bject. But it
seems doubtful how far this is correct. Workmen do occasionally invent
some mode of lessening their labour, and a few important inventions have
been made in this way. But, as a general rule, the division of labour
leads to invention, because it enables ingenious men to make invention
their profession. The greatest inventors, such as James Watt, Bramah,
Fulton, Roberts, Nasmyth, Howe, Fairbairn, Whitworth, the Stephensons,
Wheatstone, Bessemer, Siemens, have not been led to invention in the way
described by Adam Smith, but have cultivated an original genius by
careful study and long practice in mechanical construction. But the
division of labour greatly assists invention, because it enables each
factory to adopt particular kinds of machinery. In England the division
of labour is continually becoming more and more minute, and it is not
uncommon to find that the whole supply of some commodity is furnished
from a single manufactory, which can then afford to have a set of
machines invented on purpose to produce this one commodity. Such is even
more the case in the large manufactories of the United States.

I will now describe four other ways in which great saving of labour
arises from the division of labour, as follows:--

#27. The Multiplication of Services.# A great deal of labour is often
saved by arranging work so that a labourer may serve many persons as
easily as one. If a messenger is going to carry a letter to the
post-office, he can as readily carry a score. Instead of twenty people
each carrying their own letters, one messenger can do the whole work
without more trouble. This explains why the post-office is able to
forward a letter from any part of the kingdom to any other part for a
penny or even a halfpenny. There are so many people sending and
receiving letters, that a postman usually carries a great many, and
often delivers half-a-dozen at once. But it would be quite impossible to
send telegrams so cheaply, because every message has to be separately
telegraphed along the wires, and then delivered at once by a special
messenger, who can seldom carry more than one message at a time.
Archbishop Whately pointed out that when a party of travellers exploring
a new country camp out at night, they naturally divide the work: one
attends to the horses, another unpacks the stores, a third makes a fire
and cooks the supper, a fourth goes for water, and so on. It would be
quite absurd if a dozen travellers in