# Invention of Machinery

## Definition

The development of machines that facilitate and abridge labour, enabling one
person to do the work of many. Smith identifies this as the third mechanism
by which the division of labour increases productive power, and argues that
the division of labour itself stimulates invention, because workers focused
on a single operation naturally discover improvements to their specific task.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 1: "Of the Division of Labour"

## Context

Presented as the third mechanism. Smith provides the anecdote of the boy who
automated the valve on a fire engine to free himself for play. He extends the
argument beyond workers to include machine-makers and philosophers (men of
speculation), whose own specialised observation enables them to combine
knowledge from distant fields.

## Economic Domain

Production

## Smith's Original Wording

"Thirdly, and lastly, everybody must be sensible how much labour is facilitated
and abridged by the application of proper machinery. It is unnecessary to give
any example."
