Database Design Application Development and

Administration 3rd Edition Mannino Test Bank pdf

download

https://testbankfan.com/product/database-design-application-
development-and-administration-3rd-edition-mannino-test-bank/
We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit testbankfan.com
to discover even more!

Database Design Application Development and

Administration 3rd Edition Mannino Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/database-design-application-
development-and-administration-3rd-edition-mannino-solutions-
manual/

Oracle 10g Database Administrator Implementation and

Administration 2nd Edition Powell Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/oracle-10g-database-
administrator-implementation-and-administration-2nd-edition-
powell-test-bank/

Leadership Theory Application and Skill Development 6th

Edition Lussier Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/leadership-theory-application-
and-skill-development-6th-edition-lussier-test-bank/

PFIN5 5th Edition Billingsley Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/pfin5-5th-edition-billingsley-
test-bank/
Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Concepts of Care in
Evidence Based Practice 8th Edition Townsend Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/psychiatric-mental-health-
nursing-concepts-of-care-in-evidence-based-practice-8th-edition-
townsend-test-bank/

Physics Principles With Applications 7th Edition

Giancoli Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/physics-principles-with-
applications-7th-edition-giancoli-test-bank/

Organizational Communication Balancing Creativity and

Constraint 7th Edition Eisenberg Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/organizational-communication-
balancing-creativity-and-constraint-7th-edition-eisenberg-test-
bank/

Principles of Marketing Global 17th Edition Kotler

Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/principles-of-marketing-
global-17th-edition-kotler-solutions-manual/

Prentice Halls Federal Taxation 2015 Corporations

Partnerships Estates and Trusts 28th Edition Pope
Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/prentice-halls-federal-
taxation-2015-corporations-partnerships-estates-and-trusts-28th-
edition-pope-solutions-manual/
Essentials of Modern Business Statistics with Microsoft
Excel 6th Edition Anderson Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/essentials-of-modern-business-
statistics-with-microsoft-excel-6th-edition-anderson-solutions-
manual/
Chapter 11 Stored Procedures and Triggers

1. A database programming language allows a program to combine procedural statements with non-procedural
database access.
True False

2. Due to the growth of online database processing and commercial Web commerce, batch processing is no
longer an important method to process database work.
True False

3. Transitive closure, an important operation for queries involving self-referencing relationships, is supported by
most SQL implementations.
True False

4. Portability across host languages is one advantage of using the statement level interface language style.
True False

5. Because the optimization process can consume considerable computing resources, it is usually desirable to
determine the access plan at run-time using dynamic statement binding.
True False

6. In the SQL:2003 specification, a statement level interface can support both static and dynamic binding, while
a call level interface supports only dynamic binding.
True False

7. For procedures and triggers stored in a database, the database connection is explicit.
True False

8. Triggers provide reuse of common code, while stored procedures provide rule processing for common tasks.
True False
9. A Database Programming Language is a procedural language with an interface to one or more DBMSs. The
interface allows a program to combine procedural statements with nonprocedural database access.
True False

10. A Call-Level Interfaceis a language style for integrating a programming language with a nonprocedural
language such as SQL. A statement-level interface involves changes to the syntax of a host programming
language to accommodate embedded SQL statements.
True False

11. Dynamic binding involves the determination of the access plan at compile time.
True False

12. Procedures and functions are executed by the rule system of the DBMS not by explicit calls as for triggers.
True False

13. Since PL/SQL is a block structured language, all code blocks must have unique names in order to execute in
SQL*Plus.
True False

14. When writing a PL/SQL procedure, it is good practice to include length constraints in the data type
specifications for parameters.
True False

15. To catch a specific error in a stored procedure, you should use a predefined exception or create a
user-defined exception.
True False

16. An important benefit of PL/SQL functions is that they can be used as expressions in SELECT statements.
True False

17. An explicit cursor cannot use parameters for non-constant search values in the associated SELECT
statement.
True False
18. All objects in a package interface are public.
True False

19. To use the objects in a package, you must use the package name before the object name.
True False

20. Because the SQL:1999 trigger specification was defined in response to vendor implementation, most trigger
implementations adhere to the SQL:1999 specification.
True False

21. The body of a trigger is similar to other PL/SQL blocks, except that triggers have more restrictions on the
statements in a block.
True False

22. Like procedures, triggers can be tested directly by executing them in SQL*Plus.
True False

23. Since the number of triggers is a complicating factor in understanding the interaction among triggers, it is
always better to create a few large triggers instead of many smaller triggers.
True False

24. You can encounter mutating table errors in trigger execution, regardless of the DBMS they are executed on.
True False

25. For most triggers, you can avoid mutating table errors by using statement triggers with new and old values.
True False

26. What is the primary motivation for using a database programming language?
A. Customization.
B. Batch processing.
C. Complex operations.
D. All of the above.
27. The two language styles provided by SQL:2003 for integrating a procedural language with SQL are:
A. Statement level interface and function level interface.
B. Procedural level interface and trigger level interface.
C. Statement level interface and call level interface.
D. None of the above.

28. Which of the following is true of a statement level interface?

A. It is more difficult to learn and use than a CLI.
B. It is available only for proprietary languages.
C. It includes a set of procedures and a set of type definitions for manipulating the results of SQL statements in
computer programs.
D. It involves changes to the syntax of a host programming language to accommodate embedded SQL.

29. For statement level interfaces, SQL:2003 provides statements to:

A. Declare cursors.
B. Position cursors.
C. Retrieve values from cursors.
D. All of the above.

30. As with other programming languages, in PL/SQL the IF-THEN-ELSE statement construct is:
A. A comparison operator.
B. A conditional statement.
C. A logical operator.
D. None of the above.

31. With regards to conditional decision making in PL/SQL, which statement is true?
A. A condition must evaluate to TRUE or FALSE.
B. Complex conditions are evaluated left to right, and this order cannot be altered.
C. Conditions are evaluated using three-value logic.
D. There is a limit to the number of statements that can be used between the THEN and END-IF keywords.

32. Which of the following is true of PL/SQL iteration statements?

A. The FOR LOOP iterates until a stopping condition is false.
B. The WHILE LOOP iterates over a range of integer values.
C. The LOOP statement iterates until an EXIT statement ceases termination.
D. All of the above.
33. A PL/SQL block contains:
A. A required declaration section, a required executable section, and an optional exception section.
B. An optional declaration section, a required executable section, and an optional exception section.
C. A required declaration section, a required executable section, and a required exception section.
D. An optional declaration section, a required executable section, and a required exception section.

34. Which of the following is the reason the DBMS, instead of the programming environment, manages stored
procedures?
A. A DBMS can compile the programming language code along with the SQL statements in a stored procedure.
B. Since they are stored on the server, stored procedures allow flexibility for client-server development.
C. Database administrators can manage stored procedures with the same tools for managing other parts of the
database.
D. All of the above.

35. A database connection identifies the database used by an application. A database connection can be
________ or ________.
A. implicit/explicit
B. internal/external
C. implicit/dynamic
D. virtual/dynamic

36. In PL/SQL, a function is used instead of a procedure when:

A. You want to manipulate output variables.
B. You want to produce a side effect.
C. You are returning a single value.
D. You want to return more than one result.

37. In PL/SQL, functions should:

A. Always use input parameters.
B. Contain a parameter list.
C. Generate an output value using a RETURN statement.
D. All of the above.
 CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION fn_RetrieveStudentName
(aStdSSN IN Student.StdSSN%Type) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
aFirstName Student.StdFirstName%Type;
aLastName Student.StdLastName%Type;
BEGIN
SELECT StdFirstName, StdLastName
INTO aFirstName, aLastName
FROM Student
WHERE StdSSN = aStdSSN;
RETURN(aLastName || ', ' || aFirstName);
EXCEPTION
WHEN No_Data_Found THEN
RETURN(NULL);
WHEN OTHERS THEN
raise_application_error(-20001, 'Database error.');
END;
/

38. The PL/SQL code block above is an example of:

A. An anonymous block.
B. A PL/SQL package.
C. A PL/SQL function.
D. None of the above.

39. In the PL/SQL code block above, aStdSSN is:

A. A return variable.
B. An input parameter.
C. A column in the Student table.
D. None of the above.

40. Based on the PL/SQL code block above, if there is not a SSN in the Student table which matches the value
provided:
A. The code will return the name of the Student record that is the closest numeric match.
B. The code will raise an application error.
C. The code will stop executing without any explanation.
D. The code will return NULL.

41. The PL/SQL code block above:

A. Declares and opens an explicit cursor.
B. Declares and opens an implicit cursor.
C. Does not use a cursor.
D. None of the above.
42. The PL/SQL statement "FOR StudentRec IN SELECT StudentID FROM StudentTable" is an example of:
A. An implicit cursor.
B. An explicit cursor.
C. A dynamic cursor.
D. This statement does not define a cursor.

43. In the use of an explicit cursor, which 3 statements replace the FOR statement of an implicit cursor?
A. OPEN, FIND, and CLOSE.
B. OPEN, FETCH, and CLOSE.
C. OPEN, GET, and CLOSE.
D. CONNECT, FIND, and CLOSE.

44. Which of the following is not a common cursor attribute?

A. %IsOpen.
B. %IsNotOpen.
C. %Found.
D. %NotFound.

45. One of the advantages of using a package over procedures and functions is:
A. A package supports a larger unit of modularity.
B. Packages provide easier reuse of code.
C. Packages reduce software maintenance costs.
D. All of the above.

