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BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THE YOUNG MECHANIC. 
 
 Containing directions for the Use of all kinds of 
 Tools, and for the Construction of Steam Engines 
 and Mechanical Models. Fully illustrated. 
 Cloth, extra, $1.75. 
 
 " This is a work of greater practical value than many 
 more pretentious works, and, although prepared for the instruc- 
 tion of boys mechanically inclined, will profit by its perusal 
 many a full-grown artisan." — American Artisan. 
 
 " The book is all that can be desired — one of the few for 
 which we can't say too much." — N. Y. Evening Mail. 
 
 "We know of no work of the kind which so well fulfills its 
 purpose." — Albany Journal. 
 
 " * * * The woik is a fascinating one for all who have 
 any mechanical taste or talent." — Boston Transcript. 
 
 " The work is full of drawings and illustrations, and any 
 boy having a taste for mechanics can get all the information 
 he needs to set himself at work." — Providence Press. 
 
AMONGST MACHINES 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS MECHANICAL APPLIANCES 
 
 USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOD, METAL, 
 
 AND OTHER SUBSTANCES. 
 
 & Book for Bogs 
 COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED 
 
 1 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 "THE YOUNG MECHANIC" 
 
 NEW YORK 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 182 Fifth Avenup 
 

 M^ , 
 
Preface. 
 
 OME time has now elapsed since the puhlication 
 of " The Young Mechanic," but when that book 
 was issued, it was intended to supplement 
 it by some such volume as that now placed 
 before our young friends. Although designed and espe- 
 cially written for the perusal of boys, it is possible 
 that it may convey interest and instruction to some of 
 maturer years, as all ought to have some knowledge of 
 the processes and means used in the production of articles 
 of daily use. " How was it made ? " seems a very 
 natural question for one to ask who takes up any 
 production of our various industries, and it is for 
 the purpose of giving a reply to such a query that we 
 have penned the present volume. Of course, in a small, 
 and of necessity somewhat sketchy book like the present, 
 there is much remaining untold which would be full of 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 interest to the reader ; but, so far as our limits would 
 allow, we have endeavoured to give sufficient detail to 
 make each subject treated clear and easy of apprehension. 
 Of some machines and processes we have written at full 
 length; of others we have laid down the principle of 
 construction, as being common to many others of the 
 same class, and have not described the actual details of 
 any one in particular. Thus we have endeavoured to 
 instruct the reader in those fundamental laws which of 
 necessity underlie the system of machinery, and .upon 
 which are founded the various mechanical combinations 
 yvhich have contributed so much to the development of 
 our manufactures. Very many hand processes which pre- 
 vailed only a few years ago, are fast disappearing in 
 spite of prejudice and vested interests, which make the 
 introduction of machine-work so hazardous and specula- 
 tive to the manufacturer ; and as the demand for certain 
 necessaries of civilised life, once confined to the richer 
 classes, is now extending more widely every day, it 
 becomes absolutely necessary to use mechanical appliances 
 to increase as well as to cheapen the supply by hastening 
 the various processes of production. Thus from year to 
 year we meet with new machines or improvements upon 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 those already in use, and there is good reason to suppose 
 that the increased wages now demanded by labourers of 
 all classes will call into action more than ever the 
 inventive faculty and energy of our manufacturers and 
 employers. Hence it has appeared to us a very fit time 
 to instruct the younger portion of the community in the 
 details of the more ordinary machines, with which they 
 may perhaps some day become closely and personally in- 
 terested. Those used for the production of textile fabrics, 
 however, we have been unable to treat of in the present 
 volume, as they need more space than we have at 
 our command, as well as a large number of draw- 
 ings to make the details of their construction clear. 
 Possibly this may occupy our attention at some future 
 time, but for the present we can only hope that the 
 book now in the reader's hands may prove useful and 
 interesting, and make our boys thirst for further infor- 
 mation, which ought, we consider, to be the effect of all 
 such outlines of instruction as these little volumes are 
 
 intended to impart. 
 
 J. L. 
 
 Stetchworth, July 1876. 
 
Content?. 
 
 PAGB 
 INTRODUCTORY 1 
 
 I. HUMAN TOIL ......... 14 
 
 II. IRON 29 
 
 III. TILTING AND ROLLING 43 
 
 IV. WIRE-DRAWING ......... 62 
 
 Y. BRASS TUBES 76 
 
 VI. MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS 91 
 
 VII. MECHANICAL POWERS 107 
 
 VIII. APPLICATION OP MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS . . .123 
 
 IX. OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS 137 
 
 X. VARIOUS MANUFACTURES — STEEL PENS • • . .154 
 
 XI. PINS 168 
 
 XII. HAIR-PINS .......... 178 
 
 XIII. SHEET-METAL GOODS 190 
 
yffi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGH 
 
 XIV. SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS 197 
 
 XV. MACHINES FOR CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD . . ,216 
 
 XVI. PAPER-MAKING MACHINES, ETC 242 
 
 XVII. GLASS-MAKING . 275 
 
 XVIII. SCIENTIFIC MACHINES ..,..•. 294 
 
 XIX. THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL . . . . , 318 
 
AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 " De gustibus non disputandura. ' 
 " Chacun a son gotit." 
 
