Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/11

Rh From the start then we must think of man as an inventor. What was his first invention? Aside from air and water, food-getting and defense are the primeval needs. These are met precariously without artificial aids. Something to supplement the teeth, the nails, the fist must be found; and to be found must be at hand and appeal readily to the senses. The most omnipresent and tangible of all raw materials are stone and wood. Both of these are especially abundant along water courses. In fact, man and wood and game the latter primitive man's chief food supply, are all there for the same purpose—in search of water. The stones are there because the streams carried them or laid them bare. The problem is therefore one of. utilization. The most utilizable of all stones is flint because of its hardness and mode of fracture, leaving a sharp, comparatively straight edge. Moreover, flint flakes can be produced by purely natural means. The accidental stepping on one of these would suffice, after repetition at least, to prove their efficiency. Thus the oldest and most primitive implements that have come down to us are utilized flint chips. Once the flint-using habit was formed, it spread; and when the natural supply became scarce it was supplemented by artificially produced chips.