Читать книгу A Practical Treatise on Gas-light - Friedrich Christian Accum - Страница 7

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It is an undoubted truth, that the successive improvements in the condition of man, from a state of ignorance and barbarism, to that of the highest cultivation and refinement, are usually effected by the aid of machinery and expedients, calculated to procure the necessaries, the comforts, and the elegancies of life; and that the pre-eminence of any people in civilization is, and ought ever to be, estimated by the proportional state of industry, and useful labour existing among them.

In proof of this great and striking truth, no other argument requires to be offered, than an immediate reference to the experience of all ages and places: the various nations of the earth, the provinces of each nation, the towns, and even the villages of the same province, differ from each other in their accommodations; and are in every respect more flourishing, the greater their activity in establishing new channels of useful employ, calculated to procure the necessaries and comforts of life. Hence the nations which have shewn the most ingenuity in this way, are not only the richest, but also the most populous and the best defended: the provinces of those nations, are seen to flourish likewise in proportion to their respective degrees of activity in this respect, And from these exertions it is, as Smith[1] emphatically remarks, that “the accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages.”

[1] Wealth of Nations, chap. 1.

It was a strange notion of Rousseau to maintain that mankind were happier when they resembled wild beasts, than with all the expanded knowledge of civilized life; and that the cultivation of their understanding had tended to degenerate their virtues. There can be no virtue but what is founded on a comprehensive estimate of the effects of human actions, and an animal under the guidance of instinct can form no such estimate.

The variety of production, of wants, and fabrication of a civilized society, has given rise to barter or exchange; mutual supply has increased the sub-division of labour, and improved the means of conveyance. Streams, roads, ships, and carriages have extended their beneficial intercourse; confidence between man and man has advanced the moral principles of society, and afforded a progression, of which the past gradation may indeed be traced, but to the future part of which the imagination can scarcely form a probable outline. And as the moral and physical powers of man expand, new resources and new agencies are made subservient to our commands, which, in an earlier state of society, would have appeared altogether visionary.

Who among the ancients would have listened to the extraordinary scheme of writing books with such rapidity, that one man, by this new art, should perform the work of twenty thousand amanuenses? What philosopher would have given credit to the daring project of navigating the widest ocean?—or imagined the astonishing effect of gun-powder—or the extended application of the steam engine? What mortal would have dared to dive to the bottom of the sea—or to soar aloft into the air—or bid defiance to the thunder of the clouds? Discoveries which have changed, as it were, the course of human affairs, and the effects of which have already carried the intellectual operations of the human mind, to a height they could by no other means have attained. The men of those early ages, in the confidence of their own wisdom, might have derided these discoveries as impossible, or rejected them as visionary; but to those, who enjoy the full effects of such, and numerous other successful inventions, it becomes a duty to reason upon different principles, and to exert all means in their power to give effect to the progress of useful knowledge.

The artificial production and supply of light during the absence of the sun, unquestionably holds a distinguished rank among the most important arts of civilized life.

If we could for a moment suppose the privation of artificial light, it would follow as an immediate consequence that the greatest part of the globe on which we dwell, would cease to be the habitation of man. Whether he could ensnare or overtake those animals upon whose unprepared remains he would then be compelled to feed—whether he might store the fruits of the earth for his winter supply—what might be the physical and moral consequences of a state of such desolation, may perhaps be conjectured; but no estimate can show its dreadful magnitude. How much do our comforts, and how greatly does the extent of our powers, in the common affairs of life, depend upon the production and supply of artificial light. The flame of a single candle animates a family, every one follows his occupation, and no dread is felt of the darkness of night. It might be a curious speculation to enquire how far, and in what respects, the morals of men would become degraded by the want of this contrivance. But it is sufficient on the present occasion, that, previous to entering upon a dissertation respecting a new art of illumination, a train of ideas has slightly been hinted at, which cannot fail to show its magnitude and importance. The methods of procuring and distributing light, during the absence of the sun, have not hitherto attained the extent of their possible perfection: there is yet a wide field for improvement in the construction of the instruments of illumination, and the subject is highly deserving the attention of every individual.

The scheme of lighting houses, streets, and manufactories, by means of the inflammable gas, obtainable by distillation from common pit-coal, professes to increase the wealth of the nation, by adding to the number of its internal resources, and on this ground it is entitled, at least, to a candid examination.

The apparent slight that has been thrown upon this new breach of civil economy by some individuals, who appear to be incapable of judging of its nature, has contributed to deter sensible and well disposed persons from wishing it success. It is the more necessary to state this fact, because, when a mistaken notion once becomes diffused, concerning the nature of a new project, persons of the best intention are liable to become affected with wrong impressions on their mind. I am neither a share holder, nor a governor, nor am I directly or indirectly concerned in any gas-light association.

The object of the succeeding pages, simply is to rescue the art of illumination with coal-gas from misconception and misrepresentation, and by a fair, and not overcharged statement of its merits and its disadvantages, to appeal from prejudice and ignorance, to the good sense of the community.