12 CHARLES KIRCHOFF 



development of the rock drill in mining and quarrying, and 

 in more recent years have been in advance of all countries in 

 the employment of modern coal cutting machinery. Still 

 it is a fact that Cornish, Welsh, and English miners long con- 

 trolled the working out of our mining methods, and that 

 German and English metallurgists guided our first steps in 

 utilizing our more complex silver, lead, and copper ores. 



One of the most brilliant reports on the state of the art 

 ever written, that of the late Abram S. Hewitt on the Paris 

 exposition of 1867, is a confession of superiority of European 

 method in iron manufacture, which is almost staggering to 

 one who reads it in the light of the present day. I cannot 

 help feeling that the recognition of our indebtedness to Euro- 

 pean practice in the earlier days should be insisted upon, since 

 it is becoming altogether too common to assume that we are 

 the chosen people so far as the mechanic arts are concerned. 

 That feeling is so often encountered that the fear of the danger 

 of over confidence is naturally aroused. 



A striking fact is the growing interdependence of the 

 various branches of the mechanic arts as contrasted with the 

 conditions prevailing 25 years ago. The one relies upon the 

 other, not alone for its products, but is aided too by suggestion 

 and support. The metallurgist's progress is accelerated by 

 the mechanical engineer, and the latter looks to the former 

 for increasingly strong and reliable materials. The electrician 

 has greatly widened the capacity for improving methods on 

 the part of the copper producer, and in turn is under a debt 

 to the copper miner, and the achievements of the rail maker 

 are returned in kind by the railroad builder, who has taught 

 both much of value in transporting materials. Thus all are 

 shoulder to shoulder in the march of progress, mutually help- 

 ful and united — all powerful. 



To a constantly increasing degree pure science, primarily 

 in search of the truth for its own sake, sheds its searchlight 

 along the path and has become a closer and more valued 

 ally year by year. The majority of active workers looked 

 askance at this meddler, preferring to allow their own fancy 

 full sway whenever they stopped to seek for causes or ex- 

 planations. Practical men may sometimes become impatient 



