in their lowest state. + +When studying the history of an invention there are two facts or +principles which should ever be borne in mind. The first principle is +this: _Necessity is the mother of invention._ This principle was touched +upon when it was said that an invention appears as a response to a want. +When the world wants an invention it usually gets it and makes the most +of it, but it will have nothing to do with an invention it does not +want. The steam-engine was invented two thousand years ago (p. 55) but +the world then had no work for steam to do, so the invention attracted +little attention and came to naught. About two hundred years ago, +however, man did want the services of steam and inventors were not long +in supplying the engine that was needed. About a hundred years ago the +broad prairie lands of the United States began to be tilled but it was +soon found that the vast areas could not be plowed and that the immense +crops could not be harvested by the old methods. So improvements upon +the plow and the reaper began to be made and in time the steam gang-plow +and the complete harvester were invented. When the locomotive first came +into use a simple handbrake was used to stop the slow-going trains, but +as the size and the speed of trains increased the handbrake became more +and more unsatisfactory. Sometimes a train would run as much as a half +mile beyond a station before it could be stopped and then when "backed" +it would again pass beyond the station. The problem of stopping the +train promptly became fully as important as starting it. The problem was +solved by the invention of the air-brake. And thus it has been with all +the inventions which surround us: necessity has been the mother of them +all. + +The other principle is that a mechanical invention is a _growth_, or, to +state the truth in another way, an invention nearly always is simply an +improvement upon a previous invention. The loom, for example, was not +invented by a particular person at a particular time; it did not spring +into existence in a day with all its parts perfected; it _grew_, century +by century, piece by piece. In the stories which will follow the steps +in the growth of an invention are shown in the illustrations. These +pictures are not for amusement but for study. As you read, examine them +carefully and they will teach you quite as much about the growth of the +invention as you can be taught by words. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Where readers are quite young the Foreword had better be postponed +until the stories themselves are read. + + + + +STORIES OF USEFUL INVENTIONS + + + + +THE MATCH + + +Did you ever think how great and how many are the blessings of fire? Try +to think of a world without fire. Suppose we should wake up some bitter +cold morning and find that all the fires in the world were out, and that +there was no way of rekindling them; that the art of kindling a fire had +been lost. In such a plight we should all soon be shivering with the +cold, for our stoves and furnaces could give us no warmth; we should all +soon be hungry, for we could not cook our food; we should all soon be +idle, for engines could not draw trains, wheels of factories could not +turn, and trade and commerce would come to a standstill; at night we +would grope in darkness, for we could use neither lamp nor gas nor +electric light. It is easy to see that without fire, whether for light +or heat, the life of man would be most wretched. + +There never was a time when the world was without fire, but there was a +time when men did not know how to kindle fire; and after they learned +how to kindle one, it was a long, long time before they learned how to +kindle one easily. In these days we can kindle a fire without any +trouble, because we can easily get a match; but we must remember that +the match is one of the most wonderful things in the world, and that it +took men thousands of years to learn how to make one. Let us learn the +history of this familiar little object, the match. + +Fire was first given to man by nature itself. When a forest is set on +fire by cinders from a neighboring volcano, or when a tree is set ablaze +by a thunderbolt, we may say that nature strikes a match. In the early +history of the world, nature had to kindle all the fires, for man by his +own effort was unable to produce a spark. The first method, then, of +getting fire for use was to light sticks of wood at a flame kindled by +nature--by a volcano, perhaps, or by a stroke of lightning. These +firebrands (Fig. 1) were carried to the home and used in kindling the +fires there. The fire secured in this way was carefully guarded and was +kept burning as long as possible. But the flame, however faithfully +watched, would sometimes be extinguished. A sudden gust of wind or a +sudden shower would put it out. Then a new firebrand would have to be +secured, and this often meant a long journey and a deal of trouble. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--GETTING A MATCH FROM NATURE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--PRIMITIVE FIRE-MAKING. THE STICK-AND-GROOVE +METHOD.] + +In the course of time a man somewhere in the world hit upon a plan of +kindling a fire without having any fire to begin with; that is to say, +he hit upon a plan of producing a fire by _artificial_ means. He knew +that by rubbing his hands together very hard and very fast he could make +them very warm. By trial he learned that by rubbing two pieces of dry +wood together he could make _them_ very warm. Then he asked himself the +question: Can a fire be kindled by rubbing two pieces of wood together, +if they are rubbed hard enough? He placed upon the ground a piece of +perfectly dry wood (Fig. 2) and rubbed this with the end of a stick +until a groove was made. In the groove a fine dust of wood--a kind of +sawdust--was made by the rubbing. He went on rubbing hard and fast, +and, behold, the dust in the groove began to glow! He placed some dry +grass upon the embers and blew upon them with his breath, and the grass +burst into a flame.[2] Here for the first time a man kindled a fire for +himself. He had invented the match, the greatest invention, perhaps, in +the history of the world. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE FIRE DRILL. + +(Simple Form.)] + +The stick-and-groove method--as we may call it--of getting a flame was +much better than guarding fire and carrying it from place to place; yet +it was, nevertheless, a very clumsy method. The wood used had to be +perfectly dry, and the rubbing required a vast amount of work and +patience. Sometimes it would take hours to produce the spark. After a +while--and doubtless it was a very long while--it was found that it was +better to keep the end of the stick in one spot and twirl it (Fig. 3) +than it was to plow to and fro with it. The twirling motion made a hole +in which the heat produced by the friction was confined in a small +space. At first the drilling was done by twirling the stick between the +palms of the hands, but this made the hands too hot for comfort, and +the fire-makers learned to do the twirling with a cord or thong[3] +wrapped around the stick (Fig. 4). You see, the upper end of the stick +which serves as a drill turns in a cavity in a mouthpiece which the +operator holds between his teeth. If you should undertake to use a +fire-drill of this kind, it is likely that your jaws would be painfully +jarred. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--FIRE DRILL. + +(Improved Form.)] + +By both the methods described above, the fire was obtained by rubbing or +_friction_. The friction method seems to have been used by all primitive +peoples, and it is still in use among savages in various parts of the +world. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--STRIKING FIRE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--TINDER BOX, FLINT, STEEL, AND SULPHUR-TIPPED +SPLINTERS.] + +The second step in fire-making was taken when it was discovered that a +spark can be made by striking together a stone and a piece of iron ore. +Strike a piece of flint against a piece of iron ore known as pyrites, or +fire-stone, and you will make sparks fly. (Fig. 5.) Let these sparks fall +into small pieces of dried moss or powdered charcoal, and the _tinder_, +as the moss or the charcoal is called, will catch fire. It will glow, +but it will not blaze. Now hold a dry splinter in the glowing tinder, +and fan or blow with the breath and the splinter will burst into a +flame. If you will tip your splinter with sulphur before you place it in +the burning tinder, you will get a flame at once. This was the +strike-a-light, or _percussion_, method of making a fire. It followed +the friction method, and was a great improvement upon it because it took +less work and a shorter time to get a blaze. The regular outfit for +fire-making with the strike-a-light consisted of a tinder-box, a piece +of steel, a piece of flint, and some splinters tipped with sulphur (Fig. +6). The flint and steel were struck together, and the sparks thus made +fell into the tinder and made it glow. A splinter was applied as quickly +as possible to the tinder, and when a flame was produced the candle +which rested in the socket on the tinder-box was lighted. As soon as the +splinter was lighted the cover was replaced on the tinder-box, so as to +smother the glowing tinder and save it for another time. + +The strike-a-light method was discovered many thousands of years ago, +and it has been used by nearly all the civilized nations of the +world.[4] And it has not been so very long since this method was laid +aside. There are many people now living who remember when the flint and +steel and tinder-box were in use in almost every household. + +About three hundred years ago a third method of producing fire was +discovered. If you should drop a small quantity of sulphuric acid into a +mixture of chlorate of potash and sugar, you would produce a bright +flame. Here was a hint for a new way of making a fire; and a thoughtful +man in Vienna, in the seventeenth century, profited by the hint. He took +one of the sulphur-tipped splinters which he was accustomed to use with +his tinder-box, and dipped it into sulphuric acid, and then applied it +to a mixture of chlorate of potash and sugar. The splinter caught fire +and burned with a blaze. Here was neither friction nor percussion. The +chemical substances were simply brought together, and they caught fire +of themselves; that is to say, they caught fire by _chemical_ action. + +The discovery made by the Vienna man led to a new kind of match--the +chemical match. A practical outfit for fire-making now consisted of a +bottle of sulphuric acid (vitriol) and a bundle of splints tipped with +sulphur, chlorate of potash, and sugar. Matches of this kind were very +expensive, costing as much as five dollars a hundred; besides, they were +very unsatisfactory. Often when the match was dipped into the acid it +would not catch fire, but would smolder and sputter and throw the acid +about and spoil both the clothes and the temper. These dip-splint +matches were used in the eighteenth century by those who liked them and +could afford to buy them. They did not, however, drive out the old +strike-a-light and tinder-box. + +In the nineteenth century--the century in which so many wonderful things +were done--the fourth step in the development of the match was taken. In +1827, John Walker, a druggist in a small English town, tipped a splint +with sulphur, chlorate of potash, and sulphid of antimony, and rubbed it +on sandpaper, and it burst into flame. The druggist had discovered the +first _friction-chemical_ match, the kind we use to-day. It is called +friction-chemical because it is made by mixing certain chemicals +together and rubbing them. Although Walker's match did not require the +bottle of acid, nevertheless it was not a good one. It could be lighted +only by hard rubbing, and it sputtered and threw fire in all directions. +In a few years, however, phosphorus was substituted on the tip for +antimony, and the change worked wonders. The match could now be lighted +with very little rubbing, and it was no longer necessary to have +sandpaper upon which to rub it. It would ignite when rubbed on any dry +surface, and there was no longer any sputtering. This was the +_phosphorus_ match, the match with which we are so familiar. + +After the invention of the easily-lighted phosphorus match there was no +longer use for the dip-splint or the strike-a-light. The old methods of +getting a blaze were gradually laid aside and forgotten. The first +phosphorus matches were sold at twenty-five cents a block--a block (Fig. +7) containing a hundred and forty-four matches. They were used by few. +Now a hundred matches can be bought for a cent. It is said that in the +United States we use about 150,000,000,000 matches a year. This, on an +average, is about five matches a day for each person. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--A "BLOCK" OF MATCHES.] + +There is one thing against the phosphorus match: it ignites too easily. +If one is left on the floor, it may be ignited by stepping upon it, or +by something falling upon it. We may step on a phosphorus match +unawares, light it, leave it burning, and thus set the house on fire. +Mice often have caused fires by gnawing the phosphorus matches and +igniting them. In one city thirty destructive fires were caused in one +year by mice lighting matches. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A BOX OF MODERN SAFETY MATCHES.] + +To avoid accident by matches, the _safety match_ (Fig. 8) has recently +been invented. The safety match does not contain phosphorus. The +phosphorus is mixed with fine sand and glued to the side of the box in +which the matches are sold. The safety match, therefore, cannot be +lighted unless it is rubbed on the phosphorus on the outside of the box. +It is so much better than the old kind of phosphorus match that it is +driving the latter out of the market. Indeed, in some places it is +forbidden by law to sell any kind of match but the safety match. + +The invention of the safety match is the last step in the long history +of fire-making. The first match was lighted by rubbing, and the match of +our own time is lighted by rubbing; yet what a difference there is +between the two! With the plowing-stick or fire-drill it took strength +and time and skill to get a blaze; with the safety match an awkward +little child can kindle a fire in a second. + +And how long it has taken to make the match as good as it is! The +steam-engine, the telegraph, the telephone, and the electric light were +all in use before the simple little safety match. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Mr. Walter Hough of the National Museum, himself a wizard in the art +of fire-making, tells me that a blaze cannot be produced simply by +rubbing sticks together. All that can be done by rubbing is to make them +glow. + +[3] A narrow strip of leather. + +[4] The ancient Greeks used a burning-glass or -lens for kindling fire. +The lens focused the sun's rays upon a substance that would burn easily +and set it afire. The burning-glass was not connected in any way with +the development of the match. + + + + +THE STOVE + + +From the story of the match you have learned how man through long ages +of experience gradually mastered the art of making a fire easily and +quickly. In this chapter, and in several which are to follow, we shall +have the history of those inventions which have enabled man to make the +best use of fire. Since the first and greatest use of fire is to cook +food and keep the body warm, our account of the inventions connected +with the use of fire may best begin with the story of the stove. + +The most important uses of fire were taught by fire itself. As the +primitive man stood near the flames of the burning tree and felt their +pleasant glow, he learned that fire may add to bodily comfort; and when +the flames swept through a forest and overtook a deer and baked it, he +learned that fire might be used to improve the quality of his food. The +hint was not lost. He took a burning torch to his cave or hut and +kindled a fire on his floor of earth. His dwelling filled with smoke, +but he could endure the discomfort for the sake of the fire's warmth, +and for the sake of the toothsomeness of the cooked meats. After a time +a hole was made in the roof of the hut, and through this hole the smoke +passed out. Here was the first stove. The primitive stove was the entire +house; the floor was the fireplace and the hole in the roof was the +chimney (Fig. 1). The word "stove" originally meant "a heated room." So +that if we should say that at first people lived in their stoves, we +should say that which is literally true. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE PRIMITIVE STOVE.] + +Early inventions in cooking consisted in simple devices for applying +flame directly to the thing which was to be cooked. The first roasting +was doubtless done by fastening the flesh to a pole placed in a +horizontal position above the fire and supported as is shown in Figure +2.[5] The horizontal bar called a spit was originally of wood, but after +man had learned to work in metals an iron bar was used. When one side of +the flesh was roasted the spit was turned and the other side was exposed +to the flames. The spit of the primitive age was the parent of the +modern grill and broiler. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--PRIMITIVE COOKING.] + +Food was first boiled in a hole in the ground. A hole was filled with +water into which heated stones were thrown. The stones, by giving off +their heat, caused the water to boil in a very short time. After the +art of making vessels of clay was learned, food was boiled in earthen +pots suspended above the fire. + +The methods of warming the house and cooking the food which have just +been described were certainly crude and inconvenient, but it was +thousands of years before better methods were invented. The long periods +of savagery and barbarism passed and the period of civilization was +ushered in, but civilization did not at once bring better stoves. +Neither the ancient Egyptians nor the ancient Greeks knew how to heat a +house comfortably and conveniently. All of them used the primitive +stove--a fire on the floor and a hole in the roof. In the house of an +ancient Greek there was usually one room which could be heated when +there was need, and this was called the "black-room" (_atrium_)--black +from the soot and smoke which escaped from the fire on the floor. + +But we must not speak harshly of the ancients because they were slow in +improving their methods of heating for in truth the modern world has +not done as well in this direction as might have been expected. In a +book of travels written only sixty years ago may be found the following +passage: "In Normandy, where the cold is severe and fire expensive, the +lace-makers, to keep themselves warm and to save fuel, agree with some +farmer who has cows in winter quarters to be allowed to carry on their +work in the society of the cattle. The cows would be tethered in a long +row on one side of the apartment, and the lace-makers sit on the ground +on the other side with their feet buried in the straw." Thus the +lace-makers kept themselves warm by the heat which came from the bodies +of the cattle; the cows, in other words, served as stoves. This +barbarous method of heating, was practised in some parts of France less +than sixty years ago. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--A ROMAN BRAZIER.] + +The ancient peoples around the Mediterranean may be excused for not +making great progress in the art of heating, for their climate was so +mild that they seldom had use for fire in the house. Nevertheless there +was in use among these people an invention which has in the course of +centuries developed into the stove of to-day. This was the _brazier_, or +warming-pan (Fig. 3). The brazier was filled with burning charcoal and +was carried from room to room as it was needed. The unpleasant gases +which escaped from the charcoal were made less offensive, but not less +unhealthy, by burning perfumes with the fuel. The brazier has never been +entirely laid aside. It is still used in Spain and in other warm +countries where the necessity for fire is rarely felt. + +The brazier satisfied the wants of Greece, but the colder climate of +Rome required something better; and in their efforts to invent something +better, the ancient Romans made real progress in the art of warming +their houses. They built a fire-room--called a _hypocaust_--in the +cellar, and, by means of pipes made of baked clay, they connected the +hypocaust with different parts of the house (Fig. 4). Heat and smoke +passed up together through these pipes. The poor ancients, it seems, +were forever persecuted by smoke. However, after the wood in the +hypocaust was once well charred, the smoke was not so troublesome. The +celebrated baths (club-rooms) of ancient Rome were heated by means of +hypocausts with excellent results. Indeed, the hypocaust had many of the +features and many of the merits of our modern furnace. Its weak feature +was that it had no separate pipe to carry away the smoke. But as there +were no chimneys yet in the world, it is no wonder there was no such +pipe. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A ROMAN HYPOCAUST.] + +The Romans made quite as much progress in the art of cooking as they +did in the art of heating. Perhaps the world has never seen more skilful +cooks than those who served in the mansions of the rich during the +period of the Roman Empire (27 B.C.-476 A.D.). In this period the great +men at Rome abandoned their plain way of living and became gourmands. +One of them wished for the neck of a crane, that he might enjoy for a +longer time his food as it descended. This demand for tempting viands +developed a race of cooks who were artists in their way. Upon one +occasion a king called for a certain kind of fish. The fish could not be +had, but the cook was equal to the emergency. "He cut a large turnip to +the perfect imitation of the fish desired, and this he fried and +seasoned so skilfully that his majesty's taste was exquisitely deceived, +and he praised the root to his guests as an excellent fish." Such +excellent cooking could not be done on a primitive stove, and along with +the improvements in the art of cooking, there was a corresponding +improvement at Rome in the art of stove-making. + +When Rome fell (476 A.D.), many of the best features of her civilization +perished with her. Among the things that were lost to the world were the +Roman methods of cooking and heating. When the barbarians came in at the +front door, the cooks fled from the kitchen. The hardy northerners had +no taste for dainty cooking. Hypocausts ceased to be used, and were no +longer built. For several hundred years, in all the countries of Europe, +the fireplace was located, as of old, on the floor in the center of the +room, while the smoke was allowed to pass out through a hole in the +roof. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--A CHIMNEY AND FIREPLACE IN AN OLD ENGLISH +CASTLE.] + +The eleventh century brought a great improvement in the art of heating, +and the improvement came from England. About the time of the Conquest +(1066) a great deal of fighting was done on the roofs of English +fortresses, and the smoke coming up through the hole in the center of +the roof proved to be troublesome to the soldiers. So the fire was moved +from the center of the floor to a spot near an outside wall, and an +opening was made in the wall just above the fire, so that the smoke +could pass out. Here was the origin of the _chimney_. Projecting from +the wall above the fire was a hood, which served to direct the smoke to +the opening. At first the opening for the smoke extended but a few feet +from the fire, but it was soon found that the further up the wall the +opening extended the better was the draft. So the chimney was made to +run diagonally up the wall as far as possible. The next and last step +in the development of the chimney was to make a recess in the wall as a +fireplace, and to build a separate structure of masonry--the +chimney--for the smoke. By the middle of the fourteenth century chimneys +were usually built in this way (Fig. 5). As the fireplace and chimney +cleared the house of soot and smoke, they grew in favor rapidly. By the +end of the fifteenth century they were found in the homes of nearly all +civilized people. + +The open fireplace was always cheerful, and it was comfortable when you +were close to it; but it did not heat all parts of the room equally. +That part next to the fireplace might be too warm for comfort, while in +another part of the room it might be freezing. About the end of the +fifteenth century efforts were made to distribute heat throughout the +room more evenly. These efforts led to the invention of the modern +stove. We have learned that the origin of the stove is to be sought in +the ancient brazier. In the middle ages the brazier in France took on a +new form. Here was a fire-box (Fig. 6) with openings at the bottom for +drafts of air and arrangements at the top for cooking things. This +French warming-pan (_réchaud_) was the connecting-link between the +ancient brazier and the modern stove. All it lacked of being a stove was +a pipe to carry off the smoke, and this was added by a Frenchman named +Savot, about two hundred years ago. We owe the invention of the chimney +to England, but for the stove we are indebted to France. The Frenchman +built an iron fire-box, with openings for drafts, and connected the box +with the chimney by means of an iron flue or pipe. Here was a _stove_ +which could be placed in the middle of the room, or in any part of the +room where it was desirable, and which would send out its heat evenly in +all directions. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--A STOVE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.] + +The first stoves were, of course, clumsy and unsatisfactory; but +inventors kept working at them, making them better both for cooking and +for heating. By the middle of the nineteenth century the stove was +practically what it is to-day (Fig. 7). Stoves proved to be so much +better than fireplaces, that the latter were gradually replaced in large +part by the former. Our affection, however, for a blazing fire is +strong, and it is not likely that the old-fashioned fireplace (Fig. 8) +will ever entirely disappear. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--THE MODERN STOVE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--AN OLD-FASHIONED FIREPLACE AND OVEN.] + +The French stove just described is intended to heat only one room. If a +house with a dozen rooms is to be heated, a dozen stoves are necessary. +About one hundred years ago there began to appear an invention by which +a house of many rooms could be heated by means of one stove. This +invention was the _furnace_. Place in the cellar a large stove, and run +pipes from the stove to the different rooms of the house, and you have a +furnace (Fig. 9). Doubtless we got our idea of the furnace from the +Roman hypocaust, although the Roman invention had no special pipe for +the smoke. The first furnaces sent out only hot air, but in recent years +steam or hot water is sent out through the pipes to _radiators_, which +are simply secondary stoves set up in convenient places and at a +distance from the source of the heat, the furnace in the cellar. +Furnaces were invented for the purpose of heating large buildings, but +they are now used in ordinary dwellings. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--A MODERN FURNACE.] + +In its last and most highly developed form, the stove appears not only +without dust and smoke, but also without even a fire in the cellar. The +modern _electric_ stove, of course, is meant. Pass a slight current of +electricity through a piece of platinum wire, and the platinum becomes +hot. You have made a diminutive electric stove. Increase the strength of +your current and pass it through something which offers greater +resistance than the platinum, and you get more heat. The electric stove +is a new invention, and at present it is too expensive for general use, +although the number of houses in which it is used is rapidly increasing, +and in time it may drive out all other kinds of stoves. It will +certainly drive all of them out if the cost of electricity shall be +sufficiently reduced; for it is the cleanest, the healthiest, the most +convenient, and the most easily controlled of stoves. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] Several of the illustrations in this chapter are reproduced through +the courtesy of the Boston Stove Co. + + + + +THE LAMP + + +Next to its usefulness for heating and cooking, the greatest use of fire +is to furnish light to drive away darkness. Man is not content, like +birds and brutes, to go to sleep at the setting of the sun. He takes a +part of the night-time and uses it for work or for travel or for social +pleasures, or for the improvement of his mind, and in this way adds +several years to life. He could not do this if he were compelled to +grope in darkness. When the great source of daylight disappears he must +make light for himself, for the sources of night-light--the moon and +stars and aurora borealis and lightning--are not sufficient to satisfy +his wants. In this chapter we shall follow man in his efforts to conquer +darkness, and we shall have the story of the lamp. + +We may begin the story with an odd but interesting kind of lamp. The +firefly or lightning-bug which we see so often in the summer nights was +in the earliest time brought into service and made to shed its light for +man. Fireflies were imprisoned in a rude box--in the shell of a +cocoanut, perhaps, or in a gourd--and the light of their bodies was +allowed to shoot out through the numerous holes made in the box. We +must not despise the light given out by these tiny creatures. "In the +mountains of Tijuca," says a traveler, "I have read the finest print by +the light of one of these natural lamps (fireflies) placed under a +common glass tumbler (Fig. 1), and with distinctness I could tell the +hour of the night and discern the very small figures which marked the +seconds of a little Swiss watch." + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A FIREFLY LAMP.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A BURNING STICK WAS THE FIRST LAMP.] + +Although fireflies have been used here and there by primitive folk, they +could hardly have been the first lamp. Man's battle with darkness really +began with the _torch_, which was lighted at the fire in the cave or in +the wigwam and kept burning for purposes of illumination. A burning +stick was the first lamp (Fig. 2). The first improvement in the torch +was made when slivers or splinters of resinous or oily wood were tied +together and burned. We may regard this as a lamp which is all wick. +This invention resulted in a fuller and clearer light, and one that +would burn longer than the single stick. A further improvement came when +a long piece of wax or fatty substance was wrapped about with leaves. +This was something like a candle, only the wick (the leaves) was +outside, and the oily substance which fed the wick was in the center. + +In the course of time it was discovered that it was better to smear the +grease on the _outside_ of the stick, or on the outside of whatever was +to be burned; that is, that it was better to have the wick _inside_. +Torches were then made of rope coated with resin or fat, or of sticks or +splinters smeared with grease; here the stick resembled the wick of the +candle as we know it to-day, and the coating of fat corresponded to the +tallow or paraffin. Rude candles made of oiled rope or of sticks smeared +with fat were invented in primitive times, and they continued to be used +for thousands of years after men were civilized. In the dark ages--and +they were dark in more senses than one--torch-makers began to wrap the +central stick first with flax or hemp and then place around this a thick +layer of fat. This torch gave a very good light, but about the time of +Alfred the Great (900 A.D.) another step was taken: the central stick +was left out altogether, and the thick layer of fat or wax was placed +directly around the wick of twisted cotton. All that was left of the +original torch--the stick of wood--was gone. The torch had developed +into the _candle_ (Fig. 3). The candles of to-day are made of better +material than those of the olden time, and they are much cheaper; yet in +principle they do not differ from the candles of a thousand years ago. