Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-30
NEW FIELDS OF LABOR.
Machinery Making Way for More
Men and other Materials.
REVIVAL OF PRETTY BRASS WORK.
Celluloid Displaces Gutta Percha, Making
Rubber Valuable.
MANY MILLIONS IN USELESS BUTTONS

| With the introduction of new machinery
both men and materials are constantly
thrown out of employment in some quarters,
while new methods of employment are
| opened in other quarters. An application
oftypewriting machines, for instance, is to the
production of copies of documents in cases
where not enough copies are required to
| justify the expense of ordinary printing.
| The typewriter copies have thus sup
planted various other styles of copies before
in use. For legal proceedings, when it is
requisite during the trial of case to pro-
duce few copies of the minutes for the
lawyers and the Court, typewriter copies
are almost universally used. This gives
employment to mechanics in making the
machines and calls for the production Of
many kinds of ink. Sometimes type
written copy is made in lithographic ink,
and this may be transferred to stone and
any number of copies printed. By the use of
ink ribbon in the typewritting machines
copies are made as indelible as any writing.
When Mrs. Langtry took notion to wear
dresses without buttons the result was the
throwing out of employment of many but
ton Makers but when the fashion of buckles
and ornamental hairpins and hatpins came
in there was new demand for workmen.
The rapid introduction of electric lighting
has made a lot of gas fixtures obsolete and
created demand for a new set of mechan-
les to make electrical apparatus.
cELLULoID DIsPLAcEs GUTTA PERcHA.
For many years gutta percha and India
rubber held the market for thousand toys
and fancy goods, but celluloid came in for q
share of the profits and soon afforded en-
ployment to thousands of workmen in great
factories. Gutta percha has about gone out
of the market, and India rubber has become
so valuable that nobody ever sees the all
India rubber shoes that used to keep dry
the feet of our grandmothers.
The revival of the popularity. of brass
work has created a new industry and set
thousands of men at work making beautiful
brass goods for domestic utensils, fancy
goods and ornamental work
The discovery and invention of Daguerre
has undergone thousand notifications and
improvements; so that the original process
has almost disappeared. Photo-engraving
has almost entirely dispensed with the slow
process of wood engraving, and has given
employment to thousands of workmen in an
entirely new branch of industry. A few
years ago illustrated books were expensive.
Now they are cheap, and an army of artists
has been put to work on them.
Electro plating underwent revolution
when nickel plating came in. Now they
plate with nickel buttons, stoves and steam
engines, and all this gives employment to
many workmen. The modern method of
stereotyping with the use of a paper matrix
has created a new industry in the stereo-
tipping of daily newspapers, and made it
possible to print large number for quick
delivery. This gives employment to many
workmen not heretofore employed in the
production of newspapers.
Thus, along with the throwing out of en-
ployment of many workmen by the intro
duction of labor-saying machinery, there
goes the opening of new fields of employ-.
ment created by new fashions and new
methods of doing business. Many labor
saving machines have been broken and
boycotted by workmen under the impression
that the use of the machines would starve
the men, when the result was, in fact, to
create eventually demand for more work
men. The cotton gin, instead of condemn
ing workmen to idleness, created the de-
mand for millions of them. The sewing ma
chine has opened wide field for the en-
ployment of more women by making sewing
SO cheap that the poorest shop girl may
have dozen tucks to her skirt if she wish
them.
MILLIONS IN USELESS BUTTONS.
1t has been estimated that if every man
would forego the two useless buttons on the
back of his coat, there would be saving of
millions of dollars. The fact is that the
fashion of putting on those two useless but
tons gives employment to many workmen.
The passion for bicycle riding and roller
skating has produced another illustration of
the rapid development of new industry.
1t is not long since the bulk of the grain
shipped in the port of New York was
shifted by hand. Now the grain elevators
take it from one vessel to another or from
warehouse to vessel, with very little hand
labor, although, on account of the increase
of the quantity shipped, more men than ever
are employed in the grain business.
The making of horseshoes by machinery
at first caused strike among the black
smiths, who refused to put on the machine
made shoes; but the work was done so much
more cheaply that the machine shoes tri-
umphed, and the result was that owners of
horses, as they got the shoes for less, had
the horses shod oftener than before, and the
blacksmiths did not lose much, if any, work
after all. In ready-made cloaks and dresses
for women there has developed recently an
enormous business, and the cheapness of
the product has not only given employment
to new hands. but has enabled women to
dress better than ever for a given amount
of money, and to wear garments of stvle
and finish hitherto unattainable by many of
of them.