[Illustration: 10,000,000 YARDS OF CARPET PER YEAR FROM ONE FACTORY
This picture shows the plant of one of the largest carpet factories in
the United States at Thompsonville, Conn. From the looms of these mills
are annually produced ten-million yards of the twenty-five different
grades of carpet manufactured by this concern.
Imagine a strip of carpet across the United States at its widest
part, the Forty-second latitude--a strip of “Hartford Saxony”, say,
stretching from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific coast; and then
another carpet strip the length of the United States, where this
country is the longest--i. e., from the Northern boundary of the
state of Minnesota to the Southern boundary of the state of Texas;
then imagine one more strip stretching from Chicago to New Orleans,
and finally a connection between the two latter strips at about the
vicinity of St. Louis.
With a mental picture of this vast country thus stripped with carpet,
you wonder if there is that much carpet in the world. It seems
incredible that this great sweep of land could be measured with
carpet--and yet enough material comes every year from the looms of one
carpet factory alone in this country to strip the United States East
and West, and North and South as indicated above.]
The weave is now completed; the rug comes out. But it is rough and
has to be finished. It is passed through a machine that removes the
roughness of the face as a lawn-mower cuts away the top-grass. The ends
are finished, and the carpet is complete.
~SOME DESIGNS STAMPED ON YARN BEFORE WEAVING~
The pattern of tapestry carpet is obtained by printing the colors
to appear in the design on the yarn which forms the face before the
weaving is started, by means of large drums. After all rugs leave the
weave-shop a force of skilled women examine them carefully to make sure
that there are no defects. Every yard of the annual output of carpet
and rugs is inspected five times before it leaves the factory.
[Illustration: EXAMINING AND REPAIRING]
[Illustration: PACKING FOR SHIPMENT]
Why Do I Yawn?
When you yawn, you do so because you have not been breathing quite
properly and for some reason or other your blood supply has not been
getting sufficient oxygen through the air which has been taken into
your lungs. Nature’s way, in this instance, is to call for a big intake
of air all at one time, and since it is important at such times that a
large quantity of air should be supplied to the lungs at once, nature
has so arranged matters that certain muscles shall cause you to open
your mouth wide and take in as much air as you can at one time, and
also has arranged so that it is almost impossible to keep from yawning
when the demand for it is once made. The yawn is controlled by a part
of our nerve structure which looks after the breathing apparatus.
The satisfaction we feel after a wholesome yawn is due to the fact that
having replied to nature’s demand that we bring in more air, our blood
secures the oxygen which it needs and we feel the effect of better
blood in our arteries at once.
A peculiar thing about the process of yawning is that one person in
a room yawning will quite likely set all or nearly all the others to
yawning also. There seems to be no explanation of this excepting that
when a number of people are in one room and one of them begins to
yawn, the others do so, not because they perceive the first yawn so
much as the probable fact that the air in the room has become so poor
that there is not enough good air for all the people in it, breathing
normally, and many of them are forced to yawn at about the same time.
Where Do Living Things Come From?
This is a big subject, but a very interesting one. To understand it
fully we must begin at the very beginning of the world.
God made first of all the rocks, the mountains, the sun, the moon, the
stars, the soil, and put the water in the lakes, rivers and oceans.
This took a long time, but they had to be there before the living
things could begin to be.
What is Inorganic Matter?
This thing we have spoken of is called inorganic matter, which means
“without life,” and everything in the world which has no life is called
inorganic matter. These things do not die, and for that reason do not
have to be replaced. The form and appearance of inorganic matter and
its location is often changed by man or other causes, but even when man
burns the coal which he has dug up out of the ground in the furnace, no
part of it is destroyed. Some of it is turned into smoke and gas and
some of it is turned into ashes, while every other particle which went
to make up the coal originally is still in existence. It remains as
inorganic matter in some form or other.
Where Did Life Begin on Earth?
