SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 545 



tion which followed the year 1769 Is of another sort. We have singled 

 out the year 1769 as the line between the new and old civilization, be- 

 cause in that year it was that James Watt perfected the steam engine 

 and by virtue of what followed after, became a sort of a John the Bap- 

 tist, to introduce the new movement. 



It is the trophy of Jas. Watt that he is distinctly the first man since 

 the commencement of historic time to increase and augment and multiply 

 by any considerable ratio the producing power of the human hand. Again 

 it can be said of Mr. Watt's service to mankind that it is like a flower 

 which blooms perennially. Probably no one year out of the 128 since Mr. 

 Watt's invention has rolled into eternity, which did not witness by some 

 new application of steam an increase in the producing power of the hu- 

 man hand. 



Having said this much concerning the time the movement began we 

 shall now attempt before going farther to give the essential feature of 

 the movement which has modified our civilization. That movement may 

 be described as a continuous, sustained, serious effort of the human mind 

 to increase the producing power of the human hand. The gist of this 

 bloodless revolution is the added earning power which has come to 

 humanity. 



Under the old order of things the struggle by the common people to 

 get food, clothing and shelter was so keen that no time or leisure was 

 left for education or for ethical considerations. It is the feature of the 

 new movement we are now considering that the power and ability to 

 produce these necessities of life has grown to a degree in many instances 

 passing belief. 



In the earlier stages of the movement — we are contemplating the growth 

 — producing power was mostly accomplished by mechanical devices such 

 as the steam engine already mentioned, but later on in the movement the 

 productiveness of labor began to be augmented by the exact sciences such 

 as chemistry, botany and towards the last by biology and bacteriology. 

 For instance, as illustrating what botany contributed to the movement, it 

 could be mentioned that between 1820 and 1840 in certain parts of Eng- 

 land the introduction of clover doubled the producing power of the agri- 

 cultural effort. 



Or as farther illustrating what we mean it could be mentioned that 

 the science of chemistry in the matter of making steel by the Bessemer 

 process multiplied by a per cent which is scarcely believable, the pro- 

 ducing power of the human hand. 



GROWTH IN PKODUCIXG POWER. 



But perhaps a better idea of the movement could be conveyed by giving 

 in the order of their occurrence a few of the conspicuous devices by which 

 during the last century the productiveness of labor came to its present 

 state and condition. 



After the invention of the steam engine the next great step forward 



was taken A. D. 1800 by Eli Whitney of South Carolina of the United 



States of America. You know all about the cotton gin, but perhaps you 



have not all reflected, flrst, that nine-tenths of humanity is clad in the 



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