 OW, boys, out with your dictionaries, if you need 
 them, and translate the above mottoes of an 
 U old friend, who has made up his mind to write 
 another little volume for your special delecta- 
 tion. In my last I told you " how to make;" I now 
 propose to tell you what others have made, and what, in 
 fact, they are making every day, for the use of their fellow- 
 creatures. Accustomed as we are in these days to the 
 luxuries of life, we have little idea that a very few years 
 ago these luxuries were almost unknown, and that what 
 we should now designate the necessaries of life, our 
 ancestors would have rather despised as effeminate indul- 
 gences, unworthy of their attention. How we should cry 
 
AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 out at floors without carpets, and even without boards, 
 thinly strewed with a covering of fresh rushes, cut amid 
 the swamps and marshes ; yet time was when these 
 constituted the carpets of princes and kings alone, and, 
 even in palaces, were not unfrequently found wanting, 
 except in the state apartments. And as to soft feather 
 beds and spring mattresses, and luxurious pillows, 
 arranged upon luxurious and handsome bedsteads, it was 
 not even in the power of the rich to obtain them. As 
 for the poor, a heap of straw, or of leaves, not always too 
 fresh or too dry, formed the only resting-place after days 
 of labour such as are now happily unknown. The truth 
 is, we have during the last fifty years made such gigantic 
 strides in civilisation that each class has stepped into 
 the position of those above them. The smock-frock and 
 humble gig of the thriving farmer have given place to the 
 fashionable suit and waggonette ; the old-fashioned plain 
 tradesman has become " Esquire ; " and the stage-coach, 
 with its well-bred team of roadsters, has disappeared 
 before that snorting iron steed that was once known, when 
 a comparative colt, as Stephenson's " Puffing Billy." In 
 1830, steam locomotion was in its infancy; in 1875, it 
 has, we may fairly say, wellnigh reached its climax, 
 and in all probability the engine as it now stands will 
 not undergo any material alteration, although it is to be 
 hoped that railway management will mightily improve, 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 and means be provided for increasing both the comfort 
 and safety of travellers. It is to the general introduction 
 of steam-machinery that we are, indeed, indebted for the 
 rapid advance and improvement of all nations into which 
 it has penetrated. The native Hindoo may seem to beat 
 us in the fineness of his textile fabrics ; and the hand- 
 looms of the East may send forth rugs and carpets which 
 ravish the eye with their rich and harmonious colours, 
 but the quantity thus produced is utterly insignificant ; 
 and hence these costly and tedious results of native skill 
 can never come into general use, nor compete with the 
 products of our steam-looms and gigantic carpet manu- 
 factories. Then, again, look at our works in metal. 
 Here we have absolutely first created a want, and then 
 devised the means of supplying it. What did our 
 ancestors require in the way of writing materials ? Not 
 one in ten could write their own names fifty or sixty 
 years ago, and a few quills plucked annually from the 
 wretched geese in the Lincolnshire fens amply sufficed 
 the needs of the last generation. Now we think nothing 
 of rolling a few hundred tons of steel into a few thousand 
 gross of steel pens ; yet, so vast and ceaseless is the 
 demand, that every day, and all day long, does the un- 
 relenting machinery groan and toil at its heavy task. 
 At times it appears as if every possible requirement of 
 humanity must needs be satisfied. " Having food and 
 
AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 clothing, " it would be imagined that we might "be con- 
 tent ; " but all at once a new demand arises, we hardly 
 know how, and as it increases, it brings other requirements 
 in its train ; and new machines are planned, and new 
 and gigantic manufactures spring up, until people begin 
 to wonder how it was possible to live and be happy 
 without that particular article which, from being absolutely 
 unknown and undesired, has at last become one of the 
 necessaries of civilised life. Well do I remember, when 
 a boy myself, the eightpenny letter, that had come but 
 forty miles at most, brought in one of what then appeared 
 plethoric bags carried by the yenerable mail-coach — 
 precious letter, indeed, in those days of high postal rates, 
 when these delightful home messages were, like angel 
 visits, few and far between. Then we thought forty and 
 fifty miles a day u very fair journey for letters or for 
 ourselves, and the London " Optimus," or " Highflyer," 
 or " Express," was in our admiring eyes the beau ideal 
 of rapid locomotion ; yet even then these "old things 
 were passing away," and by the time our jackets had 
 been supplanted by the much-longed-for tailcoats, and 
 the turn-down collars had given place to " stick ups " 
 and cravats (which, by the way, were well denominated 
 " chokers"), stage-coaches and mails were on their 
 last legs, and visions were beginning to arise of iron 
 horses and fast trains, cheap postage and electric tele- 
 
INTROD UCTOR Y. 
 
 graphs. Now the vision is realised, and we can only ask, 
 " What is to come next?" The strangest fact connected 
 with all this is the suddenness with which a new manu- 
 facture or industry springs up. When a thing actually 
 exists as an everyday article of traffic, the popular mind 
 seldom busies itself with the question of " how it came 
 to pass ; " there it is, and its presence is accepted as un 
 fait accompli, Not so the thoughtful looker-on. A 
 few years ago an industry existed in Manchester which is 
 already on the wane. Thousands of tons of steel were 
 being rapidly converted into long, flat, ribbon-like strips 
 of varied width, but otherwise wonderfully alike. Coil 
 upon coil was rolled out and tempered, and packed for 
 home consumption and for export. It was crinoline steel 
 for our wives and daughters ! Fashion had decreed 
 that the Elizabethan pattern should revive ; and all at 
 once, as it seemed, the new demand was met and 
 satisfied, and more than one large fortune was made 
 in carrying out this new and unlooked-for manufacture. 
 But some one discovered that the steel cut through the 
 fabric in which it was inserted, in spite of the care taken 
 to obliterate the sharpness of its edges. At once manu- 
 facturing enterprise was turned in the new direction, and 
 I know of one at least who realised a fortune by the 
 invention of a machine for covering steel ribbons with a 
 woven sheath of wool or cotton. In neither case was 
 
AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 the manufacture itself absolutely new, but it gave a new 
 direction to, and created special modifications of, old in- 
 ventions, and thus practically resulted in new and exten- 
 sive industrial pursuits. It is in this way that there is 
 a constant market for labour. One manufacture dies out 
 when its products are no longer suitable to the peculiar 
 demands of the times, and hundreds of hands, it would 
 be supposed, must be thrown out of work ; but instead 
 of this, some real or imaginary want, or some unlooked- 
 for fashion or custom, arises, and as one manufacture is 
 gradually withdrawn, another takes its place, and needs 
 the hands or the brains that would otherwise have been 
 driven to forced idleness. It is most astonishing to mark 
 the even poise of the scales between demand and supply, 
 which again in turn regulates the market price of each 
 commodity ; and although it must now and then happen 
 that individual hardship occurs, and from some unlooked- 
 for and unexpected stagnation in trade, hands are thrown 
 out of work who do not deserve that fate, it generally 
 happens that there is a fair field of labour, and fair 
 remuneration, for those who have the necessary qualifica- 
 tions of honesty and diligence. Most certainly these 
 are days in which both the literal " slow-coach " and its 
 moral representative have no place ; even the stanch 
 old Tory finds himself dragged unwillingly along, until 
 he generally lands at least among the ranks of Liberal 
 
INTR OD UCTOR Y. 
 
 Conservatism, if lie does not go yet one little step farther ; 
 and both nations and people (even lethargic John Bull) 
 find sometimes that they have taken a pretty long march 
 before they were aware of it. Our go-ahead cousins, 
 perhaps, have done not a little to wake us up in this re- 
 spect. A vast number of improvements in our various 
 industries hail from America, and for machinery to ex- 
 pedite certain manufactures there can be no question 
 that we are considerably indebted to the cousins aforesaid. 
 Probably we are more fettered by our patent laws than 
 we are fully aware of. No man can realise the fruit of 
 his head and hand work in England without very heavy 
 expense, to which he is most probably quite unequal. 
 Knowing this, many really clever workmen are afraid to 
 turn their attention to the production of novel machines. 
 They consider that the offspring of their own heavily- 
 worked brains will only enrich others and impoverish 
 themselves, and thus the very laws which ought to stimu- 
 late and encourage inventions do, in fact, restrain the 
 exercise of talent and industry, and cramp and fetter 
 mechanical craftsmen. The necessary result of this im- 
 perfection of our patent laws is, that other nations give 
 us the go by, crib our inventions, and sell them back to 
 us at a very considerable profit. As I am, however, 
 addressing my old friends " the boys," I think it may 
 be well to explain the nature of a patent, although I am 
 
AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 well aware that many of my readers are " up," as they 
 say, " in that kind of thing," and know already some- 
 thing about patents. Well, all I can say is, if some 
 do, some do not; so here goes, all the same, and the wiser 
 and more knowing may skip the paragraph if they 
 please. 
 
 Perhaps, as I sit over the fire thinking of things in 
 general and mechanics in particular, a bright idea strikes 
 me. Perhaps it is a machine for grinding up moons to 
 make stars, or grinding up old people and making them 
 into small boys ; of course the idea is grand — it is noble 
 — it is wonderful ! it will make me a millionaire ! and I 
 begin to build castles, keep carriages, and become a man 
 very mighty in my generation ! That night I get no 
 sleep, or if I do, visions of little old men and big old 
 men greet me, popping head foremost into a huge coffee- 
 mill, and coming out young rascals in jackets and knicker- 
 bockers. At early dawn I rise unrefreshed, seize pencil 
 and compasses and ruler, and proceed to develop on 
 paper the gigantic invention of my enlightened brain. 
 Now, some ideas look very well as long as they are not 
 thus delineated in cruel unrelenting black and white, and 
 some will stand even this ordeal. Of course my grand 
 mill will look really splendid on paper ; so I make the 
 rough sketch of its hopper, and stones, and bone-crushers, 
 and sifters, and renovators ; and then I draw them with 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 rule and compass, and ink them in, and it is done — triumph 
 of brain over matter — and I must get a patent. 
 
 Searching the columns of the newspaper, I see the very 
 advertisement I require, " Patents for inventions obtained, 
 and successful sale ensured. Address Diddle-um & Do-em, 
 Vanity Fair, near the Library of the Hocus-pocus and 
 Gammon Institute." I cannot trust my precious invention 
 to the custody of H.M. Post Office officials, I am off to 
 London with my drawing in hand. I find the local 
 habitation and name of the agents, and am introduced 
 to the gentlemen themselves, who at once declare the 
 thing perfect in all its details, request £10 or so on 
 account, to secure the provisional protection or registra- 
 tion, which will secure the invention for a few weeks and 
 prevent others from pirating it; and at length I depart 
 full of hope by the evening train, and having duly arrived, 
 add several more decorations and luxuries to my aerial 
 castle. After some days I receive a note from the 
 agents, " they have searched the records at the Patent 
 Office, and have to congratulate me on the fact that no 
 specification of such a machine as mine can be found ; 
 the very idea is novel, the details perfection, and strongly 
 they would advise proceeding at as early a date as possible 
 to complete the patent." This costs £100, with perhaps 
 a few fees for search at the Patent Office, coloured drawings, 
 stamps, and similar requisites. In the meantime the 
 
i o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 invention is advertised, and I see my name in print as 
 about to " proceed." I do proceed, and am opposed by 
 another inventor who thinks or pretends to think he has 
 forestalled me ; of course litigation means more fees, but 
 at last I triumph, and am duly acknowledged real and sole 
 inventor and proprietor of the " Human Grinder.' ' Now 
 for results. No one will buy it from me. No manu- 
 facturer will undertake its construction and become my 
 agent for its sale except at a price that will certainly 
 remunerate him, but will never reimburse me the outlay 
 already made; and, stranger still, though I have one made 
 and placed in my own hall for inspection, not one old 
 man — no, not even the oldest and most " faithful retainer " 
 of the family — can be induced to take a header for the 
 satisfaction of an inquiring but sceptical public. The 
 whole concern has fallen flat upon the market, and I 
 am left alone in my glory, pockets considerably lighter, 
 heart so much heavier that I am almost tempted to take 
 a header myself into the mill. Alas, boys ! the climax is 
 yet to come. My old addle-headed neighbour, taking the 
 hint, but carefully avoiding the details of my machine, 
 cribs the whole concern, reaps the produce of my sleepless 
 nights and overworked brain, produces a precisely similar 
 but not identical machine, patents it, grants licences to 
 manufacture and use it, is eminently successful, amasses 
 a fortune, and dies Sir Noodleton Addlehead. As for me, 
 