After the inorganic things had been made and the earth was ready for
life, the different kinds of living things which we find on the earth
began to exist. These are called organic objects, which means objects
“with life.” The first living things to appear were the bushes, the
grass, the garden vegetables, the flowers, trees, and all the kinds of
life which we ordinarily think of as growing things.
This division of living things makes up what we call the vegetable
kingdom, and in a general way of classing it is the kind of life
which cannot move about from place to place and which has not a sense
of feeling, or any of the other senses, seeing, hearing, tasting or
smelling.
After this division of life had been established the world was ready
for the other and more important form of life--the fishes, the birds,
cats, dogs, horses, cows, with others that we call domestic animals,
and also the lions, tigers, elephants and others which constitute the
division of wild animals.
This kind of life was given some or all of the five senses, but not
all classes of animal life possess all these senses. Some of the lower
forms of animal life, like the oysters, clams, in the fish family,
cannot see, hear, smell or taste. They can only feel; others are able
to do more of these things, and many have all of the five senses.
When Did Man Begin to Live?
Man was not created until all the other living things on earth had been
started, and he was given additional powers so that he might become the
ruler of all the other living things, principally because he was given
a brain with power to think, reason and originate.
Why Must Life Be Reproduced?
Life must be reproduced because living things die. They have power to
live only for a certain length of time. The other life in the world is
used to provide food for man, and if there were no way of reproducing
life it would not be long before man had eaten all the vegetables and
the animals too, and would himself then starve to death.
To avoid such a calamity God put into each living thing, both
vegetables and animals, a power to cause other things of the same kind
as itself to grow. This is called the power of reproduction. With this
power each kind of living thing can bring other specimens of the same
kind into the world and each kind of living thing can do this without
aid from any other kind of life.
The trees, the flowers, and other kinds of vegetable life would
reproduce themselves without the aid of man, as would also the fishes
and other kinds of animal life. Man, however, just to have things
conveniently at hand, uses his power over other life to cause his
vegetables to grow near where he lives, and keep the animals which he
wishes to use as food in some place where he doesn’t have to hunt for
them every time he wishes meat for his table. This, however, he does
only with the animals which he has domesticated or tamed. When he wants
meat from the animals which are still wild he must hunt for them as he
used to do.
Each kind of life has the power, however, to reproduce only its own
kind. If you plant a peach stone you will sooner or later have a peach
tree which will bear peaches, and these peaches from the young tree
will look and taste just like the peach whose pit or stone you planted.
There may be other kinds of fruit trees all about, and also trees which
do not bear fruit. All of the trees secure the food upon which they
live and grow from the same soil. Even the grass under your peach tree
eats the same things as your peach tree, but it remains always true
that things in the vegetable kingdom will grow only to be like the
thing from which it came.
Have Plants Fathers and Mothers?
The little trees grow up to be exactly like their fathers and mothers
(for they have fathers and mothers), which is something all living
things must have. These are not the same kind of fathers, or mothers
either, that a boy or girl has, exactly, but they are parents just the
same. So far as the trees, flowers and plants are concerned we call the
parents father and mother natures, which is a term used merely to keep
you from confusing vegetable life fathers and mothers with the regular
kind.
In the vegetable kingdom you cannot always see these father and mother
natures, which enable them to reproduce their kind of life, but
everything in the vegetable and also in the animal kingdom has them.
How Do Plants Reproduce Life?
In the spring we put seeds into the ground and later on plants grow up
where the seeds were planted, and later the flowers come. The seeds
contain the baby plants, which come to life, and after bursting the
covering of the seed, unfold and grow up into plants if placed in the
ground, where they can obtain the proper amount of warmth and moisture
to give them a start.
Why Do Plants Have Seeds?
To get at this subject in the best manner we must study first how
plants produce seeds and what happens. The power in a plant to make
another plant like it grow comes from the flower. Ordinarily we think
of the flowers as beautiful to look at and delightful to smell, but
the flowers do not grow for the mere purpose of being beautiful, but
are for a more useful purpose--to develop a seed which, when planted,
will produce another plant. The machinery for producing a perfect
seed is in the flower or blossom. Every flower has a definite plan of
construction. The leaves and colors vary, but the plan for a perfect
flower is always there. The petals which are generally colored are
called the _crown_. When you pluck off the petals you see a number
of green leaves at the bottom where the petals were attached. These
form what is called the _calyx_, and help to hold the petals in place.
