When Dalton first applied mathematics to chemistry and made it quantitative, he gave the key which led to the discoveries of Cavendish, Gay-Lussac, Berzelius, Liebig, and others. This new knowledge was not locked up, but at once given to the world, and made use of. Its first application on a large scale was made by Napoleon in encouraging the manufacture of sugar from beets.
The new products were generally made from what were called “waste material.” We now have the manufacture of soda, bleaching powders, aniline dyes, and other products of the distillation of coal, also coal-oil from petroleum (known fifty or sixty years ago only as a horse medicine), acetylene gas, celluloid, rubber goods in all their numerous varieties, high explosives, cement, artificial manures, artificial ice, beet-sugar, and even beer may now be included.
Through many ages, the alchemists, groping in the dark, and in ignorance of nature’s laws, wasted their time in trying to find what they called the philosopher’s stone, which they hoped would transform the baser metals into gold.
If such a thing could be found it would be a curse, as it would take away one of the most useful instruments we have—a fixed standard of value.
In a little over one hundred years, those working by the light of science have found the true philosopher’s stone in modern chemistry. The value of only a part of these new products exceeds the nominal value of all the gold in the world.
The value of our mechanical and chemical products is great, but it is surpassed by that of food products. If these did not keep pace with the increase of population, the theories of Malthus would be true—but he never saw a modern reaper.
The steam-plough was invented in England some fifty years since, but the great use of agricultural machinery dates from our Civil War, when so many men were taken from agriculture. It became necessary to fill their places with machinery. Without tracing the steps which have led to it, we may say that the common type is what is called “the binder,” and is a machine drawn chiefly by animals, and in some cases by a field locomotive.
It cuts, rakes, and binds sheaves of grain at one operation. Sometimes threshing and winnowing machines are combined with it, and the grain is delivered into bags ready for the market.
Different machines are used for cutting and binding corn, and for mowing and raking hay, but the most important of all is the grain-binder. The extent of their use may be known from the fact that 75,000 tons of twine are used by these machines annually.
It is estimated that there are in the United States 1,500,000 of these machines, but as the harvest is earlier in the South, there are probably not over 1,000,000 in use at one time. As each machine takes the place of sixteen men, this means that 16,000,000 men are released from farming for other pursuits.