Invention: The Master-key to ProgressFiske, Bradley A. (Bradley Allen)
History
Invention: The Master-key to Progress
Fiske, Bradley A. (Bradley Allen)
Inventions -- History
To keep the great Machine in order and to handle it, large numbers of
men have been educated in specialties pertaining to its various parts.
The first men were probably the warriors, who defended whatever little
Machines the various tribes had built up, in their little villages
and towns. Next, probably, came the kings or rulers who commanded
the warriors; and then, the priests who inculcated in the people the
various virtues, such as loyalty, courage, honesty, etc., that tended
toward the discipline of the individual and the consequent solidarity
of the tribe. Probably agriculturists came next, who tilled the
soil; and then came the inventors, who assisted the warriors and the
agriculturalists by devising implements to help them do their work.
It seems probable that the artisans came next; and that it was by the
co-operative working of them with the inventors, that the conceptions
of the inventors were embodied in implements of practical usefulness
and value. As time went on, and implements were produced that consisted
of two or more parts, the activities of the artisans were enlarged, so
as to take care of those implements and keep them in adjustment. The
bow and arrow, for instance, would not work well, unless the cord were
maintained at the correct degree of tension, the feathers on the arrows
were kept straight, the ends of the cords properly secured to the
bow, etc. Similarly, the mechanisms made for spinning and weaving and
fabricating pottery had to be kept in proper condition and adjustment;
and if we could realize the small amount of mechanical knowledge extant
in primeval days, we would probably also realize that the difficulties
of keeping these crude appliances in good working order were as
great as are the like difficulties now, with the most complicated
printing-press.
Furthermore, it was not only for keeping mechanisms in good condition
that artisans were needed: a higher degree of skill was needed for
operating them. We are forced to the conclusion that, as soon as
mechanisms were produced, the need of artisans trained to operate them
was felt. Not only this: the fact that the mechanisms were operated,
the facts that flax was spun and textures were woven, and pottery was
fashioned and baked, and that bows and arrows were used in battle,
prove that operators were actually trained to skill in the various
arts. This means that, as soon as the Machine of Civilization was
begun, operators skilled in the kinds of work which that Machine
required were trained in their various parts, and did their appointed
work.
It was not only machines of brass and iron and wood, moreover, that
required skilled operators: the individual human machines were
continually getting out of order, and men were trained in whatever
knowledge the world contained, to keep them in good order. Hence the
physician came into being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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