mob and he himself was driven to a foreign country where he died in
poverty. Yet he deserves high rank among the benefactors of mankind, for
the flying shuttle doubled the power of the loom and improved the
quality of the cloth woven. Kay's invention was the first step in a
great industrial revolution. The increased power of the loom called for
more yarn than the old spinning wheel could supply. Hargreaves and
Arkwright set their wits to work and made their wonderful spinning
machine, and the demands of the loom were supplied. So great was the
supply of yarn that the hand loom was behind with its work. Then in
order to keep up with the spinning machine the _power-loom_ was
invented. Heddle and batten and shuttle were now driven by a force of
nature and all the weaver had to do was to keep the shuttle filled with
thread and see that his loom worked properly. At first the water-wheel
was used to drive the power-loom but later the steam-engine was made to
do this work. All this was changing the face of the civilized world.
Hitherto weavers and spinners had worked for themselves in their homes
or in their own shops; now they were gathered in large factories where
they worked as wage earners for an employer. Hitherto industry had been
carried on in small villages; the great factories drew the people to
large industrial centers and the era of crowded cities began.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--THE JACQUARD LOOM.]
Following the invention of the power-loom in the latter half of the
eighteenth century came the invention of Joseph Jacquard of Lyons,
France. This very ingenious man in 1801 invented a substitute for the
heddle. We cannot readily understand the workings of Jacquard's
wonderful "attachment," as his substitute for the heddle is called, but
we ought to know what the great Frenchman did for the loom. In Figure 12
you see that the cloth which is exposed shows that beautiful designs
have been woven into it. This is what Jacquard did for the loom. He made
it weave into the cloth whatever design, color or tint one might desire.
He made the loom a mechanical artist rivaling in excellence the work of
a human artist. The Jacquard loom has brought about a revolution in
man's, and especially in woman's dress. With the old loom, colors and
designs could be woven into cloth but only very slowly, and goods with
fancy patterns were made at a cost that was so great that only the rich
could afford to buy. In the olden times, therefore, almost everybody
wore plain clothes. With Jacquard's attachment the most beautiful
figures can be cheaply woven into the commonest fabrics. As far as
weaving is concerned, it costs no more to have beautiful figures in
cotton goods than it does to have them in silk. As a result the poor as
well as the rich can dress as their taste and fancy may suggest.
The last century brought improvements in the weaving art as every
century before it brought improvements, but the changes made since
Jacquard's time need not concern us. The story of the loom ends with the
Jacquard "attachment." Perhaps no other of man's inventions has a more
interesting development than the loom. We can see it grow, piece by
piece. First a simple stick from which dangle the threads of the warp;
then the heddle, then the shuttle, then the reed, then the shuttle-race
and the swiftly flying shuttle, and last the Frenchman's wonderful
device for weaving in colors and fancy figures.
THE HOUSE
Man has always been a builder. Like squirrels and beavers and birds he
provides himself a home as by instinct. The kind of house erected by a
people in the beginning depended upon the surroundings, upon the enemies
that prowled about, upon the climate, upon the building materials close
at hand. In a hilly, rocky region primitive folk built one kind of
house, in a forest they built another kind, in a low marshy district
they built still another kind. In all cases they took the materials that
were the easiest to get and erected the kind of dwelling place that
would afford the greatest safety and comfort.
If one could have traveled over the earth during the first days of man's
history one would doubtless have found that dwellings were made of wood,
for in those days the greater part of the earth was covered with
forests. To build a home in the forest was the simplest of tasks. All
that was necessary was to fasten together the tops of several saplings,
interlace the saplings with boughs (Fig. 1) and cover the frame with
skins of animals or thatch it with leaves and grass. A cone-shaped
structure of this pattern, a tent, or hut, or wigwam, was the first
house of all primitive people who lived where there was plenty of wood.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--BUILDING A HOUSE WITH WOOD.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A CAVE-DWELLING.]