46. For each object defined in a package interface, the package body must define:
A. A private object.
B. An implementation.
C. A cursor.
D. An exception handler.

47. Which of the following is not a typical use for triggers:

A. Complex integrity constraints.
B. Update propagation.
C. Exception reporting.
D. All of the above are typical uses for triggers.
48. To control complexity among a collection of triggers, which guideline(s) should be followed?
A. Use data manipulation statements primarily in BEFORE triggers.
B. For triggers that fire on UPDATE statements, do not list the columns to which the trigger applies.
C. Be cautious about creating triggers on tables affected by actions on referenced rows.
D. All of the above.

49. A trigger execution procedure can be affected by which of the following?

A. The DBMS the triggers are executed on.
B. The type of data manipulation statements specified in a trigger.
C. Foreign key constraints on referenced rows.
D. All of the above.

50. In the case of overlapping triggers, which of the following is true?

A. The firing order is predictable and can be depended on to be the same every time.
B. The firing order has not been specified for SQL:2003.
C. The firing order is the same for all DBMSs.
D. None of the above.

51. Mutating table errors:

A. Can occur when one table is cloned from another.
B. Can occur in trigger actions with SQL statements on the target table or related tables affected by DELETE
CASCADE actions.
C. Never occur in Oracle databases.
D. None of the above.

52. A _____________________ is a procedural language with an interface to one or more DBMSs.

________________________________________

53. To support customized code, most database application development tools use a coding style known as
_________________.
________________________________________

54. A(n) _____________ level interface is a language style that involves changes to the syntax of a host
programming language to accommodate embedded SQL statements.
________________________________________
55. Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) are the most widely used
_____________ level interfaces.
________________________________________

56. The concept of ______________ for a database programming language involves the association of an SQL
statement with its access plan.
________________________________________

57. A(n) ______________ is a construct in a database programming language that allows for storage and
iteration of a set of records returned by a SELECT statement.
________________________________________

58. A ______________ can be implicit or explicit.

________________________________________

59. In PL/SQL, a(n) _____________ statement is comprised of a variable, the assignment symbol, and an
expression.
________________________________________

60. In a PL/SQL IF statement, the keywords AND, OR and NOT are ____________ operators.
________________________________________

61. An unnamed PL/SQL block of code, which is useful for testing procedures and triggers, is known as a(n)
_________ block.
________________________________________

62. The common SQL*Plus command used to list the columns of a table is ___________.
________________________________________

63. The common SQL*Plus command used to display compilation errors is ___________________.
________________________________________
64. In a stored procedure, a(n) _____________ parameter should have a value provided outside the procedure
but it can be changed inside the procedure.
________________________________________

65. Functions should be usable in expressions, i.e. a function call can be replaced by the __________ it returns.
________________________________________

66. In the body of a function, a(n) ______________ statement is used to generate the function's output value.
________________________________________

67. A package ________________ contains the definitions of procedures and functions along with other objects
that can be specified in the DECLARE section of a PL/SQL block.
________________________________________

68. A package ________________ contains the private details of a package.

________________________________________

69. Inside a package implementation, each procedure or function must be terminated by a(n) _____________
statement containing the procedure or function name.
________________________________________

70. An event-condition-action rule managed by a DBMS is another name for a ____________.

________________________________________

71. Integrity constraints that compare the values before and after an update to a table occurs are called
___________.
________________________________________

72. The _________________ of a trigger involves the keywords BEFORE, AFTER, or INSTEAD OF, along
with a triggering event using the keywords INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE.
________________________________________
73. If you omit the keywords FOR EACH ROW from a trigger specification, the trigger by default becomes
a(n) _____________ trigger.
________________________________________

74. The ______________________________ specifies the order of execution among the various kinds of
triggers, integrity constraints, and database manipulation statements.
________________________________________

75. Two triggers with the same timing, granularity, and applicable table ______________ if an SQL statement
may cause both triggers to fire.
________________________________________

76. When a procedure calls itself, this is known as ______________________.

________________________________________
Chapter 11 Stored Procedures and Triggers Key

1. A database programming language allows a program to combine procedural statements with non-procedural
database access.
TRUE

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #1

2. Due to the growth of online database processing and commercial Web commerce, batch processing is no
longer an important method to process database work.
FALSE

Batch processing continues to be an important way to process database work.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #2

3. Transitive closure, an important operation for queries involving self-referencing relationships, is supported by
most SQL implementations.
FALSE

Transitive closure is not supported by most SQL implementations.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #3

4. Portability across host languages is one advantage of using the statement level interface language style.
FALSE

The statement level interface is not portable.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #4
5. Because the optimization process can consume considerable computing resources, it is usually desirable to
determine the access plan at run-time using dynamic statement binding.
FALSE

It is usually desirable to determine the access plan at compile time.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #5

6. In the SQL:2003 specification, a statement level interface can support both static and dynamic binding, while
a call level interface supports only dynamic binding.
TRUE

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #6

7. For procedures and triggers stored in a database, the database connection is explicit.
FALSE

The database connection is implicit.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #7

8. Triggers provide reuse of common code, while stored procedures provide rule processing for common tasks.
FALSE

Stored procedures provide reuse of common code, while triggers provide rule processing for common tasks.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #8

9. A Database Programming Language is a procedural language with an interface to one or more DBMSs. The
interface allows a program to combine procedural statements with nonprocedural database access.
TRUE

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #9
10. A Call-Level Interfaceis a language style for integrating a programming language with a nonprocedural
language such as SQL. A statement-level interface involves changes to the syntax of a host programming
language to accommodate embedded SQL statements.
FALSE

This is the definition of a Statement-Level Interface.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #10

11. Dynamic binding involves the determination of the access plan at compile time.
FALSE

Static binding involves the determination of the access plan at compile time.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #11

12. Procedures and functions are executed by the rule system of the DBMS not by explicit calls as for triggers.
TRUE

Triggers are executed by the rule system of the DBMS.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #12

13. Since PL/SQL is a block structured language, all code blocks must have unique names in order to execute in
SQL*Plus.
FALSE

Anonymous, or unnamed, blocks can be executed in SQL*Plus.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #13
14. When writing a PL/SQL procedure, it is good practice to include length constraints in the data type
specifications for parameters.
FALSE

You do not provide length in the specification of the data type for a parameter.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #14

15. To catch a specific error in a stored procedure, you should use a predefined exception or create a
user-defined exception.
TRUE

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #15

16. An important benefit of PL/SQL functions is that they can be used as expressions in SELECT statements.
TRUE

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #16

17. An explicit cursor cannot use parameters for non-constant search values in the associated SELECT
statement.
FALSE

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #17

18. All objects in a package interface are public.

TRUE

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #18

19. To use the objects in a package, you must use the package name before the object name.
TRUE

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #19
20. Because the SQL:1999 trigger specification was defined in response to vendor implementation, most trigger
implementations adhere to the SQL:1999 specification.
FALSE

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #20

21. The body of a trigger is similar to other PL/SQL blocks, except that triggers have more restrictions on the
statements in a block.
TRUE

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #21

22. Like procedures, triggers can be tested directly by executing them in SQL*Plus.
FALSE

To test, you must use SQL statements to cause triggers to fire.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #22

23. Since the number of triggers is a complicating factor in understanding the interaction among triggers, it is
always better to create a few large triggers instead of many smaller triggers.
FALSE

Per the author, there is no clear preference between few large triggers or many small triggers.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #23

24. You can encounter mutating table errors in trigger execution, regardless of the DBMS they are executed on.
FALSE

Mutating table errors are unique to Oracle.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #24
25. For most triggers, you can avoid mutating table errors by using statement triggers with new and old values.
FALSE

You can avoid mutating table errors by using row triggers with new and old values.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #25

26. What is the primary motivation for using a database programming language?
A. Customization.
B. Batch processing.
C. Complex operations.
D. All of the above.

All 3 are the primary motivations for using a database programming language.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #26

27. The two language styles provided by SQL:2003 for integrating a procedural language with SQL are:
A. Statement level interface and function level interface.
B. Procedural level interface and trigger level interface.
C. Statement level interface and call level interface.
D. None of the above.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #27

28. Which of the following is true of a statement level interface?

A. It is more difficult to learn and use than a CLI.
B. It is available only for proprietary languages.
C. It includes a set of procedures and a set of type definitions for manipulating the results of SQL statements in
computer programs.
D. It involves changes to the syntax of a host programming language to accommodate embedded SQL.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #28
29. For statement level interfaces, SQL:2003 provides statements to:
A. Declare cursors.
B. Position cursors.
C. Retrieve values from cursors.
D. All of the above.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #29

30. As with other programming languages, in PL/SQL the IF-THEN-ELSE statement construct is:
A. A comparison operator.
B. A conditional statement.
C. A logical operator.
D. None of the above.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #30

31. With regards to conditional decision making in PL/SQL, which statement is true?
A. A condition must evaluate to TRUE or FALSE.
B. Complex conditions are evaluated left to right, and this order cannot be altered.
C. Conditions are evaluated using three-value logic.
D. There is a limit to the number of statements that can be used between the THEN and END-IF keywords.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #31

32. Which of the following is true of PL/SQL iteration statements?

A. The FOR LOOP iterates until a stopping condition is false.
B. The WHILE LOOP iterates over a range of integer values.
C. The LOOP statement iterates until an EXIT statement ceases termination.
D. All of the above.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #32
33. A PL/SQL block contains:
A. A required declaration section, a required executable section, and an optional exception section.
B. An optional declaration section, a required executable section, and an optional exception section.
C. A required declaration section, a required executable section, and a required exception section.
D. An optional declaration section, a required executable section, and a required exception section.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #33