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE CANDLE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A SHELL FILLED WITH OIL AND USED AS A LAMP.] + +I have given the development of the candle first because its forerunner, +the torch, was first used for lighting. But it must not be forgotten +that along with the torch there was used, almost from the beginning, +another kind of lamp. Almost as soon as men discovered that the melted +fat of animals would burn easily--and that was certainly very long +ago--they invented in a rude form the _lamp_ from which the lamp of +to-day has been evolved. The cavity of a shell (Fig. 4) or of a stone, +or of the skull of an animal, was filled with melted fat or oil, and a +wick of flax or other fibrous material was laid upon the edge of the +vessel. The oil or grease passed up the wick by capillary action,[6] and +when the end of the wick was lighted it continued to burn as long as +there were both oil and wick. This was the earliest lamp. As man became +more civilized, instead of a hollow stone or a skull, an earthen saucer +or bowl was used. Around the edge of the bowl a gutter or spout was made +for holding the wick. In the lamp of the ancient Greeks and Romans the +reservoir which held the oil was closed, although in the center there +was a hole through which the oil might be poured. Sometimes one of these +lamps would have several spouts or nozzles. The more wicks a lamp had, +of course, the more light it would give. There is in the museum at +Cortona, in Italy, an ancient lamp which has sixteen nozzles. This +interesting relic (Fig. 5) was used in a pagan temple in Etruria more +than twenty-five hundred years ago. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--AN ETRUSCAN LAMP 2500 YEARS OLD.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--AN ANCIENT LAMP.] + +Lamps such as have just been described were used among the civilized +peoples of the ancient world, and continued to be used through the +Middle Ages far into modern times. They were sometimes very costly and +beautiful (Fig. 6), but they never gave a good light. They sent out an +unpleasant odor, and they were so smoky that they covered the walls and +furniture with soot. The candle was in every way better than the ancient +lamp, and after the invention of wax tapers--candles made of wax--in the +thirteenth century, lamps were no longer used by those who could afford +to buy tapers. For ordinary purposes and ordinary people, however, the +lamp continued to do service, but it was not improved. The eighteenth +century had nearly passed, and the lamp was still the unsatisfactory, +disagreeable thing it had always been. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--AN ARGAND LAMP.] + +Late in the eighteenth century the improvement came. In 1783 a man +named Argand, a Swiss physician residing in London, invented a lamp that +was far better than any that had ever been made before. What did Argand +do for the lamp? Examine an ordinary lamp in which coal-oil is burned. +The _chimney_ protects the flame from sudden gusts of wind and also +creates a draft of air,[7] just as the fire-chimney creates a draft. +Argand's lamp (Fig. 7) was the first to have a chimney. Look below the +chimney and you will see open passages through which air may pass upward +and find its way to the wick. Notice further that as this draft of air +passes upward it is so directed that, when the lamp is burning, an extra +quantity of air plays directly upon the wick. Before Argand, the wick +received no supply of air. Now notice--and this is very important--that +the wick of our modern lamp is flat or circular, but _thin_. The air in +abundance plays upon both sides of the thin wick, and burns it without +making smoke. Smoke is simply half-burned particles (soot) of a burning +substance. The particles pass off half-burned because enough air has not +been supplied. Now Argand, by making the wick thin and by causing plenty +of air to rush into the flame, caused all the wick to be burned and +thereby caused it to burn with a white flame. + +After the invention of Argand, the art of lamp-making improved by leaps +and by bounds. More progress was made in twenty years after 1783 than +had been made in twenty centuries before. New burners were invented, new +and better oils were used, and better wicks made. But all the new kinds +of lamps were patterned after the Argand. The lamp you use at home may +not be a real Argand, but it is doubtless made according to the +principles of the lamp invented by the Swiss physician in 1783. + +Soon after Argand invented his lamp, William Murdock, a Scottish +inventor, showed the world a new way of lighting a house. It had long +been known that fat or coal, when heated, gives off a vapor or gas which +burns with a bright light. Indeed, it is _always_ a gas that burns, and +not a hard substance. In the candle or in the lamp the flame heats the +oil which comes up to it through the wick and thus causes the oil to +give off a gas. It is this gas that burns and gives the light. Now +Murdock, in 1797, put this principle to a good use. He heated coal in a +large vessel, and allowed the gas which was driven off to pass through +mains and tubes to different parts of his house. Wherever he wanted a +light he let the gas escape at the end of the tube (Fig. 8) in a small +jet and lighted it. Here was a lamp without a wick. Murdock soon +extended his gas-pipes to his factories, and lighted them with gas. As +soon as it was learned how to make gas cheaply, and conduct it safely +from house to house, whole cities were rescued from darkness by the new +illuminant. A considerable part of London was lighted by gas in 1815. +Baltimore was the first city in the United States to be lighted by gas. +This was in 1821. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--THE GAS JET.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--AN EARLY ARC LAMP.] + +The gas-light proved to be so much better than even the best of lamps, +that in towns and cities almost everybody who could afford to do so laid +aside the old wick-lamp and burned gas. About 1876, however, a new kind +of light began to appear. This was the _electric_ light. The powerful +_arc light_ (Fig. 9), made by the passage of a current of electricity +between two carbon points, was the first to be invented. This gave as +much light as a hundred gas-jets or several hundred lamps. Such a light +was excellent for lighting streets, but its painful glare and its +sputtering rendered it unfit for use within doors. It was not long, +however, before an electric light was invented which could be used +anywhere. This was the famous Edison's _incandescent_ or glow lamp (Fig. +10), which we see on every hand. Edison's invention is only a few years +old, yet there are already more than thirty million incandescent lamps +in use in the United States alone. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--AN INCANDESCENT ELECTRIC LIGHT.] + +The torch, the candle, the lamp, the gas-light, the electric +light,--these are the steps of the development of the lamp. And how +marvelous a growth it is! How great the triumph over darkness! In the +beginning a piece of wood burns with a dull flame, and fills the dingy +wigwam or cave with soot and smoke; now, at the pressure of a button, +the house is filled with a light that rivals the light of day, with not +a particle of smoke or soot or harmful gas. Are there to be further +triumphs in the art of lighting? Are we to have a light that shall drive +out the electric light? Only time can tell. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] Hold the end of a dry towel in a basin of water and watch the water +rise in the towel. It rises by capillary action. + +[7] Light a short piece of candle and place it in a tumbler, and cover +the top of the tumbler. The experiment teaches that a flame must have a +constant supply of fresh air and will go out if the air is shut off. + + + + +THE FORGE + + +After men had learned how to use fire for cooking and heating and +lighting they slowly learned how to use it when working with metals. In +the earliest times metals were not used. For long ages stone was the +only material that man could fashion and shape to his use. During this +period, sometimes called the "stone age," weapons were made of stone; +dishes and cooking utensils were made of stone; and even the poor, rude +tools of the age were made of stone (Fig. 1). + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--IMPLEMENTS OF THE STONE AGE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--IMPLEMENTS OF THE BRONZE AGE.] + +In the course of time man learned how to make his implements and weapons +of metals as well as of stone. It is generally thought that bronze was +the first metal to be used and that the "stone age" was followed +directly by the "bronze age," a period when all utensils, weapons, and +tools were made of bronze (Fig. 2). It is easy to believe that bronze +was used before iron, for bronze is made of a mixture of tin and copper +and these two metals are often found in their pure or natural state. +Whenever primitive man, therefore, found pieces of pure copper and tin, +he could take the two metals and by melting them could easily mix them +and make bronze of them. This bronze he could fashion to his use. +There is no doubt that he did this at a very early age. In nearly all +parts of the world there are proofs that in primitive times, many +articles were made of bronze. + +If primitive man were slow to learn the use of iron it was not because +this metal was scarce, for iron is everywhere. "Wherever, as we go up +and down, we see a red-colored surface, or a reddish tint upon the solid +substances of the earth, we see iron--the bank of red clay, the red +brick, the red paint upon the house wall, the complexion of rosy youth, +or my lady's ribbon. Even the rosy apple derives its tint from iron +which it contains."[8] But although iron is so abundant it is seldom +found in its pure or natural state. It is nearly always mixed with other +substances, the mixture being known as iron ore. Primitive man could +find copper and tin in their pure state but the only pure iron he could +find was the little which fell from heaven in the form of meteors, and +even this was not perfectly pure for meteoric iron is also mixed +slightly with other metals. + +The iron which lay about primitive man in such abundance was buried and +locked tightly in an _ore_. To separate the iron from the other +substances of the ore was by no means an easy thing to do. Iron can best +be extracted from the ore by putting the ore in a fire and melting out +the iron. Place some iron ore in a fire and if the fire is hot +enough--and it must be very hot indeed--the iron will leave the ore and +will gather into a lump at the bottom of the fire. To separate the iron +from its ore in this way is to make iron. When and where man first +learned the secret of making iron is of course unknown. A camp-fire in +some part of the world may have shown to man the first lump of iron, or +a forest fire sweeping along and melting ores in its path may have given +the first hint for the manufacture of iron. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE PRIMITIVE FORGE.] + +Iron making at first doubtless consisted in simply melting the ore in an +open heap of burning wood or charcoal, for charcoal is an excellent fuel +for smelting (melting) ores. But this open-fire method was wasteful and +tedious and at a very early date the smelting of the ore was done in a +rude sort of a furnace. A hole ten or twelve feet deep was dug in the +side of a hill. In the hole were placed charcoal and iron ore, first a +layer of charcoal, then a layer of the ore. At the top of the mass there +was an opening and at the bottom there were several openings. When the +mass was set on fire the openings produced a good strong draft, the +charcoal was consumed, and the ore was smelted. The product was a lump +of _wrought iron_, known as the _bloom_. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--BELLOWS WORKED BY THE FEET.] + +The hillside furnace worked well enough when the wind was favorable, but +when the wind was unfavorable there was no draft and no iron could be +made. So ironmakers found a way by which the air could be driven into +the furnace by artificial means. They invented the _bellows_, a blowing +apparatus (Fig. 3) which was usually made of goat skins sewed together +and which was operated either by the hands or by the feet (Fig. 4). +Sometimes the bellows consisted of a hollow log in which a piston was +worked up and down (Fig. 5). After the invention of the bellows, +ironmakers could make their iron whenever and wherever they pleased, for +they could force air into their furnaces at any time and at any place. +This rude bellows forcing a draft of air into a half-closed furnace +filled with a burning mass of charcoal and iron ore was the first form +of the forge, one of the greatest of all inventions. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE WOODEN BELLOWS.] + +With the invention of the forge the stone age gradually passed away and +the iron age was ushered in. Tools and weapons could now be made of +iron. And great was the difference between iron tools and stone tools. +To cut down a tree with a flint hatchet required the labor of a man for +a month, while to clear a forest with such an implement was an +impossible task. But the forge gave to man iron for the sharp cutting +tools, for the ax and knife and chisel and saw. With these he became the +master of wood and he could now easily cut down trees and build houses +and make furniture and wagons and boats. + +As time went on and man advanced in civilization, iron was found to be +the most useful of metals. Iron can be shaped into many forms. It can be +drawn into wire of any desired length or fineness, it may be bent in any +direction, it may be sharpened, or hardened, or softened, at pleasure. +"Iron accommodates itself to all our wants and desires and even to our +caprices. It is equally serviceable to the arts, the sciences, to +agriculture and war; the same ore furnishes the sword, the plowshare, +the scythe, the pruning-hook, the needle, the spring of a watch or of a +carriage, the chisel, the chain, the anchor, the compass and the bomb. +It is a medicine of much virtue and the only metal friendly to the human +frame."[9] + +A metal that was so useful was needed in large quantities, yet the +primitive forge could turn out only small quantities of iron. A day's +labor at the bellows would produce a lump weighing only fifteen or +twenty pounds. As a result of this slowness in manufacture there was +always in primitive and ancient times a scarcity of iron. Indeed in some +countries iron was a precious metal, almost as precious as silver or +gold. In many countries, it is true, there were thousands of forges at +work, but in no country was the supply of iron equal to the demand. The +old forge could not supply the demand, yet centuries passed before any +great improvement was made in the progress of iron making. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--A BLAST FURNACE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.] + +Near the close of the Middle Ages improvements upon the primitive forge +began to be made. In the sixteenth century ironmakers in Germany began +to smelt ore in closed furnaces and to build their furnaces higher and +to make them larger (Fig. 6). Sometimes they built their furnaces to a +height of twenty or thirty feet. About this time also a better and a +stronger blast was invented. Water-power instead of hand-power began to +be used for operating the bellows. In some cases wooden bellows--great +wooden pistons working in tubs--were substituted for the old bellows of +leather. By the end of the sixteenth century so many improvements had +been made upon the primitive forge that it no longer resembled the forge +of ancient times. So the new forge received a new name and was called a +_blast furnace_.[10] You should observe, however, that the blast furnace +was simply the old forge built with a large closed furnace and provided +with a more powerful blast. + + +The invention of the blast furnace marked the beginning of a new era in +the history of iron making. In the first place there was produced in the +blast furnace a kind of iron that was entirely different from that which +was produced in the primitive forge. In the primitive forge there was +made a lump of practically pure unmelted iron, known as wrought iron. In +the blast furnace there was produced a somewhat impure grade of melted +iron, known as _cast_ iron, or _pig_[11] iron. In the second place, the +blast furnace produced iron in quantities vastly greater than it was +ever produced by the old forge. In the blast furnace more iron could be +made in a day than could be made by the forge in a month. In some of the +early blast furnaces a thousand pounds of iron could be made at one +melting and we read of one early furnace that produced 150 tons of iron +in a year. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--MAKING CHARCOAL.] + +But even with the blast furnace it was still difficult to make enough +iron to supply the ever-increasing demands of the industrial world. In +the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries machinery was brought into use +more than ever before and of course more iron was needed for the +construction of the machines. There was ore enough for all the iron that +was needed but it was difficult to get fuel enough to smelt the ore. +Charcoal was still used as the fuel for smelting (Fig. 7), and in order +to get wood for the charcoal great inroads were made upon the forests. +In England in the early part of the eighteenth century Parliament had to +put a check upon the manufacture of iron in certain counties in order to +save the forests of those counties from utter destruction. It then +became plain that if iron making were to be continued on a large scale a +new kind of fuel would have to be used in the furnaces. So men set their +wits to work to find a new kind of fuel. As far back as 1619 Dud Dudley +in the county of Warwick, England, undertook to use ordinary soft coal +in his furnaces but his experiment was not very successful or very +profitable. More than a century after this an English ironmaker named +Abraham Darby began (in 1735) to use _charred coal_ in his blast +furnaces, and his experiments were successful. Here was the new fuel +which was so badly needed. Charred coal is simply _coke_ and coke could +be had in abundance. So the new fuel was soon used in all parts of +England and by the end of the eighteenth century coke was driving +charcoal out of blast furnaces (Fig. 8). + +About the time the use of coke for smelting became general, an +Englishman named Neilson brought about another great change in the +process of iron making. Before Neilson's time the blast driven into the +furnace had always been one of cold air. Neilson learned that if the air +before entering the furnace were heated to a temperature of 600 degrees +it would melt twice the amount of ore and thus produce twice the amount +of iron without any increase in the amount of fuel. So he invented (in +1828) a _hot blast_ for the blast furnace (Fig. 9). With the use of coke +and with the hot blast the production of iron increased enormously. But +there was need for all the iron that could be made. Indeed it seems that +the world can never get too much iron. About the time the hot blast was +invented iron chains instead of ropes began to be used for holding +anchors, iron plows began to be made in great numbers (p. 83), iron +pipes instead of hollow wooden logs began to be used as water-mains in +cities, and iron rails began to be used on railroads. To supply iron for +all these purposes kept ironmakers busy enough, even though they burned +coke in their furnaces and made use of the hot air blast. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A PITTSBURGH COKE OVEN.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--A MODERN BLAST FURNACE.] + +But ironmakers were soon to become busier than ever before. About the +middle of the nineteenth century Sir Henry Bessemer invented a new +process of making steel. Steel is only iron mixed with a small amount of +carbon. Ironmakers have known how to make steel--and good steel, +too--for thousands of years, but before the days of Bessemer the process +had always been slow and tedious, and the cost of steel had always been +very great. Bessemer undertook to make steel in large quantities and +at low prices. In his experiments amid showers of molten metal he often +risked his life, but his perseverance and courage were rewarded. By 1858 +he had invented a process by which tons of molten iron could be run into +a furnace and in a few minutes be converted into a fine quality of +steel. This invention of Bessemer was the last great step in the history +of the forge. + +[Illustration: + + From copyright stereograph by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. + +FIG. 10.--GREAT STEEL RAIL PASSING THROUGH ROLLER STEEL MILL.] + +Now that steel could be made in great quantities and at a low cost it +was put to uses never dreamed of in former times. Soon the railroad rail +was made of steel (Fig. 10), bridges were made of steel, ships of war +were plated with steel. Then ocean grayhounds and battleships were made +of steel, still later steel freight cars and steel passenger coaches +were introduced, while in our own time we see vast quantities of steel +used in the building of houses. So while the invention of Bessemer +marked the last step in the history of the forge it also marked the +ending of the Age of Iron and the beginning of the wonderful age in +which we live--the Age of Steel. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] J. R. Smith, "The Story of Iron and Steel," p. 3. + +[9] From "Five Black Arts," p. 311. + +[10] The old forge continued to be used by the side of the blast furnace +for centuries, and of course where it was used it was still called a +forge. Thus we are told that in Maryland in 1761, there were eight +furnaces and ten forges. It is said that as late as twenty-five years +ago in certain parts of the Appalachian regions the American mountaineer +still worked the little primitive forge to make his iron. + +[11] It was given the name of _pig_ iron because when the molten metal +ran into the impressions made for it upon the sanded floor and cooled, +it assumed a shape resembling a family of little pigs. + + + + +THE STEAM-ENGINE + + +We have now traced the steps by which man mastered the art of kindling a +fire quickly and easily and have followed the progress that has been +made in the most common uses of fire. But the story of a most important +use of fire remains to be told, the story of its use in doing man's +_work_. How important this use is, how much of the world's work is done +through the agency of fire, a little reflection will make plain. Fire +makes steam and what does steam do? Its services are so many you could +hardly name all of them. The great and many services of steam are made +possible by the fire-engine, or _steam-engine_, and the story of this +wonderful invention will now be told. + +That steam has the power to move things must have been learned almost as +soon as fire was used to boil water. Heat water until it boils and the +steam that is formed is bound to move something unless it is allowed to +escape freely. It will burst the vessel if an outlet is not provided. +That is why a spout has been placed on the tea-kettle. Where there is +cooking, steam is abundant and the first experiments in steam were +doubtless made in the kitchen (Fig. 1). It has been said that the idea +of the steam-engine first occurred to Adam as he watched his wife's +kettle boil. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--FIRST EXPERIMENTS WITH STEAM.] + +Whatever may have happened in ancient kitchens, we are certain that +there were no steam-engines until many centuries after Adam. The +beginnings of this invention are not shrouded in so much mystery as are +those of the match and the lamp and the forge. In giving an account of +the steam-engine we can mention names and give dates from the very +beginning of the story. We know what the first steam-engine was like +and we know who made it and when and where it was made. It was made +120 B. C. by Hero, a philosopher of Alexandria in Egypt. It was like +the one shown in Figure 2. The boy applies the fire to the steam-tight +vessel _p_ and when steam is formed it passes up through the tube +_o_ and enters the globe which turns easily on the pivots. The steam, +when it has filled the globe, rushes out of the short tubes _w_ and _z_ +projecting from opposite sides of the globe and bent at the end in +opposite directions. As it rushes out of the tubes the steam strikes +against the air and the reaction causes the globe to revolve, just as in +yards we sometimes see jets of water causing bent tubes to revolve. This +was Hero's engine, the first steam-engine ever made. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--HERO'S ENGINE, 120 B. C.] + +Hero's engine was used only as a toy and it seems to represent all the +ancients knew about the power of steam and all they did with it. It is +not strange that they did not know more for there is no general rule by +which discoveries are made. Sometimes even enlightened peoples have for +centuries remained blind to the simplest principles of nature. The +Greeks and Romans with all their culture and wisdom were ignorant of +some of the plainest facts of science. It is a little strange, however, +that after Hero's discovery was made known, men did not profit by it. It +would seem that eager and persistent attempts would have been made at +once to have steam do useful work, as well as furnish amusement. But +such was not the case. Hero's countrymen paid but little attention to +his invention and the steam-engine passed almost completely out of men's +minds and did not again attract attention for nearly seventeen hundred +years. + +About the end of the fifteenth century Europe began to awaken from a +long slumber and by the end of the sixteenth century its eyes were wide +open. Everywhere men were now trying to learn all they could. The study +of steam was taken up in earnest about the middle of the sixteenth +century and by the middle of the next century quite a little had been +learned of its nature and power. In 1629 an Italian, Branca by name, +described in a book a steam-engine which would furnish power for +pounding drugs in a mortar. There was no more need for such a machine +then than there is now and of course the inventor aroused no interest +in his engine. You can easily understand how Branca's engine (Fig. 3) +works. The steam causes the wheels and the cylinder to revolve. As the +cylinder revolves, a cleat on it catches a cleat on the pestle and lifts +the pestle a short distance and then lets it fall. Here the pestle +instead of being raised by a human hand is raised by the force of steam. +This engine would be more interesting if an engine had actually been +made, but there is no reason to believe that Branca ever made the engine +he described. We owe much to him, nevertheless, for suggesting how steam +might be put to doing useful work. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--BRANCA'S ENGINE, 1629.] + +It was not very long before an Englishman put into practice what the +Italian had only suggested. Edward Somerset, the Second Marquis of +Worcester, in 1663 built a steam-engine that raised to the height of +forty feet four large buckets of water in four minutes of time. This was +the first useful work ever done by steam. Figure 4 shows the +construction of Worcester's engine. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--WORCESTER'S ENGINE, 1663.] + +In this engine there was one improvement over former engines which was +of the greatest importance: there was one vessel in which the steam was +generated and another in which the steam did its work. The steam-engine +now consisted of two great divisions, the boiler and the engine proper. + +Worcester spent a large part of his fortune in trying to improve the +steam-engine, yet he received neither profit nor honor as a reward. He +died poor and his name was soon forgotten. His service to the world was +nevertheless very great. In his time the mines of England had been sunk +very deep into the earth; and the deeper they were sunk the greater was +the difficulty of lifting the water out of them and keeping them dry. +The water was lifted up from the mines by means of buckets drawn by +horses or oxen (Fig. 5). Sometimes it took several hundred horses to +keep the water out of a single mine. It was Worcester's object to +construct an engine that would do the work of the horses. The engine he +built could not do this, yet it furnished the idea--and the idea is +often the most important thing. It was not long before engines built +upon Worcester's plan were doing useful work at the mines. At the +opening of the eighteenth century the steam-engine had been put to work +and was serving man in England and throughout the continent of Europe. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--AN ANCIENT METHOD OF DRAWING WATER.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--PAPIN'S ENGINE, 1690.] + +The first engines were not safe. Often the steam pressed too heavily +upon the sides of the vessel in which it was compressed and there were +explosions. About 1680 Denis Papin, a Frenchman, invented the _safety +valve_, that is a valve that opens of its own accord and lets out steam +when there is more in the vessel than ought to be there. About ten years +later Papin gave the world another most valuable idea. In Worcester's +engine the steam in the steam chest pressed directly on the water that +was to be forced up. Papin showed a better way. He invented the engine +shown in Figure 6. In this engine a small quantity of water was placed +in the bottom of the cylinder _A_. Fitting closely in the cylinder was a +_piston_ _B_ such as Papin had seen used in ordinary pumps. We will +suppose that the piston is near the bottom of the cylinder and that a +fire is built underneath. The bottom being made of very thin metal the +water is rapidly converted into steam and thus drives the piston up to +the top as shown in the figure. Here a latch _E_ catches the piston-rod +_H_ and holds the piston up until it is time for it to descend. Now the +fire is removed and the steam, becoming cold, is condensed and a vacuum +is formed below the piston. The latch _E_ now releases the rod _H_ and +the piston is driven down by the air above it, pulling with it the rope +_L_ which passes over the pulleys _TT_. As the rope descends it lifts a +weight _W_ or does other useful work. As the inventor of the piston +Papin ranks among the greatest of those whose names are connected with +the development of the steam-engine. + +Our story has now brought us to the early part of the eighteenth +century. Everywhere men were now trying to make the most of the ideas of +Worcester and Papin. The mines were growing very deep. As the water in +them was getting beyond control something extraordinary had to be done. +Now it seems that whenever the world is in need of an extraordinary +service someone is found to render that service. The man who built the +engine that was needed was a humble blacksmith of Dartmouth, England, +Thomas Newcomen. This master mechanic in 1705 constructed the best +steam-engine the world had yet seen. We must study Newcomen's engine +(Fig. 7) very carefully. The large beam _ii_ moved freely up and down on +the pivot _v_. One end of the beam was connected with the heavy pump-rod +_k_ by means of a rope or chain working in a groove and the other end +was connected with the rod _r_ in the same way. When steam from the +boiler _b_ passed through the valve _d_ into the cylinder (steam-chest) +_a_ it raised the piston _s_ and with it the piston-rod _r_ thus +slackening the rope and allowing the opposite end of the beam to be +pulled down by the weight of the pump-rod _k_. As soon as the piston _s_ +reached the top of the cylinder the steam was shut off by means of the +valve _d_ and the valve _f_ was turned and a jet of cold water from the +tank _g_ was injected into the cylinder _a_ with the steam. The jet of +cold water condensed the steam rapidly--steam is always condensed +rapidly when anything cold comes in contact with it--and the water +formed by the condensation escaped through the pipe _p_ into the tank +_o_. As soon as the steam in _a_ is condensed, a vacuum was formed in +the cylinder and the atmosphere above forced the piston down and at the +same time pulled the pump-rod _k_ up and lifted water from the well or +mine. When the piston reached the bottom of the cylinder the valve _d_ +was opened and the piston again ascended. Thus the beam is made to go up +and down and the pumping goes on. Notice that steam pushes the piston +one way and the atmosphere pushes it back. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--NEWCOMEN'S ENGINE, 1705.] + +In Newcomen's engine the valves (_f_ and _d_) at first were opened and +shut (at each stroke of the piston) by an attendant, usually a boy. In +1713 a boy named Humphrey Potter, in order to get some time for play, by +means of strings and latches, caused the beam in its motion to open and +shut the valves without human aid. We must not despise Humphrey because +his purpose was to gain time for play. The purpose of almost all +inventions is to save human labor so that men may have more time for +amusement and rest. Humphrey Potter ought to be remembered not as a lazy +boy but as a great inventor. His strings and latches improved the engine +wonderfully (Fig. 8). Before his invention the piston made only six or +eight strokes a minute; after the valves were made to open and shut by +the motion of the beam, it made fifteen or sixteen strokes a minute and +the engine did more than twice as much work. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--HUMPHREY POTTER'S LATCHES AND STRINGS.] + +Newcomen's engine as improved by Potter and others grew rapidly into +favor. It was used most commonly to pump water out of the mines but it +was put to other uses. In and about London it was used to supply water +to large houses and in 1752 a flour mill near Bristol was driven by a +steam-engine. In Holland Newcomen's engines were used to assist the +wind-mills in draining lakes. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--JAMES WATT STRIVING TO IMPROVE NEWCOMEN'S +ENGINE.] + +For nearly seventy-five years engines were everywhere built after the +Newcomen pattern. Improvements in a small way were added now and then +but no very important change was made until the latter part of the +eighteenth century, when the steam-engine was made by James Watt +practically what it is to-day. This great inventor spent years in making +improvements upon Newcomen's engine (Fig. 9) and when his labors were +finished he had done more for the steam-engine than any man who ever +lived. We must try to learn _what_ he did. We can learn what Watt did by +studying Figure 10. Here P is a piston working in a cylinder A _closed +at both ends_. By the side of the cylinder is a _valve-chest_ C into +which steam passes from the pipe T. Connecting C with the cylinder there +are _two_ openings, one at the top of the cylinder and the other at the +bottom. The valve-chest is provided with valves which are worked by +means of the rod F, which moves up and down with the beam B, thanks to +Humphrey Potter for the hint. The valves are so arranged that when steam +enters the opening at the top of the cylinder it is shut off from the +opening at the bottom, and when it enters the opening at the bottom it +is shut off from the opening at the top. When the opening at the bottom +is closed the steam will rush in at the upper opening and push the +piston downward; when the piston has nearly reached the bottom of the +cylinder the upper opening will be closed and steam will rush in at the +bottom of the steam chest and push the piston upwards. Here was _one_ +of the things done by Watt for the engine: he contrived to make the +steam push the piston down as well as up. You have observed that in +Newcomen's engine steam was used only to push the piston _up_, the +atmosphere being relied upon to push it down. Thus we may say that +Watt's engine was the first _real steam-engine_, for it was the first +that was worked entirely by steam. All engines before it had been worked +partly by steam and partly by air. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--WATT'S ENGINE.] + +Watt's greatest improvement upon the steam-engine is yet to be +mentioned. In Newcomen's engine when the cold water was injected into +the cylinder it cooled the piston and when steam was let into the +cylinder again a part of it, striking the cold piston, was condensed +before it had time to do any work and the power of this part of the +steam was lost. Watt did not allow the piston to get cold, for he did +not inject any cold water into the cylinder. In his engine as soon as +the steam did its work it was carried off through the pipe _M_ to the +vessel _N_ and there condensed by means of a jet of water which was +injected into _N_ (called the _condenser_) by means of a pump _E_ worked +by the motion of the beam, thanks again to Humphrey Potter for the idea. +This condensation of the steam outside of the cylinder and at a distance +from it prevented the piston (and cylinder) from getting cold. In other +words, in the Watt engine when steam entered the cylinder it went +straight to work pushing the piston. No steam was lost and no power was +lost and the cost of running the engine was greatly reduced. + +It cannot be said that Watt invented the steam-engine--no one can claim +that honor--yet he did so much to make it better that he well deserves +the epitaph which is inscribed on his monument in Westminster Abbey. +This inscription is as follows: + + NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME + WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS + FLOURISH + BUT TO SHEW + THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNT TO HONOR THOSE + WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE + THE KING + HIS MINISTERS AND MANY OF THE NOBLES + AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM + RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO + JAMES WATT + WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL + GENIUS + EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH + TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF + THE STEAM ENGINE + ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY + INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN + AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE + AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF + SCIENCE + AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD + BORN AT GREENOCH MDCCXXXVI + DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE + MDCCCXIX + +But the story of the steam-engine does not end with Watt. It will be +remembered that in the engines of Nero and of Branca the steam did its +work by reaction or by impulse. Now soon after the time of Watt, +inventors turned their thoughts to the old engines of Nero and Branca +and began to experiment with engines that would do their work by a +direct impact of steam. After nearly a century of experimenting and +after many failures there was at last developed an engine known as the +_steam-turbine_. In this engine the steam does its work by impinging or +pushing directly upon blades (Fig. 11) which are connected with the +shaft which is to be turned, and it does this in much the same manner +that we saw the steam do its work in Branca's engine. One of the +greatest names connected with the steam turbine is that of Charles +Algernon Parsons of England. In 1884 this great inventor patented a +steam-turbine which proved to be a commercial success and since that +date the steam-turbine has been constantly growing in favor. So great +has been its success on land and on sea that there are those who believe +that the engine invented by Watt will in time be cast aside and that its +place will be taken by an engine which is the most ancient as well as +the most modern of steam motors. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--SHAFT OF A LARGE MARINE TURBINE. + +Within the cylinder are thousands of blades upon which the steam acts +directly in the turning of the shaft. In the largest turbines there are +as many as 50,000 blades.] + + + + +THE PLOW + + +You have now learned the history of those inventions which enabled man +to gain a mastery over fire and to use it for his comfort and +convenience. We shall next learn the history of an invention which gave +man the mastery of the soil and enabled him to take from the earth +priceless treasures of fruit and grain. This invention was the plow. + +In his earliest state man had no use for the plow because he did not +look to the soil as a place from which he was to get his food. The first +men were hunters and they relied upon the chase for their food. They +roamed from place to place in pursuit of their prey--the birds and +beasts of the forest and the fishes of the stream. They did not remain +long enough in one spot to sow seed and to reap the harvest. Still in +their wanderings they found wheat and barley growing wild and they ate +of the seeds of these plants and learned that the little grains were +good for food. They learned, too, that if the seeds were planted in a +soil that was well stirred the plants would grow better than they would +if the seeds were planted in hard ground. So by the time men had grown +tired of wandering about and were ready to settle down and live in one +spot they had learned two important facts: they knew they could add to +their food supply by tilling the soil, and they knew that they could +grow better crops if they would stir the soil before planting the seed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE KATTA OR DIGGING STICK.] + +For the stirring of the soil the primitive farmer doubtless first used a +sharpened stick such as wandering tribes carry for the purpose of +digging up eatable roots, knocking fruits down from trees, and breaking +the heads of enemies. Such a stick known as the _Katta_ (Fig. 1) is +carried by certain tribes in Australia, and we are told by travelers +that the Kurubars of Southern India use a sharp stick when digging up +the ground. The digging stick is used by savages in many parts of the +world and we may regard it as the oldest of implements used for tilling +the soil. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE FIRST PLOW.] + +The first plow was a forked stick or a limb of a tree with a projecting +point (Fig. 2). With this implement the ground was broken not by digging +but by dragging the fork or projecting point of the stick through the +ground and forming a continuous furrow. In this forked stick we see two +of the principal parts of the modern plow. The fork of the stick is the +_share_, or cutting part of the plow, while the main part of the stick +is the _beam_. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE SYRIAN PLOW KNOWN AS JOB'S PLOW.] + +An improvement upon the simple forked stick is seen in Figure 3, which +is copied from an ancient monument in Syria (in Asia Minor). The old +Syrian plow consists almost wholly of the natural crooks of a branch of +a tree, the only artificial piece being the brace e which connects the +share and the beam and holds them firm. In this crooked stick we have +three of the main parts of the modern plow, the beam (a), the share +(c-b) and the handle (d). The plow in this form requires the services of +two persons--one to draw the plow and one to guide it and keep it in the +ground. It is said that it was with a plow of this kind that the +servants of Job were plowing when they were driven from their fields by +the Sabeans. + +The first plows were drawn by the strength of the human body (Fig. 4). +Upon a very old monument of ancient Egypt, the country which seems to +have been the first home of the plow, we have a plowing scene which +shows a number of men dragging a plow by means of a rope. But primitive +man was not at all fond of labor and in the course of time he tamed wild +bulls and horses and made them draw the plows. So upon another Egyptian +monument of a later date we have a picture of a plowing scene in which +animals are drawing the plow (Fig. 5). In this Egyptian plow we see +improvements upon the crooked stick of the Syrians. The Egyptian plow, +you observe, has a broader share. It will, therefore, make a wider +furrow and will plow more ground. Moreover, it has two handles instead +of one. Taking it altogether, the Egyptian plow was a fairly good +implement. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--PLOW DRAWN BY HUMAN LABOR.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE EGYPTIAN PLOW.] + +Many centuries passed before any real improvement was made upon the old +Egyptian plow. If there were any improvement anywhere it was among the +Romans. We read in Pliny--a Roman writer of the first century--of a +plow that had wheels to regulate the depth of the plow and also a +_coulter_, that is, a knife fixed in front of the share to make the +first cut of the sod (Fig. 6). But such a plow was not in general use in +Pliny's time. A thousand years later, however, the plow with wheels and +coulter was doubtless in common use. In a picture taken from an old +Saxon print we see (Fig. 7) a plow which was used in the time of William +the Conqueror (1066). Here the plow has a coulter inserted in the beam +and there are two wheels to regulate the depth to which the plow may go. +This Saxon plow is drawn by four fine oxen and it is plainly a great +improvement upon the old Egyptian plow. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--PLINY'S PLOW, 70 A. D.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--AN OLD SAXON PLOW, 1000 A. D.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A DOUBLE PLOW OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. + +(This plow was proposed but was never made.)] + +But improvements in the plow during the dark ages came very slowly. At +the time of the discovery of America the plow was still the clumsy +wooden thing it was five hundred years before. In the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries, however, when improvements were being made in so +many things, it was natural that men should begin to think of trying to +improve the plow. In an old book published in 1652 we read of a double +plow--one which would plow two furrows at one time. A picture (Fig. 8) +of the double plow is given in the book but there is no proof that such +a plow was ever made or ever used. The world did not as yet need a +double plow, although the time was to come when it would need one. + +In the early part of the eighteenth century we begin to see real +improvements in plow making. About this time Dutch plowmakers began to +put _mold-boards_ on their plows. The purpose of the mold-board is to +lift up and turn over the slice of sod cut by the share. Without the +mold-board the plow simply runs through the ground and stirs it up. +With the mold-board of the Dutch plow (Fig. 9) the sod was turned +completely over and the weeds and grass were covered up. This was the +kind of plow that was needed, for if the weeds and grass are not covered +up the best effects of plowing are lost. So the mold-board was a great +improvement and its invention marks a great event in the history of the +plow. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--THE DUTCH PLOW SHOWING THE MOLD-BOARD.] + +The Dutch plow was taken as a model for English plows and, in fact, for +the plows of all nations. The mold-board grew rapidly into favor and by +the end of the eighteenth century it was found on plows in all civilized +nations. But the plow was still made mostly of wood (Fig. 10) and it was +still an awkward and a poorly constructed affair. The method of making +plows about the year 1800 has been described as follows: "A mold-board +was hewed from a tree with the grain of the timber running as nearly +along its shape as it could well be obtained. On to this mold-board, to +prevent its wearing out too rapidly, were nailed the blade of an old +hoe, thin strips of iron, or worn out horseshoes (Fig. 10). The land +side was of wood, its base and sides shod with thin plates of iron. The +share was of iron with a hardened steel point. The coulter was tolerably +well made of iron. The beam was usually a straight stick. The handles, +like the mold-board, were split from the crooked trunk of a tree or as +often cut from its branches. The beam was set at any pitch that fancy +might dictate, with the handles fastened on almost at right angles with +it, thus leaving the plowman little control over his implement, which +did its work in a very slow and most imperfect manner." + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--A COLONIAL PLOW.] + +But about the end of the eighteenth century the world was beginning to +need a plow that would do its work rapidly and well. Population was +everywhere increasing and it was necessary to till more ground than had +ever been tilled in former times. Especially was a good plow needed in +the United States where there were vast areas of new ground to be +broken. And it was in the United States that the first great +improvements in the plow were made. Foremost among those who helped to +make the plow a better implement was the statesman, Thomas Jefferson. +This great man while traveling in France in 1788 was struck by the +clumsiness of the plows used in that country. In his diary he wrote: +"The awkward figure of their mold-board leads one to consider what +should be its form." So Jefferson turned his attention to mold-boards. +He saw that the mold-board ought to be so shaped that it would move +through the ground and turn the sod with the least possible resistance +and he planned for a mold-board of this kind. By 1793 he had determined +what the proper form of a mold-board should be and had in actual use on +his estate in Virginia several plows which had mold-boards of least +resistance. Mr. Jefferson's patterns of the mold-board have, of course, +been improved upon, but he has the honor of having invented the first +mold-board that was constructed according to scientific and mathematical +principles.[12] + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--DANIEL WEBSTER'S PLOW.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--JETHRO WOOD'S PLOW, 1819.] + +About the time Jefferson was working upon the mold-board, Charles +Newbold, a farmer of Burlington, New Jersey, was also doing great things +for the improvement of the plow. We have seen that the plow of this time +was a patch work of wood and iron. Newbold thought the plow ought to be +made wholly of iron and about 1796 he made one of cast iron, the point, +share, and mold-board all being cast in one piece. But the New Jersey +farmers did not take kindly to the iron plow. They said that iron +poisoned the crops and caused weeds to grow faster than ever. So Newbold +could not sell his plows and he was compelled to give up the business in +despair. + +But soon the iron plow was to have its day. In 1819 Jethro Wood of +Scipio, New York, took out a patent for a plow which was made of cast +iron and which combined the best features of the plow as planned by +Jefferson and by Newbold. In Wood's plow (Fig. 12) the several +parts--the point, share and mold-board--were so fastened together that +when one piece wore out it could easily be replaced by a new piece. In +Newbold's plow when one part wore out the whole plow was rendered +useless. Wood's plow became very popular and by 1825 it was rapidly +driving out the half-wooden, half-iron plows of the olden time. Great +improvements of course have been made upon the plow since 1819, but in +the main features the best plows of to-day closely resemble the +implement invented by Jethro Wood. Since our greatness as a nation is +due largely to the plow all honor should be given to the memory of this +inventor. "No citizen of the United States," said William H. Seward, +"has conferred greater benefits on his country than Jethro Wood." + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--THE GANG PLOW DRAWN BY HORSES.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--PLOWING BY STEAM. + +The plow is drawn across the field by means of cables. Sometimes a +traction engine moves along with the plow.] + +But the plow of Jethro Wood, as excellent as it was, did not fully meet +the needs of the western farmer. The sod of the vast prairies could not +be broken fast enough with a plow of a single share. So about the middle +of the nineteenth century the _gang plow_, a hint for which had been +given long before (p. 78) was invented, and as this new plow moved along +three or four or five furrows were turned at once. At first the gang +plow was drawn by horses (Fig. 13) but later it was drawn by steam (Fig. +14). + +The great gang plow drawn by steam marked the last step in the +development of the plow. The forked stick drawn by human hands and +making its feeble scratch on the ground had grown until it had become a +mighty machine drawn across the field by an unseen force and leaving in +its wake a broad belt of deeply-plowed and well-broken soil. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[12] Daniel Webster was another great statesman who turned his attention +to the making of plows. He planned a plow (Fig. 11) and had it made in +his workshop on his farm at Marshfield. When the plow was ready for use, +Webster himself was the first man to take hold of the handles and try +it. The plow worked well and the great man is said to have been as much +delighted with his achievement as he was with any of his triumphs in +public life at Washington. + + + + +THE REAPER + + +After man had invented his rude plow and had learned how to till the +soil and raise the grain, it became necessary for him to learn how to +harvest his crop, how to gather the growing grain from the fields. The +invention of the plow, therefore, must have soon been followed by the +invention of the _reaper_. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--PRIMITIVE SICKLES.] + +The first grain was doubtless cut with the rude straight knives used by +primitive man. In time it was found that if the knife were bent it would +cut the grain better. So the first form of the reaper was a curved or +bent knife known as the sickle or reaping hook (Fig. 1). The knife was +fastened at one end to a stick which served as a handle. When using the +sickle the harvester held the grain in one hand and cut it with the +other. (Fig. 2). + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--REAPING WITH THE SICKLE.] + +_When_ the sickle first began to be used is of course unknown. Among +the remains of the "stone age" (p. 39) are implements of flint which +resemble the sickle, while among the remains of the so-called "bronze +age" many primitive sickles made of bronze have been found. Nor do we +know _where_ the sickle was first used, although Egypt seems to have +been the first home of the sickle just as it was the first home of the +plow. Upon the wall of a building of ancient Thebes is a picture of an +Egyptian harvest scene. Two men with sickles are cutting the wheat. A +man following the reapers seems to be gleaning, that is, picking up the +wheat that the reapers have cut. Other harvesters are carrying the grain +to the threshing place where it is tramped out by the slow feet of oxen. +A primitive sickle such as was used by the Egyptians was used by all +civilized nations in ancient times, by the Hebrews, by the Greeks, and +by the Romans. + +The first improvement upon the primitive sickle was made by the Romans. +About the year 100 A. D. the Roman farmers, who were at the time the +best farmers in the world, began to use a kind of scythe for cutting +grass. The Roman scythe was simply an improved form of the sickle; it +was a broad, heavy blade fastened on a long straight handle, resembling +the pruning hook of to-day (Fig. 3). The scythe was swung with both +hands and it was used chiefly for cutting grass. + +For more than a thousand years after the appearance of the Roman scythe +agriculture in Europe was everywhere neglected and little or no +improvement was made in farming implements. About the end of the Middle +Ages, however, improvements in the form of the scythe began to appear. +In Flanders farmers began to use an implement known as the Hainault +scythe (Fig. 4). This scythe had a fine broad blade and a curved handle. +When reaping with this scythe the reaper with his left hand brought the +stalks of grain together with a hook and with his right hand he swung +the scythe and cut the grain. This scythe was an improvement upon the +sickle but it was still a very awkward implement. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--AN EARLY SCYTHE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--THE HAINAULT OR FLEMISH SCYTHE, WITH HOOK.] + +The Hainault or Flemish scythe was followed by the _cradle scythe_. On +this scythe (Fig. 5) there were wooden fingers running parallel to the +blade. These fingers, called the cradle, caught the grain as it was cut +and helped to leave it in a bunch. In the early cradle-scythe the +fingers were few in number and they ran along the blade for only a part +of its length, but in America during the colonial period the cradle was +improved by lengthening the fingers and increasing their number. At the +time of the Revolution the improved American cradle was coming into use +and by the end of the eighteenth century it was driving out the sickle. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--EARLY FORM OF THE CRADLE SCYTHE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE IMPROVED CRADLE SCYTHE.] + +But even the excellent American cradle-scythe could not meet the needs +of the American farmer. The cast iron plow which was brought into use in +the early part of the nineteenth century (p. 82) made it possible to +raise fields of wheat vastly larger than had ever been raised before. +But it was of no use to raise great fields of grain unless the crop +could be properly harvested. Wheat must be cut just when it is ripe and +the harvest season lasts only a few days. If the broad American fields +were to be plowed and planted there would have to be a reaping machine +that would cut the grain faster than human hands could cut it with the +scythe (Fig. 6). + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--THE FIRST REAPING MACHINE, 70 A. D.] + +So about the year 1800 inventors in Europe and in America took up the +task of inventing a new kind of reaper. The first attempts were made in +England where population was increasing very fast and where large +quantities of grain were needed to feed the people. The first hints for +a reaper were from a machine which was used in Gaul nearly 2,000 years +ago. Pliny, who described for us a wonderful plow used in his time (p. +77), also describes this ancient reaper of the Gauls. It consisted of a +large hollow frame mounted on two wheels (Fig. 7). At the front of the +frame there was a set of teeth which caught the heads of grain and tore +them off. The heads were raked into the box by an attendant. The machine +was pushed along by an ox. This kind of machine was doubtless used in +Europe for a while but it was not a success. It passed out of use and +for many centuries it was entirely forgotten. Still, the first English +reaping machines were made after the plan of this interesting old reaper +of ancient Gaul. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--OGLE'S REAPER, 1822.] + +The most remarkable of the early reapers was one invented by Henry Ogle, +a schoolmaster of Remington, England. In 1822 Ogle constructed a model +for a reaper which was quite different from any that had appeared before +and which bore a close resemblance to the improved reapers of a later +date. In Ogle's reaper (Fig. 8) the horse walked ahead beside the +standing grain, just as it does now, and the cutting apparatus was at +the right, just as it is now. The cutter consisted of a frame at the +front of which was a bar of iron armed with a row of teeth projecting +forward. Directly under the teeth lay a long straight edged knife which +was moved to and fro by means of a crank and which cut the grain as it +came between the teeth. A reel pushed the grain toward the knife and +there was a platform upon which the grain when cut might fall. Ogle's +machine did not meet with much success yet it holds a very high place +in the history of reaping machines, for it had nearly all the parts of a +modern reaper. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--THE FIRST MCCORMICK REAPER.] + +English inventors did much to prepare the way for a good reaping machine +but the first really successful reaper, the first reaper that actually +reaped, was made in the United States. In the summer of 1831, Cyrus +McCormick, a young blacksmith living in the Shenandoah Valley in +Virginia, made a trial of a reaper which he and his father had +invented--how much they had learned from Ogle we do not know--and the +trial was successful (Fig. 9). With two horses he cut six acres of oats +in an afternoon. "Such a thing," says Mr. Casson in his life of +McCormick, "at the time was incredible. It was equal to the work of six +laborers with scythes or twenty-four peasants with sickles. It was as +marvelous as though a man had walked down the street carrying a dray +horse on his back." + +Although McCormick had his reaper in successful operation by 1831 he did +not take out a patent for the machine until 1834. One year before this +(in 1833) Obed Hussey, a sailor living in Baltimore, took out a patent +for a reaper that was successful and that was in many respects as famous +a machine as McCormick's. So while McCormick was the first in the field +with his invention, Hussey was the first to secure a patent. The +machines of McCormick and Hussey were very much alike: both had the +platform, the iron bar armed with guards and the long knife moving to +and fro. The most remarkable feature of Hussey's machine was the knife +which consisted of thin triangular plates of steel sharpened on two +edges and riveted side by side upon a flat bar (Fig. 10). The saw-like +teeth of Hussey's knife caught the wheat between the guards and cut it +better than any knife that had as yet appeared. Both the McCormick +reapers and the Hussey reapers were practical and successful and each of +these inventors performed a noble part in giving the world the reaper it +needed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--THE KNIFE BLADE OF HUSSEY'S REAPER.] + +The McCormick and the Hussey reapers gave new life to farming in the +United States. Especially was the reaper a blessing to the Western +farmers. In 1844 McCormick took a trip through the West, passing through +Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa. As he passed through Illinois he saw +how badly the reaper was needed. He saw great fields of ripe wheat +thrown open to be devoured by hogs and cattle because there were not +enough laborers to harvest the crops. The farmers had worked day and +night and their wives and children had worked but they could not harvest +the grain; they had raised more than the scythe and sickle could cut. +McCormick saw that the West was the natural home for the reaper and in +1847 he moved to Chicago, built a factory, and began to make reapers. In +less than a year he had orders for 500 machines and before ten years had +passed he had sold nearly 25,000 reapers. It was these reapers that +caused the frontier line to move westward at the rate of thirty miles a +year. