74 THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE 



what long voyages, all for a simple piece of print 

 costing a few centimes! A handful of cotton is 

 gathered, we will suppose, two or three thousand 

 leagues from here. This cotton crosses the ocean, 

 goes a quarter round the globe, and comes to France 

 or England to be manufactured. Then it is spun, 

 woven, ornamented with colored designs, and, con- 

 verted into print, crosses the seas again, to go per- 

 haps to the other end of the world to serve as head- 

 dress for some woolly-haired negro. What a multi- 

 plicity of interests are brought into play! It was 

 necessary to sow the plant ; then, for a good half of 

 the year, to cultivate it. Out of a handful of flock, 

 then, provision must be made for the remuneration 

 of those who have cultivated and harvested. Next 

 come the dealer who buys and the mariner who trans- 

 ports it. To each of them is due a part of the hand- 

 ful of flock. Then follow the spinner, weaver, dyer, 

 all of whom the cotton must indemnify for their 

 work. It is far from being finished. Now come 

 other dealers who buy the fabrics, other mariners 

 who carry them to all parts of the world, and finally 

 merchants who sell them at retail. How can the 

 handful of flock pay all these interested ones without 

 itself acquiring an exorbitant price? 



"To accomplish this wonder two industrial powers 

 intervene : work on a large scale and the aid of ma- 

 chinery. You have seen how Ambroisine spins wool 

 on the wheel. The carded wool is first divided into 

 long locks. One of these locks is applied to a hook 

 which turns rapidly. The hook seizes the wool and 

 in its rotation twists the fibers into one thread, which 



