Our national industries lie at the root of national progress. The first Napoleon taunted us with being a nation of shopkeepers; that, however, is now less true than that we are a nation of manufacturers—coal, iron, and steel, and our textile industries, taken along with our enormous carrying-trade, forming the backbone of the wealth of the country.
A romantic interest belongs to the rise and progress of most of our industries. Very often this lies in the career of the inventor, who struggled towards the perfection and recognition of his invention against heavy difficulties and discouragements; or it may lie in the interesting processes of manufacture. Every fresh labourer in the field adds some link to the chain of progress, and brings it nearer perfection. Some of the small beginnings have increased in a marvellous way. Such are chronicled under Bessemer and Siemens, who have vastly increased the possibilities of the steel industry; in the sections devoted to Krupp, of Essen; Sir W.G. Armstrong, of the Elswick Works, where 18,000 men are now employed alone in the arsenal; Maxim, of Maxim Gun fame; the rise and progress of the cycle industry; that of the gold and diamond mining industry; and the carrying-trade of the world.
Many of the chapters in this book have been selected from a wealth of such material contributed from time to time to the pages of Chambers's Journal, but additions and fresh material have been added where necessary.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| Page | |
| The Rush for the Gold-fields | [Frontispiece] |
| Nasmyth's Steam-hammer | [19] |
| Bessemer Converting Vessel | [28] |
| Bessemer Process | [30] |
| Krupp's 15.6 Breech-loading Gun (breech open) | [47] |
| Josiah Wedgwood | [52] |
| Wedgwood at Work | [56] |
| Portland Vase | [62] |
| The Worcester Porcelain Works | [64] |
| Chinese Porcelain Vase | [71] |
| Wool-sorters at Work | [82] |
| Cotton Plant | [101] |
| The Hand-cradle Method of extracting Gold | [103] |
| Welcome Nugget | [106] |
| Hydraulic Gold-mining | [115] |
| Prospecting for Gold | [125] |
| Square-cut Brilliant, Round-cut Brilliant, Rose-cut Diamond | [136] |
| Kimberley Diamond-mine | [139] |
| Some of the Principal Diamonds of the World | [145] |
| The Great Harry | [153] |
| Gatling Gun on Field Carriage | [163] |
| Nordenfelt-Palmcrantz Gun mounted on Ship's Bulwark | [164] |
| Lord Armstrong | [166] |
| Rifle-calibre Maxim Gun | [178] |
| One of the 'Wooden Walls of Old England' | [184] |
| The Majestic | [186] |
| Section of the Goubet Submarine Boat | [190] |
| The Dandy-horse | [204] |
| The Great Eastern and the Persia | [232] |
| The Campania | [237] |
| Clipper Sailing-ship of 1850-60 | [241] |
| La France | [246] |
| The Great Eastern paying out the Atlantic Cable | [281] |
| Edison with his Phonograph | [291] |