228 GENERAL INCREASE OF WAGES, ETC. 



or muscular force actually exerted by all the working men of 

 the globe forms the most insignificant fraction. 



I have already pointed out that it is estimated that the 

 steam engines alone now engaged actively in the production of 

 man's real and nominal wealth represent double the potential 

 muscular force of all men in the world at the present time, 

 exceeding the muscular force of men actually engaged in the pro- 

 duction of man's wealth by, perhaps, three or four times. 

 The mere muscular pressure of a man, which, on his part, 

 only exhausts his muscular energy by what would be 

 equivalent to the movement of his body by one step, may, 

 and in fact now incessantly does liberate and set in motion a 

 transporting force in one machine equal to the combined 

 total muscular force of from 200,000 to 500,000 men. 



At the present moment on the railways of Pennsylvania, 

 in America, a single engine conveys a load of 1,500 tons 29,927 

 miles in one year. It would, in a primitive stage, say by the 

 strong African carriers of Stanley, take the mere muscular 

 force of 465,360 men, carrying 601b., and travelling at the 

 rate of 12 miles per day, to accomplish the same work in the 

 same time ; and even though they only received wages at 

 the rate of Is. per day, it would cost ,£6,980,400; at 5s. per 

 day it would cost £34,902,000. The single Pennsylvanian 

 engine, however, carries the same load, viz., 1,500 tons, 

 29,927 miles within one year for the sum of ,£92,721, or id. 

 per ton per mile. That is, a single modern locomotive exerts 

 as much wealth-producing energy as could be effected by the 

 whole muscular force of 465,360 strong men, and at ah of the 

 nominal cost. Even if we went into refinements, and attempted 

 to abstract the human muscular energy expended in the manu- 

 facture of the engine from raw materials, and the consump- 

 tion of stores and materials consumed in the work, also 

 partly the produce of the muscular force of man, it would be 

 more than covered by the subtraction of the muscular 

 energy of 600 men, leaving still to the credit of the single 

 machine a balance of natural physical wealth-producing 

 energy, i.e., non-muscular, equivalent to the muscular energy 

 expended of 464,960 powerful men during one year. 



When in addition we think of the Spinning Jenny, the 

 electric telegraph, the sewing machine, and the thousand 

 complicated forms of machinery — such as the Naismith Polka 

 Hammer, which by the slight pressure upon a handle a small 

 boy can instantaneously pour 100 ton blows upon ductile 

 masses of iron — we can have some faint conception of the 

 immense mechanical and natural forces ever at work in 

 civilised countries— outside of the muscular force exerted by 

 man — and contributing its giant share of the physical agencies 