Inside the flower are little stems which grow to the petals. These are
called _stamens_. Every one of these little stems is hollow, and if
you split one open you will discover a _fine powder_. This powder is
called _pollen_, and is the “father” nature of the plant. In the calyx,
the part we had left after we plucked off the petals, is the “mother”
nature of the plant. The main part of the mother nature is the stem of
the flower called the _ovary_, and this is where the seeds grow. These
seeds in the ovary, however, will not become perfect seeds unless some
of the pollen from the “father” nature of the plant touches them and
fertilizes them.
At the proper age of the flower some of this pollen powder passes into
the ovary and fertilizes the seeds and makes them good seeds. This is
only one kind of flower, however. In this kind the father and mother
natures are in the same flower. In other kinds of plants the father and
mother natures are found on different parts of the same plant.
Why Does an Ear of Corn Have Silk?
The corn plant is one of this kind. You know what it looks like--a tall
plant, generally six or seven feet high. The ears of corn grow out of
the side of the corn stalk. The ear is covered with husks and out of
the end of the ear hangs a bunch of brown silk threads which we term
corn silk. Up at the top of the plant you will see the tassel, but
you may not have known that this is the flower of the corn plant. The
tassel or flower in this case contains the “father nature” of the corn
plant, and the ear of corn contains the “mother nature.” The husks on
the outside of the ear of corn protect the grains of corn on the ear
inside and keep them tender. The ear of corn is really the ovary of
the corn plant, because that is where the seeds grow. You will guess,
of course, that the grains of corn on the ear are but seeds of the
plant. Were you to examine one of these ears of corn on the plant when
it had just started to form you would find no kernels on the cob, but
only little marks which indicated where the grains of corn are expected
to grow, but if you want to know, then, how many grains of corn were
expected to grow on the ear, you could easily tell by counting the
little silk threads which you see on the cob and which stick out over
the end. There will be a thread of silk for each grain of corn that is
expected to grow.
Every grain of corn must receive some of the pollen powder from the
tassel or father nature at the top of the corn plant or it will not
develop into a nice large, juicy kernel.
How Does the Pollen Touch the Grain of Corn?
Before the kernels of corn grow the tassel is in bloom. The wind blows
and shakes the pollen powder off of the tassel and the powder falls
on the ends of the silk which stick out of the little ear of corn to
be. Each thread of silk then carries a little of the powder down to
the spot on the ear where it is attached and thus the grain of corn
receives the fertilizing necessary to develop it into a ripe seed.
If you leave the ear of corn alone the kernel will eventually become
yellow and hard and can then be planted and will produce other corn
plants. Man, however, finds the ear of corn a delightful food, if taken
at a time when the seeds are fully grown but not yet ripened into
perfect seeds. At this stage the grains of corn would not grow up again
if planted, because they have not yet become perfect seeds.
Do Father and Mother Plants Always Live Together?
We come now to the kinds of plants on which the “father” and “mother”
natures are on different plants of the same kind. At times they will
grow side by side, at other times they will be in the same field, but
very often they grow at quite a distance from each other. In some
instances the nearest father tree will be even miles away from the
mother tree of the same kind. But in any event the pollen from the
father nature must reach the mother nature of the plant or tree before
a perfect seed can be produced. In cases of this kind the father nature
will be on one tree or plant and the ovary or mother nature on another.
The wind helps out nature in some of these cases by blowing the pollen
of the father plant to the ovary of the mother plant. In many other
instances the bees and insects help.
Why Do Flowers Have Smells?
Where the bees do this it is because the bee has been visiting the
flowers in his search for honey. They do not fly from flower to flower
for the purpose of uniting the mother and father natures of plants, but
they help the flowers incidentally while getting the honey for which
they are searching. In gathering his honey the busy bee will go all
over the father flower and get his legs all covered with pollen powder.
