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08741_Field_TCGG T506.txt
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machines. From the primitive flint knife to the modern lathe,
from the rude shanty to the perfected dwellings of the
present day, from the simple abacus to the enormous
calculating machine—what variety from which to extract
common characteristics and attempt a useful classification!
The notion of a machine is as hard to define as that of a
living organism; a great engineer once spoke indeed of an
‘artificial zoology’. But it is not definition or classification
that is needed most urgently.
Here is how Lafitte put it: ‘Because we are their makers,
we have too often deluded ourselves into believing that
we knew all there was to know about machines. Although the
study and construction of machines of all sorts owes much
to advances in mechanics, physics and chemistry,
nevertheless mechanology—the science of machines as such,
the science of the organized constructions of man—is not a