8 
BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
The social response to the use of power is a departure from the 
individualized self-reliant order of livelihood and a steady advance 
toward the centralized integration of service which we now know 
under the familiar guise of industrialism. Whether taken in the 
whole or viewed in a single community, the outcome is the same. 
An example drawn from pioneer conditions will serve to illustrate 
the simple course of development. A machine suitable for doing the 
work of several hands is capable of filling the needs of several indi* 
viduals. Introduced into a community dependent upon hand labor, 
such a labor-saving appliance tends to centralize the work falling 
within the scope of the machine. The operator, becoming proficient 
and finding himself looked to for an increasing measure of service, 
adds to his equipment. At the outset he performs only the work 
brought to him by individuals in the community, who supply the raw 
materials and receive in return the finished products. Soon, how- 
ever, the competence of the machine becomes more widely recog- 
nized and the operator is commissioned to supply the raw materials 
as well as the service. Presently, again, with the recurrence of such 
commissions, the operator goes further, and instead of awaiting 
specific commissions assumes the initiative in providing both raw 
materials and service in anticipation of demand, and thus an in- 
dustry, in the current sense, is launched. Such has been the run of 
evolution in the rise of industrialism, and wherever individual work 
persists to-day it is in process of giving way in favor of the com- 
munity operation. 
The use of power not only leads to centralization of work, but the 
form in which power is available determines the type of indus- 
trialism or civilization that develops. Considering energy apart 
from its sources, we find that this force has come into use in three 
mediums of expressions — liquid, gaseous, and nonsubstantial — typi- 
fied in hydraulic power, steam power, and electric power. These 
steps in energy usage represent progressive stages in facility of em- 
ployment and indicate an evolutionary trend underlying the indus- 
trial unfoldment to which they have given rise. Thus the use of 
hydraulic power marks the period of individualism which prevailed 
the world over until the eighteenth century, and still holds in all 
but the so-called civilized nations; the application of steam power 
instituted a change so profound as to merit the name “ The indus- 
trial revolution,” and colored the whole face of modern civilization 
during a stretch of time, extending to the present, which may be 
termed the formative period of industrialism ; while the introduction 
of electric power brings forward a third advance in power usage 
offering to the maturing aspects of industrialism a special service 
needed to carry forward its complex and constantly enlarging 
