Popular Technology Volume I Part 1

Popular Technology.

Vol. I.

by Edward Hazen.

PREFACE.

The following work has been written for the use of schools and families, as well as for miscellaneous readers. It embraces a cla.s.s of subjects in which every individual is deeply interested, and with which, as a mere philosophical inspector of the affairs of men, he should become acquainted.

They, however, challenge attention by considerations of greater moment than mere curiosity; for, in the present age, a great proportion of mankind pursue some kind of business as means of subsistence or distinction; and in this country especially, such pursuit is deemed honorable and, in fact, indispensable to a reputable position in the community.

Nevertheless, it is a fact that cannot have escaped the attention of persons of observation, that many individuals mistake their appropriate calling, and engage in employments for which they have neither mental nor physical adaptation; some learn a trade who should have studied a profession; others study a profession who should have learned a trade. Hence arise, in a great measure, the ill success and discontent which so frequently attend the pursuits of men.

For these reasons, parents should be particularly cautious in the choice of permanent employments for their children; and, in every case, capacity should be especially regarded, without paying much attention to the comparative favor in which the several employments may be held; for a successful prosecution of an humble business is far more honorable than inferiority or failure in one which may be greatly esteemed.

To determine the particular genius of children, parents should give them, at least, a superficial knowledge of the several trades and professions. To do this effectually, a systematic course of instruction should be given, not only at the family fireside and in the schoolroom, but also at places where practical exhibitions of the several employments may be seen. These means, together with a competent literary education, and some tools and other facilities for mechanical operations, can scarcely fail of furnishing clear indications of intellectual bias.

The course just proposed is not only necessary to a judicious choice of a trade or profession, but also as means of intellectual improvement; and as such it should be pursued, at all events, even though the choice of an employment were not in view.

We are endowed with a nature composed of many faculties both of the intellectual and the animal kinds, and the reasoning faculties were originally designed by the Creator to have the ascendency. In the present moral condition of man, however, they do not commonly maintain their right of precedence. This failure arises from imbecility, originating, in part, from a deficiency in judicious cultivation, and from the superior strength of the pa.s.sions.

This condition is particularly conspicuous in youth, and shows itself in disobedience to parents, and in various other aberrations from moral duty. If, therefore, parents would have their children act a reasonable part, while in their minority, and, also, after they have a.s.sumed their stations in manhood, they must pursue a course of early instruction, calculated to secure the ascendency of the reasoning faculties.

The subjects for instruction best adapted to the cultivation of the young mind are the _common things_ with which we are surrounded. This is evident from the fact, that it uniformly expands with great rapidity under their influence during the first three or four years of life; for, it is from them, children obtain all their ideas, as well as a knowledge of the language by which they are expressed.

The rapid progress of young children in the acquisition of knowledge often excites the surprise of parents of observation, and the fact that their improvement is almost imperceptible, after they have attained to the age of four or five years, is equally surprising.

Why, it is often asked, do not children continue to advance in knowledge with equal and increased rapidity, especially, as their capabilities increase with age?

The solution of this question is not difficult. Children continue to improve, while they have the means of doing so; but, having acquired a knowledge of the objects within their reach, at least, so far as they may be capable at the time, their advancement must consequently cease.

It is hardly necessary to remark, that the march of mind might be continued with increased celerity, were new objects or subjects continually presented.

In supplying subjects for mental improvement, as they may be needed at the several stages of advancement, there can be but little difficulty, since we are surrounded by works both of nature and of art. In fact, the same subjects may be presented several times, and, at each presentation, instructions might be given adapted to the particular state of improvement in the pupil.

Instructions of this nature need never interfere injuriously with those on the elementary branches of education, although the latter would undoubtedly be considered of minor importance. Had they been always regarded in this light, our schools would now present a far more favorable aspect, and we should have been farther removed from the ignorance and the barbarism of the middle ages.

Were this view of education generally adopted, teachers would soon find, that the business of communicating instructions to the young has been changed from an irksome to a pleasant task, since their pupils will have become studious and intellectual, and, consequently, more capable of comprehending explanations upon every subject. Such a course would also be attended with the incidental advantage of good conduct on the part of pupils, inasmuch as the elevation of the understanding over the pa.s.sions uniformly tends to this result.

For carrying into practice a system of intellectual education, the following work supplies as great an amount of materials as can be embodied in the same compa.s.s. Every article may be made the foundation of one lecture or more, which might have reference not only to the particular subject on which it treats, but also to the meaning and application of the words.

