Part 1

Chapter 13,441 wordsPublic domain

Transcriber’s Notes

Words, letters and phrases printed in boldface or italics in the source document have been transcribed between =equal signs= and _underscores_ respectively. Small capitals have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS. Phrases between ~tildes~ represent side notes. ^o stands for a superscript o.

More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.

THE BOOK OF WONDERS

GIVES PLAIN AND SIMPLE ANSWERS TO THE THOUSANDS OF EVERYDAY QUESTIONS THAT ARE ASKED AND WHICH ALL SHOULD BE ABLE TO, BUT CANNOT ANSWER

FULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH HUNDREDS OF EDUCATIONAL PICTURES WHICH STIMULATE THE MIND AND GIVE A BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF THE

WONDERS OF NATURE and the WONDERS PRODUCED BY MAN

Edited and Arranged by RUDOLPH J. BODMER

Fully Indexed

1915 PRESBREY SYNDICATE, INC. 456 Fourth Avenue NEW YORK

Introduction

No truly great book needs an explanation of its aim and purpose. A great book just grows, as has this Book of Wonders.

It began with the attempt of a father to answer the natural questions of the active mind of a growing boy. It developed into a nightly search for plain, understandable answers to such questions as “What makes it night?” “Where does the wind begin?” “Why is the sky blue?” “Why does it hurt when I cut my finger?” “Why doesn’t it hurt when I cut my hair?” “Why does wood float?” “Why does iron sink?” “Why doesn’t an iron ship sink?” on through the maze of thousands of puzzling questions which occur to the child’s mind. It has grown until the answers to the mere questions cover practically the entire range of every-day knowledge, and has been arranged in such a form that any child may now find the answer to his own inquiries.

As the mind of the child matures, the questions naturally drift toward the things which the genius of man has provided for his comfort and pleasure. We have become so accustomed to the use and benefits of these wonders produced by man that we generally leave out of our books the stories of our great industries, and yet the mind of the child wonders and inquires about them. We have so long worn clothes made of wool or cotton, that we have forgotten the wonder there is in making a bolt of cloth. Every industry has a fascinating story equal to that of the silkworm, which moves its head sixty-five times a minute while spinning his thousand yards of silk.

Can you tell What happens when we telephone? How a telegram gets there? What makes an automobile go? How man learned to tell time? How a moving-picture is made? How a camera takes a picture? How rope is made? How the light gets into the electric bulb? How glass is made? How the music gets into the piano? and hundreds of others that embrace the captivating tales of how man has made use of the wonders of nature and turned them to his advantage and comfort? The Book of Wonders does this with illuminating pictures which stimulate the mind and give a bird’s-eye view of each subject step by step.

Where shall such a book begin? Shall it begin with the Story of How Man Learned to Light a Fire--he could not cook his food, see at night, or keep warm without a fire; or should it begin with How Man Learned to Shoot--he could not protect himself against the beasts of the forest, and, therefore, could not move about, till the soil or obtain food to cook until he knew how to shoot or destroy.

What was the vital thing for man to know before he could really become civilized? Some means, of course, by which the things he learned--the knowledge he had acquired--could be handed down to those who came after him so that they might go on with the intelligence handed down to them. This required some means of recording his knowledge. Man had to learn to write. Without writing there could be no Book of Wonders, and the book, then, begins naturally with the Story of Mow Man Learned to Write.

THE EDITOR.

How Man Learned to Write

It is a long time between the day of the cave-dwellers, with their instruments of chipped stone, and the present day of the pen. Yet wide apart as are these points of time, the trend of development can with but few obstacles be traced.

The story of the pen is a natural sequence of ideas between the first piece of rock scratched upon rock by prehistoric man, and the bit of metal which now so smoothly records our thoughts.

There was a time in the unwritten history of man when necessity prompted the invention of weapons, and the minds of these primitive men were concentrated upon this point. But the arts of war did not take up their entire time; some time must have been given to other pursuits. As the mind developed, and as an aid to memory, we find them carving, engraving, incising upon the rocks their hieroglyphics, which took the form of figures of men, habitations, weapons, and the animals of their period.

How Did Writing First Come About?

An apparently difficult question to answer, since without writing there can be no record of its origin, and without records no facts; yet the deduction is so clear that the answer is simple. Somewhere far, far back in the dawn of the world, back in the beginning of human history, in the epoch which we have now named the Quaternary Period, man lived in a dense wilderness surrounded by the wildest and most ferocious beasts. His home was a cave, exposed to the dangers incidental to that time and his surroundings, and he was of necessity compelled to look about for means of defense. With this idea in mind, he found that by striking one stone against another he knocked off chips, which chips could be used as arrow-heads, spears and axes. Following along these lines he discovered that by rubbing one of these chips against another there was left a mark, which was the first imitation of writing; that the sharper the edge of the chip, the deeper was the scratch, and consequently the more distinct the mark.

Next it was discovered that certain stones, such as flint, serpentine and chalcedony, marked more readily than others; that the elongated chip was handled with more facility; that by rubbing one stone against another the finest possible points and edges might be obtained. Thus in the Age of Stone was the long, tapering instrument of stone, the first pen, the Stylus, originated.

