48o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



followed its introduction, and what part it plays in the welfare 

 of man. 



The inquiry soon becomes a bewildering one. 



Take paper, for instance. I believe we are indebted to the Chinese 

 for its invention. Do we ever think of it as one of the great inven- 

 tions of man ? Why, it is nothing but rags ground up in water to a 

 pulp, spread out in a thin sheet, and dried. I think the art of making 

 paper has been known in Europe less than a thousand years. It has 

 taken the place of parchment for writing. It made the art of printing 

 possible. It made the newspaper possible, and especially the daily 

 paper. The multiplication of pictures by engraving could not be car- 

 ried on without it, nor the modern art of photography, to which I 

 shall refer again. We attach great value to a system of general edu- 

 cation as one of the most important agencies of modern civilization. 

 But the first requisite of such a system is cheap books, and for these 

 paper is the only thing we could use. Would any of you undertake 

 to enumerate within the next half-hour all the uses to which paper is 

 put ? Would you undertake to name and describe all the kinds that 

 are used ? 



Paper is largely made of rags. Rags presuppose the existence of 

 cloth. Cloth is the product of two distinct inventions, spinning and 

 weaving. Spinning and weaving are very old inventions, but even in 

 their simplest form they involve the use of still older inventions. What- 

 ever material is used for paper, a long line of antecedent inventions is 

 involved in its use. 



Paper must, I think, rank as one of the great inventions of man, 

 and, if the heathen Chinese had given the world nothing more than 

 this, he would have made no small contribution to the progress of civ- 

 ilization. 



I have said that paper is made from rags, and that cloth implies 

 the arts of spinning and weaving. But it also implies much more. 

 To me, one of the greatest marvels of human industry is a yard of 

 cotton cloth at the price at which it is sold. The price of a yard of 

 cotton cloth of the kind called print-cloth, and which when printed 

 becomes calico, is less than four cents, and the cotton itself costs half 

 this sum. What inventions are involved in the raising of the cotton 

 and its transportation to the mill where it is to be converted into cloth ! 

 Of course we all think of the cotton-gin, because that invention was 

 made with special reference to the production of cotton, and has been 

 much referred to as a striking example of the results which flow from 

 an invention. 



But the gin comes into use only after the cotton is grown. Of 

 course the common agricultural inventions are used in raising cotton : 

 the plow, the hoe, the machinery by which the plow is made, the arts 

 of making iron and steel, including the machinery employed, the har- 

 ness for the horse or mule which draws the plow, and the art of tan- 



