Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
pstarr wrote:Tanada, can you reduce this to a couple talking points? For the short-of-attention disabled among us.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Tanada wrote:That may seem a bit of a wandering narrative but everything in the list is about transportation and trade, no matter what the Marxists may think it is not manufacturing that drives economies. It has always boiled down to ease of transportation from point of origin to point of use.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Timo wrote:Tanada, your last paragraph sums up my fears, exactly! We are the servants to the monster that we, ourselves, have created.
And that monster is destined to kill us.
In north China the earliest iron artifacts appear to be from the late fourth century B.C., but by this time the spread is quite rapid, and by the early third century B.C. iron has become the metal of choice for all implements and edged weapons. An important piece of evidence here is a mass grave of fallen soldiers of the state of Yan in Yixian County, Hebei (Liu Shishu 1975; KG 1975.4: 241-243). The date given by its excavators, the early third century B.C., appears to be very reliable. The soldiers were buried with their weapons, and we thus have a less biased sample of weapons of the time than graves normally give us (cf. Trousdale 1977). Very nearly all of the weapons are of wrought iron or steel; a few implements were also found in the grave, and these were of cast iron. A crossbow-lock is of bronze; the superior casting properties of bronze make it a better material than iron for this type of artifact. Nineteen crossbow-bolts have cast iron shafts and bronze tips, again presumably because of the better casting properties of bronze. There are only three edged weapons of bronze (compared with 51 of iron), and these can be explained as symbolic objects, perhaps symbols of rank, not intended for use in serious fighting.
In 1795, the Springfield Armory produced the new nation's first musket.
Fueled by the Springfield Armory, the City of Springfield quickly became a national center for invention and development. In 1819 Thomas Blanchard developed a special lathe for the consistent mass production of musket stocks. Thomas Blanchard worked at Springfield Armory for 5 years. The lathe enabled an unskilled workman to quickly and easily turn out identical irregular shapes. The large drum turned two wheels: a friction wheel that followed the contours of the metal musket pattern, and the cutting wheel that imitated the movements of the friction wheel to make an exact replica of the pattern in wood. In the 1840s the old flintlock gave way to a percussion ignition system that increased the reliability and simplicity of longarms.
The Springfield Armory was largely involved in the growth and influence of the Industrial Revolution. Much of this grew out of the military's fascination with interchangeable parts, which was based on the theory that it would be easier to simply replace firearm parts than make battlefield repairs. Mass production of truly interchangeable parts demanded greater use of machines, improved gauging, quality control, and division of labor; all characteristics of the Industrial Revolution. From these individual components, the concept of the assembly line was devised.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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