Text a. Some Facts from the History of Manufacturing

1. For the past few months, you have been studying many interesting things about the world you live in. Now it is time to get to know some aspects of the world in which you’ll work after you make a specialist. Have you ever thought of what production is like at present, what work has to be done to produce products that can be used to satisfy our needs and wants. When we are thinking about

books, clothes or anything that man makes, we are thinking about manufactured products. Today, manufacturing varies from the extremely simple to the highly complex.

2. Throughout history, manufacturing has been carried out in the home. At first it was done entirely by hand, without the use of motors. Even today, there are many people in the world who make things in their own homes. Millions of people in China, India and other southeastern Asiatic countries still grind grain in hand mills to make the flour. The Swiss make toys in their own homes for sale throughout the world. The women of central France make lace while they watch their flocks and herds in the fields.

3. As time went on, people began to develop special skills in making particular items. These specially skilled workers of ten travelled from home to home, making things for other people. Later they settled down in one place and built their own shops. Farmers and others brought raw materials to them to be made into finished products. In this way the things people needed came to be made, not in homes but in special workshops.

4. Workshops manufacturing was common in the USE early in the 19^th century. There were tanneries where leather was prepared, woodworking establishments were skilled workers made furniture, blacksmith shops where iron products were made, and printing shops. These workshops had two things in common: they required little money to operate; and they made things that everyone needed.

5. Many areas in the world today carry on both household and workshop types of manufacturing. Workshop manufacturing is also carried on in China, Japan, India and many other countries on the Asiatic continent. Raw materials used for this kind of manufacturing are usually from local sources.

6. Modern manufacturing develop in more advanced countries greatly differs from the types of manufacturing mentioned above. It began in England less than 200 years ago, when people started to make things with the aid of machinery. January 5, 1769, is the date often used to mark the beginning of this movement. It was on that day that James Walt of England patented his first successful steam engine. The invention of steam turbines in the late 1800s provided an economical source of steam power to turn electrical generators and to drive the propellers of steamships.

Since that time factories have replaced workshops in many advanced countries and huge amounts of power are required to run the machines which turn raw materials into useful products. This power, or energy, comes principally from coal, petroleum, or falling water. In recent years a number of nations have built plant which produce atomic power. In the future, we shall undoubtedly use more and more of this type of energy. We may even use power from the rays of the sun. Only those countries which have access to large amounts of inanimate power can hope to become industrialized. However, not all of the areas endowed with the necessary raw materials and sources of energy have developed modern manufacturing. If we were to examine these areas, we would find them lacking, not natural resources, but human resources. They do not have workers skilled in tending up-to-date equipment. They do not have people trained to manage large-scale factories. Therefore, for manufacturing to be developed there must be people to operate the machines, and there must be people to plan and manage the operations of a factory. Industries will not grow and prosper unless they are run well.

7. People who manage plants must perform difficult tasks. They must see the needed raw materials arrive at the proper time; they must deal with the workers in the factory; they must select the right workers for the right jobs; they must provide training so workers can learn to do their jobs skillfully; and they must promote peaceful employer-employee relationships. Managers face still another problem, that of providing for research. If factories are to keep in business, they must be able to compete with other factories making the same kinds of things. Learning how to do this requires a great dead of technical research. As a result, many technological improvements have been made in industrial products.

8. It is worth mentioning another key factor in the development of modern industry. It is systems of transportation. Without adequate transportation, a modern factory would have to stand idle most of the time. Modern plants require such quantities of rawmaterials and pile up finished products so fast that for modern industry proper transportation equipment is as proper production equipment.

9. According to many authorities one more condition needs to be considered to make production successful. It is the market. It would not be possible to manufacture products unless was a demand for them and unless the people who wanted them could afford to buy them.