The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-03-21
PROGRESS OF INVENTION.
why the Bronze Axe Can Be Called tn
Beginning of Civilization

why the Bronze Axe Can Be Called the
Beginning Of Civilization.
The earliest and SIMPLEST forms of
bronze axe with whichwe are acquainted
are profoundly interesting, as casting a
Hood OF light upon the general process
OF human evolution all the world over.
Every new human invention is always
at nrst directly modelled upon the other
similar products which have preceded
1t. There is no really new thing under
the sun. For example, the earliest En-
gllsh railway carriages were built on the
model OF the old stage-cOach, only that
three stage-coaches, as it were, were
telescoped together, side by side-the
very first bore the significant motto.
ired JafactG IN unO-and it was this pre-
conception of the English coach builder
that has hampered us ever since with
our hateful compartments" instead of
the commodious and comfortable open
American saloon carriages So, too. the
earliest firearms were modelled on the
stock of the old cross bow, and the
/ earliest earthenw'are pots and pans
were shaped like the still more primitive
gourds and calabashes- 1t need not sur
prise us, therefore, 10 find that the
earliest metal axes of which we have
any knowledge were directly nodded on
the original shape of the stone toma-
hawk. Such copper Ratchet. cast in a
mold formed by a polished neolithic
stone celt, was found in an early Etrus-
can tomb, and lis still preserved i'm the
museum at Berlin. See how natural
this process would be. For, in the first
place the primitive workman. KNOWING
already only one form of axe, the stone
tomahawk, would' naturally reproduce it
In the new material, without thinking
what Improvements in shape and design
the malleabllity and fusibility of the met
al would render possible or easy. But.
more than that, the idea of coating the
polished stone axe with plastic CLAW, and
thereby making mold for the molsen
metal, would be so very simple that even
the neol1thlc savage, already accustomed
to the manufacture of coarse notterv
upon natural shapes, .eoald hardly fail to
think of it. AS a mi after of fact he did
not think OF 1T; for cells of bronze or COP
per cast in molds made from stone
hatchets, have been found i'm Cyprus bv
General oil CesnOla, on the site of Trov
by DIR. Schliemann, and in MANY other
assorted localities by less distinguished
but equally trustworthy arch@oaogists.
To the meothilic hunter, herdsrnan. and
vlllager this progress from the stone to
the metal axe probably seemed at first a
mere substitution eff an easier for a. more
difficult material. He little knew
whittier his discovery tended. It was
pure human laziness that urged the
change. How nice to save yourself all
that long trouble Of chipping and polish
ing, with ceaseless toll, in favor of a.
stone which you could melt at one 90
and pour while hot into a ready-made
mold! 1t mustihave looked, by compar
ison, like apon-making by magic: for
properly to cut and polish a stone axeis
the work Of weeks and weeks of elbow.
grease. Yet here, in moment. bet-
ter hatchetic could be turned out all fin
ished Butt the implied effects Law
deeper far than the neohithic hunter
could ever have imagined. The bronze
axe was beginning Of civilization: it
brought the steam engine, the tele-
phone, woman's rights and the county
councillor in its train. With the eve of
faith, had he only possessed tn at useful
optical organ, the Stone Age artisan
might doubtless have beheld the de-
ceased wife's sister looming dimly in
the remote future. Till that moment
human life had been almost stationary.
henceforth it proceeded by leaps and
bounds, like kangaroo society, on it's
upward path toward triumphant de-
mocracy and the penny post. The nine
teenth century and all its wi1es hungbv
thread upon the success Of his melt
ing-pot.- Cornhill Magazine.