In many regions, especially in parts of northwestern Europe, the wigwam
or hut was not always the most suitable dwelling place for early man. In
hilly and mountainous districts and along streams where shores were
overhung by rocks or pierced by caverns the first inhabitants found that
a hollow in the earth was the best kind of house. Sometimes the house of
the cave-dwellers was made by Nature (Fig. 2); sometimes it was an
artificial living-place dug in the side of a hill or mountain. The cave
was truly a rude and gloomy home, yet there was a time when large
numbers of the human race lived in caves. The Zuni Indians of Arizona in
seeking a refuge from their enemies built their homes far up in steep
cliffs where it was almost impossible for a stranger to go.
Coming down from the highlands to the lowlands where there were swamps
and marshes or where inland lakes were numerous, we find that the first
houses were built upon piles driven in the water or in the mud (Fig. 3).
These lake-dwellings, as houses of this kind were called, were generally
connected with the mainland by gangways of wooden piers, although
sometimes they could be approached only by boat. In the floors of some
of these curious dwellings were trapdoors through which baskets could be
lowered for catching fish in the lake below. The children of the
lake-dwellers were tethered by the feet to keep them from falling into
the water. The beautiful city of Venice in its infancy was a community
of lake-dwellers. The rough canoe of the lake-dwelling time has
developed into the graceful gondola, and the rude wooden pier has grown
to be the magnificent Rialto.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--LAKE-DWELLINGS, RESTORED.
(From Troyon.)]
In many regions the most convenient building material is stone and all
over the earth there are proofs to show that building with stone began
at a very early date. The stones in the earliest stone structures were
rough and unhewn and were laid without mortar or cement (Fig. 4) yet
they were sometimes fitted together with such nicety that a thin knife
blade could not be passed between them. Remains of stone houses built
many thousands of years ago may be seen in Peru, Mexico, Italy, and
Greece. These primitive dwellings were humble and simple, but they were
made of good material and they were well built. They have weathered the
storms of ages and they have remained standing while later and more
pretentious buildings have crumbled and disappeared.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A PRIMITIVE STONE HOUSE.]
The illustrations of early building which have been given will make
plain the truth that the people of a particular country have taken the
materials nearest at hand and have constructed their homes according to
their particular needs. Now since the beginnings of house building have
been different in different parts of the earth, the story of the house
will not be the same in all countries. In China and Japan, where the
light bamboo has always flourished and has always been used in building,
the house has had one development; in countries where granite and marble
and heavy timber abound it has had another and an entirely different
development. What then is the story of the house as we see it in our
country? Can this story be told? As one passes through an American city
looking at the public buildings and churches and stores and dwellings
can one go back to the beginning and trace step by step the growth of
the house and tell how these came to be what they are? Let us see if
this cannot be done.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--AN EGYPTIAN HOUSE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--AN ANCIENT HEBREW DWELLING.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--INTERIOR OF AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PALACE.]
Our story takes us back many thousands of years to Egypt, the cradle of
civilization. From Egypt it will take us to Greece, thence to Rome,
thence to the countries of Northern Europe, thence to America. What kind
of houses did the Egyptians first build? They built as simple a
structure as can be imagined; they erected four walls and over these
they placed a flat roof (Fig. 5). The roof was made flat because in
Egypt there is scarcely any rain and there was no need for a roof with a
slant. In all those countries where rain seldom falls, or never falls,
the flat roof is the natural roof (Fig. 6). Although their buildings
were simple in construction the Egyptians left behind them most
remarkable specimens of the builder's art. Their pyramids and monuments
and sphinxes and palaces have always been foremost among the great
wonders of the world. Figure 7 shows the interior of an ancient Egyptian
palace. This palace had only an awning for a roof. That was all that was
necessary to keep out the rays of the sun. Notice the lofty pillars or
columns of this building. You see they are adorned above or below with
the figure of the lotus, the national flower of the Egyptians. The
column, as we shall see, plays an important part in the history of the
house and it was ancient Egypt that gave the world its first lessons in
the art of making columns.
