Geographical and industrial studies; the new Europe

Front matter

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Preface

We are told that geography is a description of the earth •^ as the home of man. If we accept the definition, then it 'K is not the earth but man in his relation to it which should

^ be the central pomt of our teaching. '::^\^ Children are interested, primarily, in life. Maps and names of rivers, mountains, and cities convey little significance unless they stand for the actual life of the places of which they are the symbols. The teacher should aim to v^ help pupils in forming clear mental pictures of the life O and conditions which underlie all map symbols.

The aim of this volume is to depict graphically yet simply the life of Europe ; to help the children to see in imagination the lofty mountains, the fertile valleys, the clustering villages, the broad plains, the crowded cities, the busy seaports, the vineyards, the shipyards, the olive orchards, the flax fields, the castles and palaces, the toiling ^^ peasants, and the changes wrought by the World War in their lives and countries. These things make Europe as it is to-day. Both text and illustrations are planned to show the people and their work, as it is through the life of the people that one learns the character of the nation. What the people of the world are doing determines what the world is to-day. The life of the United States depends in great measure on the life, and especially on the industrial life, of other nations with whom in the future our in iv INDUSTRIAL STUDIES — EUROPE

relations will be closer than in the past. For this reason our future voters, who are at present enrolled in our schools, should become as intimately acquaintea as possible with our commercial neighbors across the water. This is the practical twentieth-century geography.

Locational geography should not be neglected. The maps which are given are intended to be used with the text in order that the pupil may fix the location of a place at the time when he becomes acquainted with its life. The lists at the end of each chapter will be found helpful for drills on locations and for fixing in mind the most important facts. Many places in other continents than Europe are included in these lists, and the pupils' knowledge is thus broadened to include the whole world.

We are indebted to the Corticelli Silk Mills, Florence, Massachusetts, for permission to use their splendid lifelike copyrighted photographs of the silkworms. Many teachers will be glad to know that they can obtain from the Corticelli Mills, at slight expense, specimen cocoons and other helps for object-lesson teaching.

NELLIE B. ALLEN

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Introduction 1

II. Ships and Shipbuilding 17

II

1. Name the continents in order of size.

2. What countries fought in the World "War on the side of the Allies; of the Central Powers?

3. Find the area and the population of Belgium, Russia, England, Germany, and the United States. Find the average number of people to a square mile in each country. How does the United States compare in density of population with the European countries ? How does the density of i)opulation affect the industries of a country?

4. Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of the position of the United States; of Europe.

5. Find in the encyclopedia or in some ancient history some interesting facts about Phoenicia ; Babylon ; ancient Persia.

6. Sketch a map showing the eastern coast of North America and the western coast of Eurojie. Trace in it the course of the Gulf Stream.

7. Write a list of the states crossed by the Sierra Nevada Mountains. What surface division of the United States lies east of these mountains? Describe its climate. State the reason for the lack of rainfall.

8. Through what countries of Europe does the chief highland 13ass? What countries lie to the north of it? to the south of it? Write the names of any ranges of this highland that you can find given on the map. "Write the names of other ranges in Europe. Locate all these mountains.

9. Name the states of the United States which lie in the same latitude as Greece and Italy.

10. What waters cut off the Bi'itish Isles from the continent? What waters nearly surround the Spanish peninsula? the Scandinavian peninsula? What mountains form the l)ackbone of this peninsula?

11. Write in a column the names of the countries of Europe. In another cohinin Avrite whether they are monarchies or republics. Put a cross beside the new countries formed since the war.

12. Sketch a .map of Switzerland and adjoining countries and show the location of four great Alpine tunnels.

13. Name the river of Ein-oi:ie which is more than two thousand miles long ; those that are more than one thousand miles long. Sketch a map and trace the courses of these rivers. Through what countries does each one pass ?

14. Name the rivers of North America which are more than two thoiisand miles in length ; those which are more than one thousand miles. Sketch a map and locate them all.