34. Which of the following is the reason the DBMS, instead of the programming environment, manages stored
procedures?
A. A DBMS can compile the programming language code along with the SQL statements in a stored procedure.
B. Since they are stored on the server, stored procedures allow flexibility for client-server development.
C. Database administrators can manage stored procedures with the same tools for managing other parts of the
database.
D. All of the above.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #34

35. A database connection identifies the database used by an application. A database connection can be
________ or ________.
A. implicit/explicit
B. internal/external
C. implicit/dynamic
D. virtual/dynamic

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #35

36. In PL/SQL, a function is used instead of a procedure when:

A. You want to manipulate output variables.
B. You want to produce a side effect.
C. You are returning a single value.
D. You want to return more than one result.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #36
37. In PL/SQL, functions should:
A. Always use input parameters.
B. Contain a parameter list.
C. Generate an output value using a RETURN statement.
D. All of the above.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #37

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION fn_RetrieveStudentName

(aStdSSN IN Student.StdSSN%Type) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
aFirstName Student.StdFirstName%Type;
aLastName Student.StdLastName%Type;
BEGIN
SELECT StdFirstName, StdLastName
INTO aFirstName, aLastName
FROM Student
WHERE StdSSN = aStdSSN;
RETURN(aLastName || ', ' || aFirstName);
EXCEPTION
WHEN No_Data_Found THEN
RETURN(NULL);
WHEN OTHERS THEN
raise_application_error(-20001, 'Database error.');
END;
/

Mannino - Chapter 11

38. The PL/SQL code block above is an example of:

A. An anonymous block.
B. A PL/SQL package.
C. A PL/SQL function.
D. None of the above.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #38
39. In the PL/SQL code block above, aStdSSN is:
A. A return variable.
B. An input parameter.
C. A column in the Student table.
D. None of the above.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #39

40. Based on the PL/SQL code block above, if there is not a SSN in the Student table which matches the value
provided:
A. The code will return the name of the Student record that is the closest numeric match.
B. The code will raise an application error.
C. The code will stop executing without any explanation.
D. The code will return NULL.

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #40

41. The PL/SQL code block above:

A. Declares and opens an explicit cursor.
B. Declares and opens an implicit cursor.
C. Does not use a cursor.
D. None of the above.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #41

42. The PL/SQL statement "FOR StudentRec IN SELECT StudentID FROM StudentTable" is an example of:
A. An implicit cursor.
B. An explicit cursor.
C. A dynamic cursor.
D. This statement does not define a cursor.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #42
43. In the use of an explicit cursor, which 3 statements replace the FOR statement of an implicit cursor?
A. OPEN, FIND, and CLOSE.
B. OPEN, FETCH, and CLOSE.
C. OPEN, GET, and CLOSE.
D. CONNECT, FIND, and CLOSE.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #43

44. Which of the following is not a common cursor attribute?

A. %IsOpen.
B. %IsNotOpen.
C. %Found.
D. %NotFound.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #44

45. One of the advantages of using a package over procedures and functions is:
A. A package supports a larger unit of modularity.
B. Packages provide easier reuse of code.
C. Packages reduce software maintenance costs.
D. All of the above.

All 3 are advantages of using a package.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #45

46. For each object defined in a package interface, the package body must define:
A. A private object.
B. An implementation.
C. A cursor.
D. An exception handler.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #46
47. Which of the following is not a typical use for triggers:
A. Complex integrity constraints.
B. Update propagation.
C. Exception reporting.
D. All of the above are typical uses for triggers.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #47

48. To control complexity among a collection of triggers, which guideline(s) should be followed?
A. Use data manipulation statements primarily in BEFORE triggers.
B. For triggers that fire on UPDATE statements, do not list the columns to which the trigger applies.
C. Be cautious about creating triggers on tables affected by actions on referenced rows.
D. All of the above.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #48

49. A trigger execution procedure can be affected by which of the following?

A. The DBMS the triggers are executed on.
B. The type of data manipulation statements specified in a trigger.
C. Foreign key constraints on referenced rows.
D. All of the above.

Level: Hard
Mannino - Chapter 11 #49

50. In the case of overlapping triggers, which of the following is true?

A. The firing order is predictable and can be depended on to be the same every time.
B. The firing order has not been specified for SQL:2003.
C. The firing order is the same for all DBMSs.
D. None of the above.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #50
51. Mutating table errors:
A. Can occur when one table is cloned from another.
B. Can occur in trigger actions with SQL statements on the target table or related tables affected by DELETE
CASCADE actions.
C. Never occur in Oracle databases.
D. None of the above.

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #51

52. A _____________________ is a procedural language with an interface to one or more DBMSs.

database programming language

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #52

53. To support customized code, most database application development tools use a coding style known as
_________________.
event driven coding

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #53

54. A(n) _____________ level interface is a language style that involves changes to the syntax of a host
programming language to accommodate embedded SQL statements.
statement

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #54

55. Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) are the most widely used
_____________ level interfaces.
call

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #55
56. The concept of ______________ for a database programming language involves the association of an SQL
statement with its access plan.
binding

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #56

57. A(n) ______________ is a construct in a database programming language that allows for storage and
iteration of a set of records returned by a SELECT statement.
cursor

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #57

58. A ______________ can be implicit or explicit.

database connection

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #58

59. In PL/SQL, a(n) _____________ statement is comprised of a variable, the assignment symbol, and an
expression.
assignment

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #59

60. In a PL/SQL IF statement, the keywords AND, OR and NOT are ____________ operators.
logical or Boolean

Level: Medium
Mannino - Chapter 11 #60

61. An unnamed PL/SQL block of code, which is useful for testing procedures and triggers, is known as a(n)
_________ block.
anonymous

