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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 2 (June 1, 1927)

Tools Of Steel

page 16

Tools Of Steel.

From time immemorial, man has made use of tools, and to them he owes his dominating position in the world to-day. Tools are one of the foundation stones upon which our complex civilisation has been built up.

Before the dawn of history, the problem of suitable tools occupied the attention of primitive man, and our museums speak eloquently of the steady progress from wood to flint, from flint to bronze, and onward to the steel tools of the present time.

The most progressive nations in the world owe their success to tools.

A nation can be the centre of distributive wealth and the seat of the world's finance and yet crumble up almost without a struggle unless it has behind it the productive energy and capacity to take full advantage of tools.

What is the lesson we may derive from Venice, from Holland, from the Hanseatic States! They in their time were the centres of distributive wealth, and the centres of finance. Their greatness has passed away. They had no productive and creative energy behind them to back them up, and when competition came they went to the wall. They saw not the distant dawn of the steel age, and the necessity of tools.

The history of the world discloses a strange justice to the thoughtful student. The visionary may lament the fact, but the serious thinker will ultimately recognise it to have been necessary that the cultivated Athenians should succumb to the Spartans, the Hellenes to the Romans, the Florentines to the Venetians. It is as clear as noon-day that the State is no Academy of Arts, and if it neglects its manufacturing and production in favour of solely ideal strivings, it goes to ruin.

The mere talker no more solves problems than the angry woman succeeds in straightening out the tangled skein. It is the man of action that ultimately gets there, and his never failing servants are tools. How often do we hear that economic dictum “Labour applied to natural objects is the source of all wealth.” How strangely out of proportion is it to that oft repeated dictum—“Primitive man applied his very natural labour to the most natural objects, but he scarcely covered his nakedness”—he was the early victim of poor tools, or perhaps had no tools at all. The present age is beyond all doubt the Steel Age, although the Chinese are reputed to have made crucible steel before the Christian Era. The Crusaders under King Richard the First boasted of weapons forged from the famous Damascus steel produced nearly 800 years ago. Be this as it may, the dawn of the steel age does not require us to search the pages of ancient history. A little over a century ago Nelson swept the seas with his wooden walls. Easily within our own recollection sons of the same school kept the seven seas with their walls of steel.

Interesting Relic of the Whaling Days.

Harpoon found by gang excavating at Campbell's Point. Auckland. The specimen is in excellent condition, and is operated by the trigger (marked 1) and the central portion can be lifted to draw the flanges (marked 2) inside the barrel to release or fix the harpoon.

Harpoon found by gang excavating at Campbell's Point. Auckland. The specimen is in excellent condition, and is operated by the trigger (marked 1) and the central portion can be lifted to draw the flanges (marked 2) inside the barrel to release or fix the harpoon.

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