Sooner or later he comes to a mother flower of the same kind of plant
or tree from which he has father pollen on his legs, and, still bent on
gathering honey, he incidentally rubs the pollen powder on to the ovary
of the mother flower and the fertilization takes place. The wonderful
thing about this is that the father pollen of one kind of a plant will
not fertilize the mother nature of another kind of plant. To illustrate
this, if a bee carrying pollen on his legs from a walnut blossom visits
the mother blossom of a hickory tree the pollen of the walnut would not
affect the hickory blossom, but would still have the proper effect on
the first walnut mother blossom he visited.
This is how life in general is reproduced among the plants and trees.
Life in the vegetable kingdom has no sense of feeling or any of the
other senses, but this kind of life is still true to its own nature
and is a wise thing in the plan of creation, because, since all seed
will produce only plants like those from which the seed came, man can
control the growth of the vegetables and fruits he needs as food. He
knows when he plants corn that he will get corn in return, because
perfect seed never makes a mistake. It would mix things up terribly for
man if this were not so, because man might then plant one thing and
find another thing growing. It would be a sad thing to plant wheat and
find thistles growing.
In order that seeds may grow they must be planted under conditions that
suit the kind of vegetable life in the seed. Man has to study and learn
what these conditions are.
If a seed is planted too deeply the sun may not have a chance to warm
the ground to that depth, and if it is planted too near the surface it
may become too warm and be killed by the sun. When planted under the
proper conditions the seed soon begins to grow. It grows upward toward
the sun to get light and air, and it sends roots down into the ground
to get food and moisture.
The life in the vegetable kingdom is soon able to take care of itself.
How Are Fishes Born?
The next step in the study of the reproduction of life brings us to
the animal kingdom. The first thing we discover in this section is
that in the animal kingdom father and mother natures are almost always
separated. In plants and trees these parent natures are sometimes in
the same flower, often separated, but on the same plant, and in other
instances on different plants miles apart. What we must remember, then,
is that in the case of plants it is given more or less to the chance of
wind or other circumstances to bring the parent natures together.
In the animal kingdom there are a few cases where the mother and father
natures are found in the same living object, as in the oyster and
clam families, one of the lowest forms of animal life. These have but
one of the five senses--that of feeling. This class of animals--the
cold-blooded animals--includes the fishes, and in most members of this
class the father and mother natures are separated and in different
bodies. Step by step from now on we enter higher forms of animal life,
and through each step we find a greater difference between the father
and mother natures, and in the animal kingdom we speak of the father
and mother natures as “_male_ and _female_.” In the animal kingdom,
too, what we have previously called the seed is known as the _egg_.
Seeds and eggs are the same so far as their usefulness is concerned,
but we say eggs in the animal kingdom to distinguish from seeds in the
vegetable kingdom.
Fish have eggs, then, and it is from the eggs that little fish are born
into the world and grow to be of eatable size. You recognize the eggs
of the fish in the “roe,” which is eaten as food. Not all fish eggs are
used as food, however.
In the fish world the eggs are developed in the body of the female
fish. Each little round speck in a “shad roe” is one egg, and there
are many thousands in a single “roe.” Each egg will produce a little
fish, under favorable conditions. These eggs develop in the body of
the female fish in winter. In the spring, which is the time in which
most living things are born, and, therefore, the time for hatching out
fish eggs, all of the fish swim from the deep water where they live in
winter to the places where the water is shallow and warm, and in these
shallow waters the female fish expels the eggs from her body where the
sun can get at them and hatch them by warming them. After the female
fish has thus laid the eggs, the male fish swims over the eggs as they
lay in the water, and expels from his body over them a fluid which is
white in appearance and which fertilizes the fish eggs. If any of this
fluid fails to reach some of the eggs it is not possible for the sun to
bring them to life.
When the eggs are laid and fertilized the mother and father fishes swim
away and they never see their children or recognize them as such, even
if they meet them later in life. The parent fish do not act like other
fathers and mothers, and they do not need to, because as soon as a baby
fish is born he is able to find his own food and needs no help from
father or mother to teach him how to find it or enable him to grow into
a real fish.
