Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-07-30

nlaH-sll'er Oh Europe Is MADE by com
bining the materials in their metallic
condition; its Chinese equivalent by
mingling the ores of the metals and
reducing them together to produce the
alloy. Spangles are made, not by cut
ting or stamping from sheet metal, but
by fiattening wire first bent into annu-
lar form. Pewter vessels are not cast,
but are shaped by hammering upon a
block. The primitive mill used in
many countries-in Normandy for
crushing apples for cider, in South
America for pulversing ores, in our
own country for powdering the scoria
of assaying pots, and composed of a
wheel travelling in groove or channel,
has, among western nations, its wheel
running continuously in IL circular
track around vertical axis; in China
its wheel working to and fro in semi
circular track, and around horizontal
center of movement. Chinese lanterns
are not made of horn, like those used
by the Romans, or of perforated metal
as long since in our own country, or of
glass, as is now universal, but are of
vanished paper stretched on bamboo
frames, sometimes of little cost for the
multitude, sometimes of great intrinsic
worth and blazoned with titles, for the
mandarins. The domestic industry of
other lands has obtained the healtful
acid of vinegar from the acetic fermen-
tation of the sweet juices of fruits /;
the Chinese by placing in water the
sea polypus found along the coasts.
Fish culture, now matter of Govern
ment solicitude in our own and other
countries, is old in China; but the
Chinese fish culturist puts the spawn
in an egg-shell and places it under a
sitting fowl, and after due delay breaks
the shell into water warmed by the
sun. These are not trihes. They
show that in the earliest period of her
existence, China drew nothing from
other lands. In what she required
she originated all, she initiated moth
ing.
And even in the thing that for ages
have been common in other countries,
we find that in unnumbered instances
their parallelism with those of China
is of but modern date; that they, too,
at former periods have shown by their
use in China and nowhere else that
they were but further proofs of the
self-sufficing and self-supplying char
acter of the Chinese mind. 1t was
this that discovered the polarity of the
magnetic needle and applied it to use
in the compass, and obviated its dip by
the simplest device of placing its
weight below the point of suspension !;
and it was this, too, that first perceived
and made allowance for the variation
of the needle from the true pole. 1t
was to this that was due the invention
of printing and its perfection to the
highest degree permitted by the Ian
guage, for with the Chinese alphabet
there is no advantage in interchange
able types. 1t was from this that
arose the invention of paper in the
first century of our era, the production
of inks having carbon base, as with
the printer's-ink of to-day, and the
manufacture of lamp-black, from the
burning of oils. 1t was this that de-
vised the drilling of grain as distin-
guished from broadcast sowing, a
method that saves in the annual seed
time of China as much as would feed
the inhabitants of Great Britain and
Ireland. The primitive Chinese mill
for the hulling of rice is substantially
the same as the modern mill for decor
ticating wheat; and another apparatus
for the same purpose, lever armed
with stone at its outer end and actu-
ated at the other by arms radiating
from the shaft of water-wheel, differs
in no essential respect from the prin-
ciple Of the trip-hammer. What in
our day is known as the Belgian sys-
tenn of canal propulsion, and now on
trial on the Erie Canal, was derived
from the Chinese method of crossing
rivers. The plan by which life-boats
are worked to and fro for the relief of
stranded vessels is the same as that by
which the ships of mandarins were
drawn against the current of the Vel
low River centuries ago. The paddle
wheel was used for purposes of pro-
pulsion in China long ages before it
revolved in western waters. 1t was
the structure of the Chinese junk that
afforded the prototype of the water
tight bulkheads used in our modern
steamships. Upon RATS or hurdles OF
bamboo the Chinese spread layers OF
earth which they cultivated like gar
den soil, and thus anticipated by ages
the floating gardens of Mexico. In
our own country factory system Of
making cheese and butter was initiated
about thirty years ago; the like was
done by Chinese dairymen gener-
ations before the existence of our con-
tinent was known to the eastern world
and there the workers of the cane first
used the waste begasse for heating the
evaporation pans. Within the past
sixty years the division of labor has
become the Distinguishing feature OF
the industrial systems of Europe and