INTR OD UCTOR K 1 1 
 
 I cut rny — no, boys, not my throat just at present, but 
 my " stick," and retire to a remote village to growl out 
 my span of existence ingloriously. I do write sundrj 
 letters to the " Times " on the injustice of the patent 
 law, which somehow or other fall into the editor's waste- 
 paper basket. By this, boys, you see that the object of a 
 patent is to secure all profits to an inventor for seven, ten, 
 or fourteen years ; the result of a patent is very frequently 
 to impoverish the inventor and to enrich his neighbour. 
 Now, if instead of this very heavy outlay, which of course 
 always involves a risk of failure, an inventor could secure 
 his patent for a pound or two, and be fairly certain that 
 he would enjoy the proceeds of it, inventive faculty, even 
 amongst our mechanical boys, would be considerably 
 stimulated, and the regular workman would be encouraged 
 to plan and contrive improvements which would first 
 benefit himself, and next, in many instances, confer lasting 
 benefit on his country. ' It is true that the Patent Office 
 contains records of inventions quite as ridiculous and 
 unmarketable as my imaginary human grinder, inventions 
 which deserve their fate ; but there are also many really 
 clever and valuable discoveries utterly prevented from 
 full development because the discoverers cannot find the 
 funds to secure the patent, and do not choose to give 
 away the creations of their own brains. It often happens, 
 however, that some chance hint to a friend (?) better 
 
1 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 provided with capital, or more happily situated, is seized, 
 worked out, and made the subject of a successful patent, 
 while the original inventor is obliged to plod along as 
 before, unrecognised and unrewarded. It would not, 
 perhaps, be very difficult for me to name more than one 
 owner of a grand estate who has made a name and en- 
 riched his family by stealing the invention of the hard- 
 worked and industrious mechanic. No one probably steps 
 in to defend the right, and we all know how riches and 
 power are wont to hush all inquiry as to how tbey have 
 been gained. I speak of these things, my boys, on 
 purpose to create in you a proper sense of justice, and 
 to induce you to befriend the working men of your time. 
 If fortune has or shall hereafter favour you, never 
 think it a disgrace to take hold of that rough and 
 sinewy right hand by whose work you obtain the various 
 necessaries or luxuries of life ; and if any of you live to 
 become employers of labour, be careful to render to every 
 one his due. Often among those hard sons of toil you 
 will find the most noble Christian feelings, and often 
 keen and active intelligence where you least suspect it. 
 Unfortunately of late there has existed among labourers 
 of all kinds a sense of injustice which has estranged them 
 from their masters. The latter are not, however, always, 
 nor perhaps generally in fault ; yet in too many instances 
 there has been real cause for complaint ; and ill-feeling 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 once aroused, and fostered and kept up by unprincipled 
 agitators (whose real object is to enrich themselves), 
 has created a breach that it will require many years 
 to stop. You, my boys, must be foremost to step into 
 that breach when you come to manhood; and by your 
 plucky defence of the right, and even-handed justice, 
 you may do much to restore the good feeling and mutual 
 dependence that once existed between the employers and 
 the employed. 
 
Chapter I. 
 
 HUMAN TOIL. 
 
 
 EPS 
 
 ABOUR and sorrow, toil and death, constitute 
 the curse which has hung like a dark shadow 
 over our world for about six thousand years. 
 We know why that curse descended, and most 
 of you, boys, know it too, and have in some degree par- 
 taken of it. But probably it has never struck you that 
 the civilisation in which we pride ourselves — our arts and 
 manufactures, our railways and telegraphs, and machinery 
 of various kinds — is but the evidence of that curse, 
 inasmuch as by these man is ever trying to lighten his 
 labour and alleviate his toil. The muscles and sinews 
 of the human frame soon grow weary, and yet our labour 
 must not cease. Food and clothing are demanded by 
 our frail and perishable bodies, and these wants must be 
 supplied ; and so the clever brain comes to the rescue, 
 and devises, perpetually, new and improved modes of 
 producing what we so urgently require — increasing and 
 varying the manifold industries, by which the progress of 
 
HUMAN WANTS. 15 
 
 civilisation is ever marked. In the earlier ages of the 
 world, man's wants were but few, especially while only 
 the warmer regions of the earth were tenanted by the 
 human race, and a redundant tropical vegetation made 
 toil and labour a name rather than a reality. 
 
 The dispersion, however, that after the Flood com- 
 menced at Babel, soon compelled mankind to make for them- 
 selves homes in less genial countries, and to exert both mind 
 and body to a much greater extent, in order to provide 
 for the necessities of daily life. It is not necessary to 
 trace man's progress from a condition of rude barbarism 
 to a state of comparative civilisation, nor need we inquire 
 at what date the " coats of skins," which at first sufficed 
 for clothing, gave place to plaited or roughly-woven 
 garments, of which we have specimens now existing 
 among savage tribes of Indians and others. We may 
 leap at once the intervening gulf of centuries, and speak 
 of the arts and manufactures of later days. 
 
