Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/644

 488 General History oj Europe attention was concentrated upon the homely operations of every- day life the housewife drawing out her thread with a distaff or spinning wheel, the slow work of the weaver at his primitive loom, the miner struggling against the water which threatened to flood his mine. 867. The World transformed by Machinery. Most of us accept the world in which we live that is, the clothes we wear, our modern houses, trains, steam- ships, skyscrapers, asphalt streets, telephones, automobiles as if it had always existed. We do not realize the countless discoveries, inventions, and improvements which had to be made in order to transform the con- ditions of the eighteenth century into our modern world (Chapter XXXII). Up to that time the people of west- ern Europe for the most part con- tinued to till their fields, weave their cloth, and saw and plane their boards by hand, much as the ancient Egyp- tians had done. Merchandise was still transported in slow, lumbering carts, and letters were as long in passing from London to Paris as in the reign of Constantine. Suddenly, however, a series of ingenious devices were invented, which in a few generations eclipsed the achievements of ages and revolutionized every branch of business. This change is known as the Industrial Revolution, and its most important factor is the introduction of machinery. The power and tireless energy of the machine was substituted for the human hand ; moreover, it was also no longer necessary for the horse and the ox to drag persons or goods slowly from place to place. The amount of work which could be accomplished in the world by these new slaves of iron was indefinitely increased. The modern DISTAFF AND SPINDLE