The articles have been concisely written, as must necessarily be the case in all works embracing so great a variety of subjects. This particular trait, however, need not be considered objectionable, since all who may desire to read more extensively on any particular subject, can easily obtain works which are exclusively devoted to it.

Prolix descriptions of machinery and of mechanical operations have been studiously avoided; for it has been presumed, that all who might have perseverance enough to read such details, would feel curiosity sufficient to visit the shops and manufactories, and see the machines and operations themselves. Nevertheless, enough has been said, in all cases, to give a general idea of the business, and to guide in the researches of those who may wish to obtain information by the impressive method of actual inspection.

A great proportion of the whole work is occupied in recounting historical facts, connected with the invention and progress of the arts. The author was induced to pay especial attention to this branch of history, from the consideration, that it furnishes very clear indications of the real state of society in past ages, as well as at the present time, and also that it would supply the reader with data, by which he might, in some measure, determine the vast capabilities of man.

This kind of historical information will be especially beneficial to the youthful mind, by inducing a habit of investigation and antiquarian research. In addition to this, a knowledge of the origin and progress of the various employments which are in active operation all around, will throw upon the busy world an aspect exceedingly interesting.

It may be well, however, to caution the reader against expecting too much information of this kind, in regard to most of the trades practised in very ancient times. Many of the most useful inventions were effected, before any permanent means of record had been devised; and, in after ages, among the Greeks and Romans, the useful arts were practised almost exclusively by slaves. The latter circ.u.mstance led to their general neglect by the writers among these distinguished people.

The information which may be obtained from this work, especially when accompanied by the inspection of the operations which it describes, may be daily applied to some useful purpose. It will be particularly valuable in furnishing subjects for conversation, and in preventing the mind from continuing in, or from sinking into, a state of indifference in regard to the busy scenes of this world.

In the composition of this work, all puerile expressions have been avoided, not only because they would be offensive to adult individuals of taste, but because they are at least useless, if not positively injurious, to younger persons. What parent of reflection would suffer his children to peruse a book calculated to induce or confirm a manner of speaking or writing, which he would not have them use after having arrived to manhood? Every sentence may be rendered perfectly plain by appropriate explanations and ill.u.s.trations.

No formal cla.s.sification of the professions and trades has been adopted, although those articles which treat of kindred subjects have been placed near each other, and in that order which seemed to be the most natural. The paragraphs of the several articles have been numbered for the especial accommodation of cla.s.ses in schools, but this particular feature of the work need meet with no serious objection from miscellaneous readers, as it has no other effect, in reference to its use by them, than to give it the aspect of a school-book.

While writing the articles on the different subjects, the author consulted several works which embraced the arts and sciences generally, as well as many which were more circ.u.mscribed in their objects. He, however, relied more upon them for historical facts than for a knowledge of the operations and processes which he had occasion to detail. For this he depended, as far as practicable, upon his own personal researches, although in the employment of appropriate phraseology, he acknowledges his obligations to predecessors.

With the preceding remarks, the author submits his work to the public, in the confident expectation, that the subjects which it embraces, that the care which has been taken in its composition, and that the skill of the artists employed in its embellishment, will secure to it an abundant and liberal patronage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FARMER.]

THE AGRICULTURIST.

1. Agriculture embraces, in its broad application, whatever relates to the cultivation of the fields, with the view of producing food for man and those animals which he may have brought into a state of domestication.

2. If we carry our observations so far back as to reach the antediluvian history of the earth, we shall find, from the authority of Scripture, that the cultivation of the soil was the first employment of man, after his expulsion from the garden of Eden, when he was commanded to till the ground from which he had been taken. We shall also learn from the same source of information, that "Cain was a husbandman," and that "Abel was a keeper of sheep." Hence it may be inferred, that Adam instructed his sons in the art of husbandry; and that they, in turn, communicated the knowledge to _their_ posterity, together with the superadded information which had resulted from their own experience. Improvement in this art was probably thenceforth progressive, until the overwhelming catastrophe of the flood.

3. After the waters had retired from the face of the earth, Noah resorted to husbandry, as the certain means of procuring the necessaries and comforts of life. The art of cultivating the soil was uninterruptedly preserved in many branches of the great family of Noah; but, in others, it was at length entirely lost. In the latter case, the people, having sunk into a state of barbarism, depended for subsistence on the natural productions of the earth, and on such animals as they could contrive to capture by hunting and fishing. Many of these degenerate tribes did not emerge from this condition for several succeeding ages; while others have not done so to the present day.