Of course, many of the tiny fish are eaten by other fish and not all
the eggs which the mother fishes lay hatch into live fish, because, if
they did, the waters would be so crowded with fish that there would not
be any room for the water. A single female fish will lay millions of
eggs in a year, and if each egg developed into a fish there would be
far too many.
This order of animals, which includes turtles, frogs, etc., is the
cold-blooded class of animal life. They have only part of the five
senses. They all can feel and some of the fishes can see and hear, but
a great many of them, particularly those kinds which live on the bottom
of the ocean, cannot either see or hear, and some members of the fish
family cannot even swim.
The thing to remember about fishes in connection with the reproduction
of life is that the mother fish must select a place which is favorable
to deposit the eggs, but after that her responsibility ceases. The
father merely fertilizes the eggs, and then his responsibility ceases.
The little fish look out for themselves as soon as they are born and
never know what it is to have a father or mother to look after them.
When we study the next higher form of animal life we find that the
young ones have to be looked after, and that this becomes more
necessary as we ascend the scale of animal life until we reach man, the
most intelligent of all animals and yet the most helpless of all at
birth.
How Birds Are Taught to Fly.
The next step brings us to the birds. Before they can look after
themselves the little birds must learn how to search for food and the
kinds of food good for them. They have to learn the habits of their
kind of life. The higher you go in the study of animal life the greater
seem to be the dangers which surround the young animals and the longer
it takes to teach them how to look after themselves and what to do for
themselves.
The bird family includes not only the robins, larks, sparrows and
pigeons, but also the ducks, geese, and chickens, etc. We are all more
or less familiar with birds’ eggs, and if not we know what a hen’s egg
looks like. The eggs of the bird family are laid in nests, which is the
first sign of home building in the animal kingdom.
The birds are the first of the large class of warm-blooded animals.
The egg here represents again the reproductive power. The eggs, too,
form in the body of the female bird, but are laid in a nest which the
parent birds build together. Now this is the first step away from the
fish family. The fish looks for a suitable place to lay the eggs and
then goes off and leaves them. The birds, however, have to make a
nest in which to deposit the eggs. The fish, as you remember, depended
upon the warm sun shining on the shallow water to hatch out the eggs,
thus depending on an outside force to supply the necessary warmth. In
the bird family the mother bird must cover the eggs with her own body
and keep them warm until they hatch out. Then, too, the father and
mother birds feed the young until they are strong enough to fly and
find food for themselves, and so the mother and father birds look after
their babies until they are old enough to look after themselves. When
this time arrives the old birds cease to bother about the young ones
altogether. The fishes never act like parents after the baby fishes
are born, because the little fish are able to look after themselves
right away. The parent birds are a good deal like fathers and mothers
for a time, but only so long as it takes them to teach their little
bird children to look out for themselves. Then they forget the children
completely.
It requires but a few days and no parental care to hatch out a family
of baby fishes and no attention at all after birth. It requires several
weeks and much patience for the parent birds to hatch out their eggs,
and it involves care and attention for several weeks to teach baby
birds to take care of themselves.
This being a father or mother in the animal kingdom becomes a greater
responsibility in every step as we get closer to man, and when we reach
man we find him to be the most helpless offspring of all at birth, and
that it takes more time, care and attention to bring up a human child
to maturity than any other animal.
What Makes the Hollow Place at One End of a Boiled Egg?
This hollow place on the end of the boiled egg (sometimes it shows on
the side) is the air which is put inside of the egg when it is formed
so that the little chicken will have air to breathe from the time it
comes to life within the egg until it becomes strong enough to break
the shell and go out into the world. There is also food in the egg for
him. When you boil the egg this pocket of air within the shell, which
would have been used up by the chick if the egg had been set to hatch
instead of being cooked for breakfast, begins to fight for its space
and pushes the boiling egg back and forms the hollow place.
