What is "hardware"?

　　Hardware, as the name implies, refers to five kinds of metal. The word "hardware" first appeared in the "Wu Yue Spring and Autumn Annals" four "Helu within the biography": "I heard that the king of Yue often make Ou Yezi make five swords, ...... a Zhan Lu, hardware of the Ying, the essence of the sun." According to the "Hanshu - food and goods" on the 'gold, knife, turtle, shell' note: "gold, said the five colors of gold also, yellow said gold, white said silver, red said copper, green said lead, black said iron." The Modern Chinese Dictionary explains: hardware, refers to gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, refers to metal in general. Today's hardware is often used as a collective name for metal or copper and iron products.

　　The further application of metal has played an important role in the development of the social history of human civilization. Metal products, appearing in all corners of economic life, political life, as well as military activities. Such as Zhejiang Yongkang, since ancient times has been known as the "township of a hundred workers", hardware handicraft industry is a long history. Since the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, Yongkang copper smiths and blacksmiths have been going north and south to make a living abroad, and historically there have been "hardware craftsmen going in all directions, the government and counties do not leave Hong".

　　History into the modern industrial society, metal - hardware products industry is the rapid development of the hardware industry in the development of the national economy has played an immeasurable role, hardware products have become an indispensable industrial manufacturing industry link.

　　Second, small hardware

　　The traditional hardware products, also known as "small hardware". It refers to iron, steel, aluminum and other metals through forging, calendering, cutting, and so on physical processing of various metal devices. For example, hardware tools, hardware parts, daily-use hardware, architectural hardware and security supplies, etc.. Most of the small hardware products are not final consumer goods. Instead, they are used as supporting products for industrial manufacturing, semi-finished products and tools used in the production process, and so on. Only a small part of daily-use hardware products are the necessary tools for people's lives consumer goods.

　　In the National Bureau of Statistics National Economic Classification, manufacturing is the third largest category of industries. These include: the production and manufacture of living materials, such as: agricultural and sideline products, food and beverage, tobacco, textiles, clothing and leather, wood and furniture, printing and stationery, and pharmaceutical manufacturing; the manufacture of production materials, such as: petrochemical, chemical fiber, rubber and plastic, non-metallic products manufacturing, metal smelting and processing, metal products manufacturing, general equipment manufacturing, industry-specific equipment manufacturing, and transportation Equipment manufacturing, electrical equipment, communication electronics, etc.

　　The metal products in the manufacturing industry and general equipment manufacturing in the general parts and components and other related products in the classification is composed of the usual sense of "small hardware". It can be seen that 'small hardware' is not an existing industry category, but a cross-combination of the above-mentioned metal products - hardware products. In the whole manufacturing industry, the duty of "small hardware" is to provide parts and production tools to manufacturing enterprises, not as a special equipment for the end use of the industry. Nevertheless, we cannot deny the important role of "small hardware" in the social production process: "small hardware" and the manufacturing industry are intertwined and inseparable as a whole.

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Technology, Metal, Work, Industry, Hardware