 We may, nevertheless, pause to note the fact that man, 
 as suggested in our introductory chapter, creates his 
 own wants, until what was once a luxury of life becomes 
 a necessity ', and what was at one time found only in 
 " kings' houses " is demanded even in the cottages of 
 the poor. It seems, in fact, less likely year by year that 
 the time will come when we shall carry out with one 
 accord the Apostolic maxim, li Having food and clothing, 
 
16 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 let us be therewith content." It has, indeed, of late been 
 a sore puzzle to the lawyers to decide, as they are some- 
 times called upon to do, what are to be considered the 
 luxuries of life, and what the necessaries. Ee turning, 
 however, to the primitive condition of mankind, we 
 cannot be far wrong in considering food and clothing 
 so absolutely necessary to his very existence that he 
 must be a 'cute lawyer, indeed, who would venture to dis- 
 pute the fact. 
 
 Now, simple as these are in themselves, neither would 
 have been gained by sitting still. The fruits of earth 
 must be obtained by culture ; the flesh given to man for 
 food must be procured by hunting; and then the food 
 must be prepared in utensils more or less suited to the 
 purpose. We therefore soon meet with other neces- 
 sities — tools for the cultivation of the land, weapons for 
 the chase, and means of cooking the food thus obtained. 
 
 The Book of Genesis, therefore, introduces us to such 
 things at a very early date, and in the story there told 
 us of the death of Isaac, we have mention not only of 
 the quiver and the bow as ordinarily used for hunt- 
 ing, but also of venison made into savoury meat, be- 
 tokening, at all events, a certain refinement in cooking 
 to which the Patriarch was no stranger. At the same 
 period we gather the fact that a clothing of the skins of 
 wild beasts had been discarded for a lighter and more 
 
H UMAN INVENTIONS. 1 7 
 
 convenient, as well as a more ornamental character of 
 garment, Joseph's coat of many colours being, there is 
 little doubt, made of some kind of woven material ; and 
 in the Book of Job, which some have supposed the oldest 
 of all the sacred writings, the " weaver's shuttle " is 
 mentioned as an article with which his readers or hearers 
 were generally conversant. Implements and machines, 
 more or less rude, but sufficing for the requirements of 
 the times, were therefore almost of necessity invented as 
 soon as labour and toil were universally acknowledged 
 to be the lot of man. 
 
 Vessels to contain water, and even to enable it to be 
 boiled, as would soon be discovered, were provided by 
 nature in the gourd and cocoa-nut, to which were added, 
 as a more capacious reservoir, the skins of animals care- 
 fully removed from their carcases, and the various open- 
 ings closed by tying or sewing. But these had at a 
 very early date — partially, at all events — given way to 
 articles of metal, so that we read of Tubal Cain some 
 years before the Flood as a skilful artificer in brass and 
 iron. These casual remarks of the sacred writers re- 
 ferring to the arts of civilisation, prove how very soon 
 man, left to his own devices, learned to turn to his own 
 use, for the purpose of increasing his comforts, the 
 various mineral, animal, and vegetable products of the 
 world around him. In carrying out the several processes 
 
1 8 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 demanded for these purposes, he must have rapidly dis- 
 covered the more prominent peculiarities of the materials 
 placed in his hands, and we can but admire the talent 
 which our progenitors evinced in overcoming such stu- 
 pendous difficulties as smelting ores and refining the 
 metals so obtained. From what we have been enabled 
 to gather from native handicraft as still pursued in 
 India and other Eastern nations, it would seem that 
 the earliest works of the kind were produced by casting 
 and by the use of the hammer. The heat of the fire 
 was kept up by a pair of bellows made of goat or other 
 skins, a wooden or cane pipe being inserted into one 
 of the legs to act as a blowpipe or tuyere. By these 
 simple means much elaborate work is still done by the 
 native artisans. 
 
 To show, in fact, what simple means will in skilful 
 hands produce satisfactory results we will copy from 
 an old cyclopaedia * the description of a furnace or 
 forge used by silversmiths and native blacksmiths in 
 the island of Ceylon. For gold and silver, which require 
 less heat than iron, the native artists require a low 
 earthen pot full of chaff and sawdust, in which they 
 make a little charcoal fire ; a small bamboo blowpipe, 
 with which they excite the fire; a short earthen tube 
 or nozzle, the extremity of which is placed at the bottom 
 
 * Luke Hebert's Cyclopaedia. 
 
CEYLON JEWELLER'S TOOLS. 
 
 19 
 
 of the fire, and through which passes the stream of air 
 from the blowpipe ; two or three small crucibles made 
 of the fine clay procured from ant-hills ; a pair of light 
 tongs, an anvil, two or three small hammers, and a file ; 
 and to conclude the list, a few small bars of iron or brass 
 about two inches long, and differently pointed for different 
 kinds of work. The drawings delineate these as com- 
 monly made and used (fig. 1). 
 
 Fig. 1. —Tools used by native Jewellers of Ceylon. 
 
 It is astonishing, says the writer, what an intense little 
 tire, more than sufficiently strong to melt gold and silver, 
 can be kindled in a few minutes. The success of this 
 little forge depends a good deal in the bed of the fire 
 being composed of a combustible material, yet a bad 
 conductor of heat. The blacksmiths of Ceylon require 
 a larger forge, producing greater heat, of which Hg. 2 
 is a sketch. 
 