15. Name the rivers of Russia which are of the least use for commerce and navigation ; of the most use.

16. Name some differences between Europe and North America.

III

Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said of it in the chapter. Add other facts if possible.

Africa

Scandinavian Peninsula

Pyrenees Mountains

Asia

South America

Sierra Nevada Mouu

Australia tains

Belgium

Simplon Pass

Switzerland

Valdai Hills

Egypt

Babylon

Gulf of Mexico

Greenland

Bergen

Gulf Stream

Holland

Brieg

INIediterranean Sea

Iselle

Neva River

Kronstadt

Nile River

Labrador

Naples

Mexico

Persia

Pittsburgh

Arlberg Tunnel

Fhrenicia

Mont Cenis Tunnel

Portugal

Alps Mountains

St. Gotthard Tunnel

Kiolen Mountains

Simplon Tunnel

Chapter II Ships And Shipbuilding

At the pier in New York City we find the ocean hner on which we have engaged passage for Europe. A crowd has gathered on the wharf to say good-by to friends who are going, for business or pleasure, across the wide ocean. As the great ship moves slowly away from the wharf her rails are lined witli people, all anxious for another parting word with the friends left behind.

The vessel is so large and there are so many decks that we do not at first realize how many people there are on board. It is reall}^ a floatmg town, for the ship accommodates between two and three thousand passengers, besides her crew of eight hundred.

If this floating town were on land instead of on water, the steel contained in it would be sufficient to supply the framework of houses for all the passengers and crew. Her steel plates would surround the town for a distance of eight or ten miles with a wall four or five feet high. The coal with which the vessel is supplied would furnish fuel for the inhabitants for several months. Her electric plant would light the streets and the houses, and her engines would drive enough machinery to employ all the people. Her funnels would be large enough for a tunnel, or subway, in which a double line of trolley cars could run. The grocery and provision stores of the town could be well stocked with the thousands of pounds of meat, vegetables, eggs, flour, butter, and other food necessities stored away on the great liner.

These immense ships are the express trains of the ocean. They cross at high speed and follow schedules as regular as those of railroad trains. The great cargo steamers, carrying

Fig. 6. "The Great Ship moves slowly away from the Wharf "

much freight and many passengers, might be lilvened to combination freight and passenger trains. These also follow regular schedules. Besides these there are the tramp steamers, in which the greater part of the world's merchandise is carried. These are like freight cars, which are seen at one time on the tracks of one railroad and at another time on those of some other road. You have doubtless seen at the' railroad station long trains made up of cars from a dozen different railroads whose tracks lie many hundred miles away.

Such a tramp steamer may have been built in a British shipyard and may have been on the ocean for many years

Fig. 7. Hek Funnels would be Lakge enough for a Subttat Courtesy of the Cunard Steamship Company

without reentermg the port from which it started. Could we have accompanied it on its wanderings, we should have entered many a foreign harbor. It might have started originally from Liverpool with a cargo of cotton goods, tools, and machinery bound for Hongkong. There it took on a cargo of rice, tea, and silk, and cleared for San Francisco. It went without cargo from that city to Seattle, and there loaded with lumber for Japan. At Yokohama it took on tea, raw silk, camphor, and fine hand-wrought articles in metal and lacquer ware and started for Marseille, in France. In that port it picked up a cargo of wine, silk, olives, and perfumery for New York, and there loaded with machinery for Chile, where a cargo of nitrates was obtained and carried to San Francisco.

Tliink of the many, many tramp steamers which make their way from country to country, from island to island, and from far-away, almost unknown, harbors to the great seaports of the world ; of the powerful battleships, cruisers, torpedo boats, and colliers which every nation possesses in her navy ; of the hundreds and thousands of schooners, from the small fishing craft to the large seven-masted vessels capable of carrying heavy cargoes. Yet besides all these there are coast and river steamers, yachts, ferryboats, oil-tank ships, barges, and tugs, to say nothing of the smaller pleasure boats which ply on rivers and lakes all over the world.