Level: Easy
Mannino - Chapter 11 #61
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
garden greenery. There were even flowers on the table, where
nowadays food was always plentiful. Daddy Lunot, who at present
had as much tobacco as he cared for, had just lighted his pipe, when
La Toupe, for the mere pleasure of getting into a temper, according
to her old habit, turned to Lucien and said to him sourly: 'So it's
decided, eh—you still mean to marry that demoiselle? I saw you with
her again this morning at Boisgelin's door. It seems to me that if you
cared anything for us you might have ceased meeting her, since you
know that both your father and myself are by no means over-
pleased with the idea of that marriage.'
Lucien, like a good son, avoided argument, particularly as he knew
it to be useless. Turning towards Bonnaire, he simply said: 'But I
think that my father is ready to consent.'
To La Toupe this was like a whip-stroke, which urged her upon her
husband: 'What!' she exclaimed. 'You give your consent without
warning me of it? You told me less than a fortnight ago that such a
marriage wasn't reasonable to your thinking, and that you would
have fears for our lad's happiness if he were so foolish as to make it!
So you turn about like a weather-cock, eh?'
Bonnaire quietly began to explain things: 'I should have preferred
to see the lad make another choice, but he's nearly four-and-twenty,
and I'm not going to force my will on him in a matter which
concerns his own heart. He knows what I think, and he'll do what he
thinks best.'
'Ah!' shouted back La Toupe, 'you're easily got over; you fancy
yourself a free man, but you always end by saying the same as the
others. During the twenty years that you've been here with Monsieur
Luc you've repeated that his ideas and yours are not the same, and
that he ought to have begun by seizing the instruments of work
without accepting money from the bourgeois. But all the same, you
give way to Monsieur Luc's wishes, and to-day, perhaps, you begin
to like what you've done together.'
She rattled on, striving to hurt her husband's feelings and pride.
She had often exasperated him by trying to prove that his actions
were in contradiction with his principles. This time, however, he
simply shrugged his shoulders. 'There's no doubt that what we've
done together is very good,' said he. 'I may still regret that Monsieur
Luc did not follow my ideas; only you ought to be the last to
complain of what exists here, for we know nothing more of want, we
are happy, happier than any one of those bourgeois whom you
dream about.'
This reply irritated her the more. 'As for what exists here, it would
be kind of you to explain it to me, for I've never understood
anything of it, you know,' she said. 'If you are happy, so much the
better for you; but I'm not happy, no, I'm not. Happiness is when
one has plenty of money and can retire and do nothing afterwards.
All your rigmarole, your division of profits, your stores where one
gets things cheaply, your coupons and your cash-desks, will never
put a hundred thousand francs into my pocket so that I may spend
them as I please, on things which I like—I am an unhappy woman, a
very unhappy woman!'
She was exaggerating things with the desire to make herself
disagreeable, yet there was truth in what she said. She had never
grown accustomed to La Crêcherie, she suffered there like a
coquettish, extravagant woman, whose instincts were wounded by
Communistic solidarity. A clean and active housewife, but of a
quarrelsome, stubborn, dull-witted nature, she continued making her
home a hell, when it should have been full of comfort.
Bonnaire at last lost his patience so far as to say to her: 'You are
mad; it is you who make yourself unhappy and us too!'
Thereupon she began to sob. Lucien, who felt very embarrassed
whenever such disputes arose between his parents, had to emerge
from his silence and kiss her and tell her that he loved and respected
her. Nevertheless she clung to her views, and shouted to her
husband, 'Ah! just ask my father what he thinks of your factory in
which everybody has a share, and that wonderful justice and
happiness of yours, which are to regenerate the world. He's an old
workman, he is! You won't accuse him of saying foolish things like a
woman. And he's seventy years old, so you can believe in his
experience and sense!'
Turning to Daddy Lunot, who was sucking the stem of his pipe,
with the blissful expression of a child, she went on: 'Isn't that so,
father? Aren't they idiots with all their inventions to do without
masters, and won't they end by making their own fingers smart?'
The old man looked at her in his bewildered way before answering
in a husky voice: 'Of course—the Ragus and the Qurignons, ah! they
were comrades once upon a time. There was Monsieur Michel, who
was five years my senior. As for me, it was under Monsieur Jérôme
that I entered the works. But before the others there was Monsieur
Blaise, with whom my father, Jean Ragu, and my grandfather, Pierre
Ragu worked. Pierre Ragu and Blaise Qurignon were mates together,
two wire-drawers, who used the same anvil. And now you see the
Qurignons are masters and great millionaires, and the Ragus have
remained poor devils as they were before. Things can't change, and
so one must believe that they are well as they are.'
He rambled slightly in the somnolence that had come over him, as
over some very old, maimed, and forgotten beast of burden, who by
a miracle had escaped the universal slaughterhouse. There were
often days when he failed to remember what had happened on the
previous one.
'But Daddy Lunot,' said Bonnaire, 'it so happens that things have
changed a good deal for some time past. Monsieur Jérôme, whom
you speak of, has long since been dead, and he gave back all that
remained of his fortune.'
'Gave back—how's that?'
'Yes, he gave back to his old comrades the wealth which he owed
to their toil and suffering. Don't you remember? it occurred a long
time ago already.'
The old man searched in his dim memory. 'Ah! Yes, yes, I recollect
—a funny business it was! Well, if he gave his money back he was a
fool.'
 The words were spoken sharply and contemptuously, for Daddy
Lunot had never dreamt of anything but making a big fortune like
the Qurignons, in order to enjoy life like a master, an idle gentleman,
who amused himself from morning till night. That had remained his
ideal, even as it was that of the whole generation of broken-down,
exploited slaves, whoso sole regret was that they had not been born
among the exploiters.
La Toupe burst into an insulting laugh. 'You see!' she cried, 'Father
isn't such a fool as you others are; he's not the man to start on a
wild-goose chase! Money's money; and when a man's rich he's the
master!'
Bonnaire shrugged his broad shoulders, whilst Lucien gazed in
silence through the window at the roses in the garden. What was
the use of arguing? She represented the stubborn past, she would
pass away in the Communist paradise, in the midst of fraternal
happiness, denying its very existence and regretting the days of
wretchedness when she had been obliged to save up ten sous one
by one in order to buy herself a strip of ribbon.
Just then, however, Babette Bourron came in. Unlike La Toupe,
she was ever gay, ever delighted with her new position. By her
smiling and comforting optimism she had helped to save her
simpleton of a husband from the pit into which Ragu had fallen. She
had invariably shown confidence in the future, feeling certain that
things would eventually turn out all right. And she often jestingly
remarked that La Crêcherie, where work had become light, cleanly,
and pleasant, where one and all lived amidst comforts formerly
reserved to the bourgeois alone, was like a fulfilment of her dreams
of Paradise. Her doll-like face remained fresh-looking under her
carelessly twisted hair, and radiant with the delight she felt at finding
her husband cured of his passion for drink, and at living in a gay
house of her own with two handsome children whom she would
soon be marrying off.
'Well, so it's decided, eh?' she exclaimed. 'Lucien is going to marry
Louise Mazelle, that charming little bourgeoise who isn't ashamed of
us?'
 'Who told you that?' roughly asked La Toupe.
'Why, Madame Luc, Josine, whom I met this morning.'
La Toupe turned white with restrained wrath. Amidst her ceaseless
irritation with La Crêcherie there was a great deal of hatred against
Josine, whom she had never forgiven for having become the wife
and helpmate of Luc, that hero whom all admired, and for having,
moreover, a number of handsome children, who were now growing
up for lives of happiness. Could she not remember the days when
that wretched creature had been turned starving into the streets by
her brother? Yet now she met her wearing a bonnet like a lady. That
was a crushing blow. She would never be able to stomach the idea
of that creature being happy.
'Josine,' she roughly exclaimed, 'would do better to make people
forget what she calls her own marriage before meddling with
marriages which don't concern her. And as for me, you do nothing
but aggravate me, so just let me be!'
Then she rushed out of the room, banging the door behind her,
and leaving the others in silent embarrassment. Babette was the first
to laugh, accustomed as she was to the manners of her friend,
whom she indulgently pronounced to be a good woman, though a
wrong-headed one. Tears, however, had risen to the eyes of Lucien,
for it was his future life that was at stake amidst all that quarrelling.
His father pressed his hand in a friendly way, as if to promise that he
would arrange matters. None the less Bonnaire himself remained
very sad, quite upset at finding happiness at the mercy of family
jars. Would a spiteful temper always suffice then to spoil the fruits of
brotherliness? he wondered. Daddy Lunot alone retained his blissful
unconsciousness, sitting there half asleep, with his pipe in his
mouth.
If Lucien entertained no doubt of the eventual consent of his
parents, Louise felt the resistance of hers increasing, and thus the
battle became fiercer every day. The Mazelles adored their daughter,
and it was in the name of this adoration that they refused to give
way to her. There were no violent explanations between them, but
they persevered in a kind of good-natured inertia, by which they
fancied that the girl's patience would be tired out. In vain did she fill
the house with the incessant rustling of her skirts, play feverishly on
the piano, fling flowers out of the window, though they were by no
means faded, and give many other signs of perturbation. They still
peacefully smiled at her, made a pretence of understanding nothing,
and strove to glut her with dainties and presents. She was enraged
at being thus overwhelmed with douceurs when she was denied the
one thing which would have pleased her; and at last she made up
her mind to fall ill. She took to her bed, turned her face to the wall,
and refused to answer her parents when they questioned her.
Novarre, on being summoned, declared that such ailments did not
come within the scope of his profession. The only way to cure girls
who fell love-sick was to allow them to love as they desired.
Thereupon the Mazelles, quite distracted, realising that the matter
was becoming a serious one, held counsel together as to whether
they ought to give way. They spent a whole night talking it over, and
it seemed such a serious business, the consequences of which might
be so great, that they lacked the courage to come to a decision
between themselves. They resolved to bring their friends together in
order to submit the matter to them. In the revolutionary state of
affairs with which Beauclair was struggling, would it not be desertion
on their part to give their daughter to a workman? They felt that
such a union would be decisive, a final abdication on the part of the
bourgeoisie, the mercantile and propertied folk. And it was therefore
