American Scientist

In the 19th century, the distinction between small and large things was more or less readily drawn. Small things were generally those that fit in the hand and could be easily grasped, both physically and intellectually. They were typically simple things that—given the necessary materials, skill, time and the simplest of tools—could have been crafted one by one by a single individual. Increasingly over the preceding century, they had also come to be made in quantity by division of labor. They were things like pins, needles, buttons, quills. They were small things easily forgotten in the history of technology.