Then came the time, known as the Bronze Age, when men learned to hammer metal into shapes, and metal having many advantages over stone, the stylus of stone gave way to one of iron. So we find that in the time of the Egyptians, about fourteen or fifteen centuries B.C., an iron stylus was in use for marking on soapstone, limestone and waxed surfaces. An improvement in this metal stylus was that the blunt end was convex and smooth, the purpose of which was to erase and smooth over irregularities. In some cases it was pointed with diamonds, which gave it greater cutting properties. The iron stylus was also used by the Egyptians of that period, as well as in later times, with a mallet, after the manner of the modern chisel (which indeed it resembled) for cutting out inscriptions on their monuments.

~WRITING FLUIDS HELPED DEVELOPMENT~

In course of time a marking fluid was discovered, and this made necessary a writing instrument which could spread characters on parchment, tree-bark, etc. Thus it was found that by putting together a small bunch of hairs, arranging them in the shape of an acute cone, and fastening them together in some manner, an instrument could be made which would carry fluid in its path, and thus make a mark of the desired shape. The hair best adapted for the purpose was found to be camel’s hair, while that of the badger and sable was also used. A tube cut from a stalk of grass answered for a holder. The hairs were held together by a piece of thread which was then drawn through the tube, thus making the first writing instrument to be used in conjunction with ink, the Brush.

Just when the Brush came into existence is not definitely known, but with this instrument the great Chinese philosopher Confucius wrote his marvelous philosophy. The Brush as a writing instrument is generally associated with the Chinese, because the Chinese use this instrument even to the present day, it being especially adapted to their letters and mode of writing. We have now a pen (brush), as well as an ink, but the material upon which the people of that age wrote, in lieu of paper, was still very crude, parchment and tree-bark being most commonly used.

~THE EARLIEST FORMS OF PAPER~

Just as the discovery of an ink wrought a change from the Stylus to the Brush, so the advent of papyrus, a paper made from the papyrus plant, which was much finer and more economical than parchment, brought with it a pen better adapted for this material. It was found that the Reed, or Calamo, as it was called, which grew on the marshes on the shores of Egypt, Armenia and the Persian Gulf, if cut into short lengths and trimmed down to a point, made an admirable pen for this newly discovered paper. This was the true ancient representative and precursor of the modern pen. The use of the Reed can be traced to a remote antiquity among the civilized nations of the East, where Reeds are in use now as instruments for writing.

The introduction of a finer paper rendered necessary a finer instrument of writing, and the quill of the goose, swan, and, for very fine writing, of the crow, was found to be well adapted. Immense flocks of geese were raised, chiefly for their quills. The earliest specific allusion to the quill occurs in the writings of St. Isadore de Seville, seventh century, although it is believed to have been in use at an earlier period. The quill was used for many centuries. Most of the writing during its reign was done in the monasteries by the monks, and in the eighteenth century, when quill-making became quite an art, every monk and every teacher was expected to be proficient in the art of making a pen from a quill. The preliminary process of preparing the quills was first to sort them according to their quality, dry in the hot sand, then clean them of the outer skin, and harden by dipping in a boiling solution of alum and diluted nitric acid. During the last century many efforts were made to improve the quill, its great defect being speedy injury from use. Ruby points were fitted to the nib, but this was found impracticable on account of the delicacy of the work. Joseph Bramah devised, in 1809, a machine for cutting the quill into separate nibs for use in holders, thus making several pens from one quill and anticipating the form of the modern pen.

The quill held sway as writing instrument for many years, and with it the greatest masterpieces in literature have been written. Many attempts, however, had been made to supersede the quill by a pen not so easily injured by use, but it was not until about 1780 that, after much experimenting and numerous failures, Mr. Samuel Harrison introduced the first metallic pen.

~THE INVENTION OF THE PEN~

This pen was made as follows:

A sheet of steel was rolled in the form of a tube. One end was cut and trimmed to a point after the manner of the quill, the seam where both edges of the tube met forming the slit of the pen. This was soon after improved upon by cutting a rough blank out of a thin sheet of steel, which blank was filed into form about the nib, rounded, and with a sharp chisel marked inside where the slit was to be in the finished pen. After tempering, the nib was ground and shaped to a point suitable for fine or broad writing, as required.

Once started, the steel pen made rapid strides in improvement. Mr. James Perry, in 1824, started in England the manufacture of pens on a large scale, and to him as well as Gillott is due the many improvements which followed.

Perry was the first to manufacture “slip” steel pens, up to this time the pen and holder being one piece.

“In times of yore, when each man cut his quill With little Perryian skill; What horrid, awkward, bungling tools of trade Appeared the writing instruments, home made!”

~THE MODERN WAY OF WRITING~

The steel pen of the present day has reached the pinnacle of perfection, and the method of manufacture of this little but mighty instrument of writing, though of extreme interest, is practically unknown by the general public. To explain in detail the development from the rough steel to the finished pen would needs make a book in itself. And as it has been our intention to dwell, not upon the manufacture of the pen, but to trace its history and development from its most crude form, the Stylus, to the perfect and smooth-writing steel pen of to-day, we will close our story with the well-worn epigram of old, grim Cardinal Richelieu:

“Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The Pen is mightier than the Sword!”