natural that the authorities, the leaders of the wealthy governing
classes, should be consulted. Thus, one fine afternoon, they invited
Sub-Prefect Châtelard, Mayor Gourier, Judge Gaume, and Abbé Marle
to take tea with them in their flowery garden, where they had spent
so many idle days, stretched face to face in large rocking chairs, and
gazing at their roses, without even tiring themselves by talking.
'You see,' said Mazelle to his wife, 'we will do what those
gentlemen advise. They know more about such matters than we do,
and nobody will be able to blame us for following their counsel. For
my part I am quite losing my head, for all this business tortures my
brain from morning till night.
'It's like me,' said Madame Mazelle. 'It isn't living to be obliged to
keep on thinking and thinking. Nothing could be worse for my
complaint, I'm sure of it.'
The tea was served in an arbour of greenery in the garden one
beautiful, sunshiny afternoon. Sub-Prefect Châtelard and Mayor
Gourier were the first to arrive. They had remained inseparable,
linked it seemed even more closely together since the death of
Madame Gourier, the beautiful Léonore, who, during her last five
years had remained an invalid in an arm-chair, afflicted with paralysis
of the legs, but most devotedly nursed, her lover taking her
husband's place to watch over her and read to her whenever the
other was obliged to absent himself. It was, indeed, in Châtelard's
arms that Léonore had suddenly expired one evening while he was
helping her to drink a cupful of lime-water, whilst Gourier was
outside smoking a cigar. When he came in again, the two men wept
together for the dear departed. And nowadays they were
inseparable, their duties leaving them plenty of leisure, for it was
only in a theoretical kind of way that they now governed the town,
the sub-prefect having prevailed on the mayor to follow his example,
and let things take their own course, rather than spoil his life by
trying to oppose the evolution, the progress of which nobody in the
world could have prevented. Nevertheless, Gourier, who often felt
afraid of the future, had some difficulty in taking this philosophical
course. He had become reconciled to his son Achille, whom Ma-
Bleue had presented with a very charming daughter, Léonie, who
had the eyes of her beautiful mother, big blue eyes suggesting some
large blue lake, some vast stretch of blue sky. Nearly twenty years of
age at present, fit to be married, Léonie had captivated her
grandfather. And he had resigned himself to opening his door to her
parents, that son who had formerly rebelled against his authority,
and that Ma-Bleue, of whom he still occasionally spoke as a savage.
As he himself expressed it, it was hard for him, a mayor, the
celebrant of lawful marriage, to receive at his fireside a couple of
revolutionaries, who had simply espoused one another under the
stars one warm summer's night. But the times were so strange, such
extraordinary things happened, that a charming granddaughter
become a very acceptable present, even although she were the
offspring of impenitent free love. Châtelard had gaily insisted on
reconciliation; and Gourier, since his son had been bringing Léonie to
see him, had been more and more won over to the cause of La
Crêcherie, though, to his thinking, it had hitherto remained a source
of catastrophes.
Judge Gaume and Abbé Marle were late in arriving that day at the
Mazelles', but the latter could not refrain from explaining their
position to the sub-prefect and the mayor. Ought they to resign
themselves to their daughter's unreasonable whim?
'As you will certainly understand, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet,' said
Mazelle in an anxious but pompous manner, 'apart from the grief
which such a marriage would cause us, we have to consider the
deplorable effect which it would have socially, and our heavy
responsibility towards distinguished persons of our class. We really
seem to be going towards some abyss.'
They were seated in the warm shade, perfumed by the climbing
roses, at a table with gay-coloured napery, on which stood several
dishes of little cakes; and Châtelard, still a well-groomed, fine-
looking man in spite of his years, smiled in a discreetly ironical
manner. 'We are already in the abyss, dear Monsieur Mazelle,' he
replied. 'It would be very wrong of you to put yourself out about the
Government, the authorities, or even fine society, for only a
semblance of these things now exists. I am still sub-prefect and my
friend Gourier is still mayor, no doubt. Only we are scarcely more
than shadows, and there is no longer any real, substantial State
behind us. And it is the same with the powerful and the wealthy, a
little of whose power and wealth is carried off each succeeding day
by the new organisation of work. So don't take the trouble to defend
them, particularly as they themselves, yielding to vertigo, are now
becoming active artisans of the revolution. Don't resist then, yield to
the current!'
 He was fond of that style of jesting, which terrified the last
bourgeois of Beauclair. Moreover, it was an amiable and jocular way
of telling the truth, for he indeed felt convinced that the old world
was done for, and that a new one was springing from the ruins. Most
serious events were taking place in Paris, the ancient edifice was
falling stone by stone, giving place to a provisional structure, in
which one could already plainly detect the outlines of the future city
of justice and peace.
But the Mazelles had turned pale. Whilst the wife sank back in her
armchair with her eyes fixed on the little cakes, the husband
exclaimed: 'Really! do you think us threatened to such a point as
that? I know very well that people think of reducing the interest on
Rentes.'
'Rentes,' said Châtelard quietly, 'they will be suppressed before
another twenty years have gone by; or, rather, some plan will be
found for dispossessing the rentiers by degrees. A scheme to that
effect is already being studied.'
Madame Mazelle heaved such a desperate sigh that one might
have imagined she was giving up the ghost. 'Oh, I hope we shall be
dead by then!' said she; 'I hope that we shan't have the grief of
witnessing such infamy! But our poor daughter will suffer by it, and
that is an additional reason for compelling her to make a good
marriage.'
But Châtelard pitilessly went on: 'Why, good marriages are no
longer possible, since the right of inheritance is about to disappear.
That is virtually resolved upon. In future each married couple will
have to work out its own happiness. And whether your daughter
Louise marries a bourgeois' son or a workman's son, the capital of
the newly-wedded pair will soon be identical—so much love, if they
are lucky enough to love one another, and so much activity if they
are intelligent enough not to be idlers.'
Deep silence fell, and one could hear the faint whirr of a warbler's
wings, as it flew about among the roses.
 'And so,' Mazelle, who was overwhelmed, ended by asking, 'that is
the advice you give us, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet? According to you,
we can accept that Lucien Bonnaire as our son-in-law, eh?'
'Oh, mon Dieu, yes! The world will none the less continue
peacefully revolving. And as the two children are so fond of one
another, it is at least certain that you will make them happy.'
Gourier had hitherto said nothing. He felt ill at ease at being called
upon to decide such a question—he, whose son had gone off to live
with Ma-Bleue, that wild girl of the rocks, whom he now received in
his highly respectable middle-class home. At last an avowal of his
embarrassment escaped him: 'That's true; the best thing after all is
to marry them. When their parents don't marry them the young
people take themselves off and get married as they fancy. Ah! in
what times are we living!'
He raised his arms towards heaven, and Châtelard had to exercise
all his influence to prevent him from falling into black melancholy.
Gourier's old age—following on a somewhat dissolute life—was full
of stupor; he constantly fell asleep, at table, in the midst of
conversation, even whilst walking out of doors. With the resigned air
of a once terrible employer of labour, whom facts had vanquished,
he ended by saying: 'Well, what else can be expected? After us the
deluge, as many of our class now say. We are done for.'
It was at this moment that Judge Gaume arrived, much behind his
time. Nowadays his legs swelled, and it was only with difficulty that
he could walk, helping himself along with a stick. He was nearly
seventy, and was awaiting his pension, full of secret disgust for that
human justice which he had administered during so many years,
contenting himself the while with strictly applying the written law,
like a priest who no longer believes, but is sustained solely by
dogma. In his home, however, the drama of love and betrayal which
had wrecked his life had pursued its course, stubbornly and
pitilessly. The disaster, which had begun with the suicide of his wife,
had been completed by his daughter Lucile, who had caused her
husband, Captain Jollivet, to be killed in a murderous duel by one of
her lovers, with whom she had afterwards eloped. The police were
seeking her, and Gaume now lived alone with her one child, André, a
delicate, affectionate youth of sixteen, over whom he watched with
anxious affection. Sufficient misfortune had fallen, he felt; avenging
destiny, punishing some old unknown crime, must go no further. Yet
he still wondered to what good power, what future of true justice
and faithful love he might guide that youth in order that his race
might be renewed and at last win happiness.
On being questioned by Mazelle respecting the advisability of a
marriage between Louise and Lucien Bonnaire, Judge Gaume
immediately exclaimed: 'Marry them, marry them—particularly if
they feel for one another such great love as to enter into contest
with their parents and to pass over all obstacles. Love alone decides
happiness.'
Then he regretted, like an avowal, that cry which the bitterness of
his whole life had wrung from him, for he was intent on preserving
during his last days his wonted mendacious rigidity of demeanour,
his austerity and coldness of countenance. 'Do not wait for Abbé
Marle,' he resumed. 'I met him just now, and he begged me to
apologise to you. He was hastening to the church for the holy
vessels, in order to take extreme unction to old Madame Jollivet, an
aunt of my son-in-law's, who is in the last pangs. Poor Abbé, in her
he is losing one of his last penitents; he had his eyes full of tears.'
'Oh! the fact that the clergy is being swept away is the one good
feature of what is happening!' exclaimed Gourier, who had remained
a devourer of priests. 'The republic would still be ours if the clergy
had not tried to take it from us. It was they who urged the people
on to upset everything and become the masters.'
But Châtelard remarked compassionately: 'Poor Abbé Marle! it
grieves me to see him in his empty church. You do quite right,
Madame Mazelle, in still sending him some bouquets for the Virgin.'
Silence fell again, and the tragic shadow of the priest seemed to
flit by in the bright sunlight amidst the perfume of the roses. In
Léonore he had lost his dearest and most faithful parishioner.
Madame Mazelle doubtless remained to him, but she was not really a
believer; all that she sought in religion was something ornamental—
a kind of certificate that she was a right-minded bourgeois. And the
Abbé was not ignorant of his destiny—he would some day be found
dead at his altar under the remnants of his church, which threatened
ruin, but which, for lack of money, he could not repair. Neither at the
sub-prefecture nor at the town-hall was there any fund left for such
work. He had appealed to the faithful, and in response had with
difficulty obtained a ridiculously small sum of money. And now he
was resigned to his fate; he awaited the fall, still celebrating the
