Knowledge is power : $b A view of the productive forces of modern society and the results of labor, capital and skill.Knight, Charles
Philosophy
Knowledge is power : $b A view of the productive forces of modern society and the results of labor, capital and skill.
Knight, Charles
Industrial arts; Industries
The manufacture of a globe offers an example of the production of a most
beautiful piece of work by the often repeated application of a series of
processes, each requiring very little labour. A globe is not a ball of
wood; but a hollow sphere of papers and plaster. The mould, if we may so
express it, of a globe is turned out of a piece of wood. This sphere
need not be mathematically accurate. It is for rough work, and flaws and
cracks are of little consequence. This wooden ball has an axis, a piece
of iron wire at each pole. And here we may remark, that, at every stage
of the process, the revolution of a sphere upon its axis, under the
hands of the workman, is the one great principle which renders every
operation one of comparative ease and simplicity. The labour would be
enormously multiplied if the same class of operations had to be
performed upon a cube. The solid mould, then, of the embryo globe is
placed on its axis in a wooden frame. In a very short time a boy will
form a pasteboard globe upon its surface. He first covers it entirely
with strips of strong paper, thoroughly wet, which are in a tub of water
at his side. The slight inequalities produced by the over-lapping of the
strips are immaterial. The saturated paper is not suffered to dry; but
is immediately covered over with a layer of pasted paper, also cut in
long narrow slips. A third layer of similarly pasted paper--brown paper
and white being used alternately--is applied; and then, a fourth, a
fifth, and a sixth. Here the pasting process ends for globes of moderate
size. For the large ones it is carried further. This wet pasteboard ball
has now to be dried--placed upon its axis in a rack. If we were
determined to follow the progress of this individual ball through all
its stages, we should have to wait a fortnight before it advanced
another step. But in a large factory there are many scores of globes all
rolling onward to perfection; and thus we may witness the next operation
performed upon a pasteboard sphere that began to exist some weeks
earlier, and is now hard to the core.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account