CHAPTER II. 



THE TOOLS USED IN MAKING KAPA. 



The geographical distribution, the histor}', even the use of a process must yield 

 in interest to a stud}' of the mechanical devices used in that process b}- a primitive 

 people. Earl}' methods of doing what we all as human beings have to do are full of 

 interest, and although the earliest used b}- man as he emerged from the non-tool-usiug 

 condition are beyond our ken, those used by the kapa-making people within the memory 

 of those now alive, give us a clew to the earlier methods. We find to the ver}^ end of 

 the kapa-making age a primitive simplicit}'. Nothing is complicated; there is no 

 modern loom weaving tapestries with mechanism working as if the human brain 

 wliich created it were still active in its midst. Indeed, the peoples making kapa 

 almost without exception had no looms, even the simple oues that others, cotempor- 

 aries and equals in civilization, were using within their reach, almost within their 

 sight. But while the tools were few and simple they still show ingenuit}-, adaptation 

 and a development from simpler forms until the manufaAure ceased with the acqi;isi- 

 tion of cheaper and more durable fabrics from the outer world, and the tools were 

 thrown aside to grow no more; iiseless save in the cabinets of museums devoted to the 

 stud}- of the past in the onward march of human mechanical development. 



While we wonder at and appreciate the mental exertions of the modern inventor, 

 puzzling over the conversion of some circular motion to a reciprocal one, or the measure 

 of power needed to actuate some more than usual delicate mechauism, we must not be 

 l)liud to tlie toil expended, both mental and physical, by the primitive men whose brains, 

 not yet developed by many generations of training, move slowly and painfully in the 

 attempt to improve their tools, weapons or processes. Many years ago I was present 

 at a meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences when the Rumford 

 Medal was given to the inventor of the Bigelow carpet loom, and I was deeply im- 

 pressed with the account given of the history of this invention when it was stated 

 that Mr. Bigelow rolled and writhed on the floor in the agony of search for a method 

 of making metal do the work of human fingers driven by human brain. The mental 

 strain was great, but the child born of that labor was worth the pain, and I have some- 

 times wondered why such a mechanical marvel is not (at least in part) brought into 

 the curriculum of a nontechnical education to show the pupil how brain affects inani- 

 mate matter to achieve such results. 



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