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                              THEE MACHINERY OF THE EXHIBITION.
                                                           the view of makind
their -charaeteritiic eellencies undeitood,
                                                           but without any
pretension to seit f'orth their comparative
                                                           merits further
than mentioning those features that display the
                                                           progressive improvement
of the various processes selected far
                                                           9!our purpose.
                                                             As in the labour
Df the artifleer there isembined a phyaiml
                                                           exertion and a
manual dexterity,-tAhe latter-an emanation of
                                                           mental exertion,
the former requiring a regular supply of food
                                                           and raiment .to
the body, in order that the " right hand may
                                                           not lose its eunning,"-so
in manufacturing machinery, there
                                                           are two great
principles developed; there are machines which
                                                           are adapted to
receive and modify the powers of nature, and
           Hi=__ machines which are contrived for the transport and for the
                                                           change of theform
or-texture ofimaterials.
                                 7              1: 5 ii 4 ^Every -machine
is contrived to perform some given mecha-
                     i X AdF l |J                          nical process,
which supposes the existence of two other
                     UP'     /?                }            " g t }g
  FMthings besides the machine, namely, a moving power and work
                     .1)~f;                                5 /5  v '! g~to
be done, i.e., an object subject to the process in question.
                                                           Machines, in fact,
-are interposed between- the power and the
                                                           work, for the
purpose of adapting the one to the other.
                                                             As an example
connected with our subject, the old  ig-
                                                           wheel may be cited,
in which the spindle and fly -are made to
                                                           revolve by application
of the foot to a treadle. Here the
                                                           motive power is
derived from muscular action: the operation
                                                           of spinning is
carried on by drawing out the fibre from the
                                                           rock, and supplying
it regularly to the fly, which is caused to
                                                           turn rapidly and
twist it into a thread or yarn. The arrange-
                                                           ment of the form
of the fly and spindle, and its connection
                                                           with the foot
in such a manner that the pressure of the latter
                                                           shall communicate
the required motion -to the former, is the
                                                           function and object
of the machine.
                 AS170  EXT LE MA-NUFA-CTURES.               This machine,
we see, consists of a series of connected
                                                           pieces, beginning
with the treadle, the construction, -position,
                BY LEWsso  . of. GORDON,                   and motion of
which are determined by the -nature of the
           Regius Professor of Mechanics, U~niversity of Glasgow.  moving
power, and ending with the fly and spindle- but this
                                                           is, in fact, the
description of every machine. There is always
                                                           *one or more series
of connected pieces, at one end of which is
                                                           a part especially
adapted to receive the action of the power-
                          TIE term manufacture is no longer such as a steam-engine,
a water-wheel, a horse-lever, a handle
                          confined to its original significa- or a treadle.
At the other end of each series will be found a
                          tion-the production of human    set of parts determined
in form, position, and motion, by the
                          manipulation-but is now gene- nature of the work
they have to do, and which may be called
                          rally applied to articles made by the working pieces:
between them are placed trains of me-
                 w :         fr machinery, from  raw materials, chanism,
connecting them so that, when the first parts move
                           supplied by a beneficent Provi- according to the
law assigned to them by the action of the
                           dence, for adaptation by the power, the second
must necessarily move according to the Jaw
                           industr~y and ingenuity of man required by the
nature of the work.
                for the wants and enjoyments of civilised    There are, we
thus see, three classes of mechanical organ
                t t ;;;^, society.ndependent of each other, inasmuchla, on
the one hand, any
                  To some minds manufacturing has lost its set of operators
or working .parts may be put in motion by
                dignity by the substitution of the iron arms power derived
fom any source. Thus, a Sly and  idle may
                a nd fingers of machinery, for the bone and be turned either
by the foot, by water, or by steam. Again,
                sinew and nerves of the cunning artificer a given steam-engie,
or water-wheel, or any other  er d
                s who, within little more than a century, pro- power, may
be employed to give motion to any required set-d
                duced all that then existed of manufac- working parts for
any process whatever.     Ilso, Ketween a
                ture. But this is surely a misconception; given receiver
ofyower and setofworkingparstheiterposed
and a very different impression will, we conceive, be left on  mechanism
may be varied in very many ways. Moreover the
the minds of all who have had' an opportunity, however principlespon which
the       osion and arranement of
cursory, of contemplating the tools and machinery applied to these three
classes of mechanical organs are founded -Are differ-
manufactures, so liberally ;displayed in the Exhibition of the ent. The receivers
of power derive their form from a corm-
Industry of all Nations, mad which we are now to endeavour bination of mechanical
principles with the physical laws which
briefly to elucidate and e~lA~~in.                         govern the respective
sources of power. -The operators derive
  The object we lise in view     is to convey to general their form from
-a combination of mechanical principl  wh
readers such information on the principles and exact func  considerationsderived
from $heproesrestoeperformed.  he
tions of manufacturing machinery, as will increase their principles of the
interposed mechanism are purely geometric,
interest in what they may have seen for the first, and, in many and may be
developed without reference to the powers employd
cses, it -may -be for the last time, in the Great Exhibition, or transmitted.
Mechanism is a combination of pats connect-
and enable them    to -carry away with them truer impressions ing two or
more pieces, so that when one moves accordig to a
of the amount df thought and ingenuity that has been es- given law, the others
must move according to certain other
pended in the creation of the automatic fabricators of the given laws. A
train so f mechanism is compoiedo  a  series of
most complex as well assirnplest necessaries and conveniences moveable pieces,
each of which is so connected with the fe-
they find in use in their routine life, than they otherwise work of the machine,
that when in motion every point of it is
could do. It is not our intention to describe this manufac- constrained to
move in a certain path, in which, however, if
torng     machinery in detail, suited for the instruction of considered separately
from the other pieces, it is at liber to
manufacturers; we .shall only attempt to give a correct move in the two opposite
directions, and with anyelocity.
accowuntof the mechanical processes exhibited, sketched with  Thus, wheels,
pulleys, shafts, and revoling pieces, ge l