568 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



ming a lamp wore a small knife with pair of tweezers to trim the 

 wick, and a point to part the strands. 



In some cases it is curious to see how long men remained on the 

 brink of an invention. Copper wire was made by cutting and ham- 

 mering from 5,500 B. C, yet the drawing of wire remained unknown 

 for 6,000 years or more. When the first drawn wire was made is 

 not yet fixed, but it seems to have been unknown to the Romans. 

 Thick beaten wire was made into chain with round links as far back 

 as the second dynasty, 5,200 B. C. ; and links doubled up, and looped 

 through each other, appear in the sixth dynasty, 4,200 B. C. Yet 

 chains were not commonly used till much later. The Gauls excelled 

 in such work, as they used chain cables and rigging in place of rope, 

 to resist the Atlantic gales. The screw was a Greek invention, and 

 greatly used by the Romans as a means of motion. Then centuries 

 passed before the nut and screw for fastening was invented; and 

 again centuries before the screw used to fasten wood, which first 

 appears less than 200 years ago. 



The light that the distribution of tools throws on the status of 

 ancient civilization is most valuable historically. Not only does 

 the using of certain tools show a level of work and ability, but the 

 resistance to the adoption of forms known elsewhere shows that 

 there was a sufficient ability already in a country. In the present 

 day the forms of common tools differ in various parts of Europe, 

 because each country has a civilization strong enough to carry on 

 without copying another country. A large improvement in one 

 country is the only condition on which other countries will borrow 

 from it, and only then if the changes will suit other conditions. 

 When we find that countries, known to have been anciently in con- 

 nection, each steadily resisted various forms of tools used by the 

 other, we have good evidence that each civilization was on such a 

 level that it could supply all its wants without great benefit by 

 imitating another. This form of evidence gives some insight into 

 dark ages, of which but little detailed knowledge is preserved; it 

 suffices to show whether countries were far below one another, or 

 on such an equality of work that each was independent. 



In Egypt there were many forms of tools and weapons, which 

 were then the standard types, and yet these are never found in other 

 lands. The earliest ax (fig. 20) is a plain square form, from about 

 6,000-5,000 B. C. Then a round ax (fig. 21) was adopted till nearly 

 3,000 B. C. After that wider lugs were developed to enable it to be 

 firmly bound on to a handle (fig. 22) ; and this was made in a 

 lighter and longer form as a battle-ax (fig. 23) used mainly about 

 1,500 B. C. None of these forms are found in other countries, yet had 

 the lands around Eg} T pt been much behind in their ax forms, they 

 would naturally have been influenced by Egyptian types, as there was 