From Egypt we pass over "the sea" to Greece. The Greeks borrowed ideas
wherever they could and in the matter of architecture they borrowed
heavily from Egypt. But they did not borrow the flat roof of the
Egyptians. In Greece there was some rainfall and this fact had to be
taken into account when building a house; the roof had to slant so that
the rain could run off. Now the Greeks taught the world the best way to
make a slanting roof. They made the roof to slant in two directions from
a central ridge (Fig. 8) instead of having the entire roof to slant in
one direction like an ugly shed. The slant was gentle because there was
no snow to be carried off. The roof of two slants formed a gable. The
Greeks, then, were the inventors of the _gable_. The column they
borrowed from Egypt. But whenever the Greeks borrowed an invention or
an idea they nearly always improved upon it. Instead of slavishly
imitating the Egyptian columns they tried to make better ones and they
were so successful that they soon became the teachers of the world in
column making.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A GREEK DWELLING.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--THE THREE ORDERS OF COLUMNS.]
The oldest and strongest of the Greek columns belong to what is known as
the Doric order (Fig. 9), a name given to them because they were first
made by the Dorians, the original Greek dwellers in Europe. Aside from
the flutes or channels which ran throughout its length the Doric column
was perfectly plain. In the older Doric columns even the flutes are
absent. Its _capital_ or top, was without ornament. Later the graceful
and elegant Ionic pillar (Fig. 9) came into fashion. We can always
distinguish an Ionic column by the volute or scroll at its capital. The
latest of the Greek columns was the Corinthian (Fig. 9), the lightest,
the most slender and the most richly decorated of all. A cluster of
acanthus leaves at its capital is the most prominent ornament of the
Corinthian column. The Greeks carried the art of column making to such
perfection that even to this day we imitate their patterns. A column in
a modern building is almost certain to be a Greek column. It is worth
one's while, therefore, to be able to tell one Greek column from
another. One can do this by remembering (1) that the Doric column is
perfectly plain and has no capital; (2) that the Ionic column has a
scroll at the capital; (3) that the capital of the Corinthian column is
adorned with a cluster of acanthus leaves.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--AN OLD ROMAN ARCH.]
Our story now takes us to Italy. Greece fell before the power of Rome
146 B.C., but before she fell she had taught her conquerors a great deal
about architecture. Indeed the Romans took up the art of building where
the Greeks left it. They needed the Greek gable for they had rains, and
the Greek column recommended itself to them on account of its beauty.
They used the best features of Grecian architecture and added a feature
that was largely their own. This was the _arch_. The Greeks, like the
Egyptians before them, bridged over the openings of doors and windows
and the spaces between columns by means of straight wooden beams or long
blocks of stone. The Romans bridged over these spaces with the arch
(Fig. 10). If you will study the arch you will see that it is a curved
structure which is supported by its own curve. You will also see that it
is a structure of great strength. The greater the weight placed upon it,
providing its bases are supported, the stronger it gets. In teaching the
world how to make arches Rome added to the house an element of great
strength and beauty. With the arch came the tall building. In Greece a
house was never more than two stories high. In Rome arch rose upon arch
(Fig. 11); the dome which is itself a kind of arch appeared and palaces
were piled story upon story until they seemed to reach the skies.
From Italy we pass to northern Europe. The power of Rome fell 476 A.D.,
but before that date the greater part of Europe had been Romanized, and
the Roman way of building with column and arch and dome had been learned
in France and Germany and England. But the climate of those countries
was different from that of Italy and a slight change in the Roman way of
building was necessary. In the northern countries there were heavy rains
and snows and a roof with a gentle slope was not suitable for carrying
off large quantities of water and snow. A gable (Fig. 12) with a sharp
slant was necessary. Hence throughout northern Europe the roofs were
built much steeper than they were in Italy and Greece, although in other
respects the northern houses resembled more or less closely those of the
older southern countries.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--INTERIOR OF A ROMAN CLUB HOUSE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--A DWELLING IN NORTHERN EUROPE.]
