INFLUENCE OF INVENTIONS ON CIVILIZATION. 657 



The working of the railroads of the country is hardly less dependent 

 upon the time-keepers we possess than navigation is upon chronometers. 

 Let any one ask himself how the railroads of this country could be op- 

 erated if our only time-keepers were sun-dials, hour-glasses, and the 

 clepsydras of the ancients, and he will soon see that the construction 

 of the time-tables of our railroads and the operation of the roads in 

 conformity with them would be impossible. 



Mr, Atkinson will tell us what it costs to transport a barrel of 

 flour upon our railroads from Minneapolis to Boston, and approxi- 

 mately what the saving is by the railroads over the old modes of trans- 

 portation, but can lie tell us what part of that saving is to be credited 

 to the clocks at the railroad-stations and to the watches which the 

 conductors carry in their pockets ? 



The late Judge Curtis said to me several years ago that the 

 introduction of railroads had made a great change in the habits 

 of the people as to punctuality in keeping appointments ; that be- 

 fore their introduction nobody thought of being punctual to a min- 

 ute, or even to an hour. Nobody thought of being " on time " 

 till the railroads presented the alternative of being so or of "get- 

 ting left." 



One can now easily see that before the general use of clocks and 

 w^atches, punctuality, as it is now understood among business-men, 

 could hardly have been reckoned as a duty. This is one illustration 

 out of many more important ones where our social or moral obliga- 

 tions have arisen from or have been changed by physical inventions. 

 By observations upon the laws or conditions of health by means of 

 recent inventions and only possible by their means, we have learned 

 how to counteract or prevent the introduction or spread of many dis- 

 eases, and in consequence of this, men recognize the duty to adopt and 

 enforce many regulations in society for which no reason could be found 

 a few years ago. 



How could we live without glass ? It enters so largely into the 

 list of things we consider absolutely necessary, to say nothing of its 

 uses for convenience or luxury, that we should almost as soon think 

 of living without light or heat, without air or water, as to live with- 

 out this cheap substance made principally out of the sand under our 

 feet. Can any one tell what civilization would be without it ? It 

 would certainly be a very different thing from what it is. 



We talk of the fireside and the influence it has upon families and 

 social life, but the window plays a more important part in our homes 

 than the fireside. The invention of glass goes back to a very early 

 period, but its general use for windows is comparatively recent. Ac- 

 customed as we are to glass windows, it is difficult for us to conceive 

 how a house could be lived in with comfort without it. 



There is another use of glass, resting upon a very simple invention, 

 which plays a very important part in the comfort of man and the 

 VOL. xxvm. — 42 



