THE CONTROL OF INANIMATE ENERGY 29 



difficult to harness and control. It is only a century 

 since the new era of inanimate energy began, since 

 science drilled the tumultuous rush of the swarms of 

 molecules, too small to be seen, and out of their 

 infinite variety of motions in all directions at once 

 out of heat made the working motion of the steam 

 engine. Animate energy, "brute force," became 

 dwarfed indeed beside the working giant whose food 

 was fuel. What is more, it had to recognise that it 

 indeed was no divinity, no "vital spark" of origin 

 divine animating a mass of clay. It was just energy, 

 no more no less, to that bank-teller keeping count, 

 and it made a very humble sum compared with the 

 accounts of his inanimate customers. 



At once there came about an enormous increase 

 in the world's work, done no longer by living workers 

 but by the inanimate labourers, water-power, coal 

 and oil, which science had enslaved. So that to-day 

 a single machine puts forth a continuous round of 

 labour which an army of men could not keep going 

 for an hour. 



Steam engines, locomotives, electric trams, and 

 petrol-driven motor cars have made some of the 

 main aspects of inanimate energy very familiar. We 

 all know that if we want such energy or power in any 

 form we have to pay for it, whether we get it as a 

 finished product, as the electrical energy laid on to 

 consumers' houses and paid for by the unit, or in a 

 partially-manufactured state as coal gas, or in its 

 raw state as coal. In neither case do we care at all 

 for the electricity or gas or coal we buy ; we are 

 buying energy, the power of doing so much work, 

 the power of producing so much heat, light, and so 

 on, as the case may be. We are all aware how 

 largely this inanimate power has replaced animal 

 labour. Whether at the docks or on ships or trains 

 or cars, some animal man, horse, mule or ox has 



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