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--REAPER PROVIDED WITH SEAT FOR THE RAKER.] + +Improvements upon the machines of Hussey and McCormick came thick and +fast. One of the first improvements was to remove the grain from the +platform in a better way. With the first machines a man followed the +reaper (Fig. 9) and removed the grain with a rake. Then a seat was +provided and the man sat (Fig. 11) on the reaper and raked off the +grain. Finally the _self-raking_ reaper was invented. In this machine, +as it appeared in its completed form about 1865, the reel and rake were +combined. The reel consisted of a number of revolving arms each of +which carried a rake (Fig. 12). As the arms revolved they not only moved +the standing grain toward the knife, but they also swept the platform +and raked off the wheat in neat bunches ready to be bound into sheaves. +So the self-raking reaper saved the labor of the man who raked the wheat +from the platform. + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--SELF-RAKING REAPER.] + +Because it saved the labor of one man the self-raking reaper was for a +time the king of reaping machines. But it did not remain king long, for +soon there came into the harvest fields a reaper that saved the labor of +several men. This was the _self-binder_. With the older machines, as the +grain was raked off the platform it was gathered and bound into sheaves +by men who followed the reaper, one reaper requiring the services of +three or four or five human binders. With the self-binder (Fig. 13) the +grain was gathered into sheaves and neatly tied without the aid of human +hands. At first, wire was used in binding the sheaves but by 1880 most +self-binders were using twine. So the self-binder saved the labor not +only of the man who raked the grain from the platform but it saved the +labor of all the binders as well. + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--A SELF-BINDING REAPER.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--A COMBINED HARVESTER AND THRESHER.] + +The last step in the development of the reaper was taken when the +_complete harvester_ was invented. This machine cuts the standing grain, +threshes it, winnows[13] it, and places it in sacks (Fig. 14). As this +giant reaper travels over the field one sees on one side the cutting bar +15 to 25 feet in length slicing its way through the wheat, while on the +other side of the machine streams of grain run into sacks which, as fast +as they are filled, are hauled to the barn or to the nearest railway +station. The complete harvester is either drawn by horses--30 or 40 in +number--or by a powerful engine. It cuts and threshes 100 acres of wheat +in a day and the cost is less than 50 cents an acre. It does as much +work in a day as could have been done by a hundred men before the days +of McCormick. Of all the wonderful machines used by farmers the most +wonderful is the complete harvester, the latest and the greatest of +reapers. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[13] To winnow grain is to separate it from the chaff by a fanning +process. + + + + +THE MILL + + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE FIRST MILL.] + +The first mill was a hole made in a stationary rock (Fig. 1). The grain +was placed in the hole and crushed with a stone held in the hand. On +Centre street in Trenton, New Jersey, not many years ago one of these +primitive mills could still be seen and there are evidences that such +mills once existed in all parts of the world. In those places where the +earth did not supply the stationary rock, stones were brought from afar +and hollowed out into cup-like form and in these the grinding was done. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE KNOCKING-STANE.] + +The mill which consisted of a hole in a rock and a stone in the hands +was followed by the "knocking-stane" and mallet (Fig. 2). The +"knocking-stane" was a mortar, or cup-shaped vessel made of stone; the +mallet was usually made of wood. The grain was placed in the mortar and +struck repeatedly with the mallet, the beating being kept up until a +coarse flour was produced. This is an exceedingly rude method of +crushing grain, yet this is the way the people in some parts of Scotland +grind their barley at the present time. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--MORTAR AND PESTLE MILL.] + +At a very early date the "knocking-stane" was laid aside for the mortar +and pestle (Fig. 3) almost everywhere. In this mill the grain instead of +being struck with a hammer was pounded with a pestle. The bottom of the +pestle was frequently covered with iron in which grooves were cut. As +the man pounded he found that when he gave the pestle a twirling or +rotary motion as it fell it ground the grain much faster. We may be sure +that after this was learned the twirling motion was always given. + +The mortar and pestle were followed by the slab-mill (Fig. 4). Here the +grain was ground by being rubbed between two stones. Dr. Livingstone, +the great African explorer, gives the following description of a +slab-mill which he saw in operation in South Africa. "The operator +kneeling grasps the upper millstone with both hands and works it +backwards and forwards in the hollow of the lower millstone, in the same +way that a baker works his dough. The weight of the person is brought to +bear on the movable stone and while it is pressed and pushed forward and +backward one hand supplies every now and then a little grain to be +bruised and ground." + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--THE SLAB-MILL.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE UPPER AND NETHER MILLSTONE.] + +As we have seen, the primitive miller gradually learned that the pestle +did better work when it fell with a twirling motion. This little bit of +experience led to important results in the development of the mill. If +the grinding were done better with a twirling motion, why not have as +much of the twirling motion as possible? Why not make the upper stone go +round and round? This was what was done. The upper stone was caused to +turn round and round. The wheel-mill, the mill of the upper and nether +millstone (Fig. 5), was invented. When and where it was invented we +cannot tell for it was in use among all civilized peoples before history +began to be written. There were many kinds of wheel-mills among the +nations of antiquity and in principle they were all alike in +construction. How they worked may be learned by studying Figure 5 which +represents a mill used in ancient India. The upper stone is placed upon +the pivot projecting from the center of the lower (nether) stone, and +caused to revolve by means of the handle. The grain when placed in the +hollow at the center of the upper stone (Fig. 5) works its way down +between the stones and comes out at the circumference ground, bran and +flour together. The mill was fed with grain by the operator. The first +hopper was a human hand. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--AN ANCIENT JEWISH MILL.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--AN OLD ROMAN MILL.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A SCOTTISH QUERN.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--POMPEIAN FLOUR MILL, 79 A. D.] + +We have here several pictures of ancient mills. Figure 6 is an ancient +Jewish mill. As we look at it we may recall the words, "Two women shall +be grinding at a mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left."[14] +Figure 7 is an old Roman mill bearing a strong resemblance to the coffee +mill that is used in our kitchens. Figure 8 is a Scottish quern, a mill +that may still be found in use, it is said, in some parts of Scotland. +Figure 9 is an old flour mill dug from the ruins of the city of Pompeii +which was destroyed by an eruption in the year 79 A. D. Figure 10 shows +the construction of this interesting mill. The upper (outer) stone is +shaped like an hour-glass, the upper half of which serves as a hopper; +the lower half turns upon the cone-shaped lower stone and does the +grinding. The mill was operated by the projecting handles, the operators +walking round and round the mill. Sometimes it was turned by human +power, sometimes by horses or oxen. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--SHOWING THE INTERIOR OF POMPEIAN MILL.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--THE FIRST WATER-MILL, 50 B. C.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--SHOWING THE INTERIOR OF THE FIRST WATER-MILL.] + +The Pompeian mill shows that as early as the first century the Romans +ground their grain by animal power. Indeed about this time a still +greater change was made in the method of grinding grain. When Julius +Cæsar flourished (50 B. C.) men began to harness the power of running +water and make it turn their mills (Fig. 11). From Figure 12 we may +easily learn how this was done. The running water turns the wheel and in +doing so turns the upper millstone. A hopper is suspended from the roof +by ropes. Through this the grain passes into the mill. Here was a +great saving in human labor and a great advancement in mill making. A +Roman writer of Cæsar's time appreciating how great a blessing was the +invention of the water-mill exclaimed: + + Ye maids who toiled so faithful at the mill + Now cease from work and from these toils be still; + Sleep now till dawn and let the birds with glee + Sing to the ruddy morn, on bush and tree; + For what your hands performed so long, so true, + Ceres[15] has charged the water-nymphs to do; + They come, the limpid sisters, to her call, + And on the wheel with dashing fury fall; + Impel the axle with a whirling sound + And make the massive millstone reel around + And bring the floury heap luxuriant to the ground. + +Nothing can be simpler than the water-mill described above; it was the +old mill of the upper and nether millstones, the old hand mill turned by +water. That was all. Yet, as simple as it was, many centuries passed +after its invention before a new principle in flour making was +discovered. There were inventions for lowering and raising the stone so +as to grind finer or coarser as might be desired, and there were +improvements in the kind of water wheels employed, and better methods of +sifting the flour from the bran were discovered from time to time, but +the water-mill invented in the time of Julius Cæsar remained practically +unchanged until the early part of the nineteenth century, when the last +step in the development of the mill was taken.[16] + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--AN EARLY FLOUR ROLLER-MILL.] + +About 1810 millers in Austria, more particularly those in Vienna, began +to grind their grain by passing it between two horizontal rollers (Fig. +13). The rollers were spirally grooved and turned toward each other. +There was a wide difference between this process and the one to which +the world was accustomed, yet the new method was found to be better than +the old one. Austrian flour and Austrian bread became famous. The +delicious Vienna bread on our tables of course has never seen Vienna. It +is called "Vienna bread" because it is made out of a kind of flour which +was first ground in the Austrian capital. The Austrian way of grinding +grew rapidly into favor among millers everywhere. In the United States +where there was so much wheat to be ground the roller process was taken +up eagerly and improved upon as only Americans know how to improve upon +an idea. In the flour mills of the West the grain was soon passing +through a series of rollers. By the first pair of rollers the grain was +simply cracked into pieces somewhat coarse. Then after being bolted +(sifted) it was passed between a second pair of rollers and reduced to a +greater fineness. Then it was bolted again and passed between a third +pair of rollers. The rolling and sifting continued until a practically +pure flour was obtained. A pure flour is the modern miller's ideal. He +wants a branless flour and a flourless bran. The old stone mill could +not grind this kind of flour. Before the roller mill appeared there was +always bran in the flour and flour in the bran. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--A MODERN FLOUR ROLLER-MILL.] + +The invention of the flour roller-mill (Fig. 14) is the last step in the +development of the mill. The roller process has almost entirely driven +out all other processes. Now and then we see by the roadside an old +fashioned mill with the upper and nether stone, but we seldom see one +that is prosperous and thriving. Millers, like everybody else in these +days, do business on a large scale and to make flour on a large scale +they must use the roller-mill. Thus the hole in the rock in which a +handful of grain was laboriously crushed has, through long ages of +growth, become the great factory in which thousands of barrels of flour +are made in a day. + +[Illustration] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] Matthew xxiv, 41. In ancient times nearly all the grinding was done +by women. + +[15] Ceres was the goddess of grain. + +[16] In the thirteenth century wind-power began to be used for turning +mills, and in some countries windmills were as common as water-mills. + + + + +THE LOOM + + +Have you ever seen a loom? It would not be a wonder if you have not. In +these days the average person seldom sees one. Everyone knows in a vague +sort of way that clothes and carpets are made of wool or silk or cotton, +as the case may be, and that they are woven upon an instrument called a +loom. This is about as much as we usually know about the clothes we wear +or the carpets we walk upon. We buy these things from the store and that +is all there is to it. In the olden times, and not so very long ago +either, everybody knew something about weaving, at least every girl and +woman knew something of the art, and a loom was as familiar an object in +the household then as a sewing machine is now. + + Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles + Scarlet and blue and green, with distaff spinning the golden + Flax for the gossiping loom, whose noisy shuttle within doors + Mingled their sounds with the whir of the wheels and the + songs of the maidens. + +This picture of home life in Acadia two hundred years ago would have +served as a picture of home life almost everywhere in the civilized +world. From the beginning of history until modern times most of the +weaving was done by the women in the home. + +The earliest practical weaver on record is the spider and it may be that +man learned his first lesson in weaving from this skilled little workman +(Fig. 1); or the beautiful nest of the weaver-bird may have given to +human beings the first hints in the weaving art. Whoever may have been +his teacher, it is certain that man learned how to weave in the earliest +stages of existence. It is thought that his first effort in this +direction consisted in making cages for animals and wiers (traps) for +catching fish (Fig. 2) by interlacing vines or canes or slender boughs. +The next step was taken when women began to make baskets and cradles and +mats by interlacing long slender strips of wood (Fig. 3). + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE FIRST LESSON IN WEAVING.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A WIER TRAP OF THE VIRGINIA INDIANS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--PRIMITIVE BASKET MAKING.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--THE PRIMITIVE LOOM.] + +Basket weaving led to cloth weaving, and this led to the loom. In Figure +4 we see the simplest and oldest form of the loom. It consisted of a +single stick (yarn beam) of wood about four feet long. This was the +first form of the loom--just a straight stick of wood and nothing more. +From the stick the threads which run lengthwise in the cloth were +suspended. These threads are known as the _warp_. The threads which +run breadthwise in the cloth are known as the _weft_, or _woof_. As the +woman's deft fingers pass along with the weft she carries the thread +over the first warp thread, under the second, over the third, under the +fourth, and so on. Here we have not only the simplest form of the loom +but the simplest kind of cloth. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE PUEBLO LOOM.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE HEDDLE.] + +In the loom worked by the Pueblo woman (Fig. 5) a new piece appears. +This is the frame through which the threads of the warp pass and which +the woman is holding in her right hand. The frame is called a heald, or +_heddle_ (Fig. 6). The heddle is of the greatest importance in the +construction of the loom and it is well worth while to understand what +it does. In the loom operated by the Chilcoot woman (Fig. 4) you noticed +that the weaver passed the weft thread above and below the alternate +threads of the warp. This required a separate movement for every thread +of the warp; if there were a hundred threads a hundred movements were +required to pass the weft across once. Now the heddle used by the Pueblo +woman separated the fifty warp threads that were to pass above the weft +thread from the fifty that were to pass below it, making an opening +called, a _shed_. When the shed was made the weft thread could be passed +across at one movement. One movement instead of a hundred! How was this +accomplished? Fifty alternate warp threads were passed through the holes +in the bars of the heddle frame, one thread through each hole; the other +fifty alternate threads passed between the bars of the heddle frame. +Now suppose the entire warp of a hundred threads is stretched tight and +firm between the woman's body and the yarn beam. With her right hand she +_raises_ the heddle and thus lifts the fifty threads which pass through +the holes in the bars, while the other fifty threads remain unmoved. +This movement makes the passage or shed through which she passes the +weft with the left hand. After beating the weft thread close to the +cloth either with the fingers or with a sword-like stick, she lowers the +heddle with its fifty threads, the other fifty still remain fixed and +unmoved. Another shed is formed and the weft is passed through again. +Thus with the raising and lowering of the heddle the weft is passed +backward and forward and the weaving goes on quite rapidly. If you care +to do so you can make a Pueblo loom and can weave a belt on it. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--AN OLD AFRICAN LOOM.] + +In the old African loom represented in Fig. 7 we find several +improvements upon the loom of the Pueblo woman. In the first place, it +has two heddles instead of one. These are operated by the feet, leaving +the hands free to do other work. In the second place, the wooden frame +which the weaver holds in his right hand is not to be seen in the Pueblo +loom. This frame called the _batten_, or _lathe_, contains the _reed_, +which is a series of slats or bars between which the threads of the warp +pass after they leave the heddle. When the weaver has thrown the weft +through the shed he brings the batten down hard and the reed drives the +last weft thread close to the woven part of the cloth. The reed takes +the place of the sword-like stick used by the Pueblo woman. Last and +most important: in the African's left hand is the _shuttle_, or little +car--weaver's ship, the Germans call it--which carries the weft across +(Fig. 8). + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A PRIMITIVE SHUTTLE.] + +The loom described above seems to be clumsy and rude when compared with +a loom of the present day, yet it is really the kind of loom which was +used by nearly all civilized people from the dawn of their civilization +to the middle of the eighteenth century. It is the loom of history and +poetry and song. Upon a loom of this kind was woven Joseph's coat with +its many colors and the garment which the fair Penelope made when she +deceived her suitors. Of course as the centuries passed the parts of the +loom were better made and weavers became more skilful. In Figure 9 we +have the loom as it appeared in the sixteenth century. If we inspect it +closely we shall find it to be merely the old African loom mounted on +stout upright timbers instead of being mounted on a tripod made of +poles. With her feet the weaver works the heddle, with her right hand +she throws the shuttle, with her left she draws toward her the swinging +batten and drives the weft home with the reed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--A LOOM OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--KAY'S FLYING SHUTTLE.] + +The year 1733 is a most important date in the development of the loom +for in that year John Kay, a practical loommaker of Lancashire, England, +invented the flying shuttle and thus did more for the loom than any man +whom we can distinguish by name. To appreciate the great service of Kay +we must recall how the shuttle was operated before his time. You +remember it was thrown through the shed by one of the weaver's hands and +caught and returned by the other hand. Sometimes it was caught and +returned by a boy. This was at best a slow process and unless the weaver +had an assistant to return the shuttle only narrow pieces could be +woven. The common width of cloth, three-fourths of a yard, had its +origin in necessity. The weaver's arms were not long enough to weave a +wider piece. "The essence of Kay's invention was that the shuttle was +thrown from side to side by a mechanical device instead of being passed +from hand to hand. One hand only was required for the shuttle while the +other was left free to beat up the cloth (with the batten) after each +throw, and the shuttle would fly across wide cloth as well as narrow." +You will be able to understand Kay's invention by studying Figure 10 +which shows how the flying shuttle worked. _G_ is a groove +(shuttle-race) on which the shuttle runs as it crosses through the shed +leaving its thread behind it. _I_ and _I_ are boxes which the shuttle +(Fig. 11) enters at the end of the journey. In each box is a driver _K_ +sliding freely on the polished rod _F_. The weaver with his right hand +pulls the handle _H_ and _K_ drives the shuttle to the opposite side. +With his left hand he works the reed, with his feet he works the heddle. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--A MODERN SHUTTLE.] + +The profits of Kay's invention were stolen, his house was destroyed by a +mob and he himself was driven to a foreign country where he died in +poverty. Yet he deserves high rank among the benefactors of mankind, for +the flying shuttle doubled the power of the loom and improved the +quality of the cloth woven. Kay's invention was the first step in a +great industrial revolution. The increased power of the loom called for +more yarn than the old spinning wheel could supply. Hargreaves and +Arkwright set their wits to work and made their wonderful spinning +machine, and the demands of the loom were supplied. So great was the +supply of yarn that the hand loom was behind with its work. Then in +order to keep up with the spinning machine the _power-loom_ was +invented. Heddle and batten and shuttle were now driven by a force of +nature and all the weaver had to do was to keep the shuttle filled with +thread and see that his loom worked properly. At first the water-wheel +was used to drive the power-loom but later the steam-engine was made to +do this work. All this was changing the face of the civilized world. +Hitherto weavers and spinners had worked for themselves in their homes +or in their own shops; now they were gathered in large factories where +they worked as wage earners for an employer. Hitherto industry had been +carried on in small villages; the great factories drew the people to +large industrial centers and the era of crowded cities began. + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--THE JACQUARD LOOM.] + +Following the invention of the power-loom in the latter half of the +eighteenth century came the invention of Joseph Jacquard of Lyons, +France. This very ingenious man in 1801 invented a substitute for the +heddle. We cannot readily understand the workings of Jacquard's +wonderful "attachment," as his substitute for the heddle is called, but +we ought to know what the great Frenchman did for the loom. In Figure 12 +you see that the cloth which is exposed shows that beautiful designs +have been woven into it. This is what Jacquard did for the loom. He made +it weave into the cloth whatever design, color or tint one might desire. +He made the loom a mechanical artist rivaling in excellence the work of +a human artist. The Jacquard loom has brought about a revolution in +man's, and especially in woman's dress. With the old loom, colors and +designs could be woven into cloth but only very slowly, and goods with +fancy patterns were made at a cost that was so great that only the rich +could afford to buy. In the olden times, therefore, almost everybody +wore plain clothes. With Jacquard's attachment the most beautiful +figures can be cheaply woven into the commonest fabrics. As far as +weaving is concerned, it costs no more to have beautiful figures in +cotton goods than it does to have them in silk. As a result the poor as +well as the rich can dress as their taste and fancy may suggest. + +The last century brought improvements in the weaving art as every +century before it brought improvements, but the changes made since +Jacquard's time need not concern us. The story of the loom ends with the +Jacquard "attachment." Perhaps no other of man's inventions has a more +interesting development than the loom. We can see it grow, piece by +piece. First a simple stick from which dangle the threads of the warp; +then the heddle, then the shuttle, then the reed, then the shuttle-race +and the swiftly flying shuttle, and last the Frenchman's wonderful +device for weaving in colors and fancy figures. + + + + +THE HOUSE + + +Man has always been a builder. Like squirrels and beavers and birds he +provides himself a home as by instinct. The kind of house erected by a +people in the beginning depended upon the surroundings, upon the enemies +that prowled about, upon the climate, upon the building materials close +at hand. In a hilly, rocky region primitive folk built one kind of +house, in a forest they built another kind, in a low marshy district +they built still another kind. In all cases they took the materials that +were the easiest to get and erected the kind of dwelling place that +would afford the greatest safety and comfort. + +If one could have traveled over the earth during the first days of man's +history one would doubtless have found that dwellings were made of wood, +for in those days the greater part of the earth was covered with +forests. To build a home in the forest was the simplest of tasks. All +that was necessary was to fasten together the tops of several saplings, +interlace the saplings with boughs (Fig. 1) and cover the frame with +skins of animals or thatch it with leaves and grass. A cone-shaped +structure of this pattern, a tent, or hut, or wigwam, was the first +house of all primitive people who lived where there was plenty of wood. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--BUILDING A HOUSE WITH WOOD.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A CAVE-DWELLING.] + +In many regions, especially in parts of northwestern Europe, the wigwam +or hut was not always the most suitable dwelling place for early man. In +hilly and mountainous districts and along streams where shores were +overhung by rocks or pierced by caverns the first inhabitants found that +a hollow in the earth was the best kind of house. Sometimes the house of +the cave-dwellers was made by Nature (Fig. 2); sometimes it was an +artificial living-place dug in the side of a hill or mountain. The cave +was truly a rude and gloomy home, yet there was a time when large +numbers of the human race lived in caves. The Zuni Indians of Arizona in +seeking a refuge from their enemies built their homes far up in steep +cliffs where it was almost impossible for a stranger to go. + +Coming down from the highlands to the lowlands where there were swamps +and marshes or where inland lakes were numerous, we find that the first +houses were built upon piles driven in the water or in the mud (Fig. 3). +These lake-dwellings, as houses of this kind were called, were generally +connected with the mainland by gangways of wooden piers, although +sometimes they could be approached only by boat. In the floors of some +of these curious dwellings were trapdoors through which baskets could be +lowered for catching fish in the lake below. The children of the +lake-dwellers were tethered by the feet to keep them from falling into +the water. The beautiful city of Venice in its infancy was a community +of lake-dwellers. The rough canoe of the lake-dwelling time has +developed into the graceful gondola, and the rude wooden pier has grown +to be the magnificent Rialto. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--LAKE-DWELLINGS, RESTORED. + +(From Troyon.)] + +In many regions the most convenient building material is stone and all +over the earth there are proofs to show that building with stone began +at a very early date. The stones in the earliest stone structures were +rough and unhewn and were laid without mortar or cement (Fig. 4) yet +they were sometimes fitted together with such nicety that a thin knife +blade could not be passed between them. Remains of stone houses built +many thousands of years ago may be seen in Peru, Mexico, Italy, and +Greece. These primitive dwellings were humble and simple, but they were +made of good material and they were well built. They have weathered the +storms of ages and they have remained standing while later and more +pretentious buildings have crumbled and disappeared. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A PRIMITIVE STONE HOUSE.] + +The illustrations of early building which have been given will make +plain the truth that the people of a particular country have taken the +materials nearest at hand and have constructed their homes according to +their particular needs. Now since the beginnings of house building have +been different in different parts of the earth, the story of the house +will not be the same in all countries. In China and Japan, where the +light bamboo has always flourished and has always been used in building, +the house has had one development; in countries where granite and marble +and heavy timber abound it has had another and an entirely different +development. What then is the story of the house as we see it in our +country? Can this story be told? As one passes through an American city +looking at the public buildings and churches and stores and dwellings +can one go back to the beginning and trace step by step the growth of +the house and tell how these came to be what they are? Let us see if +this cannot be done. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--AN EGYPTIAN HOUSE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--AN ANCIENT HEBREW DWELLING.