and soon
made his position secure as a workman. Specialisation he met with for
the first time, and he expresses surprise that "very few here know any
more than how to make a rule, others a pair of dividers, and suchlike."
Here we see that even at that early day division of labor had won its
way in London, though yet unknown in the country. The jack-of-all-trades,
the handyman, who can do everything, gives place to the specialist who
confines himself to one thing in which practice makes him perfect. Watt's
mission saved him from this, for to succeed he had to be master, not of
one process, but of all. Hence we find him first making brass scales,
parallel-rulers and quadrants. By the end of one month in this department
he was able to finish a Hadley quadrant. From this he proceeded to azimuth
compasses, brass sectors, theodolites, and other delicate instruments.
Before his year was finished he wrote his father that he had made
"a brass sector with a French joint, which is reckoned as nice a piece of
framing-work as is in the trade," and expressed the hope that he would
soon now be able to support himself and be no longer a charge upon him.

It is highly probable that this first tool finished by his own hands
brought to Watt more unalloyed pleasure than any of his greater triumphs
of later years, just as the first week's wages of youth, money earned by
service rendered, proclaiming coming manhood, brings with it a thrill
and glow of proud satisfaction, compared with which all the millions of
later years are as dross.

Writers upon labor, who have never labored, generally make the profound
mistake of considering labor as one solid mass, when the truth is that
it contains orders and degrees as distinct as those in aristocracy. The
workman skilled beyond his fellows, who is called upon by his
superintendent to undertake the difficult job in emergencies, ranks
high, and probably enjoys an honorable title, a pet name conferred by
his shopmates. Men measure each other as correctly in the workshop as in
the professions, and each has his deserved rank. When the right man is
promoted, they rally round and enable him to perform wonders. Where
favoritism or poor judgment is shown, the reverse occurs, and there is
apathy and dissatisfaction, leading to poor results and serious trouble.
The manual worker is as proud of his work, and rightly so, as men are in
other vocations. His life and thought centre in the shop as those of
members