offices as if he were unaware of the threat of annihilation hanging
above his head. His church was becoming emptier and emptier,
dying a little more each day, and he would die also when the old
structure cracked around him and fell crushing him beneath the
weight of the great crucifix, which still hung from the wall. And they
would have one and the same grave: the earth whither all returns.
As it happened Madame Mazelle was far too much upset by her
personal worries to take any interest at that moment in the dolorous
fate of Abbé Marle. If there should not be a prompt solution with
respect to the marriage, she feared that she might fall seriously ill—
she who had derived so many hours of nursing and petting from the
malady without a name with which she had embellished her
existence. All her guests having now arrived, she quitted her
armchair to serve the tea, which steamed in the cups of bright
porcelain, whilst a sunray gilded the little cakes lying in the crystal
dishes. And she went on shaking her big, placid head, for she was
not yet convinced: 'You may say what you like, my friends, but that
marriage would really be the last blow, and I cannot make up my
mind to it.'
'We will wait,' declared Mazelle; 'we will exhaust Louise's
patience.'
But all at once both husband and wife were thunderstruck, for
Louise herself stood before them among the sunlit roses at the
entrance of the arbour. They had fancied her in her room, on her
couch, suffering from that love-sickness which, according to Doctor
Novarre, contentment alone could cure. No doubt she had guessed
that the others were deciding her fate, and with her beautiful black
hair just caught up in a knot, wearing a dressing-gown with a
pattern of little red flowers, she had come down in all haste.
Quivering with the passion that animated her, she looked charming
with her somewhat obliquely-set eyes gleaming in her slender face.
Not even grief could entirely extinguish their gay sparkle. She had
heard the last words spoken by her parents. 'Ah, mamma! ah, papa!
what was that you were saying?' she cried. 'Do you imagine that
some merely childish caprice is in question? I've told you already,
and I tell you again, I wish Lucien to be my husband, and so he
shall!'
Although half-conquered by the sudden apparition of his daughter,
Mazelle still tried to struggle against the inevitable. 'But just think of
it, you unhappy child! Our fortune, which you were to have
inherited, is already in jeopardy, so it is quite possible that one of
these days you will find yourself without a penny,' he said.
'Just understand the situation,' remarked Madame Mazelle in her
turn. 'With our money, even though it is in danger, you might still
make a sensible marriage.'
Then Louise exploded with superb, joyous vehemence, 'Your
money! I do not care a pin for it! You can keep it! If you were to
give it me Lucien would no longer take me as his wife. Money,
indeed! what should I do with it? Money! of what use is it? It does
not help one to love and be happy. Lucien will earn my bread for me,
and I'll earn it too if necessary. It will be delightful.'
She cried these things aloud with such strength of youth and hope
that the Mazelles, fearing for her reason, were anxious to quiet her
by at last yielding to her desires. Besides, they were not people to
continue battling; they wished to end their days in peace. As for
Sub-Prefect Châtelard, Mayor Gourier, and Judge Gaume, whilst
drinking their tea they smiled with some embarrassment, for they
felt the girl's free love sweeping them away like bits of straw. One
must needs consent to what one cannot prevent.
 It was Châtelard who summed up everything in his amiable,
bantering way, the irony of which was scarcely perceptible. 'Our
friend Gourier is right—we are done for, since it is our children who
make the laws now.'
The marriage of Lucien Bonnaire and Louise Mazelle took place a
month later. Châtelard for his personal amusement prevailed on his
friend Gourier to give a grand ball at the town-hall on the wedding
night, as if by way of honouring their friends the Mazelles. At heart
he thought it a good joke to make the bourgeoisie of Beauclair
dance at this wedding, which became a symbol of the multitude's
accession to power. They would dance on the ruins of authority in
that town-hall which was gradually becoming the real common-
house, where the mayor was no longer anything but a link between
the various social groups. The hall was most luxuriously decorated,
and there was music and singing as at the wedding of Nanet and
Nise. And acclamations once more arose at the sight of the bridal
pair, Lucien, so strong and sturdy, followed by all his mates of La
Crêcherie, and Louise, so slim and passionate, followed by all the
fine society of the town, whose presence had been desired by her
parents as a kind of supreme protest. Only it came to pass that the
fine folk were swamped by the multitude, won over to the rush of
delight, carried away and conquered to such a point that a great
many more marriages between the lads and girls of the different
classes ensued. Once more, then, love triumphed, all-powerful love
which inflames the living universe, and bears it onward to its happy
destiny.
Youth flowered on all sides, other alliances were concluded,
couples which everything seemed to separate set out together for
the future city of happiness. The old trading class of Beauclair, now
on the point of disappearing, gave its daughters and sons to the
artisans of La Crêcherie and the peasants of Les Combettes. The
Laboques set the example by allowing their son Auguste to marry
Marthe Bourron, and their daughter Eulalie to marry Arsène Lenfant.
They had ceased struggling for some years already, for they realised
that the trade of old times, the useless cogwheel which had
consumed so much energy and wealth, was vanquished and dying.
At the outset they had been obliged to allow their shop of the Rue
de Brias to be turned into a mere dépôt of the articles manufactured
at La Crêcherie and the other syndicated factories. Then, taking a
further step, they had consented to close the shop, which had been
merged into the general stores, where Luc's indulgence had
procured them an inspectorship by way of occupation. And now old
age had come, and they lived in retirement, full of bitterness, and
scared by the sight of that new world which evinced none of their
own passion for lucre. The new generations had grown up for other
forms of activity and delight than moneymaking. And thus their
children, Auguste and Eulalie, yielding to love, the great artisan of
harmony and peace, married as they pleased, encountering no
obstacle on their parents' side save the covert disapproval of old folk
who regret the past. It was arranged that the two weddings should
be celebrated on the same day at Les Combettes, now a large
township, a very suburb of Beauclair, with large bright buildings
redolent of the inexhaustible wealth of the earth. And the weddings
took place at harvest-time—indeed, on the very last day of the
harvesting, when huge ricks already arose upon every side over the
great golden plain.
Feuillat, the former farmer of La Guerdache, had already married
his son Léon to Eugénie, daughter of Yvonnot, the assessor, whom
he had formerly reconciled with Feuillat, the mayor—that
reconciliation whence had sprung the good agreement of all the
inhabitants of the place, and that impulse to combine together which
had made the wretched village, consumed by hatred, a fraternal and
flourishing town. Nowadays Feuillat, who was very aged, had
become like the patriarch of that agricultural society, for it was he
who had dreamt of it, secretly sought to establish it, in former days,
when combating the deadly tenant-farming system, and foreseeing
what incalculable wealth the tillers of the soil might draw from it
when they should agree together to love it like men of science and
method. A true love for that soil which for centuries had been
exhausting his ancestors, seemed to have sufficed to enlighten that
simple farmer, who originally had been a hard-headed and rapacious
man like all of his class. He had perceived in what direction lay
salvation, peace among all the peasants, a combination of efforts,
the earth becoming once more the sole mother, ploughed, sown,
and cropped by one family. And he had beheld the fulfilment of his
dream, he had seen his neighbours' fields joined together, the farm
of La Guerdache merged into the parish of Les Combettes, other
smaller villages joined thereto, a vast estate created, and set on the
march for the conquest, by successive annexation, of the whole of
the vast plain of La Roumagne. Feuillat, who had remained the soul
of the association, formed with Lenfant and Yvonnot, its founders, a
kind of 'Conseil des Anciens,' who were consulted on all things, and
whose advice was always found profitable.
Thus, when the wedding of Lenfant's son Arsène with Eulalie
Laboque was decided upon, and the latter's brother Auguste
determined to celebrate his marriage with Marthe Bourron at the
same time, it occurred to Feuillat, whose idea was accepted and
acclaimed by all, to organise a great fête which should be like the
festival of the pacification and triumph of Les Combettes. They
would drink to fraternity between the peasant and the industrial
worker, formerly so bitterly opposed to one another, but whose
alliance alone could establish social wealth and peace. They would
drink also to the end of all antagonism, to the disappearance of that
barbarous thing called trade which had perpetuated a hateful
struggle between the dealer who sold a tool, the peasant who made
corn grow, and the baker who sold bread, at a price increased by
the thefts of a number of intermediaries. And what better day could
be chosen to celebrate the reconciliation than that when the
enemies of former days, the castes which had seemed bent on
devouring and destroying one another, ended by exchanging their
lads and girls, consenting to marriages which would hasten the
advent of the future! Thus it was decided that the fête should take
place in a large field near the town, a field where lofty ricks, golden
under the bright sun, arose like the symmetrically disposed columns
of some gigantic temple. The colonnade stretched indeed to the very
horizon; other ricks and other ricks arose, proclaiming the
inexhaustible fruitfulness of the soil. And it was there that they sang,
that they danced, amidst the pleasant odour of the ripe corn, amidst
the great fertile plain, whence the work of man, now at last
reconciled, drew bread enough for the happiness of all.
The Laboques brought in their train all the former tradesmen of
Beauclair, whilst the Bourrons brought the whole of La Crêcherie.
The Lenfants were there, at home, and never yet had folk
fraternised so fully, the groups fast mingling and uniting in one sole
family. The Laboques, no doubt, remained grave and somewhat
embarrassed, but the Lenfants made merry with all their hearts,
whilst the great sight of all was Babette Bourron, whose everlasting
good humour, her certainty, even amidst the greatest worries, that
things would turn out well at last, now proved triumphant. She
personified hope, marching radiant behind the two bridal couples;
and when these arrived—Marthe Bourron on the arm of Auguste
Laboque, Eulalie Laboque on the arm of Arsène Lenfant—they
brought with them such a blaze of youth and strength and delight,
that endless acclamations rolled from one to the other end of the
stubbles. The onlookers called to them affectionately, they were
loved, they were praised because they indeed personified sovereign
and victorious love, that love which had already drawn all those folk
together, by giving them those overflowing harvests amidst which
they would henceforth swarm like a free and united people, ignorant
alike of hatred and of want.
That same day other marriages were decided upon, as had