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--INTERIOR OF AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PALACE.] + +Our story takes us back many thousands of years to Egypt, the cradle of +civilization. From Egypt it will take us to Greece, thence to Rome, +thence to the countries of Northern Europe, thence to America. What kind +of houses did the Egyptians first build? They built as simple a +structure as can be imagined; they erected four walls and over these +they placed a flat roof (Fig. 5). The roof was made flat because in +Egypt there is scarcely any rain and there was no need for a roof with a +slant. In all those countries where rain seldom falls, or never falls, +the flat roof is the natural roof (Fig. 6). Although their buildings +were simple in construction the Egyptians left behind them most +remarkable specimens of the builder's art. Their pyramids and monuments +and sphinxes and palaces have always been foremost among the great +wonders of the world. Figure 7 shows the interior of an ancient Egyptian +palace. This palace had only an awning for a roof. That was all that was +necessary to keep out the rays of the sun. Notice the lofty pillars or +columns of this building. You see they are adorned above or below with +the figure of the lotus, the national flower of the Egyptians. The +column, as we shall see, plays an important part in the history of the +house and it was ancient Egypt that gave the world its first lessons in +the art of making columns. + +From Egypt we pass over "the sea" to Greece. The Greeks borrowed ideas +wherever they could and in the matter of architecture they borrowed +heavily from Egypt. But they did not borrow the flat roof of the +Egyptians. In Greece there was some rainfall and this fact had to be +taken into account when building a house; the roof had to slant so that +the rain could run off. Now the Greeks taught the world the best way to +make a slanting roof. They made the roof to slant in two directions from +a central ridge (Fig. 8) instead of having the entire roof to slant in +one direction like an ugly shed. The slant was gentle because there was +no snow to be carried off. The roof of two slants formed a gable. The +Greeks, then, were the inventors of the _gable_. The column they +borrowed from Egypt. But whenever the Greeks borrowed an invention or +an idea they nearly always improved upon it. Instead of slavishly +imitating the Egyptian columns they tried to make better ones and they +were so successful that they soon became the teachers of the world in +column making. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A GREEK DWELLING.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--THE THREE ORDERS OF COLUMNS.] + +The oldest and strongest of the Greek columns belong to what is known as +the Doric order (Fig. 9), a name given to them because they were first +made by the Dorians, the original Greek dwellers in Europe. Aside from +the flutes or channels which ran throughout its length the Doric column +was perfectly plain. In the older Doric columns even the flutes are +absent. Its _capital_ or top, was without ornament. Later the graceful +and elegant Ionic pillar (Fig. 9) came into fashion. We can always +distinguish an Ionic column by the volute or scroll at its capital. The +latest of the Greek columns was the Corinthian (Fig. 9), the lightest, +the most slender and the most richly decorated of all. A cluster of +acanthus leaves at its capital is the most prominent ornament of the +Corinthian column. The Greeks carried the art of column making to such +perfection that even to this day we imitate their patterns. A column in +a modern building is almost certain to be a Greek column. It is worth +one's while, therefore, to be able to tell one Greek column from +another. One can do this by remembering (1) that the Doric column is +perfectly plain and has no capital; (2) that the Ionic column has a +scroll at the capital; (3) that the capital of the Corinthian column is +adorned with a cluster of acanthus leaves. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--AN OLD ROMAN ARCH.] + +Our story now takes us to Italy. Greece fell before the power of Rome +146 B.C., but before she fell she had taught her conquerors a great deal +about architecture. Indeed the Romans took up the art of building where +the Greeks left it. They needed the Greek gable for they had rains, and +the Greek column recommended itself to them on account of its beauty. +They used the best features of Grecian architecture and added a feature +that was largely their own. This was the _arch_. The Greeks, like the +Egyptians before them, bridged over the openings of doors and windows +and the spaces between columns by means of straight wooden beams or long +blocks of stone. The Romans bridged over these spaces with the arch +(Fig. 10). If you will study the arch you will see that it is a curved +structure which is supported by its own curve. You will also see that it +is a structure of great strength. The greater the weight placed upon it, +providing its bases are supported, the stronger it gets. In teaching the +world how to make arches Rome added to the house an element of great +strength and beauty. With the arch came the tall building. In Greece a +house was never more than two stories high. In Rome arch rose upon arch +(Fig. 11); the dome which is itself a kind of arch appeared and palaces +were piled story upon story until they seemed to reach the skies. + +From Italy we pass to northern Europe. The power of Rome fell 476 A.D., +but before that date the greater part of Europe had been Romanized, and +the Roman way of building with column and arch and dome had been learned +in France and Germany and England. But the climate of those countries +was different from that of Italy and a slight change in the Roman way of +building was necessary. In the northern countries there were heavy rains +and snows and a roof with a gentle slope was not suitable for carrying +off large quantities of water and snow. A gable (Fig. 12) with a sharp +slant was necessary. Hence throughout northern Europe the roofs were +built much steeper than they were in Italy and Greece, although in other +respects the northern houses resembled more or less closely those of the +older southern countries. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--INTERIOR OF A ROMAN CLUB HOUSE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--A DWELLING IN NORTHERN EUROPE.] + +The pointed roof which was made necessary by the climate of the north +prepared the way for a new style of building, the _pointed_ or _Gothic_ +style. This style began to appear in the twelfth century and by the end +of the thirteenth century--that remarkable century again--the buildings +of all northern Europe were Gothic. The new style began with a change in +the arch. The Roman arch was a semi-circle and was therefore described +from one center. The Gothic arch was formed by describing it from two +centers instead of one and was therefore a pointed arch. As the pointed +arch grew in favor it became the fashion to shape other parts of the +building into points wherever it was possible to do this. The rounding +dome became a spire "pointing heavenward"; the windows and doors were +pointed and so were the ornaments and decorations. For several centuries +buildings fairly bristled with points (Fig. 13). The finest example of +Gothic architecture is the glorious cathedral at Cologne. + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--POINTED STYLE. + +Typical scheme of a fully developed French cathedral of the 13th +century. (From Viollet-le-Duc's "Dict. de l'Architecture.")] + +During the thousand years of the Dark Ages (476-1453) the glories of the +civilization of ancient Greece and Rome faded almost completely from +human vision. Events of the sixteenth century brought those glories +again into view and Europe was dazzled by them. Men everywhere became +dissatisfied with the things around them. They longed for ancient +things. They read ancient authors, they imitated ancient artists, they +imbibed the wisdom of ancient teachers. This was the period of the +Renaissance, the time when the world was born anew--as it pleased men to +think and say. The world of the present died and the old world of Greece +and Rome was brought to life. Of course in the new order of things +architecture underwent a change. _It_ was born again; _it_ experienced a +renaissance. The pointed style grew less pleasing to the builder's eye, +and wherever he could he placed in his building something that was Greek +or Roman, here an arched doorway, there a Greek column. There resulted +from these changes a style that was neither Gothic, Grecian nor Roman, +but a mixture of all these. This mixed style was named after the period +in which it arose. When you see a building that strongly resembles the +buildings of ancient Greece and Rome and at the same time has features +which belong to other styles you may safely say that the building +belongs to the renaissance style. (Fig. 14.) The most noble and +beautiful examples of renaissance architecture are the church of St. +Peter's at Rome and the church of St. Paul at London. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--A RENAISSANCE DWELLING.] + +We now pass over to America. About the time the old world was born anew +the new world was found. The houses of the first settlers in America +were of course rude and ugly but as the colonies grew in population and +wealth more expensive and beautiful houses were built. As we should +expect, the colonists built their best houses in the style that was then +in fashion in the old world and that was the renaissance style. They did +not, however, copy the old world architecture outright. They had +different materials, a different climate and a different class of +workmen and they had to build according to these changed conditions. The +result was a style of building that has been called colonial (Fig. 15). +Colonial architecture was simply American renaissance. And that is what +it is to-day. To say that a house is in the colonial style is to say +that it represents a certain architect's ideas as to what is best and +most beautiful in all styles. + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.--A COLONIAL MANSION. + +The Cliveden Chew Mansion, where the Battle of Germantown was fought.] + +The story of the house really ends with the period of the renaissance. +Since the sixteenth century nothing really new in architecture has been +discovered and men have been wedded to no particular style. When we want +to build a house we choose from all the styles and build according to +our tastes. Our story of the house, however, will not be complete +without a brief account of what has been called _elevator_ architecture. +The high price of land in large cities makes it necessary to run +buildings up to a considerable height if they are to be profitable. Now +if a building is more than five stories high it must have an elevator, +or lift, and if an elevator is to be put in, the building might as well +be run up nine or ten stories. American business men learned this +thirty or forty years ago and began to build high, and they have been +building higher and higher ever since. There are tall buildings in other +countries but the "sky-scraper" of twenty-five and thirty stories is +found only in the United States (Fig. 16). + +[Illustration: (Copyright 1911 by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.) + +FIG. 16.--ELEVATOR ARCHITECTURE. + +The tower-like structure in the distance is a building more than forty +stories in height.] + +Thus we may see in the house of to-day a long and unbroken story. Where +the roof is flat it is Egyptian; where it slants gently in two +directions it is Greek; where it is steep or sharply pointed it is +Gothic. The columns are Greek, the rounded arches are Roman. The whole +is the result of the thousands of years of effort which man has given to +the task of providing for himself a safe, convenient and beautiful +home. + + + + +THE CARRIAGE + + +We are very proud in our day of our means of transportation. If one +wishes to send a present to a friend a thousand miles away a few cents +spent in postage will take the article to its destination. If for the +sake of higher prices a fruit grower wishes to sell his crops in a +distant city, the railroad people will haul it for him at a very small +cost. If you wish to visit a friend in town several blocks away, there +is the electric car ready to take you for a nickel. If your friend is +several hundred miles away, the steam car will take you in a few hours +at a cost of not more than two or three cents a mile. I am living in the +country sixteen miles from the city in which my work lies, and for nine +cents I am carried to the place of my business in less than +half-an-hour. What has been the history of the inventions which make +transportation so comfortable, rapid and cheap? Our subject divides +itself into two parts, transportation on land and transportation on +water or the story of the Carriage and the story of the Boat. We will +have the story of the carriage first. + +Man's only carriage at first was of course his own feet. When he wanted +to go to any place he had to take "Walker's hack," if a playful +expression may be pardoned. As a traveler on foot, man soon surpassed +all other animals. He could walk down the deer and wear out the horse. +When it came to carrying things from place to place, in the beginning he +had to rely upon his own limbs and muscles. It was not long, however, +before he learned that there were good ways and bad ways of carrying +things, and he soon set about finding the best way. We may believe that +he began by making a snug bundle and carrying it on his shoulder. Then +he found that he could carry a heavier burden upon his back, and he +invented a pack or frame on which he could carry things on his back +(Fig. 1) after the manner of one of our modern pack peddlers. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A HUMAN BURDEN BEARER. + +(From a Model in National Museum.)] + +In the course of time man tamed one or more of the wild beasts which +roamed near him. Then the burden was shifted from the back of a man to +the back of a beast. The first beast of burden in South America was the +llama; in India it was the elephant; in Arabia it was the camel (Fig. +2). In Europe and in parts of Asia and in Egypt the horse first became +man's burden bearer and the nations which had the services of this swift +and strong animal outstripped the other nations of the world. "Which is +the most useful of animals?" asked one Egyptian god of another. "The +horse," was the reply, "because the horse enables a man to overtake and +slay his enemy." + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A SHIP OF THE DESERT.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--A CART WITHOUT WHEELS. + +(From a Model in the National Museum.)] + +It is often easier to drag a thing along than it is to carry it. This +fact led to the invention of what we may call the first and simplest +form of carriage. This was the drag or travail (tra-vay´), a cart +without wheels (Fig. 3). Two long saplings were fastened at the large +end to the strap across the horse's breast and the small end upon which +the burden was placed dragged upon the ground. Mr. Arthur Mitchell in +his delightful book, "The Past in the Present," tells us that he saw +carts of this kind in actual use in the highlands of Scotland as late as +1864! An improvement upon the travail was the sledge made of the forked +limb of a tree (Fig. 4). This primitive sledge was really a travail +consisting of one piece. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A PRIMITIVE SLEDGE. + +(From a Model in National Museum.)] + +In many cases it is easier to roll a thing than it is to drag it. This +fact led to another step in the development of the carriage; it led from +the cart without wheels to a cart with a wheel--a most important step in +the history of inventions. The first wheeled cart was simply a log from +each end of which projected an axle (Fig. 5). The axle fitted in the +holes of a frame upon which the body of the cart was placed and to which +the horse or the ox was attached. As the cart moved along, wheel (log +and axle) turned together. The very ancient method of moving a load by +rolling it along was in use in the United States not so very long ago. +As late as 1860 in some of the southern States hogsheads of tobacco +(Fig. 6) were rolled over country roads in the manner just described and +as late as 1880 the fishermen of Nantucket used as a fish cart a vehicle +that had only a barrel for its wheel. (Fig. 7.) The common wheel-barrow +and the one-wheeled carts which are still used in China and Japan had +their origin in the rolling log. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE FIRST CART. + +FIG. 6.--HAULING TOBACCO. + +(From a Model in National Museum.)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--A NANTUCKET FISH CART. + +(From a Model in the National Museum.)] + +We are told by some writers that the rolling log (the one-wheeled cart) +was followed by the two-wheeled cart, on which the wheels were the ends +of a log and the axle was the middle portion of the log hewn down to a +proper size (Fig. 8). Here wheels and axle turned together precisely +like a modern car wheel. This makes a very pretty story but I am afraid +the solid two-wheeled affair represented in Figure 8 is only imaginary, +and that in a true account of the development of the cart it has no +place. The true beginning of the two-wheeled cart may be learned from +Figure 9. Here the wheels are two _very short_ logs through the center +of which are holes in which the round ends (axles) of a piece of timber +(the axle-tree) fit. When the cart moves, the wheels turn upon the axle. +The one-wheeled cart had at first _one log_ turning _with_ the axle; +the two-wheeled cart at first had as its wheels two very short logs +turning _on_ the axles. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A CART WITH WHEELS AND AXLE IN ONE PIECE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--CART WITH A SOLID WHEEL.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--CART WITH WHEEL PARTLY SOLID. + +(From a Model in the National Museum.)] + +The first two-wheeled carts were a great improvement upon the single +rolling log, yet they were exceedingly heavy and clumsy. The trouble was +with the wheel. This was very thick and with the exception of the hole +in which the axle went it was entirely solid. Wheelwrights at a very +early date saw that the problem was to make the wheel light and at the +same time to keep it strong. Little by little this problem was solved. +At first crescent-shaped holes were made in the wheel (Fig. 10). This +made the wheel lighter, but did not weaken it. In its next form the +wheel was even less solid than before. It now consisted of four curved +pieces of wood (Fig. 11) held together by four spokes. In this wheel +there was a hub, but the spokes were not inserted in it; they were +fastened about it. In the Egyptian chariot (Fig. 12) we find the wheel +in the last stage of its interesting and remarkable development. Here +the spokes, six in number, are inserted in the hub from which they +radiate to the six pieces of the felly or inner rim. Around the felly +is the outer rim or tire made of wood and fastened to the felly with +thongs. The wheel of to-day has more iron in it, and has more spokes and +is lighter and stronger than the old Egyptian wheel, yet in its main +features it is made like it. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--WHEELS WITH SPOKES. + +(From National Museum.)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CHARIOT SHOWING HUB, +SPOKES, FELLY AND RIB. + +(From National Museum.)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--WONDERFUL ONE HOSS SHAY. + +(From National Museum.)] + +A light running two-wheeled carriage was used by all the civilized +nations of the ancient world. Three thousand years ago in the great and +wicked city of Nineveh chariots raced up and down the paved streets +"jostling against one another in the broad ways, with the crack of the +whip, the rattle of the wheel and the prancing of horses." The chariot +played an important part in the life of the Greeks and Romans, in their +racing contests and in their wars, and throughout the Middle Ages it +was the only vehicle in general use in Europe. As time passed it was of +course made lighter and stronger and better. The doctor's gig so +charmingly described by Holmes in his "Wonderful One Hoss Shay" may be +taken as an illustration of the full development of the two-wheeled +carriage (Fig. 13). + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--AN ANCIENT ROMAN CHARIOT.] + +Bring the hind part of one Egyptian chariot opposite to the hind part of +another, lash the two chariots together, remove the tongue of one of the +chariots and you have made a chariot of four wheels or a _coach_. The +form of the most ancient of four-wheeled carriages leads to the belief +that the coach was first made by joining together two two-wheeled +chariots in the way just described. The ancient Egyptians had their +four-wheeled chariots but only their gods and their kings had the +privilege of riding in them. For centuries none but the great and the +powerful rode in coaches. The Roman chariot (Fig. 14), bad imitations of +which we see nowadays in circus processions, was used only in the +splendid triumphal processions which entered Rome after a great victory. +In the Middle Ages we get a glimpse of a four-wheeled carriage now and +then, but usually the king or a queen is lounging in it (Fig. 15). The +coach could not be generally used in Europe in medieval times because +the roads were so bad. The excellent roads made by the Romans had not +been kept in good condition. Traveling had to be done either on +horseback or in the two-wheeled carriage. In 1550 there were but three +coaches in Paris and in London there was but one. In 1564, however, we +find Queen Elizabeth riding in a coach (Fig. 16) on her way to see her +lover, Lord Leicester. Insert more spokes and lighter ones in the +wheels of this coach of the queen's, put on rubber tires and mount the +body on elliptical springs[17] and we will have the coach of to-day. + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.--A COACH OF THE MIDDLE AGES.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 16.--QUEEN ELIZABETH'S COACH.] + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[17] About the year 1700 elliptical springs were invented, but they did +not find their way into general use until more than a hundred years +later. + + + + +THE CARRIAGE + +_Continued_ + + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--NEWTON'S STEAM CARRIAGE, 1680.] + +In the last chapter the story of the Carriage was brought up to the +reign of Queen Elizabeth of England. In the century following +Elizabeth's reign a new and most remarkable step in the development of +the carriage was taken. You remember that in the seventeenth century +there was a great deal of experimenting with steam (p. 58). Among other +experiments was one made by Sir Isaac Newton. This great philosopher +tried in 1680 to make a steam-carriage, or _locomotive_, as we call it. +Figure 1 shows the principle upon which he tried to make his carriage +work. The steam was to react against the air, as in the case of Hero's +engine (p. 56) and thus push the carriage along. Newton's experiment was +not satisfactory but the idea of a steam-carriage was now in men's heads +and the hope of making one continued to be cherished. In 1769 Cugnot, a +French army officer, invented a steam-carriage of three wheels (Fig. 2) +but it was a very poor one. It traveled only three or four miles an +hour, it could carry but three persons, and it had to stop every ten +minutes to get up steam. Cugnot, however, deserves to be ranked among +the great inventors for he showed that a steam-engine could be attached +to a carriage and could push it along. In other words he showed that +steam could be used for transportation as well as for working pumps and +turning the wheels of factories. And that was just what was needed most +in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Man needed assistance in +traveling; he especially needed help in carrying things from place to +place. The steam-engine was keeping the mines dry and making it possible +to mine great quantities of coal and was turning the wheels of great +factories where the spinning-jenny and the new power loom (p. 119) were +consuming enormous quantities of cotton and wool. Now if the +steam-engine could also be made to carry the coal and cotton and wool to +the factory, and the manufactured products from the factory to the +market, the industrial revolution would be complete indeed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--CUGNOT'S STEAM CARRIAGE, 1769.] + +Inventors everywhere put their wits together to construct an engine that +would draw a load. The great Watt tried to make one, but having failed, +he came to the conclusion that the steam-engine could do good work only +when standing still. Among those who entered the contest was Richard +Trevithick, a Cornish miner, born in 1771. Trevithick when a lad at +school was able to work six examples in arithmetic while his teacher +worked one. He proved to be as quick in mechanics as he was in +mathematics. He began his experiments with steam when a mere boy, and as +early as 1796 he had built a steam-locomotive which would run on a +table. By 1801 he had constructed a steam-carriage (Fig. 7). Three years +later (1804) Trevithick exhibited a locomotive which carried ten tons of +iron, seventy men, and five wagons a distance of nine and one-half miles +at the rate of five miles an hour. This was the first steam carriage +that actually performed useful work. The honor of inventing the first +successful locomotive, therefore, belongs to Richard Trevithick, +although he never received the honor that was due him. + +The honor went to George Stephenson, of Wylam, near Newcastle, England. +Stephenson's parents were so poor that they could not afford to send him +to school long enough for him to learn to read and write. In his +eighteenth year, however, he attended a night school and learned +something of the common branches. In his childhood Stephenson lived +among steam-engines. He began as an engine boy in a colliery and was +soon promoted to the position of fireman. At an early age he was trying +to build the locomotive that the world needed so badly, one that would +do good work at a small cost. Trevithick's locomotive was too expensive. +Stephenson wanted a locomotive that would pay its owner a profit. At the +age of thirty-three he had solved his problem. In 1814 he exhibited a +locomotive that would run ten or twelve miles an hour and carry +passengers and freight cheaper than horses could carry them. Eleven +years later he was operating a railroad between Stockton and Darlington, +England. The steam carriage was now a success (Fig. 3). The iron horse +was soon transporting passengers and freight in all the civilized +countries of the world (Fig. 4). Observe that the first passenger car +was simply the old coach joined to a locomotive. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--STEVENSON'S LOCOMOTIVE, 1828.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--THE "BEST FRIEND." THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE BUILT +FOR ACTUAL SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES.] + +The locomotive worked wonders in travel and in carrying loads, yet men +were not satisfied with it. We never are satisfied with our means of +transportation. No matter how comfortably or cheaply or fast we may +travel we always want something better. In the latter part of the +nineteenth century the great cities of the world were becoming +over-crowded. The people could not be carried from one part of a city +to another without great discomfort. The street cars drawn by horses +could not carry the crowds and the elevated steam cars were not +satisfactory. Wits were set to work to relieve the situation and about +thirty years ago the _electric car_ (Fig. 5) was invented. Without horse +or locomotive this quick-moving car not only successfully handles the +crowds which move about the city but it also relieves over-crowding by +enabling thousands to reach conveniently and cheaply their suburban +homes. It also does the work of the steam car and carries passengers +long distances from city to city. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--A TROLLEY CAR.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--A HORSELESS CARRIAGE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.] + +A late development in carriage making is seen in the automobile. As far +back as the sixteenth century a horseless carriage was invented (Fig. 6) +and was operated on the streets of a German city. But here the power was +furnished by human muscle. The first real automobile (Fig. 7) was +invented in 1801, by the man who invented the first successful +locomotive. Trevithick's road locomotive--for that is what an automobile +really is--did not work well because the roads upon which he tried it +were in very bad condition. Inventors after Trevithick for a long time +paid but little attention to the road locomotive; they bestowed their +best thought upon the locomotive that was to be run upon rails--the +railroad locomotive. In recent years, however, they have been working on +the so-called automobile and they have already given us a horseless +carriage that can run on a railless road at a rate as great as that of +the fastest railroad locomotives. To what extent is this newest of +carriages likely to be used? It is already driving out the horse. Will +it also drive out the electric car and the railroad locomotive? Are we +coming to the time when the railroad will be no more and when all travel +and all hauling of freight will be done by carriages and wagons without +horses on roads without rails? The answers to these questions can of +course only be guessed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--THE FIRST AUTOMOBILE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--GOOD-BY TO THE HORSE.] + +The last and latest form of the carriage is seen in the +_flying-machine_, the automobile of the air. In all ages men have +watched with envy the movements of birds and have dreamed of +flying-machines, but only in modern times has man dared to take wings +and glide in bird-like fashion through the air. The first actual flying +by a human being was done by a Frenchman named Bresnier, who, in 1675, +constructed a machine similar to that shown in the right hand picture +at the top of Figure 9. Bresnier worked his wings with his feet and +hands. Once he jumped from a second story window and flew over the roof +of a cottage. From the days of Bresnier on to the present time man has +taxed his wits to the utmost to conquer the air, and in his efforts to +do this he has invented almost every conceivable kind of machine. About +the middle of the nineteenth century inventors began to apply steam to +the flying-machine, and it is said that in 1842 a man named Philips was +able, by the aid of revolving fans driven by steam, to elevate a machine +to a considerable distance and fly across two fields. In 1896 Professor +Langley, with a flying-machine driven by a small steam-engine, made +three flights of about three-fourths of a mile each over the Potomac +River, near Washington. This was the first time a flying-machine was +propelled a long distance by its own power; it was the first aerial +automobile. But the aerial steam carriage was never a success; the steam +engine was too heavy. In the early years of the twentieth century +inventors began to use the light gasoline engine to drive their +flying-machines and then real progress in the art of flying began, and +so great has been that progress that the automobiles of the air are +becoming rivals of those on the land. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--SOME UNSUCCESSFUL FLYING MACHINES OF A HUNDRED +YEARS AGO.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--A SUCCESSFUL FLYING MACHINE OF TO-DAY.] + + + + +THE BOAT + + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE FIRST BOAT.] + +At first, when a man wanted to cross a deep stream, he was compelled to +swim across. But man at his best is a poor swimmer, and it was not long +before he invented a better method of traveling on water. A log drifting +in a stream furnished the hint. By resting his body upon the log and +plashing with his hands and feet he found he could move along faster and +easier. Thus the log was the first boat and the human arm was the first +oar. Experience soon taught our primitive boatman to get on top of the +log and paddle along, using the limb of a tree for an oar (Fig. 1). But +the round log would turn with the least provocation and its passenger +suffered many unceremonious duckings. So the boatman made his log flat +on top. It now floated better and did not turn over so easily. Then the +log was made hollow, either by burning (Fig. 2), or by means of a +cutting instrument. Thus the canoe was invented. Very often if the +nature of the tree permitted it, the log was stripped of its bark, and +this bark was used as a canoe. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE INVENTION OF THE CANOE.