Where are they built ? Where are the shipyards of the world that supply these ocean carriers, which are as necessary to the world's commerce and intercourse as are the trams, the electric cars, and the motor vans that run on land ?

The United States is one of the greatest shipbuilding nations on earth. Another place where many ships are built is the British Isles. Before the World War there were built annually in the waters of the British Isles nearly as many vessels as were put together in all other shipyards of the world. Because of her w^ater boundaries, her great commerce, and her dependence on other lands for raw materials and for food and clothing, the shipyards of the British Isles surpass all others in Europe.

L.l PO*T£S tMj, Co.jN.y,

In most of the harbors and at the mouths of the principal rivers of the British Isles one can hear the clang of hammers and the noise of machinery, and can see the skeletons of

Fig. 8. "The Great Shipyards are One of the Sights which wb have come across the ocean to see "

vessels growing into form and beauty. There are shipyards of more or less importance along the entire length of the eastern coast, on the Tay, Forth, Tyne, Wear, Tees, Humber, and Thames rivers, from Aberdeen in the north to the

English Channel on the south. On the Channel there are shipyards at Cowes, Southampton, Dartmouth, Falmouth, Portsmouth, Devonport, Chatham, and Pembroke. At the last four places are the royal dockyards, which do little actual building but a great deal of overhauling, repairing, and refitting of the ships of the navy. Following the western coast we find shipyards on Bristol Channel, on the Mersey and Solway rivers, across the Irish Sea in Belfast, and, last but by no means least, on the Clyde River in Scotland.

In these various yards are built all kinds of seagoing craft. One yard may make a specialty of one kind and another yard of another kmd, while some yards build a variety. Grim, powerful war vessels ; swift, elegant yachts ; fishing craft of all kinds ; big ocean liners ; tramps, barges, tugs, lighters, colliers, torpedo and submarine boats — these and many others are constructed every year in the yards of this great shipbuilding nation. The northeastern coast near the Tyne River, the northwestern region in the Clyde Basin, and the Belfast district are the three most important regions, and the only three which build vessels of over ten thousand tons. With few exceptions the ocean-mail service of the world is carried on by vessels built in one or another of these three places.

Some of the largest ocean liners are constructed at Belfast, Ireland. The giants of the White Star Line — the ill-fated Titanic and her sister ship the Olympic — were built in the yards of Belfast, on the Lagan River. The Olympic is eight hundred eighty-two feet long. Compare this length with that of your schoolhouse and find out how many buildings placed end to end would equal in length this immense liner.

The most famous of all shipbuilding districts, where the greatest number and the largest variety of craft are constructed, is on the Clyde River in Scotland. This is a small river to be so famous, less than one hundred miles from source to mouth, not one third as long as the little New

Fig. !». Boilers ok the Olympic Courtesy of the White Star Steamship Company

England river, the Connecticut. It is formed in the hills of Scotland by small streams that come trickling down the heather-covered slopes. Over a series of falls and rapids the little river leaps and sings in its plunge into the valley below. Here in the green, fertile meadows fdled with apple orchards famous for generations, the Clyde, now richer by many small tributaries, flows gently on toward the place where its chief work for mankind begins. At one place it is separated from the Tweed River by only seven miles. Geologists tell us that ages ago it probably bent to the east and joined the Tweed. Had it not been for the slight change of level wrought by the great force of nature, which sent the little river on its course to the west, there would have been no port of Glasgow, no shipyards on the Clyde, no ocean liners and mighty warships built on its banks.

As we come down the river toward Glasgow the smoke from a thousand chimneys shuts out the blue sky, and we know we are approaching the coal and iron region of Scotland. These mineral deposits extend across the country in a northeasterly direction from the Clyde Basin to the Firth of Forth. It is due to these deposits, to the surface of the country, and to the rivers that this part of Scotland has become an important industrial and commercial center.

