A Book of Exposition | Page 2

human machine are quite unlike those of a motor cycle. They are more
simple, and it is easy to find in our bodies examples of all the three
orders of levers. The joints at which bony levers meet and move on
each other are very different from those we find in motor cycles. Indeed,
I must confess they are not nearly so simple. And, lastly, I must not
forget to mention another difference. These levers we are going to
study are living--at least, are so densely inhabited by myriads of minute
bone builders that we must speak of them as living. I want to lay
emphasis on that fact because I did not insist enough on the living
nature of muscular engines.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Showing a chisel 10 inches long used as a lever of
the first order.]
We are all well acquainted with levers. We apply them every day. A
box arrives with its lid nailed down; we take a chisel, use it as a lever,
pry the lid open, and see no marvel in what we have done (Fig. 1). And
yet we thereby did with ease what would have been impossible for us
even if we had put out the whole of our unaided strength. The use of
levers is an old discovery; more than 1500 years before Christ,
Englishmen, living on Salisbury Plain, applied the invention when they
raised the great stones at Stonehenge and at Avebury; more than 2000
years earlier still, Egyptians employed it in raising the pyramids. Even
at that time men had made great progress; they were already reaping
the rewards of discoveries and inventions. But none, I am sure,
surprised them more than the discovery of the lever; by its use one man
could exert the strength of a hundred men. They soon observed that
levers could be used in three different ways. The instance already given,
the prying open of a lid by using a chisel as a lever, is an example of
one way (Fig. 1); it is then used as a lever of the first order. Now in the
first order, one end of the lever is applied to the point of resistance,
which in the case just mentioned was the lid of the box. At the other
end we apply our strength, force, or power. The edge of the box against
which the chisel is worked serves as a fulcrum and lies between the
handle where the power is applied and the bevelled edge which moves
the resistance or weight. A pair of ordinary weighing scales also
exemplifies the first order of levers. The knife edge on which the beam
is balanced serves as a fulcrum; it is placed exactly in the middle of the
beam, which we shall suppose to be 10 inches long. If we place a 1-lb.
weight in one scale to represent the resistance to be overcome, the
weight will be lifted the moment that a pound of sugar has been placed
in the opposite scale--the sugar thus representing the power. If,
however, we move the knife-edge or fulcrum so that it is only 1 inch
from the sugar end of the beam and 9 inches from the weight end, then
we find that we have to pour in 9 lb. of sugar to equalise the 1-lb.
weight. The chisel used in prying open the box lid was 10 inches long;
it was pushed under the lid for a distance of 1 inch, leaving 9 inches for
use as a power lever. By using a lever in this way, we increased our

strength ninefold. The longer we make the power arm, the nearer we
push the fulcrum towards the weight or resistance end, the greater
becomes our power. This we shall find is a discovery which Nature
made use of many millions of years ago in fashioning the body of man
and of beast. When we apply our force to the long end of a lever, we
increase our power. We may also apply it, as Nature has done in our
bodies, for another purpose. We have just noted that if the weight end
of the beam of a pair of scales is nine times the length of the sugar end,
that a 1-lb. weight will counterpoise 9 lb. of sugar. We also see that the
weight scale moves at nine times the speed of the sugar scale. Now it
often happens that Nature wants to increase, not the power, but the
speed with which a load is lifted. In that case the "sugar scale" is placed
at the long end of the beam and the "weight scale" at the short end; it
then takes a 9-lb. weight to raise a single pound of sugar, but the sugar
scale moves with nine times the speed