The Conquest of Nature - Classic Reprint Author:Henry Smith Williams THE CONQUEST OF NATURE IN the earlier volumes we have been concerned with the growth of knowledge. For the most part the scientific delvers whose efforts have held our attention have been tacitly unmindful, or even explicitly contemptuous, of the influence upon practical life of the phenomena to the investigation of which they have devoted their... more » lives. They were and are obviously seekers of truth for the mere love of truth. But the phenomena of nature are not dissociated in fact, however much we may attempt to localize and classify them. And so it chances that even the most visionary devotee of abstract science is forever being carried into fields of investigation trenching closely upon the practicalities of every-day life. A Black investigating the laws of heat is preparing the way explicitly, however unconsciously, for a Watt with his perfected mechanism of the steam engine. Similarly a Davy working at the Royal Institution with his newly invented batteries, and intent on the disc
Table of Contents
CONTENTS; CHAPTER I; MAN AND NATURE; The Conquest of Nature, p 4-Man's use of Nature's gifts, p 6- Man the "tool-making animal" p 7-Science and Civilization,p 8 -Clothing and artificially heated dwellings of primitive man, p 10-Early domestication of animals, p 11-Early development to the time of gunpowder, p 12-The coming of steam and electricity, p 15-Mechanical aids to the agriculturist, p 19-The development of scientific agriculture, p 20-Difficulties of the early manufacturer, p 21--The development of modern manufacturing, p 24-The relation of work to human development, p 25- The decline of drudgery and the new era of labor-saving devices, p 27; CHAPTER II; HOW WORK IS DONE; Primitive man's use of the lever, p 29-The use of the lever as conceived by Archimedes, p 21-Wheels and pulleys, p 32-Other means of transmitting power, p 35-Inclined planes and derricks, p 37-The steam-scoop, p 38-Friction, p 35-Availab« less