The northern part of Scotland consists largely of highlands, bare and rugged, made beautiful l)y the blue, misty light that always hangs over them, and by the lakes, or " lochs," as the Scottish people call them, that nestle in every glen.

Near the southern boundary are other highlands, lower and not so beautiful, of which one range, the Cheviot Hills, forms a partial boundary between Scotland and England. Between the two highlands are the lowlands of Scotland, which, though they comprise only one sixth of the area of the country, have made possible her industrial life. Here are the rich deposits of coal and iron, the fertile farms, the great manufacturing cities, and it is in this region that more than half of the people of Scotland live.

The wonderful lake region and the beautiful wooded country known as the Trossachs, which are visited annually by thousands of tourists, together with some of the more famous mountains, skirt the southern edge of the highlands. A trip from Glasgow to Edinburgh takes one through this loA^ely region which Sir Walter Scott has so vividly described in " The Lady of the Lake."

No one can pass by or sail on Loch Katrine without appreciating better its beauty and the beauty of the lines in which Scott describes it :

And thus an airy point he won, Where, gleaming with the setting sun.

One burnished sheet of living gold, Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled.

The lake, once queen of poetry, has now become the servant of industry, for the city of Glasgow has taken it to serve as a water supply and has built an aqueduct more than forty miles long to bring the pure mountam water to the city.

Of all the Scottish lakes Loch Lomond is the most beautiful. It is long and winding and dotted with green islands, where deer feed in the dim shade of the trees. Its shores are adorned with beautiful country residences half hidden in green foliage. To the north rises the bold outline of Ben Lomond, softened by the gray mists that hang low on the slopes purple with heather.

The wide mouth of the Forth River, with its busy port of Leith and with the city of Edinburgli near by, connects the lowlands of Scotland with the North Sea and the continent of Europe. The deep inlet of the Clyde River is the passageway westward to the ocean and the world beyond. Situated on the Clyde, just where it narrows too much for navigation, lies Glasgow, with great stores of mineral wealth on the east and the waters of river and sea and ocean opening toward the west. No wonder that the city has f^' Ke}-6loTit \'iew Co.

Fig. 10. "Of All the Scottish Lakes Loch Lomond is the

MOST Beautiful "

spent millions of dollars in deepening and improving the Clyde, for on this small river most of her commerce depends. Originally it was but a shallow stream. To-day, except at low tide, the largest ocean steamers can ascend to the city.

Glasgow, with its broad, straight streets and massive gray stone buildings, is a typical Scotch city. It impresses one as being grave and dignified like the true Scotchman. Like him, too, it is reserved. One cannot become thoroughly acquainted with it or learn all its secrets in a day or a week. In order to realize its greatness one must have intimate knowledge of this city, which, in commerce and trade, ranks first in Scotland and second in the British Isles.

Its manufactures also are very important. As you may imagine, some of these are connected with iron and steel and

Fig. 11. The Mauketaxia^ and thk Capitol at Washington

Courtesy of the Cunard Steamship Company

many with the shipbuilding industry. The textile manufactures also rank high. There is much spinning and weaving, as well as bleaching, dyeing, and calico printing.

At the busy quay of the city we can take a small steamer for the part of the river known in Glasgow as " Doon the Water." This is where the Clyde widens into the sea and is a maze of peninsulas, sea lochs, and islands. This part of the river, with its green, winding shores, is very beautiful. Long inlets extending in toward the hills are fringed with pleasant villages and towns or decorated with villas and beautiful country houses set deep in the wooded slopes.

Many people from Glasgow have their summer homes here, and thousands of pleasure seekers crowd the steamers on every summer holiday and week-end.