20 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES, 
 
 The two smiths work as here shown, one at the bellows 
 of bullocks' hides, the other at the iron. The bellows are 
 curiously made, and we should suppose them utterly 
 inefficient. The nozzle of each is of bamboo, and so 
 far would be likely enough to answer the purpose re- 
 
 Fig. 2.— Ceylon Blacksmith's Forge. 
 
 quired ; but instead of such a valve as may be seen 
 in the lower board of a pair of house bellows, which is 
 contrived to allow the wind to enter but not to escape, 
 there is a long slit in each bag, to the edges of which a 
 strip of wood is attached, forming a pair of wooden lips, 
 
CE YLON BLA CKSMITH'S FORGE. 1 1 
 
 which are separated a little way by the hands of the 
 workman as he raises the bag, and are closed again as 
 he presses it down to force out the wind. To an English- 
 man the tedium, not to say difficulty, of thus keeping up 
 the blast by the action of these rude bellows, one on each 
 side, as he sits on the ground, would be unendurable ; yet 
 these natives work away hour after hour, singing at their 
 monotonous task, and turn out work of a very creditable 
 character in spite of these inefficient contrivances, which 
 were probably used in almost the same way by Tubal Cain 
 himself; for, it may be remarked, there is a great re- 
 luctance in the native character to take advantage of the 
 superior mode of work introduced to their notice by 
 foreign settlers. The old plan has stood for centuries, 
 and probably will be pursued for many centuries yet to 
 come. 
 
 The use of charcoal in these native forges renders the 
 iron of a superior quality, and were it more readily 
 obtainable, we should find it more universally used in 
 England. Coal is nearly always contaminated with 
 sulphur, and this, laying hold of the heated metal, forms 
 with it a brittle compound which boys versed in chem- 
 istry are acquainted with under the name of sulphuret 
 or sulphide of iron. When, therefore, very superior metal 
 is required that shall possess such toughness and duc- 
 tility as will fit it for boiler plates, wire, and similar 
 
2 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 purposes, the quality called charcoal iron, in which char- 
 coal has been the fuel used to smelt it, or at any rate to 
 refine it, is always used. It has also been observed that 
 iron produced in those countries where appliances for 
 smelting and working it are of a rude and primitive 
 kind, is always superior to that manufactured where these 
 requisites are accessible. Probably this is due not only 
 to the use of charcoal instead of coal, but to the fact that 
 the native workman requires comparatively small quan- 
 tities of the metal, and cares little about the time he 
 may have to consume in the various operations. He 
 works, therefore, with the utmost deliberation, and ex- 
 pends on his productions an amount of manual labour 
 which no machinery can rival in quality, though as 
 regards quantity no comparison can exist between the 
 two. 
 
 The smel ting-furnace used by the Cingalese, as the 
 natives of Ceylon are called, is not very dissimilar to that 
 used by ourselves ; it is, however, infinitely smaller, 
 more like a large crucible, and the fire is urged by a pair 
 of primitive bellows worked alternately by the feet. In 
 a small way, indeed, our readers may effect the fusion of 
 iron-ore by way of experiment for themselves, making use 
 of a neat furnace of blacklead like fig. 3. 
 
 This may be had of any manufacturer of chemical appa- 
 ratus for ten or twelve shillings, and will be often found 
 
BLACKLEAD FURNACE. 
 
 23 
 
 useful in experimenting upon metals. The hole at the side 
 of the bottom part or stand is for the introduction of the 
 nozzle of a pair of bellows ; the blast of air then passes 
 upwards through several holes in the bottom of the 
 middle part or body of the furnace, in which is a little 
 block of plumbago or blacklead, on which the crucible is 
 
 Fig. 3. — Blacklead Furnace (Aikin). 
 
 placed. The fuel is charcoal and coke, in small pieces about 
 the size of walnuts, and is packed to about three-quarters 
 the whole depth of the furnace, a few pieces of lighted 
 charcoal being first placed at the bottom; the conical 
 cover is then placed on, and upon the application of the 
 bellows a very intense heat is quickly attained, A little 
 
24 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 lime is generally added as a flux, and the metal has to 
 be remelted to refine it. 
 
 This process, however, is of course only on a very small 
 scale, and is chiefly introduced to show the trade opera- 
 tion in miniature. It is used in practice merely to test 
 the percentage of iron in any given sample of ironstone, 
 which may, however, be done by the practised hand with 
 the still more miniature appliances of a lamp, blowpipe, 
 and piece of charcoal, a bit of pumice-stone serving as a 
 crucible, or to represent the walls of the furnace. The 
 operation of preparing iron for use, as practised in our 
 own country, consists of first smelting the ore in huge 
 furnaces, which are kept alight for years together ; refin- 
 ing the metal which runs from these furnaces by remelting 
 it ; transferring this to the puddling- furnace, where it is 
 stirred about at an intense heat until by a natural 
 chemical action it takes the form of tough balls com- 
 parable to dough ; passing these under a tilt-hammer, 
 and then between huge rollers, by which the fibres are 
 elongated and the mass becomes malleable; and thus 
 forming it into bars or sheets of any desired thickness 
 fit for the several purposes to which it is to be sub- 
 sequently put by the manufacturers. 
 
 A visit to the " Black Country," as the whole region 
 devoted to the iron manufacture is called, especially if the 
 traveller arrives at night, is one that makes upon the 
 
" THE BLACK COUNTRY:' 25 
 
 mind an impression not easily effaced. It will certainly- 
 put our boys in mind of the infernal regions described by 
 classic poets, in which Vulcan labours at the thunderbolts 
 of Jupiter, and fashions the armour of the immortal gods. 
 The whole country appears to be on fire — hill and dale 
 alike glare with the light of innumerable furnaces, 
 rendering more black and forbidding the smoke and coal- 
 begrimed intervals where no vegetation can grow to vary 
 the scene of desolation. The whole district is like a vast 
 cinder-heap, and the swarthy and sinewy workmen who 
 by day and night preside over the seething furnaces and 
 their adjacent mills might well be descendants of the 
 Cyclopean giants, who were the fabled pioneers of this 
 particular industry. To strangers especially these men 
 show a roughness of demeanour by no means inviting ; they 
 dislike interference or interrogation, but are nevertheless 
 by no means the savages they are sometimes represented to 
 be. Their work, it must be remembered, is excessively 
 heavy, and they have but little time to spend in learning 
 the mere refinements of more civilised society. Beneath 
 this rough exterior warm and affectionate natures are by 
 no means rare, and when once these men admit you to 
 their confidence, you will find in them an intelligence, 
 and not seldom an amount of knowledge, you would 
 never have expected to meet with. 
 
