"WE ARE ANTS UPON A MOUNTAIN, BUT WE'RE LEAVIN' OF OUR DENT, AN' OUR TEETH-MARKS BITIN' SCENERY, THEY WILL SHOW THE WAY WE WENT." --RUNYON MAKING AND BUILDING I raise a voice for far superber themes for poets and for art: To exalt the present and the real, To teach the average man the glory of his daily work and trade To manual work for each and all, to plough, hoe, dig, I say I bring the Muse to-day and here, -WALT WHITMAN. The earliest men had no tools, no spears or knives, no bows and arrows, no sheep or norses or cattle. They had nothing to depend on but themselves and what nature gave them for food, clothing, and shelter. They did not know how to weave cloth, cook food, raise crops, or build fires. They lived in trees and caves, and ate the wild berries and seeds which they could find, and the small animals which they could catch with their hands. Since that far-away time of helplessness, man has reached a position of power. Now the four corners of the earth minister to his wants, and the very forces of nature of which he used to be so fearful are his servants. This advance has been due largely to his skill as an inventor and a builder. From small beginnings like the stone hatchet, his inventions have grown until now his tools are of the finest steel; his factories hum with machinery of all kinds; while the steam engine and the electric dynamo run his mills and move his trains. Man has realized these triumphs only through constant struggle and by overcoming great difficulties. Few who carry watches, cross bridges, use telephones, and ride in automobiles or elevators, know how these inventions came to be, or how they work. Few have knowledge of the men who created them, or of the victories by which they were won. And yet the stories and poems that deal with these themes are as full of romance and wonder as are the tales of knights and ladies and castles in the brave days of old. B. INVENTIONS OF MODERN MEN 1. The Thinker.... 114 Berton Braley CHOOSE A BOOK (Secure the book which promises to be most interesting and read it at home during the period given to the study of this unit.) 1. Braley, Berton, Songs of the Workaday World. Doran. A volume of vigorous poems about work and workers on land and sea, their tasks, their travels, their romances. 2. Caldwell, Otis W., and Slosson, Edwin E., Science Remaking the World. Doubleday. The story of the development of modern science told in clear untechnical language by two well-known scientists. 3. Carnegie, Andrew, The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. Hough ton. The autobiography of a poor Scotch boy who came to America and, by shrewdness and hard work, rose from the position of bobbin-boy at a dollar and a quarter a week to the leadership of the steel industry and the possession of an enormous fortune. How he gained this fortune and how he then gave the great bulk of it away for the benefit of mankind are told in this story of his life. 4. Casson, Herbert N., The Romance of Steel. Barnes. A history of the steel industry with many stories about the makers of iron and steel. The Romance of the Reaper (Doubleday) and Cyrus Hall McCormick, His Life and Work (McClurg), by the same author, contain the story of the invention which has relieved the farmer of his heaviest toil. 5. Darrow, Floyd Lavern, Masters of Science and Invention. court. Har Short sketches of some fifty scientists from Galileo to Einstein, containing information both interesting and useful. The Boy's Own Book of Great Inventions (Macmillan), by the same author, describes such epoch-making inventions as the telegraph, the telephone, the wireless, and the airplane. 6. Defoe, Daniel, Robinson Crusoe. The adventures, contrivances, and inventions of the hero make this one of the most fascinating stories in all literature. 7. Doolittle, James Rood (editor), The Romance of the Automobile Industry. Klebold Press (New York). The story of the development of the automobile. The volume contains many pictures. |