Sept. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE BASIS OP TECHNOLOGY. 85 



Those trees form the Worshipful Company of Woodmakers, an an- 

 cient guild. But there are others as old. A peaceful army of flax plants 

 protects the monopoly of linen-weaving. Whole battalions of cotton 

 shrubs watch over calico. No one may infringe the patent of the indigo 

 plants for blue dye ; none may borrow the multitudinous crimsons and 

 purples of the madder root ; none may rival the elastic fig in manu- 

 facturing caoutchouc ; or learn from the trees of the Eastern Archipelago 

 how to produce gutta-percha. The roses of Damascus keerj the secret 

 of their otto to themselves ; and the acacias of Arabia and Africa alone 

 deal in gum arabic. 



Each of those plants has a monopoly of its manufacture, and sells, 

 at a price settled by itself, all that it produces. The charge is entirely 

 for work, not for materials. You may bring these, indeed, yourself, and 

 have them made up for you ; and nearly the same materials will suit all 

 the manufacturers. The cane will return them as sugar, and the vine as 

 grape-juice, the olive as oil, and the poppy as opium ; keeping only to 

 themselves such a percentage as is needed to maintain their workshops, 

 and multiply their buildings. The day may come when the patents of 

 these monopolists will expire, and their secrets be published recipes 

 open to all ; but that day is distant, and chemistry as yet has dis- 

 covered only so many of their devices as serve to whet to a keener edge 

 her unsatisfied envy of their unapproachable powers. Plants are thus, 

 in virtue of their amazing ability to convert the simplest and com- 

 monest ingredients of air, earth, and water into the most complex and 

 precious compounds, of as much value to the industrialist, considered 

 simply as pieces of apparatus, as the most elaborate engines he has con- 

 structed. Nor is it otherwise with animals. They do not work with so 

 simple a raw material as plants do : they use plants, indeed, directly or 

 indirectly, as their raw material ; but they convert them into products 

 raised in industrial value by the additional workmanship bestowed upon 

 them. We have thus the silkworm, whose calling it is to turn mulberry 

 leaves into silk ; the bee, who turns sugar into wax ; the coccus, who 

 turns cactus-juice into carmine ; the oyster, who turns sea-chalk into 

 pearls ; the turtle, who turns seaweeds into tortoiseshell ; and the 

 whale, who turns sea-jellies into oil and whalebone. The birds are the 

 only maker.} of quills and feathers ; the hogs of bristles ; the elephant, 

 the walrus, and hippopotamus of ivory ; the sheep of wool, not to speak 

 of fat and mutton ; the ox and his congeners of undressed leather ; the 

 beaver and his brethren of hat-felt ; and myriads of wild creatures of 

 land and sea of furs and skins. I have barely alluded to one animal, as 

 supplying us with food ; although, as I need not remind you, the most 

 important industrial relation of many others is their power, as machines, 

 to convert weeds of various kinds into beef, mutton, venison, milk, 

 butter, eggs, the flesh of birds, and beasts, and fishes. 



Two points call for special notice in connection with living plants 

 and animals, as industrial apparatus and machines. Firstly : It is im- 