Between this lovely river mouth and the city of Glasgow lies the busiest part of the Clyde River; indeed, it is the busiest and most crowded district of river industry to be found anywhere in Europe. On either bank loom the skeletons of great ships in all stages of completion. The factories, engines, shops, gas tanks, warehouses, and giant cranes rise in a confused mass. Engines toot, steamers whistle, foundries roar, bells clang, and tugs shriek. All around are forests of masts, funnels, and chimneys. This is the birthplace of ocean liners and racing yachts, of tugs and tramps, of fishing dories and seven-masted schooners, of revenue cutters and river steamers, of excursion boats and grim war vessels.

In the Clyde district there are hundreds of thousands of workmen representing many trades — architects, draftsmen, carpenters and joiners, masons, calkers, steam fitters, engineers, molders, ironworkers, electricians, platers, riveters, pamters, pattern makers, plumbers, blacksmiths, and many others.

Here, too, is some of the most wonderful machinery which has ever been invented. See that giant crane liftmg a smokestack large enough for a double row of electric cars to stand inside of it without touching each other or the sides of the stack. The great load rises high in the air, hovers a moment like a huge bird poising on the wing, and then descends slowly into the very place made for it in the partially constructed vessel. Another crane grasps a huge engine in its jaws, raises it, and then lowers it into place as easily as a boy picks up a stone.

SHirS AND SriIPBUILDIXG

More than one thousand horses would be needed to draw the millions of rivets which are used in an ocean liner. The smaller rivets are fixed by hand, and the noise of the hammering is deafening. The larger ones are fastened by power. A machme picks up a red-hot rivet weighing perhaps a couple of pounds and puts it into the proper

Fig. 12. "What a Tremendous Task is the Building of a

Big Ship!"

Courtesy of the Cunard Steamship Company

hole. Then the monster jaws close on either side of the plate. When they open again, the crushed, rounded head of the rivet is seen securely binding together the heavy steel sheets.

What a tremendous task is the building of a big ship I When the order is given, the vessel must first be born in the mind of the master. No ship, no building, no machine is ever made until it exists in the human mind. Then comes the making of the plans, the transferring of the mental dream from brain to paper. This work may take weeks or even months, for the planning of a great ship is no light task.

There must be no guesswork in its construction. The builder must know the exact size of each part, which will give the greatest strength and speed and yet occupy the least room. He cannot build as he would, but must work within certain limits. If he increases the size of the engines so that the ship may make greater speed, there may not be room enough left for coal to run them, for passengers, and for freight. If the vessel is too wide it will not make speed ; if too deep, it will not float in the great harbors of the world. Certain proportions of breadth, length, depth, and weight must be carefully kept throughout the work.

The dream of the master mind must be worked out in accurate, definite plans, down to the smallest detail, before any work on the actual construction of the ship is begun. Every item of space and dimension must be carefully decided upon. Every part of the huge hulk must be adjusted and balanced so that it will ride the waters evenly and plow its long furrow in the ocean with the least resistance.

The making of the plans may take a score of draftsmen several months. When they are finally completed, the lines to show the exact size and shape of the vessel are laid down on the great floor of what is known as the molding loft. Soon carloads of plates and beams begin to arrive from shops and foundries, and are stored in the yard near the slip where the vessel is to be built. Some of the plates on an ocean liner are more than thirty feet long and weigh two or three tons each. To press them into the desu-ed shape they are fed into a gigantic steel roller in much the same way that clothes are fed into a clothes wringer. A machine which cuts the hard steel as easily as a child snips a piece of cloth trims the edges of the plates.

In the meantime the keel has been laid, and the great ribs — the framework which gives the vessel its shape — have been placed in position. The making of the ribs is an interesting process. They come from the foundry m straight beams, which must be heated and bent into the curves of the ship's side. The heatmg is done in immense furnaces long enough to hold the longest rib of a great ship. On the iron floor full of holes the workmen have outlmed the curve of the rib by fitting strong iron pins into the holes. xVt the right minute the furnace door is opened and a man, in the blmding glare and intense heat, fastens a strong cable to the white-hot metal. Other workmen now bend their muscles to the work, and with strong cables drag the hot steel timber from the furnace to its place on the floor. The men hammer and pound and strain, drive in new pegs and remove others, until the huge steel beam lies dull and cold in the graceful curves of the ship's rib.