The pointed roof which was made necessary by the climate of the north
prepared the way for a new style of building, the _pointed_ or _Gothic_
style. This style began to appear in the twelfth century and by the end
of the thirteenth century--that remarkable century again--the buildings
of all northern Europe were Gothic. The new style began with a change in
the arch. The Roman arch was a semi-circle and was therefore described
from one center. The Gothic arch was formed by describing it from two
centers instead of one and was therefore a pointed arch. As the pointed
arch grew in favor it became the fashion to shape other parts of the
building into points wherever it was possible to do this. The rounding
dome became a spire "pointing heavenward"; the windows and doors were
pointed and so were the ornaments and decorations. For several centuries
buildings fairly bristled with points (Fig. 13). The finest example of
Gothic architecture is the glorious cathedral at Cologne.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--POINTED STYLE.
Typical scheme of a fully developed French cathedral of the 13th
century. (From Viollet-le-Duc's "Dict. de l'Architecture.")]
During the thousand years of the Dark Ages (476-1453) the glories of the
civilization of ancient Greece and Rome faded almost completely from
human vision. Events of the sixteenth century brought those glories
again into view and Europe was dazzled by them. Men everywhere became
dissatisfied with the things around them. They longed for ancient
things. They read ancient authors, they imitated ancient artists, they
imbibed the wisdom of ancient teachers. This was the period of the
Renaissance, the time when the world was born anew--as it pleased men to
think and say. The world of the present died and the old world of Greece
and Rome was brought to life. Of course in the new order of things
architecture underwent a change. _It_ was born again; _it_ experienced a
renaissance. The pointed style grew less pleasing to the builder's eye,
and wherever he could he placed in his building something that was Greek
or Roman, here an arched doorway, there a Greek column. There resulted
from these changes a style that was neither Gothic, Grecian nor Roman,
but a mixture of all these. This mixed style was named after the period
in which it arose. When you see a building that strongly resembles the
buildings of ancient Greece and Rome and at the same time has features
which belong to other styles you may safely say that the building
belongs to the renaissance style. (Fig. 14.) The most noble and
beautiful examples of renaissance architecture are the church of St.
Peter's at Rome and the church of St. Paul at London.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--A RENAISSANCE DWELLING.]
We now pass over to America. About the time the old world was born anew
the new world was found. The houses of the first settlers in America
were of course rude and ugly but as the colonies grew in population and
wealth more expensive and beautiful houses were built. As we should
expect, the colonists built their best houses in the style that was then
in fashion in the old world and that was the renaissance style. They did
not, however, copy the old world architecture outright. They had
different materials, a different climate and a different class of
workmen and they had to build according to these changed conditions. The
result was a style of building that has been called colonial (Fig. 15).
Colonial architecture was simply American renaissance. And that is what
it is to-day. To say that a house is in the colonial style is to say
that it represents a certain architect's ideas as to what is best and
most beautiful in all styles.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--A COLONIAL MANSION.
The Cliveden Chew Mansion, where the Battle of Germantown was fought.]
The story of the house really ends with the period of the renaissance.
Since the sixteenth century nothing really new in architecture has been
discovered and men have been wedded to no particular style. When we want
to build a house we choose from all the styles and build according to
our tastes. Our story of the house, however, will not be complete
without a brief account of what has been called _elevator_ architecture.
The high price of land in large cities makes it necessary to run
buildings up to a considerable height if they are to be profitable. Now
if a building is more than five stories high it must have an elevator,
or lift, and if an elevator is to be put in, the building might as well
be run up nine or ten stories. American business men learned this
thirty or forty years ago and began to build high, and they have been
building higher and higher ever since. There are tall buildings in other
countries but the "sky-scraper" of twenty-five and thirty stories is
found only in the United States (Fig. 16).
[Illustration: (Copyright 1911 by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.)
FIG. 16.--ELEVATOR ARCHITECTURE.
The tower-like structure in the distance is a building more than forty
stories in height.]
Thus we may see in the house of to-day a long and unbroken story. Where
the roof is flat it is Egyptian; where it slants gently in two
directions it is Greek; where it is steep or sharply pointed it is
Gothic. The columns are Greek, the rounded arches are Roman. The whole
is the result of the thousands of years of effort which man has given to
the task of providing for himself a safe, convenient and beautiful
home.
