00000561 |
Previous | 561 of 595 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
504
LIFE.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE INDUSTRIAL POWER OF MAN. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. — POSSESSION TAKEI* OF THE SEA.—CULTIVATION OF OYSTERS.
It has been calculated by statisticians that, in the year 1860, all the
machines working in Great Britain for the benefit of manufactures generally represented an amount of power put in fore! equivalent to that of
1,200,000,000 of strong men. This considerably exceeds the collective
force ofthe whole of mankind, for among the 1,300,000,000 of human beings existing, three-quarters of them are either too weak, too young, or
too old to be adapted for any continuous labor. And yet this enormous
total of manufacturing power in England is increasing every year at a
rate equivalent to that of several millions of " arms-power;" in France, in
Germany, in Italy, in the United States, in Hindoostan, China, Japan, and
Egypt—in fact, in all the countries where civilization has introduced its
machinery, the increase of the motive powers applied to labor in general
is taking place in a similar or still more rapid proportion. Thanks to
winds, water-power, steam, and other natural agents which man has enlisted to do his work for him, manufacturing skill every year achieves a
task of increasing grandeur, and is incessantly contributing more actively
to modify the aspect of our globe.
But what are the wonders of to-day compared with those which science
will some day give us the means of accomplishing ? When we shall be
enabled to lay hold of and to fetter, so as to make it work for us at,our
will, the power exercised in a limited space by the sustained blast of one
of the hurricanes of the West Indies; when we are enabled to employ the
active force developed by the waves which break during a stormy winter
on the dikes of Cherbourg, or even the flow of the tide which covers every month the shores of the Bay of Fundy; when we know how to deprive volcanoes of the terrors which they inspire, and to conciliate for our
use the formidable power of the lava and the compressed gases which are
at work in their abysses—what works will be so colossal that labor and
boldness will recoil from them ?* We may fearlessly assert, that all that
man has hitherto done is but a trifle in comparison with what he will be
able to effect in the future, when the forces at his disposal, instead of neutralizing one another, will be able to work in concert. If our rude ancestors, who inhabited caves during the Stone Age, were to return among us,
they would without doubt be too ignorant to understand, or even to wander at, the immense progress made since the ages of barbarism.f And
are we ourselves at the present day sufficiently advanced even to form an
* George P. Marsh, Man and Nature.
t Grove, Address to the British Association, Nottingham, 1866.
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000561 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 504 LIFE. CHAPTER XXVI. THE INDUSTRIAL POWER OF MAN. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. — POSSESSION TAKEI* OF THE SEA.—CULTIVATION OF OYSTERS. It has been calculated by statisticians that, in the year 1860, all the machines working in Great Britain for the benefit of manufactures generally represented an amount of power put in fore! equivalent to that of 1,200,000,000 of strong men. This considerably exceeds the collective force ofthe whole of mankind, for among the 1,300,000,000 of human beings existing, three-quarters of them are either too weak, too young, or too old to be adapted for any continuous labor. And yet this enormous total of manufacturing power in England is increasing every year at a rate equivalent to that of several millions of " arms-power;" in France, in Germany, in Italy, in the United States, in Hindoostan, China, Japan, and Egypt—in fact, in all the countries where civilization has introduced its machinery, the increase of the motive powers applied to labor in general is taking place in a similar or still more rapid proportion. Thanks to winds, water-power, steam, and other natural agents which man has enlisted to do his work for him, manufacturing skill every year achieves a task of increasing grandeur, and is incessantly contributing more actively to modify the aspect of our globe. But what are the wonders of to-day compared with those which science will some day give us the means of accomplishing ? When we shall be enabled to lay hold of and to fetter, so as to make it work for us at,our will, the power exercised in a limited space by the sustained blast of one of the hurricanes of the West Indies; when we are enabled to employ the active force developed by the waves which break during a stormy winter on the dikes of Cherbourg, or even the flow of the tide which covers every month the shores of the Bay of Fundy; when we know how to deprive volcanoes of the terrors which they inspire, and to conciliate for our use the formidable power of the lava and the compressed gases which are at work in their abysses—what works will be so colossal that labor and boldness will recoil from them ?* We may fearlessly assert, that all that man has hitherto done is but a trifle in comparison with what he will be able to effect in the future, when the forces at his disposal, instead of neutralizing one another, will be able to work in concert. If our rude ancestors, who inhabited caves during the Stone Age, were to return among us, they would without doubt be too ignorant to understand, or even to wander at, the immense progress made since the ages of barbarism.f And are we ourselves at the present day sufficiently advanced even to form an * George P. Marsh, Man and Nature. t Grove, Address to the British Association, Nottingham, 1866. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| B |
|
| C |
|
| G |
|
| H |
|
| M |
|
| T |
|
| U |
|
| Y |
|
|
|