already happened at the wedding of Lucien Bonnaire and Louise
Mazelle. Madame Mitaine, the former bakeress, who had remained
for everybody the 'beautiful Madame Mitaine,' in spite of her sixty-
five years, kissed Olympe Lenfant, sister to one of the bridegrooms,
and told her that she would be happy to call her 'daughter,' for her
son Évariste had confessed that he adored her. The beautiful
bakeress's husband had been dead for ten years, and her
establishment had been merged into the general stores of La
Crêcherie, as was the case with most of the retail businesses of the
É
town. She lived like a retired worker with her son Évariste, both very
proud of the fact that Luc had given them the charge of the
electrical kneading appliances, which yielded an abundance of white
light bread. Whilst Évariste in his turn was bestowing a betrothal kiss
on Olympe, who had turned pink with pleasure, Madame Mitaine
suddenly recognised in a thin, dark little woman seated beside a
rick, her old neighbour, Madame Dacheux, the butcher's wife. She
thereupon went and sat down beside her. 'Must it not all finish in
weddings,' she asked gaily, 'since all these young folk were ever
playing together?'
Madame Dacheux, however, remained silent and gloomy. She also
had lost her husband, who had died from the effects of a badly
aimed blow with his chopper, which had struck off his right hand.
According to some folk, clumsiness had nothing to do with it, the
butcher having voluntarily cut off his hand in a fit of furious anger,
rather than sign a transfer of his shop to La Crêcherie. Decent
occurrences, and the idea that holy meat, the meat of the wealthy,
was now being placed within the reach of all and appearing at the
tables of the poorest, must have maddened that violent, reactionary,
and tyrannical man. He had died from the effects of gangrene
improperly treated, leaving his wife in a state of terror from the
oaths which he had heaped upon her during his final agony.
'And your Julienne, how is she?' Madame Mitaine inquired in her
amiable way. 'I met her the other day. She looked superb.'
The butcher's widow was at last obliged to answer. Pointing to a
couple figuring in one of the quadrille sets, she said: 'She's dancing
yonder. I'm watching her.'
Julienne indeed was dancing on the arm of a tall, good-looking
fellow, Louis Fauchard, the son of the former drawer. Sturdy of build,
white of skin, her whole face beaming with health, Julienne evidently
enjoyed the embrace of that vigorous yet gentle-looking youth, who
was one of the best smiths of La Crêcherie.
'Oh! does that mean another marriage, then?' asked Madame
Mitaine, laughing.
 But Madame Dacheux shuddered and protested: 'Oh! no, no! How
can you say such a thing? You know what my husband's ideas were.
He would rise from his tomb if I let our daughter marry that
workman, the son of that wretched Mélanie, who was always trying
to get a bit of soup-beef on credit, and whom he drove out of our
shop so often because she never paid!'
In a low and tremulous voice the butcher's widow went on to
relate what a torturing life she led. Her husband appeared to her at
night-time. Although he was dead he still made her bow beneath his
despotic authority, tormenting her, upbraiding her, frightening her
with devilish threats in her dreams. The poor, scared, insignificant
woman was so unlucky that even widowhood had not brought her
peace.
'If I were to let Julienne marry contrary to his wishes,' she
concluded, 'he would certainly come back every night to beat me!'
She was shedding tears now, and Madame Mitaine strove to
comfort her, assuring her that she would soon get rid of her
nightmares if she would only set a little happiness around her. Just
then, as it happened, Mélanie, the ever-complaining Madame
Fauchard, whom for years one had seen perpetually running about
to procure the four quarts of wine which her husband required for
his shift, drew near with a hesitating step. She no longer suffered
from want. She occupied one of the bright little houses of La
Crêcherie with Fauchard, who, infirm and stupefied, had now ceased
all work. Lodging with her, moreover, was her brother Fortuné, now
forty-five years of age, and already an old man, half-blind, and deaf,
owing to the brutish, mechanical, uniform toil to which he had been
condemned at the Abyss from his fifteenth year onward. Thus, in
spite of the comforts which La Fauchard owed to the new pension
and mutual relief system, she had remained a complaining creature,
a wretched waif of the past, with two old children on her hands.
Therein lay a lesson, an example of the shame and grief which the
wage-system had brought with it.
'Have you seen my men?' she asked Madame Mitaine, referring to
her husband and brother. 'I lost them in the crowd. Oh! there they
are!'
With halting gait, arm-in-arm, by way of propping up each other,
the brothers-in-law passed by—Fauchard, wrecked and done for,
suggesting some ghost of the painful toil of the past; and Fortuné,
looking less aged but quite as downcast, stricken seemingly with
imbecility. Through all the sturdy crowd, overflowing with new life
and hope amidst the sweet-smelling ricks, in which was piled the
corn of a whole community, the two unfortunate men strolled hither
and thither, freely displaying their decrepitude, understanding
nothing of what went on around them, and not even acknowledging
the salutations of acquaintances.
'Leave them in the sunshine—it does them good,' resumed
Madame Mitaine, addressing La Fauchard. 'Your son is sturdy and
gay enough!'
'That's true; Louis has the best of health,' the other replied. 'The
sons are not much like the fathers, now that the times have
changed. Just see how he dances! He will never know cold and
hunger.'
Thereupon Madame Mitaine, in her good-natured way, resolved to
promote the happiness of the young couple who were smiling at
each other so lovingly whilst they danced before her. She brought
the two mothers, Madame Fauchard and Madame Dacheux,
together, and made them sit down side by side, and then she moved
the butcher's widow and convinced her that she ought to consent to
her daughter's marriage. It was solitude that made the poor old
creature suffer; she needed grandchildren to climb up on her knees
and put all troublesome phantoms to flight.
'Ah, mon Dieu!' she ended by exclaiming, 'I'm agreeable all the
same, on condition that I'm not left alone. I myself never said no to
anybody. It was he who wouldn't have it. But if you all wish it, and
promise to defend me, then do, do as you like.'
When Louis and Julienne learnt that their mothers consented to
their wedding, they hastened to them and fell in their arms with
tears and laughter. And thus amidst the general joy fresh joy was
born.
'How could you think of parting these young people?' Madame
Mitaine repeated; 'they seem to have grown up one for the other.
I've given my Évariste to Olympe Lenfant, whom I remember as
quite a little girl, when she used to come to my shop and my boy
gave her cakes. It's the same with Louis Fauchard. How many times
have I not seen him prowling near your shop, Madame Dacheux,
and playing with your Julienne! The Laboques, the Bourrons, the
Lenfants and the Yvonnots, whose marriages are now being
celebrated, why, they all grew up together, at the very time when
their parents were attacking one another, and now you see their
harvest time has come.'
She laughed yet more loudly as she recalled the past, while an
expression of infinite kindness spread over her face. And joy was
rising around her. People came to say that other betrothals had just
taken place—that of Sébastien Bourron with Agathe Fauchard, and
that of Nicolas Yvonnot with Zoé Bonnaire. Love, sovereign love, was
incessantly perfecting the reconciliation, blending all classes
together. And the fête lasted until night-time, until the stars came
out, whilst love thus triumphed, bringing heart nearer to heart and
merging one into another, amidst the dances and songs of those
joyous people marching towards future unity and harmony.
Amidst the growing fraternity, however, there was one man, one
of the old ones, Master-smelter Morfain, who remained apart from
all the rest, mute and wild, unable and unwilling to understand. He
still dwelt, like one of the prehistoric Vulcans, in the rocky cavity
near the smeltery under his charge, and now he was quite alone
there, like a solitaire who had broken off all intercourse with the
rising generations. When his daughter Ma-Bleue had gone off to
realise her dream of love with Achille Gourier, the Prince Charming of
her blue nights, Morfain had already felt that the new times were
robbing him of the best part of himself. Then another love affair had
carried away his son Petit-Da, that tall young fellow who had
become so passionately enamoured of Honorine, a quick, alert little
brunette, daughter of Caffiaux, the grocer and taverner. Morfain had
at first peremptorily refused to consent to their marriage, full of
contempt as he was for that shady family of poisoners, the Caffiaux,
who on their side returned his disdain with interest, and in their
vanity were by no means inclined to allow their daughter to marry a
worker. Nevertheless, Caffiaux was the first to give way, for he was
of a supple and crafty nature. After closing his tavern he had
secured a very comfortable post as chief guardian at the general
stores of La Crêcherie, and the nasty stories once told of him were
being forgotten; whilst for his part he feigned too much devotion to
the principles of solidarity to cling obstinately to a decision which
might have harmed him. Thus Petit-Da, carried away by his passion,
took no further notice of his father's opposition, and the result was
that a terrible quarrel, a frightful rupture, between the two men
ensued. From that time forward the master-smelter no longer spoke,
save to direct the furnace work, but shut himself up in his cavern
like some fierce and motionless spectre of the dead ages.
Though years and years went by Morfain did not appear to age.
He was always the same old-time conqueror of fire, a colossus with
a huge head, a nose like an eagle's beak, and flaming eyes set
between cheeks which a flow of lava seemed to have ravaged. His
twisted lips, now seldom parted, retained their tawny redness
suggestive of burns. And it seemed as if no human considerations
would again weigh with him in the depths of the implacable solitude
in which he had shut himself on perceiving that his daughter and his
son had joined the party of to-morrow. Ma-Bleue had presented
Achille with a sweet little girl, Léonie, who was growing up all grace
and tenderness. And Petit-Da's wife, Honorine, had given birth to a
strong and charming boy, Raymond, now an intelligent young man
who would soon be old enough to marry. But the children's
grandfather did not soften—he repulsed them, shrank even from
seeing them.
On the other hand, however, amidst the collapse of his affection
for his kin, the species of paternal passion which he had always
evinced for his furnace seemed to increase. That growling monster
ever afire, whose flaming digestion he controlled both day and night,
was seemingly regarded by him as some child. The slightest
disturbance in its work threw him into anguish; he spent sleepless
nights in watching over the working of the twyers, displaying all the
devotion of a young lover amidst the embers whose heat his skin no
longer feared. Luc, rendered anxious by Morfain's great age, had
spoken of pensioning him off, but renounced the idea at the sight of
the quivering rebellion, the inconsolable grief which was displayed
by that hero of toil, who was so proud of having exhausted,
consumed his muscles in pursuing the conquest of fire. However, the
hour for retirement would come forcibly from the inevitable march of
progress, and Luc indulgently decided to wait awhile.
Morfain had already felt that he was threatened. He was aware of
the researches which Jordan was making with the view of replacing