THE CARRIAGE
We are very proud in our day of our means of transportation. If one
wishes to send a present to a friend a thousand miles away a few cents
spent in postage will take the article to its destination. If for the
sake of higher prices a fruit grower wishes to sell his crops in a
distant city, the railroad people will haul it for him at a very small
cost. If you wish to visit a friend in town several blocks away, there
is the electric car ready to take you for a nickel. If your friend is
several hundred miles away, the steam car will take you in a few hours
at a cost of not more than two or three cents a mile. I am living in the
country sixteen miles from the city in which my work lies, and for nine
cents I am carried to the place of my business in less than
half-an-hour. What has been the history of the inventions which make
transportation so comfortable, rapid and cheap? Our subject divides
itself into two parts, transportation on land and transportation on
water or the story of the Carriage and the story of the Boat. We will
have the story of the carriage first.
Man's only carriage at first was of course his own feet. When he wanted
to go to any place he had to take "Walker's hack," if a playful
expression may be pardoned. As a traveler on foot, man soon surpassed
all other animals. He could walk down the deer and wear out the horse.
When it came to carrying things from place to place, in the beginning he
had to rely upon his own limbs and muscles. It was not long, however,
before he learned that there were good ways and bad ways of carrying
things, and he soon set about finding the best way. We may believe that
he began by making a snug bundle and carrying it on his shoulder. Then
he found that he could carry a heavier burden upon his back, and he
invented a pack or frame on which he could carry things on his back
(Fig. 1) after the manner of one of our modern pack peddlers.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A HUMAN BURDEN BEARER.
(From a Model in National Museum.)]
In the course of time man tamed one or more of the wild beasts which
roamed near him. Then the burden was shifted from the back of a man to
the back of a beast. The first beast of burden in South America was the
llama; in India it was the elephant; in Arabia it was the camel (Fig.
2). In Europe and in parts of Asia and in Egypt the horse first became
man's burden bearer and the nations which had the services of this swift
and strong animal outstripped the other nations of the world. "Which is
the most useful of animals?" asked one Egyptian god of another. "The
horse," was the reply, "because the horse enables a man to overtake and
slay his enemy."
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A SHIP OF THE DESERT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--A CART WITHOUT WHEELS.
(From a Model in the National Museum.)]
It is often easier to drag a thing along than it is to carry it. This
fact led to the invention of what we may call the first and simplest
form of carriage. This was the drag or travail (tra-vay´), a cart
without wheels (Fig. 3). Two long saplings were fastened at the large
end to the strap across the horse's breast and the small end upon which
the burden was placed dragged upon the ground. Mr. Arthur Mitchell in
his delightful book, "The Past in the Present," tells us that he saw
carts of this kind in actual use in the highlands of Scotland as late as
1864! An improvement upon the travail was the sledge made of the forked
limb of a tree (Fig. 4). This primitive sledge was really a travail
consisting of one piece.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A PRIMITIVE SLEDGE.
(From a Model in National Museum.)]
In many cases it is easier to roll a thing than it is to drag it. This
fact led to another step in the development of the carriage; it led from
the cart without wheels to a cart with a wheel--a most important step in
the history of inventions. The first wheeled cart was simply a log from
each end of which projected an axle (Fig. 5). The axle fitted in the
holes of a frame upon which the body of the cart was placed and to which
the horse or the ox was attached. As the cart moved along, wheel (log
and axle) turned together. The very ancient method of moving a load by
rolling it along was in use in the United States not so very long ago.
As late as 1860 in some of the southern States hogsheads of tobacco
(Fig. 6) were rolled over country roads in the manner just described and
as late as 1880 the fishermen of Nantucket used as a fish cart a vehicle
that had only a barrel for its wheel. (Fig. 7.) The common wheel-barrow
and the one-wheeled carts which are still used in China and Japan had
their origin in the rolling log.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE FIRST CART.
FIG. 6.--HAULING TOBACCO.
(From a Model in National Museum.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--A NANTUCKET FISH CART.