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE RAFT--SHOWING ALSO EARLY USE OF THE SAIL.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A PRIMITIVE OARLOCK.] + +The canoe was one of the earliest of boats, but it is not in line with +the later growth. The ancestry of the modern boat begins with the log +and is traced through the raft rather than through the canoe. By lashing +together several logs it was found that larger burdens could be carried. +Therefore the boat of a single log grew into one of several logs--a raft +(Fig. 3). By the time man had learned to make a raft he had learned +something else: he had learned to row his boat along by pulling at an +oar instead of pushing it along with a paddle. But in order to row there +must be something against which the oar may rest; so the oarlock (Fig. +4) was invented. Rafts were used by nearly all the nations of antiquity. +Herodotus, the father of history, tells us that they were in use in +ancient Chaldea. In Figure 3 we have a kind of raft that may still be +seen on some of the rivers of South America. Here a most important step +in boat-building has been taken. A _sail_ has been hoisted and one of +the forces of nature has been bidden to assist man in moving his boat +along. + +The raft was bound to develop into the large boat. The central log was +used as a keel and about this was built a boat of the desired shape and +size. Stout timbers, called ribs, slanted from the keel, and on the ribs +were fastened planks running lengthwise with the vessel. To keep out the +water the seams between the planks were filled with pitch or wax. Thus +the raft grew into a large spoon-shaped vessel (Fig. 5). The early boat +was usually propelled by oars, although a single sail sometimes invoked +the assistance of the wind. It had no rudder and no deck, and if there +was an anchor it was only a heavy stone. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--"THUS THE RAFT GREW INTO A LARGE, SPOON-SHAPED +VESSEL."] + +In the early history of the boat there was no such thing as a rudder. +The oarsman had to steer his craft as best he could. With the +appearance of larger boats, however, a steersman comes into view. He +steers by means of a paddle held over the stern of the boat. Within +historic times, probably about the time of Homer (1100 B. C.), the +rudder appears as an oar with a broad blade protruding through a hole in +the side of the boat well to the stern (Fig. 6). Throughout the whole +period of ancient history boats were steered by rudders of this kind. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE POSITION OF THE RUDDER IN ANCIENT TIMES.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--ANCIENT ANCHORS.] + +The anchor came later than the rudder. Of course even in primitive times +there were methods of securing the vessel to the ground under water but +they were very crude. Sometimes a sack of sand was used as an anchor, +sometimes a log of wood covered with lead was thrown overboard to hold +the boat in its place. In Homer's time the anchor was a bent rod with a +single fluke. About 600 B. C. Anacharsis, one of the seven wise men of +Greece, gave a practical turn to his wisdom and invented an anchor with +two flukes (Fig. 7). The invention received the name of "anchor" from +the name of the inventor. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A ROMAN GALLEY OF ONE TIER OF OARS, INTRODUCING +THE RUDDER.] + +It was in the Mediterranean Sea that the boat had its most rapid +development. As early as we can get a glimpse of that wonderful body of +water it was alive with boats (called galleys) that had well-laid keels +and lofty sides, and rudders, and sails. The greatest of the earlier +navigators were the Phoenicians whose boats had traversed 5,000 years +ago the whole course of the Mediterranean and had even ventured beyond +the Straits of Gibraltar. The ancient Greeks also were a great sea-going +people, and their merchantmen or trading boats visited every part of the +known world. But it was the Romans who at last became masters of the +ancient seas. The Roman galley, therefore, may be taken as the +representative boat of ancient times. What kind of a boat was the Roman +galley? It was propelled chiefly by oars, just as nearly all the boats +of antiquity were. Occasionally a sail was hoisted when the wind was +favorable but the main reliance was the rower's arm. Men had not yet +learned to use the sail to the best advantage. The older galleys had one +row of oarsmen (Fig. 8), but as the struggle for the mastery of the sea +became keener the boats were made larger and more rowers were necessary. +Galleys with two and three, and even four rows of oarsmen were built by +the Roman navy. When there was more than one row of oars the rowers sat +on benches one above another. The oarsmen were slaves or prisoners +captured in war, and their life was most wretched.[18] They were chained +to the benches on which they sat, and were compelled to row as long as a +spark of life was left. Sometimes they dipped their oars to the music of +the flute, but more often it was to the crack of the lash. Figure 9 +shows us how the Roman galley looked when Rome was at the height of her +power (100 A. D.). Here is a vessel about 400 feet long and about 50 +feet across its _deck_, a part of the boat, by the by, which was not to +be seen in the earlier galleys. The boat is a trireme, that is, it has +openings for three tiers of oars, and it is propelled by several hundred +oarsmen. For steering purposes it has four stout paddles, two on each +side near the stern. Two masts instead of one carry the sail which, +considering the size of the boat, would seem to be insufficient. This +galley of the first century of our era represents the full development +of the boat in ancient times. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--A ROMAN GALLEY WITH THREE BANKS OF OARS.] + +After the downfall of Rome (476 A. D.) it was a long time before there +was any real progress in boat-making. The glimpses we get now and then +of vessels in the Middle Ages almost make us feel that boat-building was +going backward rather than forward. But such was not the case. The ship +in which William of Normandy sailed (Fig. 10) when he crossed over the +Channel to give battle to Harold (1066 A. D.) was not so impressive as a +Roman galley, yet it was, nevertheless, a better boat. In the first +place William's boat was a better sailer; it relied more upon the force +of the wind and less upon the oar. In the second place, it could be +steered better, for the rudder had found its way to its proper place and +was worked by a tiller. Finally, the shape of the Norman boat fitted it +for fiercer battles with the waves. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--THE SHIP IN WHICH WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR CROSSED +THE CHANNEL IN 1066.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--A MEDITERRANEAN GALLEY OF THE 14TH CENTURY.] + +If we should pass from the English Channel to the Adriatic we should +find that boat-making had undergone the same changes. A Mediterranean +galley of the fourteenth century (Fig. 11) shows fewer oars and more +sails. Instead of three rows of oars and two sails as on the Roman +galley, there are three sails and one row of oars. This was the tendency +of the boat-builder in the Middle Ages; he crowded on the sail and took +off the rowers. A war-boat of the sixteenth century (Fig. 12) shows that +the last row of oarsmen has disappeared. + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--A WAR-BOAT OF THE 16TH CENTURY, SHOWING THAT +THE LAST ROW OF OARS HAD DISAPPEARED.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--A CHINESE COMPASS. AS THE CART MOVED THE HUMAN +FIGURE IN FRONT ALWAYS POINTED NORTH.] + +About the middle of the thirteenth century there began to appear on the +decks of vessels almost everywhere in Europe, a little instrument that +is of the greatest importance in the history of the boat. This was the +_mariner's compass_. The use of the magnetic needle was known in China +(Fig. 13) a thousand years before it was known to the Europeans, but in +this, as in many other instances, the Chinese did not profit by their +knowledge. Sailors have always sailed at night by the North star; but +before the use of the compass was understood they could little more than +guess their way when the night was dark and the stars could not be seen. +With a mariner's needle on board they can tell the direction they are +going no matter how dark the night. We can easily understand that +sailors prized very highly the discovery of the compass. With the +appearance of this faithful guide they became bolder and bolder and were +soon venturing out upon the trackless expanse of the ocean. It was the +compass that led to the discovery of the new world, for without it no +sailor could have held his course due west long enough to reach the +American coast. + +After men had learned to carry their burdens on the broad back of the +ocean, boat-building took on new life. All the great nations of Europe +wanted a share in the new world that had just been found; but no nation +could hope to profit greatly by the discovery of Columbus if its vessels +were not swift and strong. So there arose a grim contest for the mastery +of the Atlantic, just as in ancient times there had been a struggle for +the mastery of the Mediterranean. Spain, France, Portugal, Holland and +England all joined in the battle. When we see the kind of boats she sent +out upon the oceans we are not surprised that England won. Compare the +heavy, angular galley of the first century with the graceful ship of the +sixteenth century and we see at once the progress the boat made in the +Middle Ages (Fig. 14). + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--THE GREAT HARRY.] + +The log, the raft, the galley, the sailing-ship, these were the steps in +the development of the boat up to the end of the seventeenth century. In +the eighteenth century another step was taken. You remember that in that +century inventors were everywhere trying to make a steam carriage. They +were at the same time trying to make a steam boat. Their efforts to use +steam to drive boats were rewarded with success earlier than were their +efforts to use it to draw carriages. This was to be expected. +Boat-building has always moved along faster than carriage-building. Men +were gliding about in well-built canoes before they had even the +clumsiest of carts. The Londoners who gazed with admiration upon the +_Great Harry_ as it sailed on the Thames, had never seen as much as a +lumbering coach. And so with the steamboat; it had crossed the Atlantic +before the locomotive could carry passengers from one town to the next. + +France, England, Germany and America were all eager to have the first +steamboat. In this race America won, although France and England came +out with their colors flying. As far back as 1663 the Marquis of +Worcester, of whom we have heard before (p. 59), described a vessel that +could be moved by steam: "It roweth," he said, "it draweth, it driveth +(if needs be) to pass London bridge against the stream at low water." It +was one thing, however, to describe a steamboat, and quite another thing +to make one. Worcester's steam-vessel existed only in the imagination of +the inventor. Denys Papin, who did so much for the steam-engine, fitted +out a boat with revolving paddles which were turned by horses. This was +nothing new. The ancient Roman galley was sometimes propelled by +paddle-wheels turned by horses or oxen. It is sometimes claimed that +Papin turned the paddle-wheels of his boat by means of steam, but there +are no grounds for the claim. If France wants the honor of having made +the first steamboat she would do better to turn from Papin and look to +Marquis of Jouffroy of Lyons, This nobleman, it is claimed, built a +steamboat (Fig. 15) which made a successful trip on the river Soane, in +the year 1783, before a multitude of witnesses. This claim may or may +not be just. It may be as the French say: the boat after the trial trip +may have been taken to pieces, the model may have been lost and the +French Revolution may have swallowed up those who witnessed the trip. + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.--THE MARQUIS OF JOUFFROY'S STEAMBOAT, 1783.] + +About the time the Frenchman is said to have been experimenting with his +steamboat on the Soane similar experiments were being tried in many +other places. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the idea of a +steam-propelled boat seemed to be in the air. An English poet of the +time was bold enough to prophesy: + + Soon shall thy arm, Unconquered Steam, afar + Drag the slow barge and draw the rapid car, + Or on wide, waving wings, expanded bear + The flying chariot through the fields of air. + +For the most part the prophesy has been fulfilled, although the steam +flying-machine is not yet an accomplished fact. Among those who helped +to make good the words of the poet was James Rumsey, of Sheppardtown, +Virginia. Rumsey in 1786 propelled, by means of steam, a boat on the +Potomac River moving at the rate of five miles an hour. It is almost +certain that this was the first boat ever drawn by steam. How did Rumsey +drive his boat? A piston in a cylinder was worked by a steam-engine. +When the piston was raised it brought water in and when it was pushed +down it forced the water out behind and the reaction of the jet pushed +the boat along. A remarkable revival of a very ancient idea! Just as +Hero turned his globe by reaction, just as Newton pushed the first steam +carriage along by reaction, so Rumsey pushed the first steamboat along +by reaction. + +If you will look on a map of the United States and observe the vast +network of waterways which come to the different parts of the country +you will understand how important a subject steam navigation must have +been to the people of America in the latter part of the eighteenth +century. Here was a tract of land containing millions upon millions of +fertile acres, but it lacked good roads, and without roads it could not +be developed. It was, however, traversed by thousands of miles of +excellent water-roads and it was plain that if steamboats could be put +upon these rivers the gain would be incalculable. The most pressing need +of the time, therefore, was a steamboat. No one saw this more clearly +than John Fitch. This talented but eccentric man served his country in +the Revolution, and after the war was over roamed hither and thither for +several years as a soldier of fortune. About 1785 he went to +Philadelphia with a plan for a steamboat. He organized a company, and +secured enough money to enable him to carry out his plans. His boat was +ready by August, 1787, and he made his trial trip in Philadelphia when +the Constitutional Convention was in session. Many of the members of +that distinguished body went down to the river to see how the new +invention worked. It worked fairly well, but did not arouse much +enthusiasm. Its speed was only three or four miles an hour and its +movement was exceedingly awkward. It was pushed along by two sets of +oars, one set entering into the water as the other came out. The steam +rowboat of 1787 proved at least to be a failure, and was abandoned as +worthless. Fitch afterward built another steamboat, but it also met with +accident and came to naught. Heartbroken by his many failures the poor +fellow at last ended his life with his own hand. He deserved a better +fate, for his experiments taught the world a great deal about the +steamboat. + +[Illustration: FIG. 16.--THE CHARLOTTE DUNDAS, 1802.] + +While Rumsey and Fitch were making their boats in America, European +inventors were not idle. On the contrary they were so very active that +they almost won the honor of making the first successful boat. One of +these, William Symington, an Englishman, built a boat that may, with +much justice, be called the first practical steamboat that was ever +launched. This was the _Charlotte Dundas_ (Fig. 16) which made its trial +trip on the Clyde and Firth Canal in 1802. On the _Charlotte_ was a +_paddle-wheel_ instead of Fitch's two sets of paddles. The wheel was +placed at the rear of the boat and was drawn by means of a crank which +was turned by a rod attached to the piston-rod. Watt and his co-workers, +a few years before, had shown how the steam-engine could be made to turn +a wheel and Symington in the construction of his boat put this principle +to good use. The _Charlotte_ did so well that the Duke of Bridgewater +ordered eight more boats like her to be built for use on the canal. +Symington was elated for he thought he had at last made a successful +steamboat, that is, a steamboat that would give to its owner a profit; +but he was doomed to disappointment for the owners of the canal refused +to allow steamboats to be employed upon it, and worse than this the +duke soon died and the inventor's financial support was gone. The +_Charlotte_ was taken off the canal and laid in a creek where she fell +to pieces. The really successful steamboat had not yet been built. + +It was to be built first where it was needed most, and that was in +America. It was built by a man who kept his eyes on Rumsey and Fitch and +Symington, and made the best of what he saw. As all the world knows, +this was Robert Fulton. In August of 1807 Fulton's steamboat the +_Clermont_ (Fig. 17) made a trip on the Hudson River from New York to +Albany, a distance of 150 miles, in thirty-two hours, and returned in +thirty hours. Fulton advertised for passengers, and his boat was soon +crowded. "The _Clermont_," says an English writer, "was the steamboat +that commenced and continued to run for practical purposes, and for the +remuneration of her owners." Here was the boat that was wanted--one that +was financially profitable. + +[Illustration: FIG. 17.--FULTON'S STEAMBOAT, CLERMONT.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 18.--THE BOAT OF STEVENS.] + +The paddle-wheels of the _Clermont_ were on the sides of the boat about +midship. As the wheel turned, about half of it was in the water and +about half was out. There were engineers, even in Fulton's day who did +not believe the wheels ought to be on the sides of the boat. Look at +waterfowl, they said, look at the graceful swan; its feet do not work at +its sides, half under the water and half out. Every animal that swims +propels itself from behind, and its propellers are entirely under the +water. So, thought these engineers, the paddle-wheel of a boat should be +placed behind, and should be entirely covered by the water. John +Stevens, an engineer of Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1805 built a steamboat +according to this notion (Fig. 18). A close inspection of the wheel of +the boat would show that it is spiral- or screw-like in shape. Stevens' +boat made a trial trip on the Hudson and worked well; but after Fulton's +great success the little steamer with its spiral-shaped wheel in the +rear was soon forgotten. The idea of a screw-propeller, however, was not +lost. It was taken up by John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer, who, in +1839, built, in an English shipyard for an American captain, the first +screw-propeller that crossed the Atlantic--the _Robert F. Stockton_. +This was the last step in the development of the boat. Since 1839 there +has been marvelous progress in ship-building, but the progress has +consisted in improving upon the invention of Ericsson rather than in +making new discoveries. With the screw-propeller in its present form we +may close our story of the boat. The homely log propelled by rude +paddles has become the magnificent floating palace. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[18] A spirited account of life on a Roman galley is found in Wallace's +"Ben Hur." + +[Illustration: THE ADRIATIC AT SEA.] + + + + +THE CLOCK + + +"Tic-tac! tic-tac! go the wheels of time. We cannot stop them; they will +not stop themselves." Time passing is life passing and the measurement +of time is the measurement of life itself. How important then that our +chronometers, or time measures, be accurate and faithful! It is said +that a slight error in a general's watch caused the overthrow of +Napoleon at Waterloo and thus changed the history of the world. Because +of its great importance the measurement of time has always been a +subject of deep human interest and the story of the clock begins with +the history of primeval man. + +The larger periods of time are measured by the motion of the heavenly +bodies. The year and the four seasons are marked off by the motion of +the earth in its long journey around the sun; the months and the weeks +are told by the changing moon; sunrise and sunset announce the coming +and the going of day. The year and the seasons and the day were measured +for primeval man by the great clock in the heavens, but how were smaller +periods of time to be measured? How was the passing of fractional parts +of a day, an hour or a minute or a second to be noted? An egg was to be +boiled; how could the cook tell when it had been in the water long +enough? A man out hunting wished to get back to his family before dark: +how was he to tell when it was time to start homeward? + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A PRIMITIVE SUN-DIAL.] + +Plainly, the measurement of small portions of time was a very practical +problem from the beginning. The first attempt to solve the problem +consisted in observing shadows cast by the sun. The changing shadow of +the human form was doubtless the first clock. As the shadow grew shorter +the observer knew that noon was approaching; when he could reach out one +foot and step on the shadow of his head he knew it was time for dinner; +when his shadow began to lengthen he knew that evening was coming on. +Observations of this kind led to the _shadow clock_ or _sun-dial_ (Fig. +1). You can make one for yourself. On a perfectly level surface exposed +all day to the sun, place in an upright position (Fig. 1) a stick about +three feet long, and trace on the surface the shadows as they appear at +different times of the day. A little study will enable you to use the +shadows for telling the time. Sun-dials have been used from the +beginning of time and they have not yet passed out of use. They may +still be seen in a few public places (Fig. 2), but they are retained +rather as curiosities than as real timekeepers. For the sun-dial is not +a good timekeeper for three reasons: (1) it will not tell the time at +night; (2) it fails in the daytime when the sun is not shining; (3) it +can never be used inside of a house. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A MODERN SUN-DIAL.] + +The sun-dial can hardly be called an invention; it is rather an +observation. There were, however, inventions for measuring time in the +earliest period of man's history. Among the oldest of these was the +fire-clock, which measured time by the burning away of a stick or a +candle. The Pacific islanders still use a clock of this kind. "On the +midrib of the long palm-leaf they skewer a number of the oily nuts of +the candle-nut-tree and light the upper one." As the nuts burn off, one +after another, they mark the passage of equal portions of time. Here is +a clock that can be used at night as well as in the daytime, in the +house as well as out of doors. Mr. Walter Hough tells us that Chinese +messengers who have but a short period to sleep place a lighted piece of +joss-stick between their toes when they go to bed. The burning stick +serves both as a timepiece and as an alarm-clock. + +Fire-clocks of one kind or another have been used among primitive people +in nearly all parts of the globe, and their use has continued far into +civilized times. Alfred the Great (900 A. D.) is said to have measured +time in the following way: "He procured as much wax as weighed +seventy-two pennyweights, which he commanded to be made into six +candles, each twelve inches in length with the divisions of inches +distinctly marked upon it. These being lighted one after another, +regularly burnt four hours each, at the rate of an inch for every twenty +minutes. Thus the six candles lasted twenty-four hours."[19] + +We all remember Irving's account of time-measurement in early New York: +"The first settlers did not regulate their time by hours, but pipes, in +the same manner as they measure distance in Holland at this very time; +an admirably exact measurement, as the pipe in the mouth of a true-born +Dutchman is never liable to those accidents and irregularities that are +continually putting our clocks out of order." This, of course, is not +serious, yet it is an account of a kind of fire-clock that has been +widely used. Even to-day the Koreans reckon time by the number of pipes +smoked. + +If we could step on board a Malay proa we should see floating in a +bucket of water a cocoanut shell having a small perforation through +which the water by slow degrees finds its way into the interior. This +orifice is so perforated that the shell will fill and sink in an hour, +when the man on watch calls the time and sets it to float again. This +sinking cocoanut shell, the first form of the water-clock, is the clock +from which has been developed the timepiece of to-day. With it, +therefore, the story of the clock really begins. In Northern India the +cocoanut shell is replaced by a copper bowl (Fig. 3). At the moment the +sinking occurs the attendant announces the hour by striking upon the +bowl. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--AN EARLY FORM OF THE WATER-CLOCK.] + +The second step in the development of the water-clock was made in China +several thousand years ago. In the earlier Chinese clock the water, +instead of finding its way into the vessel from the outside, was placed +inside and allowed to trickle out through a hole in the bottom and fall +into a vessel below. In the lower vessel was a float which rose with the +water. To the float was attached an indicator which pointed out the +hours as the water rose. By this arrangement, when the upper vessel was +full, the water, by reason of greater pressure, ran out faster at first +than at any other time. The indicator, therefore, at first rose faster +than it ought, and after a while did not rise as fast as it ought to. +After centuries of experience with the two-vessel arrangement, a third +vessel was brought upon the scene. This was placed above the upper +vessel, which now became the middle vessel. As fast as water flowed from +the middle vessel it was replaced by a stream flowing from the one above +it. The depth of the water in the middle vessel did not change, and the +water flowed into the lowest vessel at a uniform rate. Finally a fourth +vessel was brought into use. The Chinese water-clock shown in (Fig. 4) +has been running in the city of Canton for nearly six hundred years. +Every afternoon at five, since 1321, the lowest jar has been emptied +into the uppermost one and the clock thus wound up for another day. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--CHINESE WATER-CLOCK AT CANTON.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--AN EARLY GREEK CLEPSYDRA.] + +To follow the further development of the water-clock we must pass from +China to Greece. In their early history the Greeks had nothing better +than the sun-dial with which to measure time. About the middle of the +fifth century B. C. there arose at Athens a need for a better timepiece. +In the public assembly the orators were consuming too much time, and in +the courts of law the speeches of the lawyers were too long. It was a +common thing for a lawyer to harangue his audience for seven or eight +hours. To save the city from being talked to death a time-check of some +kind became necessary. The sun-dial would not answer, for the sun did +not always shine, even in sunny Greece; so the idea of the water-clock +was borrowed. A certain amount of water was placed in an amphora (urn), +in the bottom of which was a small hole through which the water might +slowly flow (Fig. 5). When the amphora was empty the speaker had to stop +talking. The Greeks called the water-clock a _clepsydra_, which means +"the water steals away." The orator whose time was limited by a certain +amount of water would keep his eye on the clepsydra, just as a speaker +in our time keeps his eye on the clock, and if he were interrupted he +would shout to the attendant, "You there, stop the water," or would say +to the one who interrupted him, "Remember, sir, you are in my water." +The story goes that upon one occasion the speaker stopped every now and +then to take a drink; the orator's speech, it seems, was as dry as his +throat, and a bystander cried out: "Drink out of the clepsydra, and +then you will give pleasure both to yourself and to your audience." + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--AN IMPROVED GREEK CLEPSYDRA.] + +At first the Greeks used a simple form of the clepsydra, but they +gradually adopted the improvements made by the Chinese, and finally +added others. The great Plato is said to have turned his attention to +commonplace things long enough to invent a clepsydra that would announce +the hour by playing the flute. However this may have been, there was in +use in the Greek world, about 300 B. C., a clepsydra something like the +one shown in Fig. 6. This begins to look something like a clock. As the +water drops into the cylinder _E_ the float _F_ rises and turns _G_, +which carries the hour hand around. Inside of the funnel _A_ is a cone +_B_ which can be raised or lowered by the bar _D_. In this way the +dropping of the water is regulated. Water runs to the funnel through +_H_, and when the funnel is full the superfluous water runs off through +the pipe _I_, and thus the depth of the water in the funnel remains the +same and the pressure does not change. Notice that when the hand in this +old clock has indicated twelve hours it begins to count over again, just +as it does on our clocks to-day. How easily it would have been to have +continued the numbers on to twenty-four, as they do in Italy, and on +the railroads in parts of Canada, to-day. + +If we pass from Greece to Rome, our usual route when we are tracing a +feature of our civilization, we find that the Romans were slow to +introduce new methods of timekeeping. The first public sun-dial in Rome +was constructed about 200 B. C., an event which the poet Plautus +bewailed: + + Confound the man who first found out + How to distinguish hours! Confound them, too + Who in this place set up a sun-dial + To cut and hack my days so wretchedly + Into small portions! When I was a boy + My stomach was my sun-dial, one more sure, + Truer, and more exact than any of them, + This dial told me when 'twas the proper time + To go to dinner. + +The water-clock was brought into Rome a little later than the sun-dial, +and was used as a time-check upon speakers in the law courts, just as it +had been in Athens. When the Romans first began to use the clepsydra it +was already a very good clock. Whether it received any great +improvements at their hands is not certain. Improvements must have been +made somewhere, for early in the Middle Ages we find clepsydras in forms +more highly developed than they were in ancient times. In the ninth +century the Emperor Charlemagne received as gift from the King of Persia +a most interesting timepiece which was worked by water. "The dial was +composed of twelve small doors which represented the divisions of the +hours; each door opened at the hour it was intended to represent, and +out of it came the same number of little balls, which fell, one by one +at equal distances of time, on a brass drum. It might be told by the eye +what hour it was by the number of doors that were open; and by the ear +by the number of balls that fell. When it was twelve o'clock, twelve +horsemen in miniature issued forth at the same time, and, marching round +the dial, shut all the doors." Less wonderful than the clock of the +emperor, but more useful as an object of study, is the medieval +clepsydra shown in Figure 7. This looks more than ever like the clock we +are accustomed to see. It has weights as well as wheels. As the float +_A_ rises with the water it allows the weight _C_ to descend and turns +the spindle _B_ on the end of which is the hand which marks the hours. +Notice carefully that this is partly a water-clock and partly a +_weight_-clock. The weight in its descent turns the spindle; the water +regulates the rate at which the weight may descend. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--A MEDIEVAL CLEPSYDRA.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--DE VICK'S CLOCK. THE FIRST WEIGHT CLOCK. +(1370.)] + +The water-clock just described led easily and directly to the +weight-clock. Clockmakers in the Middle Ages for centuries tried with +more or less success to make clocks that would run by means of weights. +In 1370, Henry De Vick, a German, succeeded in solving the problem. De +Vick was brought to Paris to make a clock for the tower of the king's +palace, and he made one that has become famous. In a somewhat improved +form it can still be seen in Paris in the Palais de Justice. Let us +remove the face of this celebrated timepiece and take a look at its +works (Fig. 8). It had a striking part, and a timekeeping part, each +distinct from the other. The figure shows only the timekeeping part. The +weight (A), of 500 pounds, is wound up by a crank (the key) at _P_. _O_ +is the hour-hand. If _A_ is allowed to descend, you can easily see how +the whole system of wheels will be moved--and that very rapidly. But if +something does not prevent, _A_ will descend faster and faster, the +hour-hand will run faster and faster and the clock will run down at +once. If the clock is to run at a uniform rate and for any length of +time, the power of the weight must escape gradually. In the clepsydra +(Fig. 1) the descent of the weight was controlled by the size of the +stream of flowing water. De Vick invented a substitute for the stream of +flowing water. Fasten your attention upon the workings of the +saw-toothed wheel _II_ and the upright post _K_, which moves on the +pivots _l_ and _k_, and you may learn what he did. Fixed to the upper +part of the post _K_ is a beam or balance _LL_, at the ends of which are +two small weights _m_ and _m_, and projecting from the post in different +directions are two pallets or lips _i_ and _h_. Now, as the top of the +wheel _II_ turns toward you, one of its teeth catches the pallet _i_ and +turns the post _K_ a part of the way round _toward_ you. Just as the +tooth _escapes_ from _i_ a tooth at the bottom of _II_ (moving from you) +catches the pallet _h_ and checks the revolving post and turns it _from_ +you. Thus as _II_ turns, it gives a to-and-fro motion to the post _K_ +and, consequently, a to-and-fro motion to the balance _LL_. _II_ is +called the _escapement_ because the power of the descending weight +gradually _escapes_ from its teeth. In the clepsydra the trickling of +_water_ regulated the descent of the weight; in De Vick's clock the +trickling of _power_ or _force_ from the escapement regulated the +descent of the weight. The invention of this escapement is the greatest +event in the history of the clock. The king was much pleased with De +Vick's invention. He gave the clockmaker three shillings a day, and +allowed him to sleep in the clock tower; a scanty reward indeed for one +who had done so much for the world, for De Vick's invention led rapidly +to the excellent timepieces of to-day, to both our watches and our +clocks. After the appearance of the weight-clock, the water-clock +gradually fell into disuse, and all the ingenuity of the clockmaker was +bestowed upon weights and wheels and escapements and balances. A century +of experimenting resulted in a clock without a weight (Fig. 9). In this +timekeeper you recognize the beginnings of the modern watch. The +uncoiling of a spring drove the machinery. Instead of the balancing beam +with its weights as in De Vick's clock, a _balance wheel_ is used. The +escapement is the same as in the first weight-clock. The busy and +delicately-hung little balance wheel in your watch is a growth from De +Vick's clumsy balance beam. The spring-clock would run in any position. +Because it could be carried about it led almost at once to the watch. +Many places claim the distinction of having made the first watch, but it +seems that the honor belongs to the city of Nürenburg. "Nürenburg eggs," +as the first portable clocks were called, were made as early as 1470. +The first watches were large, uncouth affairs, resembling small table +clocks but by the end of the sixteenth century small watches with works +of brass and cases of gold or silver were manufactured (Fig. 10). + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--A CLOCK WITHOUT WEIGHTS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--A WATCH OF THE 16TH CENTURY.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--GALILEO'S PENDULUM. (1650.)] + +The last important step in the development of the clock was taken when +the _pendulum_ was brought into use. The history of the pendulum will +always include a story told by Galileo. This great astronomer, the story +runs, while worshiping in the cathedral at Pisa one day, found the +service dull, and began to observe the swinging of the lamps which were +suspended from the ceiling. Using his pulse as a timekeeper he learned +that where the chains were of the same length the lamp swayed to and fro +in equal length of time, whether they traveled through a short space or +a long space. This observation set the philosopher to experimenting with +pendulums of different lengths. Among the many things he learned one of +the most important was this: a pendulum thirty-nine inches in length +will make one vibration in just one second of time. Now, if the pendulum +could only be kept swinging and its vibrations counted it would serve +as a clock. Galileo, of course, saw this, and he caused to be made a +machine for keeping the pendulum in motion (Fig. 11), but he did not +make a clock; he did not connect his pendulum with the works of a clock. +This, however, was done about the middle of the seventeenth century, +although it is somewhat difficult to tell who was the first to do it. +The honor is claimed by an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Dutchman. The +truth is, clockmakers throughout Europe were trying at the same time to +make the best of the discoveries of Galileo, and several of them about +the same time constructed clocks with pendulums. The one who seems to +have succeeded first was Christian Huygens, a Dutch astronomer, who, in +1656, constructed a clock, the motions of which were regulated by the +swinging of a pendulum (Fig. 12). The weight was attached to a cord +passing over a pulley and gave motion to all the wheels, as in De Vick's +clock. Like De Vick's clock also Huygens's clock had its escapement +wheel acting upon two pallets. In the Dutchman's clock, however, the +escapement, instead of turning a balance beam to and fro, acted upon the +pendulum, giving it enough motion to keep it from stopping. + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--THE FIRST PENDULUM CLOCK. (1656.)] + +We need not carry our story further than the invention of Huygens. +Timepieces are cheaper and better made and more accurate than they were +two hundred years ago, but no really important discovery has been made +since the pendulum was introduced. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[19] Wood, "Curiosities of Clocks and Watches." + + + + +THE BOOK + + +What is a book? It is an invention by means of which _thought_ is +recorded, and carried about in the world, and handed down from one age +to another. Almost as soon as men began to think they began to make +books and they will probably continue to make them as long as they +continue to think. The story of the Book, therefore, takes us back to +the very beginning of human existence. + +At first thought was recorded and preserved by _tradition_. An account +of a nation's deeds, its laws, the precepts of its religion were +stamped, printed, on the memory of persons specially trained to memorize +these things and hand them down by word of mouth from generation to +generation (Fig. 1). These persons were usually priests, who underwent +long years of daily and hourly training in memorizing what was to be +handed down. The Sanskrit Vedas, the sacred scripture of the Hindoos, +were for many centuries transmitted by tradition, and it is said it took +forty years to memorize them. It is a wonder it did not take longer, for +the Vedas make a volume as large as our Bible. It is believed that +primitive people everywhere first adopted the method of tradition to +record and preserve the thought which they did not wish to perish. We +may say, then, that the first book was written on the tablet of the +human memory. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--TRADITION. + +A Mural Decoration in the Library of Congress.] + +The first step in the growth of the book was taken when _memory aids_ +were invented. Sometimes we tie a knot in a handkerchief to help us to +remember something. Now, it was just by tying knots that primitive man +first lent assistance to the memory. The first material book was +doubtless a series of _knots_ well represented by the _quipu_ (Fig. 2) +of the ancient Peruvians. This curious-looking book was written (tied) +by one known as the officer of the knots. It contains an account of the +strength of the Peruvian army, although it is confessed that its exact +meaning cannot be made out. It was not intended to be read by any one +who was not a keeper of the knots. Books made of knots were used by +nearly all the ancient peoples of South America and by some of those of +Asia. Akin to the knotted cord is the _notched stick_, which is still +used in Australia by the savages to assist the memory of one who has a +message to carry. Figure 3 shows a variety of such message-sticks. The +lowest one--a crooked branch of a tree--contains an invitation to a +dancing party. The notches are read by the messenger. The notched stick +as an aid to memory is not confined to savage races. Many a highly +civilized baker has kept his accounts by making notches in sticks and so +has many a modern dairyman, as he has delivered milk from door to door. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE QUIPU OF THE PERUVIANS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--MESSAGE-STICKS.] + +Memory aids were followed by _picture-writing_. To express thought by +means of pictures is an instinct shared alike by the lowest savage and +the most enlightened people. All over the earth we find examples of +early picture-writing. A beloved chief had died, a fierce battle had +been fought, an exciting chase had occurred: promptly the event was +pictured on a stone or on the skin of some animal. Pages might be filled +with illustrations of these primitive picture-books, but we must be +content with a single specimen (Fig. 4). This was found painted on a +rock in California: "_We selected this as a camping place, but we have +found nothing_," say the human figures _f_, _g_, _h_, _i_. The upturned +palms say plainly, "nothing, nothing." "_One of our comrades_ (_d_) _has +died of starvation_," say the three lank figures at _c_ pointing to their +own lean bodies. "_We deeply mourn his loss_," says the sorrow-stricken +_a_. "_We have gone northward_," says _j_, his distinguished arm +extended to the north. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--PICTURE WRITING.] + +Practice in picture-making was bound to lead to shorter methods of +expressing ideas. It was soon found that reduced pictures, or +_picture-signs_, would suffice to express ideas. Thus, if the idea of +sorrow was to be expressed it was not necessary to draw an elaborate +picture of a sorrowful looking man like _a_ in Figure 4; a weeping eye +would express the idea just as well. Instead of numerous figures (_e_, +_f_, _g_, _h_, _i_) weeping and saying, "nothing here," a single pair of +empty palms would say the same thing just as clearly. In this way a +pair of clasped hands came to mean "friendship"; two trees meant "a +forest"; a calf running toward water meant "thirst." These +picture-signs, of course, assumed the form in which they could be most +easily and rapidly drawn. The weeping eye became [symbol: eye]; the pair +of extended palms [symbol: palms]; the forest [symbol: trees]; thirst +[symbol: dog walking on water]. A simple picture of this kind became a +fixed conventional sign for certain ideas; it was always drawn in the +same way and it always stood for the same idea. + +Picture-signs (ideographs) followed picture-writing in almost every +country where the people were progressive. China was writing its books +with picture-signs many thousands of years ago, and it is writing them +in the same clumsy way still. Even in highly civilized countries +picture-signs have not been entirely abandoned. Examine the advertising +page of a newspaper or observe the business signs on the street and you +will find picture-signs--pictures that are always made in the same way +and that always stand for the same thing. + +Each of the great nations of antiquity had its own peculiar system of +writing, but the system that should interest us most is that of ancient +Egypt, for it is to ancient Egypt that you must look for the origin of +the book that is in your hands. The book in Egypt passed through the +stages of tradition, memory aids, picture-writing and picture-signs +(ideographs); then it passed into the _alphabetic_ stage. Since the +alphabet is certainly the most wonderful and perhaps the most useful of +all inventions, and since it is an Egyptian invention, it is well worth +your while to learn how the Egyptian picture-signs--hieroglyphics they +are called--grew into letters, but if you wish to understand the change +you will have to give the subject very close attention. + +Well, here was the Egyptian system of picture-signs consisting of +several thousand pictures of birds, beasts, reptiles, insects, trees, +flowers, and objects of almost every description. Now suppose you were +employed in writing _English_ by means of several thousand picture-signs +and in the course of an hour would have to write the words _man_age, +_man_sion, _man_tle, _man_date, might it not occur to you that it would +be a good thing if that sound _man_ could be represented by the +picture-sign for man ([symbol: man])? And if you had to write _trea_cle, +_trea_son, _trea_ty, might you not feel like beginning these words with +a tree ([symbol: tree])? At some time in the remote past Egyptian +scribes--priests they usually were--noticing that syllables identical in +sound were constantly recurring in the different words, began to +represent these _syllable-sounds_ that occurred most frequently by +_picture-signs_.[20] The picture-sign substituted for a syllable-sound +was placed in the word not because it stood for an _idea_, but because +it stood for a _sound_, just as in the case supposed above you would use +the [symbol: man] or the [symbol: tree] not because it represented a +thought, but because it had a certain sound. So certain Egyptian +picture-signs began to be used to represent the sound of certain +syllables. The picture-signs thus chosen were called _phonograms_. + +The phonogram led to the alphabet. The scribes in seeking a way to +shorten their work found that the syllable itself could be broken up +into separate sounds. For example, when they came to the syllable whose +sound is spelled by our three letters _pad_, they found that it had +three distinct sounds, namely: (1) one a lip sound which could be +represented by the first sound of the picture-sign [symbol: door] (a +door); (2) one an open-throat or vowel sound which could be represented +by the first sound of the picture-sign [symbol: eagle] (an eagle); (3) +one a dental sound which could be represented by the first sound in the +picture-sign [symbol: hand] (a hand). So the scribes wrote the syllable +(p-a-d) with the three characters [symbol: door] [symbol: eagle] +[symbol: hand]. And so with all the other sounds in the Egyptian +language; each was represented by one of the picture-signs already used. +Since there were only about twenty-five distinct elementary sounds in +the Egyptian language, twenty-five picture-signs were sufficient to +represent any sound or any word in the language. These twenty-five +picture-sounds were the letters of the Egyptian alphabet. Twenty-five +characters instead of thousands! Now the Egyptian youth could learn to +read in three or four years, whereas under the old system it took +fifteen or twenty years, just as it takes fifteen or twenty years for +the Chinese youth to learn to read well. + +Now that its origin has been explained, the story of the alphabet may be +rapidly told. Indeed, its whole history can be learned from Figure 5. In +column (a) are the three Egyptian picture-signs referred to above. +Column (b) shows how the rapid writing of the priests reduced the old +hieroglyphics to script; [symbol: door] became [symbol: 3 c's]; [symbol: +eagle] became [symbol: odd a] and [symbol: hand] became [symbol: +squiggle]. The Phoenicians, who were great travelers, visited Egypt at a +very early date and borrowed not only the idea of the alphabet, but also +the forms of the Egyptian letters, as column _c_ shows. Column _d_ +confirms the words of Herodotus, who tells us that the Greeks borrowed +their alphabet from the Phoenicians. Column _e_ shows that the Greeks +handed the alphabet on to the Romans, who handed it on to us. Thus the +three letters p, a, d come straight from the Egyptians and were +originally a _door_, an _eagle_, and a _hand_, respectively. As it is +with these three letters, so it is with nearly all the letters of our +alphabet. If the letters on the page before you could be suddenly +changed to their original form, you would behold a motley collection of +birds, serpents, animals, tools, and articles of household use. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THREE LETTERS, P, +A, AND D.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--AN ANCIENT VOLUME.] + +We must look to Egypt for the origin of the material form of our book as +well as for the origin of our alphabetical characters. Before history +had dawned the Egyptians had covered over with their writing nearly all +the available surface on their pyramids and in their temples. At a time +too far back for a date necessity seems to have compelled them to seek +a substitute for stone. This they found in the _papyrus_ plant, which +grew in great luxuriance in the valley of the Nile. They placed side by +side strips of the pith of the papyrus, and across these at right angles +they placed another layer of strips. The two layers were then glued +together and pressed until a smooth surface was formed. This made one +sheet. To make a book a number of sheets were fastened together end to +end. When in book form the papyrus was wound around a stick and kept in +the form of a roll, a _volume_ (Fig. 6). The roll was usually eight or +ten inches wide, but its length might be upward of a hundred feet. This +papyrus roll was the parent of our modern paper book, as the word +papyrus is the original of our word paper. The pen used in writing upon +papyrus was a split reed (_calamus_), and the ink a mixture of soot and +gum. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--THE OLDEST BOOK IN THE WORLD. WRITTEN NEARLY +5,000 YEARS AGO.] + +The most ancient volume in the world is an Egyptian papyrus (Fig. 7) now +in the National Library of France. It was written nearly 5,000 years ago +by an aged sage and contains precepts of right living. In this oldest of +volumes we find this priceless gem: + +"If thou art become great, if after being in poverty thou hast amassed +riches and art become the first in the city, if thou art known for thy +wealth and art become a great lord, let not thy heart become proud, for +it is God who is the author of them for thee." + +In Assyria and in other ancient countries of Central Asia letters were +engraved on cylinders and these were rolled upon slabs of soft clay, +making an impression of the raised letters, just as we make an +impression with the seal of a ring. In the ruins of the cities of +Assyria these old clay books may be found by the cart-load. The Assyrian +cylinder was really the first printing press. In ancient Greece and Rome +wooden tablets within which was spread a thin layer of wax were used as +a writing surface in schools and in the business world. The writing on +the wax was done with a sharp-pointed instrument of bone or iron called +the _stylus_. But next to papyrus the most important writing material of +antiquity was _parchment_, or the prepared skin of young calves and +kids. The invention of parchment is said to have been due to the +literary ambitions of two kings, the king of Persia and the king of +Egypt. The king of Pergamus (250 B.C.) wishing to have the finest and +largest library in the world was consuming enormous quantities of +papyrus. The king of Egypt, who also wished to have the finest library +in the world, in order to cripple the plans of his literary rival, +issued a command forbidding the exportation of papyrus from Egypt. The +king of Pergamus, being unable to get papyrus except from Egypt, caused +the skins of sheep to be prepared, and on these skins books for his +library continued to be written. The prepared skins received the name of +_pergamena_, because they were made in Pergamus, and from pergamena we +get the word parchment. This is the story that has come down to us to +explain the origin of parchment, but it cannot be accepted as wholly +true. We know very well that the Old Testament was written in gold on a +roll of skins long before there was a king of Pergamus. Indeed, writing +was done on skins as far back as the picture-writing period. + +After the invention of the alphabet and of paper (papyrus) books +multiplied as never before. "Of making many books there is no end," +exclaimed Solomon a thousand years before the Christian era. Greece in +her early day was slow to make books, but after she learned from the +Phoenicians (800 B.C.) how to use an alphabet she made up for lost time. +In 600 B.C. there was a public library at Athens, and 200 years later +the Greeks had written more good books than all the other countries in +the world combined. + +But the most productive of ancient book-makers were the Romans. In Rome +publishing houses were flourishing in the time of Cicero (50 B.C.). +Atticus, one of Cicero's best friends, was a publisher. Let us see how a +book was made in his establishment. Of course, there were no +type-setters or printing-presses. Every book was a manuscript; every +word of every copy had to be written with a pen. The writing was +sometimes done by slaves trained to write neatly and rapidly. We may +imagine 50 or 100 slaves sitting at desks in a room writing to the +dictation of the reader. Now if Atticus had ten readers each of whom +dictated to 100 slaves it took only two or three days for the +publication of 1,000 copies of one of his friend Cicero's books. Of +course every copy would not be perfect. The slave would sometimes make +blunders and write what the reader did not dictate. But books in our own +time are not free of errors. An English poet recently wrote: + + "Like dew-drops upon fresh blown roses." + +In print the first letter of the last word in the line appeared as _n_ +instead of _r_. This mistake disfigured thousands of copies. In the +Roman publishing house such a blunder marred only one copy. + +You can readily see that by methods just described books could be made +in great numbers. And so they were. Slaves were cheap and numerous and +the cost of publication was small. It is estimated that a good sized +volume in Nero's time (50 A.D.) would sell for a shilling. Books were +cheaper in those days than they had ever been before and almost as cheap +as they are to-day, perhaps. The Roman world became satiated with +reading matter. The poet Martial exclaimed, "Every one has me in his +pocket, every one has me in his hand." Books became a drug on the market +and could be sold only to grocers for "wrapping up pastry and spices." + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--BOOK-MAKING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.] + +But a time was to come when books would not be so plentiful and cheap. +With the overthrow of Rome (476 A.D.) culture received a blow from which +it did not recover for a thousand years. The barbarian invaders of +Southern Europe destroyed all the books they could find and caused the +writers of books to flee within the walls of the churches. Throughout +the Middle Ages nearly all the writing in Europe was done in the +religious houses of monks (Fig. 8), and nearly all the books written +were of a religious nature. The monks worked with the greatest patience +and care upon their manuscripts. They often wrote on vellum (calf-skin +parchment) and illuminated the page with beautiful colors and adorned it +with artistic figures. + +The manuscript volumes of the dark ages were beautiful and magnificent, +but their cost was so great that only the most wealthy could buy. A +Bible would sometimes cost thousands of dollars. Along in the 14th and +15th centuries Europe began to thirst for knowledge and there arose a +demand for cheap books. How could the demand be met? There were now no +hordes of intelligent slaves who could be put to work with their pens, +and without slave labor the cost of the written book could not be +greatly reduced. Invention, as always, came to the rescue and gave the +world what it wanted. + +In the first place, writing material was made cheaper by the invention +of paper-making. The wasp in making its nest had given a hint for +paper-making, but man was extremely slow to take the hint. The Chinese +had done something in the way of making paper from the bark of trees as +early as the first century, but it was not until the middle of the 13th +century that paper began to be manufactured in Europe from hemp, rags, +linen, and cotton. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.] + +In the second place, _printing_ was invented. On a strip of transparent +paper write the word _post_. Now turn the strip over from right to left +and trace the letters on the smooth surface of a block of wood. Remove +the paper and you will have the result shown in Figure 9. With a sharp +knife cut out the wood from around the letters. Ink the raised letters +and press upon them a piece of paper. You have printed the word "post" +in precisely the way the first books were printed. In the 13th century +fancy designs were engraved on wood and by the aid of ink the figures +were stamped on silk and linen. In the 14th century playing cards and +books were printed on engraved blocks in the manner the word "post" was +printed above. (Fig. 10.) The block-book was the first step in the art +of printing. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--A BLOCK PRINT CONTAINING THE ALPHABET USED BY +CHILDREN WHEN LEARNING TO READ.] + +The block-book decreased the cost of a book, for when a page was once +engraved as many impressions could be taken as were wanted, yet it did +not meet the necessities of the time. In the middle of the 15th century +the desire for reading began to resemble a frenzy and the books that +could be got hold of "were as insufficient to slake the thirsty craving +for religious and material knowledge as a few rain drops to quench the +burning thirst of the traveler in the desert who seeks for long, +deep-draughts at copious springs of living water." To meet the demand of +the time book-makers everywhere were trying to improve on the +block-making process and by the end of the century the book as we have +it to-day was being made throughout all Europe. + +In what did the improvement consist? First let us call to mind what the +book-maker in the early part of the 15th century had to begin with; he +had paper, he had printing-ink, he had skill in engraving whole pages +for block-books, and he had a rude kind of printing-press. The +improvement consisted in this: Instead of engraving a whole page on a +block, single letters were engraved on little blocks called types, and +when a word or a line or a page was to be printed these types were set +in the position desired; in other words, the improvement consisted in +the invention of _moveable types_. The types were first made of wood and +afterward of metal. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--AN EARLY PRINTING PRESS.] + +The great advantage of the moveable types over the block-book is easily +seen. A block containing, say, the word "post" is useless except for +printing the word _post_; but divide it into four blocks, each +containing a letter: now you can print _post_, _spot_, _tops_, _stop_, +_top_, _sop_, _sot_, _pot_, _so_, _to_ and so forth. + +The exact date of the invention of moveable types cannot be determined. +We can only say that they were first used between 1450 and 1460. Nor can +we tell who invented them. The Dutch claim that Lawrence Koster of +Harlem (Holland) made some moveable types as early as 1430, and that +John Faust, an employee, stole them and carried them to Mayence +(Germany), where John Gutenberg learned the secret of printing with +them. The Germans claim that Gutenberg was the real inventor. Much can +be said in behalf of both claims. What we really know is that the +earliest complete book printed on moveable types was a Bible which came +from the press of John Gutenberg in 1455. + +Since 1450 there has been no discovery that has changed the character of +the printed volume. There have been wonderful improvements in the +processes of making and setting type, and printing-presses (Fig. 11) +have become marvels of mechanical skill, but the book of to-day is +essentially like the book of four hundred years ago. The tablet of the +memory, the knotted cord and notched stick, the uncanny picture-writing, +the clumsy picture-sign, the alphabet, the manuscript volume, the +printed block-book and the volume before you bring to an end the story +of the book. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[20] The illustration is taken from Keary's "Dawn of History." + + + + +THE MESSAGE + + +Men had not been living together long in a state of society before they +found it necessary to communicate with their fellow-men at a distance +and in order to do this the _message_ was invented. We have seen (p. +205) that among certain tribes of savages notched sticks bearing +messages were sent from one tribe to another. Among the ancient +Peruvians the message took the form of the curious looking quipu. After +the alphabet had been invented and papyrus had come into use as a +writing material, the message took the form of a written document and +resembled somewhat the modern _letter_. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A LETTER CARRIER OF ANCIENT EGYPT.] + +The ancient Egyptians, as we would expect, were the first to make use of +the letter in the sending of messages (Fig. 1). The ancient Hebrews were +also familiar with the letter as a means of communication. We read in +the book of Chronicles how the post went with the letters of the king +and his princes throughout all Israel. The word _post_, as used here and +elsewhere in the Bible, signifies a runner, that is, one specially +trained to deliver letters or despatches speedily by running. Thus +Jeremiah predicted that after the fall of Babylon "one post shall run to +meet another and one messenger to meet another to show the King that his +city is taken." Although we frequently read of the post in Biblical +times we are nowhere told that the ordinary people enjoyed the +privileges of the post. In olden times it was only kings and princes and +persons of high degree that sent and received letters. