The Boyhood of an Inventor - Early Television Foundation

into flour, the mill
er taking his toll of
the grist. The
neighbors
among
themselves traded
provisions, or
swapped horses, or
a horse for a cow,
a pig for a sheep.
Money was almost
useless.
As the settle
The cradle was used for centuries for harvesting wheat
ment became more populous stores were set up and
the farmer's wives exchanged butter and eggs for
calico and ginghams. Money was still but little
needed.
As population increased still more, work became
more largely specialized, each man devoting himself
to a greater and greater extent to some particular
division of the needs of the community. For that
reason the use of money as a medium of exchange
became a convenience, ultimately a necessity.
As this specialization
became more and more
marked, the specialist him
self became more depend
ent upon others for food,
clothing and shelter,
without knowing it
until
he had
become a helpless unit of
that community activity
we call civilization. How
many of us could find food
to sustain life if
suddenly
deprived of our neighbor
hood groceryman
He was both blacksmith and wheelwright
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