in transmission. There is no doubt that
this transmission of power hydraulically has been of the greatest
possible use. It has enabled work to be done which could not be done
before. Enormous weights are raised with facility wherever required,
as by the aid of power hydraulically transmitted, it is perfectly easy
for one man to manage the heaviest cranes. Moreover, as I have said in
other places, the system which we owe to Sir William Armstrong has
gone far to elevate the human race, and it has done so in this manner.
So long as it is competent for a man to earn a living by mere
unintelligent exercise of his muscles, he is very likely to do it. You
may see in the old London docks the crane-heads covered by structures
that look like paddle-boxes. If you go to them, there is, I am glad to
say, nothing now to fill them up; but when the British Association
first met, these paddle-boxes covered large tread-wheels, in which men
trod, so as to raise a weight. Now, although I know that in fact there
is nothing more objectionable in a man turning a wheel by treading
inside of it than there is if he turn it round by a winch-handle, yet
somehow it strikes one more as being merely the work of an animal, a
turnspit, or a squirrel, or, indeed, as the task imposed on the
criminal.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51