Show OLD THINGS VALUED FOR NEW PURPOSES PURPOSE potentialities developed by each generation how many things are used nobody knows things are accumulating so fast in ID the united states that there can no longer be any record of their number nut u i b aldr or use says the national foreign trade r i council each generation has new uses for old things the united states stales war supplies catalogue for the last war year contained separate items involve ing 1119 millions of things and billions of values one of these was coconut s shells I 1 i el 1 s C coconuts 0 co n ats were originally used for tood food by natives of tropical countries and by monkeys to hurl at unwary visitors later a hundred million pounds yearly came to be imported into the united states tor for a halt half dozen food uses then the united states state s army used coconut shells to make absorbent charcoal tor for gas masks cotton Is a thing a lower flower a nothing one hundred and thirty years ago it was maintained in the united states congress that Is was wag a non productive plant for americans in this war catalogue of items cotton played a chief role thousands of factories were kept busy using cotton to malce make underwear tents sheets so socks acks tire materials smokeless powder hospital absorbent cotton twine haversacks haver sacks there are listed articles made I 1 of cotton by american factories there are probably 1000 different uses of cotton silk was once limited in its uses today there are common uses ana 1116 kinds of natural and artificial sill silk wood once had a few primary uses for the making of spears or canoes or as tire ire wood then for houses today there nr ore e listed uses of wood under the word fiber without respect to kind there are ninety one classes and kinds ranging from shoestrings to blushes plus hes the word oil suggests a few uses such as lubricating illuminating or castor oil there are chief kinds of oil from chinese tung to rosemary there are seventy general uses and kinds of steel from corset ribs to ships lips with an uncountable variation of uses whence do they come all these things nobody knows it is estimated they come from ISO different countries or ports they may come from the air the latest source of nitrates in the united states alone industrial plants use worth of worldwide materials to make thin for Ameil Amei lenn can comfort and coave dimce nce or to resell abroad what ire are things worth nobody mows A rough estimate of the vinith of nations varies from 1000 ac W 1 to what are things lings ti everybody knows and nobody can tell the word vord thing Is one of the most common mon in the speech of many peoples there are 1050 important references to it in the bible one standard dictionary uses seven and one half columns of fine type to try to define the I 1 word thin it uses eighteen main I 1 distinctions of meaning and dozens of subdivisions subdivision the substance of these distinctions Is that a thing Is a thing an and d that t there here are a lot of them |