E-text prepared by Chris Curnow
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(http://www.archive.org)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://www.archive.org/details/romanceofindustr00coch |
Transcriber's Note: Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest paragraph break.No other changes have been made from the original text.
the
Romance of Industry
and
Invention
SELECTED BY
ROBERT COCHRANE
EDITOR OF
'GREAT THINKERS AND WORKERS,' 'BENEFICENT AND USEFUL LIVES,' 'ADVENTURE
AND ADVENTURERS,' 'RECENT TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE,' 'GOOD
AND GREAT WOMEN,' 'HEROIC LIVES,' &C.
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1897
Edinburgh:
Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited.
PREFACE.
Our national industries lie at the root of national progress.The first Napoleon taunted us with being a nationof shopkeepers; that, however, is now less true than thatwe are a nation of manufacturers—coal, iron, and steel,and our textile industries, taken along with our enormouscarrying-trade, forming the backbone of the wealth of thecountry.
A romantic interest belongs to the rise and progress ofmost of our industries. Very often this lies in the careerof the inventor, who struggled towards the perfection andrecognition of his invention against heavy difficulties anddiscouragements; or it may lie in the interestingprocesses of manufacture. Every fresh labourer in thefield adds some link to the chain of progress, and bringsit nearer perfection. Some of the small beginnings haveincreased in a marvellous way. Such are chronicled underBessemer and Siemens, who have vastly increased thepossibilities of the steel industry; in the sections devotedto Krupp, of Essen; Sir W.G. Armstrong, of the ElswickWorks, where 18,000 men are now employed alone in thearsenal; Maxim, of Maxim Gun fame; the rise and progressof the cycle industry; that of the gold and diamondmining industry; and the carrying-trade of the world.
Many of the chapters in this book have been selectedfrom a wealth of such material contributed from time totime to the pages of Chambers's Journal, but additions andfresh material have been added w