INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 319 



for the small industry, is one of the leading 

 problems of the day. Motors weighing only 

 forty -five lb., including the boiler, were exhibited 

 in 1889 to answer that want. Small two-horse- 

 power engines, fabricated by the engineers of 

 the Jura (formerly watch-makers) in their small 

 workshops, were at that time another attempt 

 to solve the problem to say nothing of the 

 water, gas and electrical motors.* The trans- 

 mission of steam-power to 230 small workshops 

 which was made by the Societe des Immeubles 

 industrida was another attempt in the same 

 direction, and the increasing efforts of the French 

 engineers for finding out the best means of 

 transmitting and subdividing power by means 

 of compressed air, " tele-dynamic cables," and 

 electricity are indicative of the endeavours of 

 the small industry to retain its ground in the 

 face of the competition of the factories. (See 

 Appendix V.) 



Such are the small industries in France, as 

 they have been described by observers who saw 

 them on the spot. Is is, however, most inter- 

 esting to have exact statistical items concerning 



* Everyone knows what an immense progress has been 

 realised since by the motors used in motor cars and aero- 

 planes, and what is achieved now by the transmission of 

 electrical power. But I leave these lines as they were written, 

 as a testimony of the way in which the conquest of air began, 

 and of the part taken in it by the French small industry. 