the old, slow, barbarous smeltery by batteries of electrical furnaces.
The idea that one might extinguish and demolish the giant pile
which flamed during seven and eight years at a stretch, quite
distracted the master-smelter, and he became seriously alarmed
when Jordan effected a first improvement by burning coal at the
mouth of the pit from which it was extracted, and bringing electricity
without loss to La Crêcherie by cable. However, as the cost price still
remained too high for electricity to be employed for smelting ore,
Morfain was able to rejoice over the futility of Jordan's victory.
During the ensuing ten years each fresh defeat which fell on Jordan
delighted him. He indulged in covert irony, feeling convinced that fire
would never suffer itself to be conquered by that strange new power,
that mysterious thunder, whose flashes were not even visible. He
longed for his master's defeat, the annihilation of the new appliances
which were ever being constructed and improved. But all at once the
position became very threatening, a rumour spread that Jordan had
at last completed his great work, having discovered a means of
transforming calorical energy direct into electrical energy, without
the help of mechanical energy being required. That is, the steam
engine, that cumbersome and costly intermediary, was suppressed.
And in thiswise the problem was solved, the cost of electricity would
be lowered by one-half, and it would be possible to employ it for the
smelting of ore. A first battery of electrical furnaces was indeed
already being fitted up, and Morfain, full of despair, prowled fiercely
around his blast-furnace, as if anxious to defend it.
Luc did not immediately give orders for its demolition. He wished
first of all to make some conclusive experiments with the battery.
Thus, during a period of six months, the work went on in both
forms, and the old smelter spent some abominable days, for he now
realised that the well-loved monster in his charge was condemned.
He saw it forsaken now, nobody came up the hill to see it, whereas
the inquisitive thronged around those electrical furnaces below,
which occupied such little space, and did their work, it was said, so
well and so speedily. Morfain, for his part, full of rancour, never went
down to see them, but spoke of them disdainfully as of toys for
children. Was it possible that the ancient method of smelting which
had given man the empire of the world could be dethroned? No, no,
one would have to revert to those giant furnaces which had burnt
for centuries without ever being extinguished! And, alone with the
few men under his orders, who remained silent like himself, Morfain
looked down contemptuously on the shed in which the electrical
furnaces were working, and still felt happy at night-time, when he
was able to set the horizon all aglow with a 'run' of dazzling metal.
But the day at last came when Luc passed sentence on the blast-
furnace, whose work was now shown to be both slower and more
costly than the other. Thus it was decided that following upon a final
run it should be allowed to go out, after which it might be
demolished. Morfain, on being warned of this, did not answer, but
remained impassive, his bronze countenance revealing nothing of
the tempest in his soul. His calmness frightened people; Ma-Bleue
came up to see him, accompanied by her daughter Léonie, and
Petit-Da, moved by the same affectionate impulse, brought his son
Raymond. For a moment the family found itself assembled, as in
former days, in the rocky hillside cavern, and the old man allowed
himself to be kissed and caressed, without repulsing his
grandchildren as he had usually done. Still he did not return their
caresses, but seemed far away, like one who belonged to a past
period, one in whom no human feeling was left. It was a cold and
gloomy autumn day, and the crapelike veil of the early twilight was
falling from a livid sky over the dark earth. At last Morfain arose and
broke the silence, saying, 'Well, they are waiting for me, there is yet
another run.'
It was the last. They all followed him to the blast-furnace. The
men under his orders were present, already shadowy in the
increasing gloom, and once again, for the last time, the usual work
was accomplished. A bar was thrust into the plug of refractory clay,
the hole was enlarged, and finally the tumultuous flood of fusing
metal poured forth, a stream of flames rolling along the channels in
the sand and filling the moulds with blazing pools. And once again,
too, from those tracks and fields of fire arose a harvest of sparks,
blue sparks of delicate ethereality, and golden fusees delightfully
refined, a florescence of cornflowers, as it were, amidst golden ears
of wheat. And a blinding glow burst on the mournful twilight,
illumining the furnace, the neighbouring buildings, the distant roofs
of Beauclair, and the whole of the great horizon. Then everything
disappeared, deep night reigned all around; the end had come, the
furnace's life was over.
Morfain, who without a word had stood looking at it all, remained
there in the gloom motionless like one of the neighbouring rocks
which the shades of night again enveloped.
'Father,' said Ma-Bleue gently, 'now that there is no more work to
be done here, you must come down to us. Your room has long been
ready for you.'
And Petit-Da in his turn exclaimed: 'Father, you've certainly got to
rest now. There is a room for you in my place too. You must let each
of us have you in turn, you must live sometimes with one and
sometimes with the other.'
But the old master-smelter did not immediately answer. A great
sigh made his breast heave dolorously. At last he said: 'That's it, I'll
go down, I'll have a look. But you can go away now.'
 For another fifteen days it was impossible to induce Morfain to
quit the furnace. He watched it cooling, as one watches beside a
death-bed. Every evening he felt it in order to make sure that it was
not quite dead. And as long as he found a little warmth remaining,
he lingered obstinately beside it as if it were a friend whose remains
it would be wrong to abandon. But at last the demolishers arrived,
and then one morning the grand old vanquished man was seen to
descend from his cavern to La Crêcherie, where he repaired with a
still firm step to the large glazed shed in which the battery of
electrical furnaces was working.
As it happened, both Jordan and Luc were there with Petit-Da,
whom they had appointed to direct the smelting in conjunction with
his son Raymond, the latter already being a good electrician. The
work was being brought to greater precision day by day; and Jordan
scarcely quitted the shed, eager as he was to perfect the new
method which had cost him so many years of study and experiment.
'Ah! Morfain, my old friend!' he exclaimed joyously. 'So you've
become sensible!'
The other's face, the colour of old iron, remained impassive, and
he contented himself with replying: 'Yes, Monsieur Jordan, I wanted
to see your machine.'
Luc, however, scrutinised him rather anxiously. He had given
orders to have him watched, for he had learnt that he had been
found leaning over the mouth of the blast furnace, when the latter
was still full of glowing embers, like a man preparing to fling himself
into that frightful hell. One of the smelters under his orders,
however, had saved him from that death which he had
contemplated, perchance as a last gift of his scorched frame to the
monster, as though indeed he set his pride in dying by fire, after
loving and serving it so faithfully for more than half a century.
'It is pleasant to find you still inquisitive at your age, my good
Morfain,' said Luc, without taking his eyes from him. 'Now, just
examine these toys.'
 The battery stretched out before them, showing ten furnaces, ten
cubes of red brick-work over six feet high and nearly five feet long.
And above them one only saw the powerful electrodes, thick
cylinders of carbon, to which the electric cables were attached. The
operations were very simple. An endless screw, worked by a switch,
served the ten furnaces, bringing the ore and discharging it into
them. A second switch set up the current, the arc whose
extraordinary temperature of two thousand degrees sufficed to melt
almost four hundredweight of metal in five minutes. And it was only
necessary to turn a third switch for the platinum door of each oven
to rise up and for a kind of rolling way, lined with fine sand, to start
off on the march and receive the ten pigs, each of four
hundredweight, and carry them into the cool air outside.
'Well, my good Morfain,' asked Jordan with the gaiety of a happy
child, 'what do you think of it?'
Then he told him of the output. Those toys, each yielding four
hundredweight of metal every five minutes, could turn out
altogether a total of two hundred and forty tons daily, if they were
allowed to work ten hours at a stretch. This was a prodigious output
when one considered that the old blast-furnace, burning day and
night alike, could not supply one-third of the quantity. As a matter of
fact the electrical furnaces were seldom kept working more than
three or four hours, and the advantage was that they could be
lighted and extinguished as one pleased, in accordance with one's
needs, whatever quantity of raw material that was required being
immediately obtained. And how easily they worked, and what
cleanliness and simplicity there was! As the electrodes themselves
supplied the carbon necessary for the carburisation of the ore, there
was little dust. The gases alone escaped, and the quantity of slag
was so small that a daily cleaning sufficed to get rid of it. There was
no longer any need of a barbarous colossus whose digestion caused
disquietude, nor of any of the numerous and cumbersome
appendages, the purifiers, the heaters, the blast machinery, and the
constant current of water, with which it had been necessary to
surround it. There was no longer any fear of stoppages or cooling
down, nor any talk of demolishing or emptying the monster whilst
still ablaze, because a twyer simply went wrong. Loaders watching
at the mouth, and smelters piercing the plug and broiling in the
flames of the 'runs' were no longer required to be on the alert,
following one another incessantly with day and night shifts. The
battery of the ten electrical furnaces, extending over a surface under
fifty feet in length and some sixteen feet in width, was at its ease in
the large, bright, glazed shed which sheltered it. And three children
would have sufficed to set everything going, one at the switch of the
endless screw, a second at the switch of the electrodes, and a third
at that of the rolling way.
'What do you think of it? What do you think of it, my good
Morfain?' repeated Jordan triumphantly.
The old master-smelter still looked at the furnaces without moving
or speaking. Night was already at hand, shadows were filling the
shed, and the working of the battery, with its gentle mechanical
regularity, was quite impressive. Cold and dim, the ten furnaces
seemed to slumber, whilst the little cars of ore, moved by the
endless screw, were emptied one by one. Then every five minutes
the platinum doors opened, the ten white jets of the ten 'runs'
blazed upon the gloom, and the ten pigs, flowery with cornflowers
amidst ears of wheat, slowly and continuously journeyed off on the
rolling way.
However, Petit-Da, who hitherto had remained silent, wished to
give some explanations, and pointing to the thick cable which,
descending from the rafters, brought the current to the furnaces, he
said, 'You see, father, the electricity comes along that cable, and
such is its force that if the wires were severed everything would be
blown up!'
Luc, whom Morfain's calmness had reassured, began to laugh.
'Don't say that,' he exclaimed, 'you would frighten our young people.
Nothing would be blown up. Only the imprudent man who touched
the wires would be in danger. Besides, the cable is a strong one.'