2012, ISBN: 9781130658491

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustra… Mehr…

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 Excerpt: ...as by man; but brute force contributes directly to the production of wealth only in a very moderate degree. It is the precision with which force is directed to definite ends which is chiefly instrumental in giving value to products. The glory and the power of modern industry is due to the skill which guides the hand of the artisan, and to the variety and the perfection of the implements which enable him to apply this skill. But precision in the arts of industry exacts, as an indispensable condition, the possession and use of instruments by means of which the minutest differences between material things, whether as to figure, or dimensions, or weight, or volume, may be determined with the severest accuracy. And hence, while the most frequent use which we see made of measures and weights in the business of everyday life consists in their employment to determine the quantities of commodities which pass from hand to hand, yet, in point of fact, it is strictly true that, without them the commodities in the possession of mankind worth preserving or exchanging would be too insignificant in amount to form the material of a regular commerce. Systems of weight and measure are thus seen to be essential to construction and production, as well as to exchange. And in the rudest stages of social existence some such system is sure to grow up, though it may, and almost inevitably will be, in its origin, exceedingly imperfect. Even the isolated savage will be led by the exigencies of his own difficult life in the forest to adopt some expedient by which to compare magnitudes--say lengths, or bulks, or heights, or distances. In regard to distances, especially, his need of some criterion of judgment will be very early felt. His life is one of constant movement, and there are nu... Weight:0.56 lbs, RareBooksClub.com, 3/6/2012 0:00:00<