“It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided, but the men: – divided into mere segments of men – broken into small fragments and crumbs of life; so that all the little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself in the making the point of a pin or the head of a nail.”
— John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice (1853)
“The cheapest things are bought in India; as much labour or manufacture may be had there for two pence as in England for a shilling. The carriage there is dear, the customs are high, the merchant has great gains, and so has the retailer; yet still with all this charge, the Indians are a great deal cheaper than equal English manufacture.”
— Sir Dudley North, “Considerations upon the East India Trade” (1701)
“What seems to have happened is this. Certain pieces of furniture, because of their essential practicality and usefulness, began during this period [the 17th century] to achieve definitive forms for which they were to retain for many years. Skilled but unsophisticated country craftsmen, usually joiners rather than cabinet-makers, repeated the same designs again and again, without changing them much, because they had been found to be the best for a particular purpose. A good deal of furniture thus escaped from the influence of fashion and, however unconsciously, responded only to the principle of fitness for use.
“It was the furniture of this type which eventually attracted the attention of 19th-century reformers such as William Morris, and which, through him, became the progenitor of a great many of the utilitarian modern designs which furnish people’s houses today.”
— Edward Lucie-Smith, “Furniture: A Concise History” (Oxford University Press)
Frat boys rejoice! There is now a low-cost way to brand your young pledges this fall!
Wait, wrong blog.
Uhh. Well this will work here, too. Thanks to a tip from a reader, I have found the most clever way to brand your work. It’s a custom-made branding iron that clips onto a Bic Classic lighter. Flick your Bic for 2 minutes and then simply press the iron against your work. A small puff of smoke later, your work (or the backside of a naughty pledge) is branded for life. Here’s some video I shot this evening.
The inexpensive branding iron – prices start at $22 – is custom made with your logo. To make your own, you simply upload a logo to the Shapeways web site and pay for it. In a couple weeks, they send you an envelope with the doohicky inside. Clip it to your Bic (not included) and you are in the branding business.
To get started at Shapeways, click here.
I was impressed by the detail from such an inexpensive gadget. I have no idea how many uses I’ll be able to squeeze out if it, but the metal is quite stout. I have high hopes.
In fact, I think we might skip implanting the subcutaneous computer tracking chip in our next batch of kitty cats and just go with a simple low-tech brand.
Man, I hope my wife doesn’t read my blog.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. The music in the video can be found here at FreeMusicArchive.org.
“A book makes a good staff, but a poor crutch.”
— Julia Ellen Rogers, “Trees” (Doubleday)