4. Notwithstanding the great antiquity of agriculture, the husbandmen, for several centuries immediately succeeding the deluge, seem to have been but little acquainted with any proper method of restoring fertility to exhausted soils; for we find them frequently changing their residence, as their flocks and herds required fresh pasturage, or as their tillage land became unproductive. As men, however, became more numerous, and as their flocks increased, this practice became inconvenient and, in some cases, impracticable. They were, therefore, compelled, by degrees, to confine their flocks and herds, and their farming operations, to lands of more narrow and specified limits.

5. The Chaldeans were probably the people who first adopted the important measure of retaining perpetual possession of the soil which they had cultivated; and, consequently, were among the first who became skilful in agriculture. But all the great nations of antiquity held this art in the highest estimation, and usually attributed its invention to superhuman agency. The Egyptians even worshipped the image of the ox in grat.i.tude for the services of the living animal in the labours of the field.

6. The reader of ancient history can form some idea of the extent to which this art was cultivated in those days, from the warlike operations of different nations; for, from no other source, could the great armies which were then brought into the field, have been supplied with the necessary provisions. The Greeks and the Romans, who were more celebrated than any other people for their military enterprise, were also most attentive to the proper cultivation of the soil; and many of their distinguished men, especially among the Romans, were practical husbandmen.

7. Nor was agriculture neglected by the learned men of antiquity.

Several works on this subject, by Greek and Latin authors, have descended to our times; and the correctness of many of the principles which they inculcate, has been confirmed by modern experience.

8. Throughout the extensive empire of Rome, agriculture maintained a respectable standing, until the commencement of those formidable invasions of the northern hordes, which, finally, nearly extinguished the arts and sciences in every part of Europe. During the long period of anarchy which succeeded the settlement of these barbarians in their newly-acquired possessions, pasturage was, in most cases, preferred to tillage, as being better suited to their state of civilization, and as affording facilities of removal, in cases of alarm from invading enemies. But, when permanent governments had been again established, and when the nations enjoyed comparative peace, the regular cultivation of the soil once more revived.

9. The art of husbandry was at a low ebb in England, until the fourteenth century, when it began to be practised with considerable success in the midland and south-western parts of the island; yet, it does not seem to have been cultivated as a science, until the latter end of the sixteenth century. The first book on husbandry, printed and published in the English language, appeared in 1534. It was written by Sir A. Fitzherbert, a judge of the Common Pleas, who had studied the laws of vegetation, and the nature of soils, with philosophical accuracy.

10. Very little improvement was made on the theory of this author, for upwards of a hundred years, when Sir Hugh Platt discovered and brought into use several kinds of substances for fertilizing and restoring exhausted soils.

11. Agriculture again received a new impulse, about the middle of the eighteenth century; and, in 1793, a Board of Agriculture was established by an act of Parliament, at the suggestion of Sir John Sinclair, who was elected its first president. Through the influence of this board, a great number of agricultural societies have been formed in the kingdom, and much valuable information on rural economy has been communicated to the public, through the medium of a voluminous periodical under its superintendence.

12. After the example of Great Britain, agricultural societies have been formed, and periodical journals published, in various parts of the continent of Europe, as well as in the United States. The princ.i.p.al publications devoted to this subject in this country, are the _American Farmer_, at Baltimore; the _New-England Farmer_, at Boston; and the _Cultivator_, at Albany.

13. The modern improvements in husbandry consist, princ.i.p.ally, in the proper application of manures, in the mixture of different kinds of earths, in the use of plaster and lime, in the rotation of crops, in adapting the crop to the soil, in the introduction of new kinds of grain, roots, gra.s.ses, and fruits, as well as in improvements in the breeds of domestic animals, and in the implements with which the various operations of the art are performed.

14. For many of the improved processes which relate to the amelioration of the soil, we are indebted to chemistry. Before this science was brought to the aid of the art, the cultivators of the soil were chiefly guided by the precept and example of their predecessors, which were often inapplicable. By the aid of chemical a.n.a.lysis, it is easy to discover the const.i.tuent parts of different soils; and, when this has been done, there is but little difficulty in determining the best mode of improving them, or in applying the most suitable crops.

15. In the large extent of territory embraced within the United States, there is great variation of soil and climate; but, in each state, or district, the attention of the cultivators is directed to the production of those articles which, under the circ.u.mstances, promise to be the most profitable. In the northern portions of our country, the cultivators of the soil are called farmers. They direct their attention chiefly to the production of wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, peas, beans, potatoes, pumpkins, and flax, together with gra.s.ses and fruits of various kinds. The same cla.s.s of men, in the Southern states, are usually denominated planters, who confine themselves princ.i.p.ally to tobacco, rice, cotton, sugar-cane, or hemp.