THE PROGRESS OF HALF A CENTURY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1162, 15 July 1885, Page 4

THE PROGRESS OF HALF A CENTURY.

" When I was a boy," said Mr ! George C. Stone, manager of the Vermillion Iron Mines, to a representative of "The Miller," "and that was forty years ago, I became a clerk in a hardware store. There wasn't a knife, a pin, a lock, a door knob, or a hinge for sale of American make. Everything came from England. The pins were made of two pieces, one little bit of wire being wound round the head of the pin. It often slipped off, and became an unmitigated nuisance. The solid-headed pin of to-day is an American institution, and it took a Yankee to make the machine that not only makes it, but at the same time sticks it into the paper it is sold on. Tho keys in those days for large door locks were hung on crowbars six or seven inches long, and weighing one pound. You couldn't carry them in your pocket. All locks were bolts and springs. The tumbler lock was unknown. These little keys we have i nowadays — and they are an American

device— show how much progress has been made in the use of iron. All the screws uaed to he imported, and the gimblet-pointed screw of to-day, which bores its own hole, was an American invention." A pertinent query at once suggests itself : How many of these contrivances would have beon invented but for tho fostering effects of Protection ?