The machinery of
Massachusetts alone represents the labor of more than 100,000,000 men,
as if one-half of all the workmen of the globe had engaged in her
service." And again: "Some thirty years ago, the power of machinery in
the mills of Great Britain was estimated to be equal to 600,000,000
men, or more than all the adults, male and female, of all mankind."
Mr. Gladstone estimated that the aggregation of wealth on the globe
during the whole period from the birth of Christ to that of Watt was
equaled by the production in twenty years, at the middle of this
century, with the aid of machinery driven by the fruit of the brain of
the inventors of the steam engine. We may probably now safely estimate
the former quantity as rivaled in less than five years, while, since
the birth of Watt and his engine, and the production of the spinning
mule, the power loom, the cotton gin and our own patent system and its
marvelous mechanism, all events of a century ago, we may estimate that
they have, together, accomplished more in this period which we now
celebrate than could have been done in a millenium of milleniums
without these now subjected genii. But the power behind all these
curious inventions and their work is that of steam. The steam engine
even supplies power to the telegraph and transports words and thought
as well as cotton bales and coal.
Pages:
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134