522 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the credit of the Chinese — gunpowder, printing, mariner's compass, 

 paper, etc., but the original crude forms or methods were not improved. 

 Their use among the Chinese apparently had no direct effect in promot- 

 ing their development among western peoples, and in nearly every case 

 the invention was founded on the specific properties of matter dis- 

 coverable directly and did not involve any scientific concept of principle 

 established and tested by observation. It would seem too that much of 

 the Chinese servile imitation in mechanics, metallurgy and other arts 

 is due to ignorance of the real nature of the materials they use, and 

 yet it is not for long that such things have been intimately known to 

 ourselves of the west. The Chinese have made little progress in investi- 

 gating the principles of mechanics, but have, however, practically 

 understood most of the common mechanical advantages involved in 

 various simple appliances. The lever, wheel and axle, cog wheels, 

 wedge and rack and pinion, have long been known, but the screw is not 

 frequent. In many of their contrivances there is an excessive expendi- 

 ture of human strength; in many the object is merely to give a direction 

 to this strength, not to decrease it, as in their manner of carrying a 

 heavy stone, instead of constructing a simple truck that would transport 

 it with half the expense of human power ; yet the use of a truck would 

 require something more in the way of good roads than most parts of 

 China can boast of, and again human labor is almost the cheapest thing 

 in China. 



While it is true that the manufactures of silk, of porcelain and 

 of lacquered-ware were original with the Chinese, and that in none of 

 these have foreigners yet "succeeded in fully equalling the native 

 product, and while the French looms are practically the same as those 

 in Canton, except that steam power takes the place of human feet, 

 it is also true that the mechanical arts and implements of the Chinese 

 have a simplicity which suggests that the faculty of invention died 

 with the initiator. 



Three accomplishments in Chinese engineering, however, challenge 

 the rest of the world to show similar feats in any remote time. The 

 Great Wall, traversing high mountains and large rivers, built two 

 hundred years before the Christian era, still stands as the most extensive 

 monument of antiquity to attest the high engineering skill and kingly 

 energy of that day. Of like herculean proportions and for a more use- 

 ful purpose is the Grand Canal which up to the date of its construction 

 was the greatest public commercial work ever undertaken. The Great 

 Sea Wall along the north shore of Hangchow Bay, judged in the light 

 of the tremendous difficulties involved in its construction merits even 

 greater praise for native energy and skill. 1 And yet the very present 



1 See "A Visit to the Hangchow Bore," The Popular Science Monthly, 

 February and March, 1908. 



