Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers

Front Cover
J. Murray, 1876 - 342 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 162 - Man is a Tool-using Animal (Handthierendes Thier). Weak in himself, and of small stature, he stands on a basis, at most for the flattest-soled, of some half-square foot, insecurely enough; has to straddle out his legs, lest the very wind supplant him. Feeblest of bipeds! Three quintals are a crushing load for him; the steer of the meadow tosses him aloft, like a waste rag. Nevertheless he can use Tools, can devise Tools: with these the granite mountain melts into light dust before him; he kneads...
Page 298 - Looked at in this point of view, we cannot refuse to regard them as organisms of some peculiar and amazing kind ; and though it would be too daring to speak of such organization as partaking of the nature of life, yet we do know that vital action is competent to develop both heat, light, and electricity.
Page 299 - I first entered this city, the whole of the machinery was executed by hand. There were neither planing, slotting, nor shaping machines, and, with the exception of very imperfect lathes and a few drills, the preparatory operations of construction were effected entirely by the hands of the workmen.
Page 176 - ... ball ; a wire connects with a similar cylinder and electrometer in a distant apartment ; and his wife, by remarking the corresponding motions of the ball, writes down the words they indicate ; from which it appears that he has formed an alphabet of motions. As the length of the wire makes no difference in the effect, a correspondence might be carried on at any distance...
Page 171 - Instruments may be made by which the largest ships, with only one man guiding them, will be carried with greater velocity than if they were full of sailors. Chariots ' may be constructed that will move with incredible rapidity, without the help of animals. Instruments of flying may be formed, in which a man, sitting at his ease and meditating on any subject, may beat the air with his artificial wings, after the manner of birds.
Page 171 - Bacon predicted that in the future, "machines may be made by which the largest ships, with only one man steering them, will be moved faster than if they were filled with rowers; wagons may be built which will move with incredible speed and without the aid of beasts; flying machines can be constructed in which a man . . . may beat the air with wings like a bird...
Page 38 - I am sure heretofore one ship of her Majesty's was able to beat ten Spaniards ; but now, by reason of our own ordnance, we are hardly matched one to one.
Page 11 - Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears." But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share and his coulter and his axe and his mattock.
Page 14 - India colonies; hides or dressed leather in some other countries; and there is at this day a village in Scotland where it is not uncommon, I am told, for a workman to carry nails instead of money to the baker's shop or the alehouse.
Page 23 - There is neither iron to shoe horses, nor leather to make harness, saddles or bridles : all these things come ready made from Flanders by sea; and, should these fail, there is none to be had in the country.

Bibliographic information