After the skeleton frame of the decks and the beams to support them have been laid, the outside sheathing of steel plates is put on. The drawings from which these plates are made must be very accurate, as the plates arc finished in the shops, even to the rivet holes, which must fit in exactly the right place when the great steel sheets are fastened upon the ship's side.

In the building of an ocean liner a thousand men may be at work on the huge frame at the same time. Yet so large is the ship and so varied are the occupations that no one interferes with the work of another.

When the ship is nearly completed the launching takes place. It is a wonderful sight to see the monster ghde slowly down from her slip into the water, and many and

Fig. 13. The Uklax Uattleship North Dakota, after its

Launching Courtesy of the Fore River Shipbuilding Company

costly preparations have to be made in order that the journey of a few seconds shall be successful.

From this description of the giant steamships and of the labor and material necessary to build one you can imagine that their cost must be very large. The Olympic cost about ten milHon dollars, and the Lusitania and the Mauretania between seven and eight millions each. Yet, great as is the expense of building an ocean liner, this is not the only thing to be thought of in her construction. No building erected on land has the safety of its occupants more carefully looked after than that of the passengers and crew of a big ship.

Most liners to-day are fitted with two bottoms several feet apart, so that if hidden rocks damage the outer one, the inner one keeps the vessel water-tight. All large, modern ships are divided into compartments by huge steel doors which can be closed at a minute's warning. If several of these compartments are damaged and till with water, the others, being water-tight, are amply sufficient to keep the vessel afloat. On the captain's bridge right at his hand are devices to enable him, without a second's delay, to stop the vessel, to give the fire alarm, to close the bulkheads between the compartments, and to give otiier signals to insure the safety of the vessel and tlie protection of the passengers.

Perhaps the greatest safety device of modern times is that of wireless telegraphy. Is it not wonderful that a ship far out in mid-ocean, with no other craft within siglit or hearing, can summon to her aid in case of danger a score of vessels ?

Before the World War, Germany had greatly developed her shipbuilding industry. She saw in England her strongest European rival, and she knew that, in order to win the position of world supremacy of which she dreamed, her power on the ocean must be tremendously increased. Some of the largest ships afloat were built in Germany. Along her coasts on the North and Baltic seas there are many large shipyards. In those at Stettin some of her largest ocean liners were built. Here also were constructed more than half of the Chinese navy, and many war vessels for Russia, Greece, Japan, and other countries. At Kiel, the city at the eastern end of the famous Kiel Canal, many of the finest warships of the German navy were built and repaired. You remember that, during the World \Var, these splendidly equipped vessels were penned up near the German coast by "' the watch dogs of the British navy." At the end of the war they were surrendered to the Allied Nations.

When the United States entered the war, one of our greatest problems was to get our fighting men, their arms, munitions, food, and other supplies to the other side of the Atlantic. We could not call on England to furnish all the necessary ships. She was already straming her resources to the utmost to get vessels enough to guard her coast and her possessions in other parts of the world, to pen up the German navy, to protect the food and other supply sliips on the open ocean from the dreaded U-boats, and to carry her soldiers to France, where the heaviest figliting took place. The war finally reached such a critical stage that it was absolutely necessary that our soldiers should get to Europe at the earliest possible moment. As we did not have ships enough to take them across, England hampered her own plans in order to furnish some vessels to transport our troops and supplies. We furnished some others, but the need for more and more men to drive back the German army still continued. Then, under the direction of our government, there began such a boom of ship-, building in the United States as was never before known in the history of the world. The shores of the Pacific in the Northwest and along the coast of California were alive with workers, and the skeleton frames of hundreds of