P44 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



voidably led to conclusions which con- 

 tradict (not religious dogmas, of which 

 I said not a word, but) well-established 

 principles of Physics themselves. 



Your reference to my Address was 

 so casual and slight, that it may hardly 

 seem sufficient to justify this seriousness 

 of remonstrance, but, slight as it was, 

 it placed me wholly wrong before the 

 readers of the Monthly, the greater 

 number of whom have probably not 

 seen my Address. 



I am, very respectfully, 



F. A. P. Barnard. 



Columbia College, October 9, 1872. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



A Handbook of Chemical Technology, by 

 Eudolf Wagner, Ph. D., Professor of 

 Chemical Technology at the University 

 of Wurtzburg. Translated and edited 

 from the eighth German edition, with 

 Extensive Additions, by Wm. Crook.es, 

 F. E. S. 



Technology is the term now generally 

 applied to the applications of the principles 

 of science to the arts of industry. The 

 earth in its matter and its forces is a treas- 

 ury of material for the service of humanity. 

 These materials furnish the aliment by 

 which our bodies are daily nourished, the 

 textures with which we are clad, the build- 

 ings that shelter us, and the innumerable 

 objects of use and pleasure that minister to 

 the service of civilized man. The transfor- 

 mations of matter constitute the great busi- 

 ness of mankind in all stages of its develop- 

 ment. In the lowest stage they are few in 

 number, crude and imperfect in form, and 

 wasteful both of material and of power 

 applied. Nothing is understood, and blind 

 groping leads to scanty and uncertain re- 

 sults. For every particle of matter is bound 

 in the meshes of inexorable law, and the 

 sole condition on which refractory Nature 

 can be conquered and put to use, is that of 

 knowledge. Science creates this knowledge, 

 and thus becomes the guide of industry. 

 The office of science in directing the opera- 

 tions of labor is now the great fact of civil- 

 ization, and it is daily becoming of more 

 importance to all classes of the community. 



Processes are daily becoming more expedi- 

 tious and more perfect ; the uses of things 

 are more extended ; new objects of value 

 are created ; waste-products are utilized ; 

 and the economy of effort in production 

 vastly augmented. There is still great de- 

 ficiency of scientific knowledge on the part 

 of artisans ; but large manufacturing estab- 

 lishments have their scientific directors and 

 advisers, while the movement for extended 

 technical education is participated in by all 

 the leading nations of the world. 



Technology, though always grounded in 

 science and starting from it, is not in itself 

 a science like astronomy or mechanics, that 

 is, a body of inductive truths applying to 

 specific divisions of natural phenomena, 

 nor is it mainly concerned with true scientific 

 work which is the elucidation of the laws 

 of phenomena. It begin* where science 

 leaves off, or rather at the highest point 

 which it has attained, and turns scientific 

 results to practical account. Nevertheless, 

 technology is by no means passive in the 

 research after new truths. Its office being 

 to carry out, or to verify, on a comprehen- 

 sive scale, the results of pure scientific in- 

 vestigation, it cannot fail to react power- 

 fully upon the work of original investiga- 

 tion. It is constantly putting questions, 

 wanting further explanations, and demand- 

 ing more light ; and by thus forcing tangi- 

 ble problems upon the scientist, under press- 

 ure of great interests involved, it both 

 stimulates research and furnishes the ex- 

 perimenter with what he most wants a 

 definite subject to be worked out. The 

 peril of the technologist of falling into rou- 

 tine, and following blind rules, is thus con- 

 stantly checked and more or less counter- 

 acted by the influence of his own diffi- 

 culties, and the need of frequent appeal to 

 those whose business it is to explain them. 



The raw materials of Nature, which re- 

 quire transformation before they can be 

 available for human use, take two routes to 

 this destination. They either go by the 

 mechanical way, or by the path of chemis- 

 try, and so we have two kinds of technology 

 mechanical and chemical. Mechanical 

 technology deals with the outward changes 

 of natural products, or alterations of form 

 only, as, for example, the joiner and carpen- 

 ter working in wood ; the making of iron 