 To those boys who reside upon such scenes, or who have 
 
26 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 special facilities for paying them visits, the present little 
 work will, it is hoped, prove of use by giving them a greater 
 and more intelligent interest in the manufactures there 
 taking place. To those who from various causes are 
 prohibited from personal inspection, our brief notices of 
 " how things are made" ought to prove not less valuable. 
 Machinery and processes which they cannot examine for 
 themselves must needs be brought before them through 
 the medium of such books as the writer now offers to 
 them, and as they peruse its pages we fancy they will be 
 themselves surprised to discover how many articles of 
 daily use have hitherto escaped their close attention, which 
 nevertheless demand in their construction a great amount 
 of ingenuity and manufacturing skill. Even where we 
 may omit the notice of a particular manufactured article, 
 we hope to arouse inquiry respecting its construction, 
 for such inquiry bespeaks an inquisitiveness worthy of 
 all possible encouragement ; it shows that our boys are 
 not content to take and to use things as they find them, 
 but to exercise the mind and enlarge the intellect. Both 
 natural and artificial productions — the raw material and 
 the finished article — are sure to be worthy of examination 
 and study; for the works of man, which have resulted 
 from the lawful use of the intellect given to him by God, 
 are more or less a reflex of the still mightier works which 
 that God presents to his view. 
 
LAB ORATOR Y OF NATURE. 27 
 
 All our work is, in fact, first prepared in the great 
 laboratory of nature. There for endless ages have the 
 combined forces of heat and electricity, and " the light of 
 the sun bottled up," as one of our greatest engineers 
 expressed it, been manufacturing, for man's use, both the 
 ironstone and the coal, the copper, the tin, or the precious 
 metals ; the fireclay for our furnaces, the fine earth for 
 the use of the potter, the limestone for a flux, the salt for 
 a glaze, and the many other raw materials upon which 
 man is called to exercise his skill. Whenever the exigen- 
 cies of life have created a want, or the fashions of society 
 a luxury, the needful supply of the material has been 
 found, and suitable means for its economic manufacture ; 
 and the greater the demand for any particular article at 
 home or abroad, the more cheaply can it usually be 
 supplied. Productions which are mere waste in one 
 manufacture soon become necessary in another, and that 
 which yesterday was allowed to rot as refuse, to-day 
 becomes a marketable commodity of special and peculiar 
 value. Thus our manufacturing industries are constantly 
 on the increase, and remunerative employment is found 
 for the ever-increasing population, who depend for the 
 very necessaries of life upon this continual springing up 
 of new demands. 
 
 As iron, though not considered one of the noble metals, 
 is nevertheless so far the chief that it could be less easily 
 
28 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 dispensed with than even silver and gold, we shall enter 
 into more details of its manufacture that we have given 
 in our preliminary sketch, as many of our boys have 
 probably no idea of the many processes required before it 
 can be brought to their notice as some well-recognised 
 article of daily use. 
 
Chapter II. 
 
 IRON. 
 
 HIS substance has been occasionally found as a 
 metal more or less pure, but more generally in 
 the form of ironstone or iron-ore, in which the 
 metal is combined with several substances 
 requiring to be separated from it. A lump of ironstone 
 would appear to a casual beholder like a heavy pebble ; 
 and many a boy would think nothing of shying it away 
 at any object that might offer itself as a mark, without 
 a moment's consideration, and certainly without any sus- 
 picion of its real value. 
 
 The reader must not suppose that this iron-ore is always 
 alike, or that there is but one quality ; and it may seem 
 at first strange that the greater part of that which is 
 worked in England is comparatively poor in the quantity 
 of metal which it contains. This is the argillaceous 
 (clayey) ironstone, in which the metal is mixed with 
 
3 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 clay, lime, magnesia, and sometimes with bitumen, when 
 it bears the name of " black-band," and is of better 
 quality. This is a carbonate of iron, carbon being 
 chemically associated with it. 
 
 The reason that this kind of ironstone is so largely used 
 is that it occurs in vast quantities in the Coal Measures of 
 England, Providence having placed side by side the ore and 
 the material required for smelting it. The richest in metal 
 is the ore called magnetite — the magnetic oxide of iron — 
 next to which is red haematite, and then brown haematite. 
 These occur chiefly in Sweden, but also in great quantities 
 in different parts of England. Here again, as notably 
 in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, the coal (and 
 timber for charcoal) is close at hand, which has of course 
 in a great degree determined the chief localities of the 
 iron manufacture. Unless the ore is particularly pure, 
 it is first of all roasted, either by laying it in heaps with 
 the necessary fuel in the open air, or in special furnaces. 
 By this some of the grosser impurities are got rid of, 
 and the moisture is driven off, by which means the iron- 
 stone is prepared for the operation of smelting. This is 
 done in a special furnace of large size, of which groups 
 are seen like flaming watch-towers in all parts of the 
 Black Country. Such a furnace is sketched in fig. 4. 
 
 It consists of a conical brick tower (or stone, if more 
 readily accessible) very strongly put together, and fre- 
 
IRON. 3I 
 
 tj lently strengthened with iron bonds or hoops, because 
 the weight of the ore, lime, and fuel is very great, and if 
 a furnace should give way, it would probably involve the 
 lo&s of life, besides an enormous sum of money. 
 