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--AN EGYPTIAN MAIL CART.] + +In nearly all the countries of antiquity there was an organized postal +system which was under the control of the government and which carried +only government messages. In Egypt there were postal chariots (Fig. 2) +of wonderful lightness designed especially for carrying the letters of +the king at the greatest possible speed. In ancient Judea messengers +must have traveled very fast, for Job, in his old age, says: "Now my +days are swifter than the post, they flee away." In ancient Persia the +postal system awakened the admiration of Herodotus. "Nothing mortal," +says this old Greek historian, "travels so fast as these Persian +messengers. The entire plan is a Persian invention and this is the +method of it. Along the whole line of road there are men stationed with +horses, the number of stations being equal to the number of days which +the journey takes, allowing a man and a horse to each day, and these men +will not be hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the distance +they will have to go either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the +darkness of night. The first rider delivers the message to the second +and the second to the third, and so it is borne from hand to hand along +the whole line." + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--A LETTER CARRIER OF ANCIENT GREECE.] + +The postal system which Herodotus found in Persia was better than the +system which existed in his own country for the reason that the Greeks +relied upon human messengers rather than upon horses to carry their +messages. Young Greeks were specially trained (Fig. 3) as runners for +the postal service and Greek history contains accounts of the marvelous +endurance and swiftness of those employed to carry messages. After the +defeat of the Persians by the Greeks at Marathon (490 B. C.) a runner +carried the news southward and did not pause for rest until he reached +Athens when he shouted the word "Victory!" and expired, being overcome +by fatigue. Another Greek, Phillipides by name, was despatched from +Athens to Sparta to ask the Spartans for aid in the war which the +Athenians were carrying on against Persia, and the distance between the +two cities--about 140 miles--was accomplished by the runner in less than +two days. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A LETTER CARRIER OF ANCIENT ROME.] + +But the best postal system of ancient times was the one which was +organized by the Romans. As one country after another was brought under +the dominion of Rome it became more and more necessary for the Roman +government to keep in close touch with all the parts of the vast empire. +Accordingly, by the time of Augustus (14 A.D.), there was established +throughout the Roman world a fully organized and well-equipped system of +posts. Along the magnificent roads which led out from Rome there were +built at regular distances stations, or post-houses, where horses and +riders were stationed for the purpose of receiving the messages of the +government and hurrying them along to the place of their destination. +The stations were only five or six miles apart and each station was +provided with a large number of horses and riders. By the frequent +changes of horses a letter could be hurried along with considerable +speed (Fig. 4). "By the help of the relays," says Gibbon, "it was easy +to travel a hundred miles in a day." + +When Rome fell (476 A.D.) before the attacks of barbarous tribes her +excellent postal system fell with her and many centuries passed before +messages could again be regularly and quickly despatched between widely +separated points. Charles the Great, the emperor of the Franks, +established (800 A.D.) a postal system in his empire but the service did +not long survive the great ruler. In the 13th century the merchants of +the Hanse towns of Northern Germany could communicate with each other +somewhat regularly by letter, but the ordinary people of these towns did +not enjoy the privileges of a postal service. In the Middle Ages, as in +the ancient times, the public post was established solely for the +benefit of the government. Private messages had to be sent as best they +could be by private messengers and at private expense. As late as the +reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547) the only regular post route in England +was one which was established for the exclusive use of the king. + +But the time was soon to come when ordinary citizens as well as officers +of state were to share in the benefits of a postal system. In 1635 +Charles I of England gave orders that a post should run night and day +between Edinburgh and London and that postmen should take with them all +such letters as might be directed to towns on or near the road which +connected the two cities. The rate of postage[21] was fixed at two +pence for a single letter when the distance was under sixty miles; four +pence when the distance was between 60 and 140 miles; six pence for any +longer distance in England; and eight pence from London to any place in +Scotland. It was ordered that only messengers of the king should be +allowed to carry letters for profit unless to places to which the king's +post did not go. Here was the beginning of the modern postal system and +the modern post-office. Henceforth the post was to carry not only the +king's messages, but the messages of all people who would pay the +required postage. + +The example set by England in throwing the post open to the public was +followed by other nations, and before a hundred years had passed nearly +all the civilized countries of the world were enjoying the privilege and +blessings of a well-organized postal system. It is true that the post +for a long time moved very slowly--a hundred miles a day was regarded as +a flying rate--and postage for a long time was very high, but the +service grew constantly better and by the close of the nineteenth +century trains were dashing along with the mails at the rate of a +thousand miles a day and postage within a country had been reduced to +two cents,[22] while for a nickel a letter could be sent to the most +distant parts of the globe. + +Thus far we have traced the history of only one kind of message, the +kind that has the form of a written document and that is conveyed by a +human carrier over land and water from one place to another. But there +is a kind of message which is not borne along by human hands and which +does not travel on land or water. This is the _telegraph_,[23] the +message which darts through space and is delivered at a distant point +almost at the very instant at which it is sent. + +The first telegraph was an aerial message and consisted of a signal made +by a flash of light. From the earliest times men have used fire signals +as a means of sending messages to distant points. When the city of Troy +in Asia Minor was captured by the Greeks (about 1100 B.C.) torches +flashing their light from one mountain top to another quickly carried +the news to the far-off cities of Greece. The ancient Greeks gave a +great deal of attention to the art of signaling by fire and they +invented several very ingenious systems of aerial telegraphy. The most +interesting of these systems is one invented and described by the Greek +historian Polybius, who flourished about 150 B.C. When signaling with +fire Polybius arranged for using two groups of torches with five torches +in each group, and for the purpose of understanding the signals he +divided the letters of the alphabet into five groups of five letters +each.[24] The torches were raised according to a plan that made it +possible to flash a signal that would indicate any letter of the +alphabet that might be desired. Thus if the desired letter was the third +one of the first group--that is, the letter _k_--one torch would show +which group was meant and three torches would show which letter was +meant (Fig. 5). In theory this system was perfect, for it provided for +sending any kind of message whatever. But in practice it had little +value, for it required so many torches and signals that an entire night +was consumed in spelling out a few words. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--TELEGRAPHING BY MEANS OF FIRE, 150 B. C.] + +Although the elaborate system of aerial telegraph proposed by Polybius +was not generally adopted, nevertheless for centuries, both in ancient +times and during the middle ages, the fire signal was everywhere used +for the quick despatch of important news. In the seventeenth century +inventors began to devise new systems of aerial telegraphy. In 1663, the +Marquis of Worcester, who was always busy with some great invention (p. +178), announced to the world that he had discovered a plan by which one +could talk with another as far as the eye could distinguish between +black and white, and that this conversation could be carried on by night +as well as by day, even though the night were as dark and as black as +pitch. But the telegraph of the Marquis was like many of his other +inventions--it was chiefly on paper. In 1864, Dr. Robert Hooke of +England invented a method by which aerial messages could be sent a +distance of thirty or forty miles. His plan was to erect on hill tops a +series of high poles connected above by cross-pieces and by means of +pulleys suspend from the cross-pieces the letters of the alphabet which +would spell out the message (Fig. 6). In order to read the letters at +such great distances the eye was assisted by the telescope, an +instrument which had recently been invented. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--HOOKE'S AERIAL TELEGRAPH, 1684.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--CHAPPE'S AERIAL TELEGRAPH, 1793.] + +But the greatest improvement in aerial telegraphy was made during the +French Revolution by Claude Chappe, a Frenchman living in Paris. In +1793, Chappe erected on the roof of the palace of the Louvre a post at +the top of which was a cross-beam which moved on a pivot about the +center like a scale beam (Fig. 7). The cross-beam could be moved +horizontally, vertically or at almost any angle by means of cords. +Chappe invented a number of positions for these arms and each position +stood for a certain letter of the alphabet. Machines of this kind were +erected on towers at places from nine to twelve miles apart and soon +Chappe was sending messages from Paris to the city of Lille, 130 miles +away. The messages were sent with great rapidity, for they passed from +one tower to another with the velocity of light--about 185,000 miles a +second--and it was possible for the operator to spell out about 100 +words in an hour. And Chappe's messages could be sent at any time, day +or night, for the arms of the machine were furnished with Argand lamps +for night work. + +Chappe's invention was the greatest which had thus far been made in the +history of the message. The new system of telegraphy proved to be +entirely successful and practical and it was not long before machines +similar to those invented by Chappe were in use in England and other +countries. In 1828, an English writer had the following words of praise +for aerial telegraphy: "Telegraphs have now been brought to so great a +degree of perfection that they carry information so speedily and +distinctly and are so much simplified that they can be constructed and +maintained at little expense. The advantages, too, which result from +their use are almost inconceivable. Not to speak of the speed with which +information is communicated and orders given in time of war, by means of +these aerial signals the whole kingdom could be prepared in an instant +to oppose an invading enemy." + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--STURGEON ELECTRO-MAGNET, 1825.] + +But the aerial telegraph was soon to have a most dangerous rival. This +rival was _the electric telegraph_. Many years before the invention of +Chappe men had been experimenting with electricity with a view of +sending messages by means of an electric current. These experiments +began in 1728 when an Englishman named Gray caused electricity to +produce motion in light bodies located at a distance of more than 600 +feet. In 1748, the great Benjamin Franklin, who conducted so many +wonderful experiments in electricity, sent an electric current through a +wire which was stretched across the Schuylkill River and set fire to +some alcohol which was at the opposite end of the wire. We may regard +the flash of alcohol as a telegraph, for it could have been used as a +signal. In 1819, Professor Oersted of Copenhagen brought a magnetic +needle close to a body through which an electric current was passing and +he observed that the needle had a tendency to place itself at right +angles to the electrified body. In 1825, William Sturgeon of England +coiled a copper wire around a bar of soft iron and found that when a +current of electricity was sent through the wire the bar of iron became +a temporary magnet; that is, the bar of iron attracted a needle when the +current was passing through the wire and ceased to attract it when the +current was broken (Fig. 8). These discoveries of Oersted and Sturgeon +led to the invention known as the _electro-magnet_ and the +electro-magnet led rapidly to the invention of the electric telegraph, +for by means of the electro-magnet a signal can be sent to a distance +as far as a current of electricity can be sent along a wire. In 1831, +Professor Joseph Henry, one of America's most distinguished scientists, +discovered a method by which an electric current could be sent along a +wire for a very great distance. The next year Henry constructed and +operated an apparatus which was essentially an electric telegraph (Fig. +9). "I arranged," he said, "around one of the upper rooms of the Albany +Academy a wire of more than a mile in length through which I was enabled +to make signals by sounding a bell. The mechanical arrangement for +effecting this object was simply a steel bar permanently magnetized, +supported on a pivot and placed with its north end between the two arms +of a horse-shoe magnet. When the latter was excited by the current the +end of the bar thus placed was attracted by one arm of the horse-shoe +and repelled by the other and was thus caused to move in a horizontal +plane and its further extremity to strike a bell suitably adjusted." +Thus by 1832 the electric current had been used for sending signals at a +distance and the electric telegraph had been invented. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--PROFESSOR HENRY'S ELECTRO-MAGNET, 1832.] + +But the electric telegraph was still only a toy. How could it be made a +practical machine? How could it be used for sending messages in a +satisfactory manner? Inventors everywhere worked diligently to discover +a satisfactory method of signaling and many ingenious systems were +invented. As early as 1837 a telegraph line was established between +Paddington, England and Drayton--a distance of 13 miles--and messages +were sent over the wire. But the line failed to give satisfaction and +its use was discontinued. The honor of inventing the first really +practical and useful system of electrical telegraphy was at last won by +an American, S. F. B. Morse, a painter and professor of literature in +the University of the City of New York. In 1832 Morse began to think +about a plan for recording signals sent by electricity and by 1837 he +was about ready to take out a patent for making signals "by the +mechanical force of electro-magnetic motion." Morse was a poor man and +he lacked the means of conducting his experiments. He was fortunate, +however, in making the acquaintance and gaining the confidence of Alfred +Vail, a student of the University. Vail furnished the money for the +experiments and assisted Morse in perfecting his system. Indeed some of +the most original and valuable features of Morse's system were invented +by young Vail and not by Morse. In the face of much discouragement and +bad luck Morse and Vail worked patiently on together and by 1843 their +invention was completed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--THE KEY USED BY MORSE.] + +The main feature of Morse's system was to use the electric current for +sending an alphabetical code consisting of certain combinations of "dots +and dashes." The "dots" were simply clicking sounds and the "dashes" +were simply intervals between the clicking sounds. The sounds were made +by closing and breaking the current by means of a key or button (Fig. +10). If the sender of the message pressed upon the key and immediately +released it he made at the other end of the line a sharp click which was +called a "dot," and a single dot according to the code was the letter E. +If the sender of the message pressed upon the key and held it down for a +moment he made what was called a "dash," and a single dash according to +the code was the letter T. Thus by means of "dots and dashes" any +letter of the alphabet could be speedily sent. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--MORSE'S TELEGRAPHIC INSTRUMENT.] + +Morse applied to Congress to aid him in his plans and in 1843 he secured +an appropriation of $30,000 for establishing a telegraph line between +Baltimore and Washington. Morse and Vail now hurried the great work on +and by May, 1844, the wires had been stretched between the two cities +and the instruments were ready for trial. And such heavy, clumsy affairs +the instruments (Fig. 11) were! "The receiving apparatus weighed 185 +pounds and it required the strength of two strong men to handle it. At +the present day an equally effective magnet need not weigh more than +four ounces and might be carried in the vest pocket." But, awkward and +clumsy as it was, the new telegraph did its work well. On May 24, 1844, +Morse sent from Washington the historic message, "What hath God +wrought?" (Fig. 12) and in the twinkling of an eye it was received by +Vail at Baltimore, forty miles away. + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--THE FIRST TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGE SENT FROM +WASHINGTON TO BALTIMORE, MAY 24, 1844.] + +The Morse system proved to be profitable as well as successful and after +1844 the electric telegraph was soon in general use in all parts of the +world. In the United States cities were rapidly connected by wire and by +1860 all the principal places in the country could communicate with each +other by telegraph. In 1861, a telegraph line extended across the +continent and connected New York and San Francisco. Five years later, +thanks to the perseverance and energy of Cyrus W. Field, of New York, +the Old World and the New were joined together by a telegraphic cable +passing through the waters of the Atlantic from a point on the coast of +Ireland to a point on the coast of Newfoundland. With the laying of this +cable, in 1866, all parts of the world were brought into telegraphic +communication and it seemed that the last step in the development of the +message had been taken. + +But the story of the Message did not end with the invention of the +telegraph and the laying of the Atlantic cable. Almost as soon as +inventors had learned how to send a current along a wire and make +signals at a distance they began trying experiments to see if they could +not also send sounds, especially the sound of the human voice, along a +wire; as soon as they had made the _telegraph_ they began to try to make +the _telephone_.[25] In 1855 Professor Wheatstone of England invented an +instrument by means of which musical sounds made in one part of a +building were carried noiselessly along a wire through several +intervening halls and reproduced at the other end of the wire in a +distant part of the building. About the same time a Frenchman named +Bourseul produced a device by which a disk vibrating under the influence +of the human voice would, by means of an electric current, produce +similar vibrations of a disk located at a distance. + +About 1874 Professor Alexander Graham Bell, of Boston, seized upon an +idea similar to that of Bourseul's. Bell saw in the vibrating disk a +resemblance to the drum of the human ear. In imagination he beheld "two +iron disks, or ear drums, far apart and connected by an electrified +wire, catching vibrations of sound at one end and reproducing them at +the other." With this conception in mind he went to work to construct an +apparatus that would actually catch the sounds of the voice and +reproduce them at a distance. Bell, like Morse, was without means to +conduct his experiments, but friends came to his aid and furnished him +with the necessary money and by 1876 his labors had resulted in making a +machine that would carry the human voice; he had invented the telephone. +At first the telephone was only a toy and would operate at only short +distances, but as improvements were made the distances grew greater and +greater until at last one could talk in Boston and be heard in Denver, +or talk in New York and be heard in London. The telephone grew rapidly +into favor as a means of communication and in a short time it was used +more than the telegraph. It is estimated that in the entire world about +ten billion conversations are held over the telephone in the course of a +single year. + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--PROFESSOR ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL SPEAKING OVER +THE FIRST LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE BETWEEN NEW YORK AND CHICAGO.] + +As wonderful as the telephone was it was quickly followed by an +invention even more wonderful. Almost as soon as men had thoroughly +mastered the art of sending messages by the aid of wires they set about +trying to find a way by which messages could be sent long distances +without any wires at all. In 1889, Heinrich Hertz, a German scientist, +showed that electric waves could be sent out in all directions just as +light waves go out in all directions. He also showed how these waves +might be produced and how they might be detected or caught as they +passed through space. In 1896, William Marconi, an Italian electrician, +making use of the facts discovered by Hertz, sent a message a distance +of 300 feet without the use of wires. This was the first _wireless +telegraph_. Marconi continued his experiments, sending wireless messages +between places further and further apart, and by 1911 he was able to +signal without cables across the Atlantic Ocean. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--A WIRELESS TELEGRAPH STATION.] + +And now it seems that the wireless telegraph is to be followed by an +invention still more wonderful. Men are now working upon a _wireless +telephone_. Already it is possible to talk without the aid of wires +between places so far apart as Newark and Philadelphia, and many +inventors believe that it is only a matter of time when the wireless +telephone will be used side by side with the wireless telegraph. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] In the payment of the postage no stamps were as yet used. Indeed +the postage stamp is a late invention. Postage stamps were not used in +England until the year 1840, while in the United States they were not +regularly used until 1847. + +[22] In 1840, the English government following the recommendations of +Sir Rowland Hill, adopted throughout the United Kingdom a uniform rate +of one penny for letters not exceeding half an ounce in weight, and +after this cheap postage became the rule in all countries. + +[23] The verb telegraph means to write at a distance afar off. + +[24] As there are only 24 letters in the Greek alphabet, the last group +was one letter short, but this did not interfere with the working of the +system. + +[25] Just as the word telegraph means to "write afar off," so the word +telephone means to "sound afar off." + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Aerial messages, 228. + + Aerial telegraphy, 229-233. + + African loom, 115. + + Alfred the Great, 196. + + Alphabet, 208-211. + + Alphabetical Code, 229, 236. + + Amphora, 193. + + Anacharsis, 170. + + Anchor, 169, 170. + + Arch, 135, 137. + + Arc-light, 36. + + Argand, 34. + + Arkwright, 119. + + Atrium, 16. + + Automobile, 161. + + Axle, 147. + + + B + + Balance-wheel (of a watch), 199. + + Bamboo dwelling, 128. + + Basket weaving, 110. + + Batten (of loom), 115. + + Beam (of plow), 75, 80. + + Bell, Alexander Graham, 239. + + Bellows, 43, 47. + + Bessemer, Sir Henry, 51. + + "Black room," 16. + + Blast-furnace, 46-52. + + Block-book, 219. + + BOAT, history of, 166-186. + + Boiling, 15. + + Bolting (flour), 107. + + BOOK, history of, 203-221. + + Bourseul's telephone, 239. + + Branca's engine, 58, 71. + + Brazier, 18. + + Bresnier, 163, 164. + + Bronze, 38-40. + + Bronze Age, 38. + + Burning glass, 9. + + + C + + Cable, Atlantic, 238. + + Calamus, 213. + + Candles, 30-32, 190. + + Canoe, 168. + + Capital (of column), 133. + + Car, electric, 161. + + CARRIAGE, history of, 144-165. + + Cart, 147-151. + + Cast iron, 47. + + Cave dwellings, 125. + + Chappe, Claude, 231. + + Charcoal, 42, 48, 49. + + Charlemagne's clock, 196. + + Chariots, 151-152. + + _Charlotte Dundas_, 182. + + Chemical matches, 9. + + Chilcoot loom, 113. + + Chimneys, 21. + + China, 175, 191. + + Clepsydra, 193-195. + + _Clermont, the_, 183. + + CLOCK, history of, 187-202. + + Cliff dwellings, 125. + + Coach, 153. + + Coke, 49. + + Cologne, cathedral, 138. + + Colonial architecture, 141. + + Columns, 131, 132. + + Compass, mariner's, 175. + + Complete harvester, 95. + + Condenser, 69. + + Cooking, 15, 19. + + Corinthian column, 133. + + Cradle (for scythe), 86. + + Cradle scythe, 87. + + Cugnot's steam-engine, 156. + + Cutter (for reaper), 90, 92. + + + D + + Darby, Abraham, 49. + + Deck (of a boat), 172. + + De Vick, Henry, 197. + + Digging-stick, 74. + + Doric column, 132. + + Drag, 147. + + Dudley, Dud, 49. + + Dutch plow, 79. + + + E + + Edison, Thomas, 37. + + Egypt (ancient), 76, 85, 128, 151, 153, 208, 211, 222. + + Electric car, 161. + + Electric light, 36. + + Electric stove, 27. + + Electric telegraph, 232-239. + + Electro-magnet, 232. + + Elevator architecture, 142. + + England, 22, 49, 59, 89, 176, 178, 227. + + Ericsson, John, 184. + + Escapement, 198. + + + F + + Faust, John, 221. + + Felly, 152. + + Field, Cyrus W., 238. + + Firebrands, 4. + + Fire-clock, 189. + + Fire drill, 6. + + Fireflies, 28. + + Fireplace, 14, 20. + + Fire signals, 228. + + Fitch, John, 181. + + Flying-machine, 163. + + Flying shuttle, 116. + + FORGE, history of, 38-53. + + France, 23, 178. + + Franklin, Benjamin, 233. + + Friction-chemical match, 10. + + Fulton, Robert, 183. + + Furnaces, 25, 46. + + + G + + Gable, 131, 136. + + Galley, 171. + + Gang plow, 78, 83. + + Gas, 35. + + Germany, 46, 221. + + Gothic architecture, 137. + + Gray's electric telegraph, 233. + + Greeks (ancient), 18, 32, 57, 86, 131, 152, 171, 192, 215, 224. + + Gutenberg, John, 221. + + + H + + Haimault scythe, 87. + + Hargreaves, 119. + + Harvester, complete, 95. + + Heating, 7. + + Hebrews (ancient), 86, 102, 222. + + Heddle, 112, 114. + + Henry, Joseph, 234. + + Hero's Engine, 55, 71. + + Hertz, Heinrich, 241. + + Hieroglyphics, 208. + + Hill, Sir Rowland, 227. + + Hooke, Robert, 230. + + Hopper (for mill), 100. + + Horse, 146. + + Horseless carriage, 161. + + Hot blast, 50. + + HOUSE, history of, 123-147. + + Hub, 151. + + Hussey, Obed, 91. + + Huygens, Christian, 201. + + Hypocaust, 18. + + + I + + Ideographs, 207. + + Incandescent light, 37. + + Industrial revolution, 119, 158. + + Ionic column, 133. + + Iron Age, 44-52. + + IRON, history of, 41-63. + + Iron plow, 81. + + + J + + Jacquard's attachment, 122. + + Jacquard, Joseph, 120. + + Jefferson, Thomas, 81. + + Job's plow, 75. + + Jouffroy, Marquis, 178. + + + K + + Katta, 74. + + Kay, John, 116. + + Keel, 169. + + Knocking-stone, 97. + + Koster, Laurence, 221. + + Knots (for writing), 204. + + + L + + Lake dwellings, 126. + + LAMP, history of, 28-37. + + Langley, Professor, 165. + + Lathe (of loom), 115. + + Letter, 222. + + Livingstone (quoted), 99. + + Llama, 145. + + Locomotive, 156-161. + + LOOM, history of, 109-122. + + + M + + McCormick, Cyrus, 91. + + Magnetic needle, 175. + + Manuscript volumes, 217. + + Marconi, William, 240. + + Mariner's compass, 175. + + MATCH, history of, 4-12. + + Memory aids, 204. + + MESSAGE, history of the, 222-241. + + Message sticks, 205. + + Meteoric iron, 41. + + MILL, history of, 97-108. + + Millstone, 100. + + Mortar, 97. + + Moldboards, 78, 81. + + Morse, S. F. B., 235. + + Moveable types, 220. + + Murdock, William, 35. + + + N + + Newbold, Charles, 82. + + Newcomen, Thomas, 62. + + Neilson, 49. + + Newton, Sir Isaac, 156. + + "Nürenburg eggs," 199. + + + O + + Oarlock, 168. + + Oersted, Professor, 233. + + Ogle, Henry, 90. + + Ore (iron), 41. + + + P + + Pack (for burdens), 145. + + Paddle-wheel, 183, 184. + + Paper-making, 218. + + Papin, Denis, 61, 178. + + Papyrus, 212. + + Parchment, 214. + + Parsons, C. A., 71. + + Pendulum, 200. + + Penny postage, 227. + + Percussion matches, 8. + + Pergamus, king of, 214. + + Pestle, 98. + + Phillipides, 224. + + Phoenicians, 171, 210. + + Phonograms, 209. + + Phosphorus matches, 11. + + Picture signs, 206. + + Pig iron, 47. + + Piston, 62. + + Plato, 194. + + Pliny, 76, 89. + + Pliny's plow, 77. + + Plow, history of, 73-84. + + Pointed arch, 137. + + Polybius, 228. + + Post, 222. + + Postage, 227. + + Postage stamps, 226. + + Postal systems, 223-228. + + Potter, Humphrey, 64, 69. + + Power-loom, 119. + + Printing, 218. + + Propellers, 184. + + Pueblo loom, 113. + + + Q + + Quipu, 204. + + + R + + Radiators, 25. + + Raft, 168. + + REAPER, history of, 85-96. + + Richaud, 22. + + Reed (of loom), 115. + + Reed (for writing), 213. + + Reel (for reaper), 90. + + Renaissance, 139. + + _Robert F. Stockton_, 186. + + Roller-mill (for flour), 107. + + Romans (ancient), 18, 57, 86, 134, 152, 171, 196, 215, 225. + + Rudder, 169, 170, 174. + + Rumsey, James, 180. + + + S + + Safety match, 12. + + Safety valve, 61. + + Sail, 168. + + St. Paul's (cathedral), 139. + + St. Peter's (cathedral), 139. + + Screw-propeller, 184. + + Scythe, 86. + + Scythe cradle, 88. + + Self-raking reaper, 93. + + Self-binding reaper, 94. + + Seward, W. H. (quoted), 83. + + Share (of plow), 75. + + "Shay, wonderful one hoss," 153. + + Shed (of cloth), 113. + + Shuttle, 115, 116. + + Shuttle-race, 118. + + Sickle, 85. + + Sledge, 147. + + Smelting, 42. + + Smoke, 35. + + Somerset, Edward, 58. + + Spinning Jenny, 119. + + Spit (for cooking), 15. + + Spokes, 151. + + Spring (of clock), 199. + + Spring (of vehicle), 155. + + Stamps (postage), 226. + + Steam, 54. + + Steamboat, development, 177-186. + + Steam-carriage, 156. + + STEAM-ENGINE, history of, 54-72. + + Steam-plow, 84. + + Steam-turbine, 71. + + Steel, 51. + + Stephenson, George, 159. + + Stevens, John, 184. + + Stone Age, 38. + + Stone dwelling, 127. + + STOVE, history of, 13-27. + + Strike-a-light, 8. + + Sturgeon, William, 233. + + Sun dial, 188. + + Syllable-sounds, 208. + + Symington, William, 182. + + Syrian plow, 75. + + + T + + Tapers, 33. + + Telegraph, 228-239. + + Telephone, 239-241. + + Tiller, 173. + + Tinder, 7. + + Torch, 29, 31. + + Tradition, 203. + + Travail, 147. + + Trevethick, Richard, 158, 162. + + Trireme, 172. + + Turbine (steam), 71. + + Types, moveable, 220. + + + U + + United States, 80, 91, 106, 178, 180. + + + V + + Vail, Alfred, 235. + + Vedas, 203. + + Vienna bread, 106. + + Volume, 213. + + + W + + Walker, John, 10. + + Warming pan, 17, 22. + + Warp, 112. + + Watches, 199. + + Water-clock, 191-195. + + Water-mill, 103. + + Watt, James, 67, 70, 158. + + Weaver-bird, 110. + + Webster, Daniel, 81. + + Weft, 112. + + Weight-clock, 196-199. + + Wheatstone, Professor, 239. + + Wheel, development of, 147-151. + + Wheel-barrow, 148. + + Wicks, 30, 34. + + Wigwams, 123. + + Wireless telegraph, 241. + + Wireless telephone, 241. + + Wood, Jethro, 82. + + Worcester, Marquis of, 58, 78, 230. + + Wrought iron, 43. + + + Y + + Yarn beam, 110. + + + Z + + Zuni Indians, 125. + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Illustrated symbols are denoted as: [symbol: description]. + +Hyphenation, punctuation, and spelling standardized when a +predominant choice was available; otherwise unchanged. + +Page 81: illustration captioned "FIG. 11.--DANIEL WEBSTER'S PLOW." is +referenced in Footnote 12. + +Page 147: text apparently omitted after "of one piece" + +Page 198: reference to "Fig. 1" is incorrect. + +Index entry for "Iron, history of, 41-63" probably should read "41-53" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories of Useful Inventions, by +Samuel Eagle Foreman + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41219 *** |