20 Work. 



chemical energy offered a wide field from which I could select 

 some subjects for consideration, " Work " is what I have 

 decided upon. 



If nine people out of ten were asked what is the meaning 

 of the term they would probably answer " The act of doing 

 something;" but if we turn to text books for a definition 

 we get more complex explanations, such for instance as " In 

 all cases where force is employed in overcoming resistance so as 

 to produce motion work is said to be performed." In any 

 case work is what we are all engaged in — some perhaps from 

 the love of investigation and invention, others from sheer 

 necessity of keeping body and soul together ; a section in order 

 to amass riches, and not a few who work the hardest in 

 trying to amuse themselves, without a thought of whether they 

 are fulfilling the mission for which all of us have been sent 

 on earth — namely, to benefit our neighbours, and leave the 

 world, if not the better, certainly nothing the worse for our 

 presence in it. 



The standard mechanical unit of work is the " foot pound," 

 that is the effect capable of being produced by one pound 

 weight falling a distance of one foot. In the capacity for doing 

 work time is an important factor. For instance, the well- 

 known standard of one-horse power is the force or power which 

 is required to raise 33,000 lb. (nearly 14! tons) one foot high in 

 one minute. These conditions are interchangeable, so that if 

 one-tenth of this weight is raised ten feet high in the same period, 

 or if 330 lbs. are raised ten feet in one-tenth of a minute, the 

 same power is necessary. 



Referring to the question how the ancients were able to raise 

 the heavy masses of stones to form their cromlechs, as they had 

 so few mechanical appliances, the lecturer showedby experiments 

 that without rolling the stones up an inclined plane, or even 

 employing a lever, the huge masses could be " rocked " or 

 oscillated up by degrees. Later on he gave an example of the 

 great effects produced by the hydraulic jack, by breaking 

 heavy bars of iron, and described the various forms of water- 



