14. Recent improvements. [Thurston, chap. 6; Iles, chap. 5.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliographical aids become broader in the recent period. The great literature scattered through periodicals, in which articles of lasting value are often to be found, is made accessible by Poole’s Index and its continuations; books in print, if not too technical for the general public, will be found in the A. L. A. (American Library Association) Catalogue, which supplies full titles and prices.
Various cyclopedias and dictionaries of commerce have been published in the nineteenth century; they are useful repositories of information, especially of statistics. Among them the following, in English, may be mentioned: McCulloch, **Dictionary, various editions; Waterston, Cyclopædia, 1847; Macgregor, *Commercial statistics, 1850; Homans, Cyclopædia, 1858. Statistics are brought up to date in various year-books and periodicals; the **Statesman’s Year-Book is an indispensable annual, and will meet all ordinary demands of teacher and class.
The student of the history of commerce is often forced to turn to narrative political histories for information. Among the general histories of Europe in the nineteenth century may be mentioned Charles D. Hazen, *Modern Europe, N. Y., Holt, 1920; C. M. Andrews, *Modern Europe; N. Y., Putnam, 1899; Seignobos, **Pol. hist.
Much has been written, of course, on the progress of the century in various technical lines. Ure’s Dictionary, various editions, describes the advances of the first part of the century; and the student will probably find one of the modern encyclopedias (Britannica, with Supplement; International) the most satisfactory source of information on recent progress. No attempt can be made in this or the following chapters to cover the great field of technical literature. Jevons’ **Coal question should, however, be mentioned as still of great interest and value. Nicolls, * Story; Edward A. Martin, *Story of a piece of coal, N. Y., Appleton 1896; or R. Meldola, *Coal and what we get from it, N. Y., Young, 1897 can be assigned for reading by the class. Edwin C. Eckel, Coal, iron and war, N. Y., Holt, 1920, is an interesting and suggestive study in the physical bases of national industry. On the steam-engine, Robert H. Thurston’s History, N. Y., Appleton, 1902 will probably be found most useful. The biographies by Samuel Smiles are a valuable history of technical progress, interesting and trustworthy. Of more recent books, designed for popular reading, George Iles, Flame, electricity and the camera, N. Y., Doubleday, 1900 contains attractive accounts of many features of technical progress.
CHAPTER XXIX
MACHINERY AND MANUFACTURES
327. Development of agriculture.—Pursuing now our survey of the technical advances of the century, we must notice first the oldest and perhaps the most important branch of production, agriculture. An American reader does not need to be told that farm work has been greatly changed by the introduction of improved tools and machinery. Even an implement so old and apparently so simple as the plow will do now better work with half the force formerly required. Cultivating and harvesting machines of various kinds spare land and labor. The introduction of artificial fertilizers has given new freedom and efficiency to the agriculturist.
328. Progress less in agriculture than in other branches of production.—Still, when all is said, agriculture is the branch of production which has been affected least by the changes of the century. The farmer is still bound to the soil and subject to the weather. Steam power has not made for itself the place which sanguine men once thought it would win. In Europe reforms have been effected in sweeping away antiquated institutions affecting the personal liberty and property rights of cultivators, who now, in free association, can work far more efficiently than before. In other continents the extension of the modern transportation system has effected a revolution in the choice of crops and the means of marketing them. Neither transportation, steam power, nor machinery, however, has vitally affected the methods by which crops are grown; and when the first fertility of new land has been exhausted and a growing population clamors for a cheap food supply, the world will find that one of its great problems is still unsolved.
329. Function of machinery.—For the great changes effected by the use of steam we look, of course, not to agriculture but to manufactures and transportation. These changes have been wrought through the medium of machinery, and the reader is asked to give particular attention now to the part which machinery plays in modern life. I spoke above of coal as offering power to men. How can you apply this power to a useful purpose? First, you must burn the coal under a boiler to produce steam; second, you must translate the expansive power of steam into regular forceful motion in an engine; finally, you must apply the force and the motion in just the way that is wanted by means of a machine. Evidently machinery does not depend altogether upon steam. Rude machines, mills for grinding grain, for example, were run by wind or water power long before the steam-engine was invented; water power is being transmitted by electricity in increasing quantities at present; and men hope that we shall be able to use the heat of the sun or the force of the tides to run machinery in the future.