The Arcades Project - Operi

which deals with the material-each element existing independently of the others.
The theory of friction and with it the investigations into the mathematical forms
of gear-wheels cogs and so forth, were all developed in connection with the mill;
the same applies to the theory of measurement of the degree of motive power of the
best way of employing it and so on. Almost all the great mathematicians since the
middle of the seventeenth century, so far as they dealt with practical mechanics
and worked out its theoretical side started from the simple water-driven corn
mill. And indeed this was why the name Miihle, "mill,' which arose during the
manufacturing period, came to be applied to all mechanical forms of motive power
adapted to practical purposes. But in the case of the mill, as in that of the press,
the forge, the plough, and other implements, the work proper-that of beating,
crushing, grinding, pulverizing, and so on-has been performed from the very
first without human labor, even though the moving force was human or animal.
This kind of' machinery is therefore very ancient . ... Hence, it is practically the
only maehinery found in the manufacturing period. The industrial revolution
begins as soon as mechanisms are employed where, from ancient times, the final
result has required human labor; hence not where, as with the tools mentioned
above, the material actually to be worked up has never been dealt with by the
human hand." Marx to Engels, January 28 1863 from ]ondon [in Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels Ausgewiihlte Brie/e , ed. V. Adoratski (Moscow and Leningrad,
1934), pp, 113-119],' [Z2J
In his study