The purpose of the air in the egg is a good thing to remember when we
come to study the higher forms of animal life from the standpoint of
how they reproduce themselves.
The mammals are the next higher form of animals. The babies of this
class of animals must be fed for several weeks or months before they
are ready to come into the world.
A little chicken is ready to come out of the egg almost as soon as it
comes to life, and, therefore, needs only a little air and food before
it is strong enough to peck its way out, but the babies of mammals
begin to live months before they are ready to come into the world, and
they need a great deal of air and food during this time. This class
includes the dogs, horses, cows, cats and all other animals in the
Zoo and in the woods. The name mammals means the same as “mamma,” and
indicates an animal which must be fed from the body of a female mammal
even after it is born.
In this class the eggs are retained within the body of the female
animal instead of being laid in a nest or some other place, as in
animals of lower classes, after being fertilized by the male animal,
so that the baby animal may secure its food and air from within the
mother’s body after the life within the egg is begun.
The mother’s body supplies the necessary warmth to develop the life
of the little animal in the egg, just as the birds supplied this with
their bodies. In the bird class it only takes a few hours to give
the little bird sufficient strength to peek his way out, but in the
mammal class it is a long time before the baby animal is strong enough
to come out into the world, and even after it is born the babies of
mammals require a great deal of care and attention before they are able
to look out for themselves. During this period the animal secures all
of its food from the breast of the mother animal.
Another reason why the eggs of mammals are retained within the bodies
of the females is the need for protecting the young animals from
enemies. In the animal kingdom each kind of animal preys upon another
kind. They attack and devour each other and are constantly in danger.
If, then, mammals laid eggs in nests and sat upon them to hatch them
out, the mother animals sitting on the nests would be continually in
danger of attack from their enemies. They would either have to flee
and subject the nest and its contents to the danger of destruction or
else stay and fight, and perhaps be destroyed. But by carrying her egg
within her body the mother mammal is able to move about from place to
place and protect her baby.
Is Man an Animal?
Men, women and children belong to the “mammal” class of animals. The
offspring of the human family is the most helpless of all animals at
birth. The young of most kinds of mammals can stand on their legs
shortly after being born, but the human baby requires months before it
can stand up. A baby horse can also walk within a few hours, but human
children do not begin to walk until they are more than a year old.
Why Cannot Babies Walk as Soon as Born?
The human baby has a great many more things to learn than a horse baby
before it is safe for him to go about alone. It takes time for the
brain to develop, and if a baby could walk before the brain had even
partially developed it would only get into trouble.
This, then, is what we have learned about the reproduction of life
and the reasons for its being different in different classes of life.
First, we had the division of organic life into the vegetable and
animal kingdoms. Life in the vegetable kingdom has none of the five
senses, for plants cannot see, hear, feel, smell or taste. They cannot
move from place to place, but remain where they grow until destroyed
or removed. On the other hand, all animal life has at least one of
the five senses--feeling. The oysters and clams belong to this class.
Starting with this level of life in the animal kingdom we find that as
we go on up through the different classes we find each class able to
do things which make it superior to the class below it, until we reach
the human mammal, who can do most of all. And, further, that since each
class as we go up in the scale of life has greater ability to do things
than the class beneath it, so in each case the task of the parents
in preparing their offspring for their kind of life becomes greater,
and the period during which the offspring is learning becomes longer
and longer until we reach the human family, in which we find that
parents have the greatest responsibility, and the children are the most
helpless of all animals, but that in the final result man has a right,
on account of his superior qualities, to be the ruler of the other
creatures of the world.
What Are Ball Bearings?
Some years ago a gentleman in trying to find some way to reduce the
friction, which is constantly developed to a certain extent, even when
the axle is oiled, discovered that if between the axle and the inside
of the hub a circle of steel balls were arranged, so that the hub of
the wheel did not touch the axle at all, but rested on the little balls
which in their turn touched the axle, that a great deal of the friction
was eliminated. This proved to be a wonderful invention, and when this
combination is arranged and oiled, there is hardly any friction.