How a Steel Pen is Made

In the picture on the following page, we see the various processes required in making a steel pen, together with a description of each process:

Why Does a Pencil Write?

You can use a pencil to write with or to make marks, because the pencil wears off if you are scratching it on a surface that is rough enough to make it do so. Writing, you know, is only a way of making marks in such a manner as to make them mean something. You cannot write with a pencil on a pane of glass, because the glass is so smooth that when you move the pencil over its surface, the pencil will not wear off. To prove to yourself that the tip of the pencil constantly wears off when you write, you have only to recall that when you write with it a pencil keeps getting shorter and shorter. A slate-pencil will wear down short by merely writing with it, but a lead-pencil must be sharpened--that is, you must keep cutting away the wood in order to get at the lead inside.

Why Can’t I Write on Paper With a Slate-pencil?

You cannot do so, because it takes something with a rougher surface than paper to wear off the point of a slate-pencil. A slate is used to write on with slate-pencils, because slate wears off the end of the pencil easily, and also because you can rub out the writing on a slate with water. Lead-pencils are used for writing on paper, but you must have a rough surface on the paper to write on even with a lead-pencil. Some kinds of papers have such a smooth surface that you cannot write on them with a lead-pencil.

How Does a Pen Write?

Writing with a pen, however, is quite different from writing with any kind of pencil, because in writing with ink we do not wear off the end of the pen, but have the ink flow from the pen. For this purpose we must have a surface that will absorb the ink from the pen, and draw the ink down off the pen and make it flow. A slate has no power of absorption and therefore cannot draw the ink. A piece of blotting paper is the best kind of paper for absorbing ink, but it is too much so for writing purposes. For writing with ink we need a comparatively hard surfaced paper that has absorbent qualities, but not too absorbent.

How Does a Blotter Take Up the Ink of a Blot?

It is because the blotter has a very excellent ability to absorb some liquids. The thinner the liquid the more easily the blotter will absorb it. Ink is thin--being mostly water--the blotter is of a loose texture and has a rough surface. This gives the blotter the ability to pick up the ink, just as a sponge would do. A sponge has what is called the power of capillary attraction and so has the blotter.

Where Does Chalk Come From?

Deposits of chalk are found on some shores of the sea. A piece of chalk such as the teacher uses to illustrate something on the blackboard at school consists of the remains of thousands of tiny creatures that at one time lived in the sea. All of their bodies excepting the chalk--called carbonate of lime in scientific language--has disappeared and the chalk that was left was piled up where it fell at the bottom of the ocean, each particle pressing against the other with the water pressing over it all until it became almost solid. It took thousands of years to make these chalk deposits of the thickness in which they are found. Later on, through changes in the earth’s surface, the mountain of chalk was raised until it stood out of the water and thus became accessible to man and school teachers.

How Did Men Learn to Talk?

Talking and the words used came into being through the desire of men to communicate with each other. Before words became known and used man talked to those about him by the use of signs, gestures and other movements of the body. Even to-day when men meet who cannot talk the same language they will be seen trying to come to an understanding by the use of signs and gestures and generally with fair results. The need of more signs and gestures to express a constantly increasing number of objects and thoughts led to the introduction of sounds or combination of sounds made with the vocal cords to accompany certain signs and gestures. In this way man eventually developed a very considerable faculty for expressing himself. Sign by sign, gesture by gesture and sound by sound language was slowly developed. A man would be trying to explain something to another by sign or gesture and to make it more clear would make a sound or combination of sounds to put more expression into his efforts. Finally the other man would understand what was meant and he would tell some one else, using the same signs, gestures and sounds. Later on it would develop that to express thus any certain thought, act or the name of a thing, all of the people in the community would make this same combination of sounds, signs and gestures to express the same thing. Finally the gestures and signs would be dropped and it was found that people understood perfectly what was meant when only the sound or combination of sounds was produced. That made a word. All the other words were made in the same way, one at a time, until we had enough words to express all the ordinary things and the combination of words became a language. The children learned the language by hearing their parents talk it, and that is how men learned to talk.

How Did Shaking the Head Come to Mean “No”?

The origin of this method of indicating “No” is found in the result of the mother’s efforts in the animal kingdom of trying to feed her young. A mother animal would be trying to get her young to accept the food she brought them and tried to put it in their mouths. Perhaps, however, the young animal had had sufficient food or did not fancy the kind of food offered. The natural thing to do under the circumstances would be to close the mouth tight and shake the head from side to side to prevent the mother from forcing the food into the mouth. Thus we get the closed lips and the shaking the head from side to side to mean “No.” In other words, that kind of a way of saying “No” came from an effort to say “I don’t want any.”

How Did a Nod Come to Mean “Yes”?

The idea of nodding to mean “Yes” comes from the opposite of the action which, as just described, indicates a “No.”