 Fig. 4.— Iron Smelting-Furnace. 
 
 The furnace is generally built on the side of a hill, for 
 the convenience of arranging from the latter a tramway 
 by which to bring up the ironstone in trucks constructed 
 for the purpose. Sometimes, however, it rises from a level, 
 
3 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 and each of the trucks is raised by a " lift " to a platform 
 above, on a level with the top of the furnace ; for the 
 ore is thrown in at the top, with the fuel and limestone, 
 and gradually sinks down from the cooler to the hotter 
 part, arrived at which the metal flows off in a stream 
 when the furnace is " tapped," once in about every twelve 
 hours. The furnace is not wholly of stone or ordinary 
 brick, the latter forming only its exterior. These materials 
 would be wholly insufficient to withstand the intense heat. 
 Inside the outer case, therefore, is first a lining of sand, 
 then an inner one of firebrick, the latter being made 
 of a peculiarly infusible clay found in Staffordshire, 
 Leeds, Glasgow, and in nearly all those places producing 
 coal — another instance of the way in which Providence 
 has grouped those substances which our manufactures 
 require to be used together. In the section given here 
 of a smel ting-furnace these different linings are distinctly 
 indicated. The inner turret or chimney, with a door in 
 the side for the introduction of the several materials, is 
 merely added as a protection to the workmen from the 
 flaming gases which emerge from the summit, the balus- 
 trade also serving to prevent accidents. Very many 
 contrivances have, however, been devised for preventing 
 the necessity of ascending the tower or furnace, as, 
 for instance, iron trucks made to ascend an inclined 
 plane by being attached to an endless chain, and so 
 
IRON. 33 
 
 arranged as to tip and discharge their contents when 
 arrived at the top of the furnace. It may, in fact, be 
 easily perceived that a good deal of this work can be 
 thus done by mechanical agency alone ; but at the same 
 time the operation has to be watched, and the results 
 carefully noted, different qualities of iron requiring 
 different amounts of lime, and, in other respects, some- 
 what different treatment. 
 
 It is to be hoped that our scientific boys are already 
 inclined to ask, " Can nothing be done to prevent the 
 enormous waste of heat which escapes at the summit of 
 blast-furnaces ? " We say " we hope this," because it is by 
 using their wits as boys they are likely to develop into 
 clever men — and God gave us eyes and natural senses that 
 we might duly use them to benefit our fellow-creatures. 
 
 Such waste, we may at once tell them, is preventable, 
 
 although there are still many iron-smelters who refuse to 
 
 economise in this way. We have not yet called attention 
 
 to the fact that these are not azr-furnaces but blast- 
 
 furnaces, as they are technically named, i.e., a blast of 
 
 air is continually urged upon the fuel and the metal to 
 
 assist in the smelting, similar in kind, but of course 
 
 immeasurably greater in degree than that produced by 
 
 the bellows of a blacksmith's forge. Now it occurred to 
 
 one of our iron-smelters that if a blast of hot air could be 
 
 substituted for the usual cold blast, a vast saving in fuel 
 
 c 
 
3 4 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 would result, and experiment confirmed that opinion. 
 It was then determined to use the waste heat, which had 
 hitherto been a source of loss, to effect this heating of the 
 air. The summit, therefore, of the furnace was shut in by 
 a kind of funnel, the lower part of which could be closed 
 at pleasure by a conical valve or shutter of iron, suspended 
 to a chain passing over pulleys at the top of the furnace, 
 and thence to the workmen below. 
 
 An iron pipe or flue was then inserted in the side, to 
 carry the waste gases to the oven. In this is placed a coil 
 of the pipe which passes from the blowing-machine, or 
 blast-cylinder, to the mouth of the furnace, where it is 
 divided into three parts, each with its separate nozzle or 
 tuyere, directed through proper openings towards the 
 centre of the furnace (A, B, C, of section). The air is 
 thus heated as it passes through the windings of the coil 
 to a temperature of about 600 degrees. Of course this 
 prevents the fuel and iron from being in the least degree 
 cooled by the impact of the stream of air. When a fresh 
 charge is required for the furnace, the stopper or conical 
 plate is lowered from under the funnel, and the coal and 
 ironstone is tipped into the latter, after which the stopper 
 is drawn up, and the operation continues as before. As 
 we do not intend to linger very much about the prepara- 
 tion of the iron from its ores, our object being rather to 
 show how articles are subsequently made, there are many 
 
IRON. 35 
 
 details of iron-smelting purposely omitted. It may, how- 
 ever, be here stated that coal is not now generally used 
 in its raw or natural state, but is first reduced in proper 
 ovens to the condition of coke, the gases and bituminous 
 ingredients, and also the water contained in it, being thus 
 driven off, as well as the sulphur, the deleterious nature 
 of which we have already pointed out. 
 
 Before dismissing this part of the subject, however, 
 it is necessary to explain the object of using lime as a 
 flux, for which purpose a little chemistry must be entered 
 into. Limestone, as commonly found in nature, is one of 
 the earthy carbonates. It is a chemical combination of 
 pure lime and carbonic acid. As such we have it in 
 various forms of chalk, marble, limestone, oyster and 
 other shells. When either of these substances are sub- 
 mitted to the heat of a kiln or of a furnace properly 
 constructed, the gas called carbonic acid is driven off, 
 leaving the lime in its pure or caustic state. When 
 this occurs in the iron-furnace, the lime combines with 
 the earthy impurities in the ore, and fuses into a glassy 
 substance called cinder, or slag ; while the carbonic acid 
 as it escapes lays hold of the iron, which is always found 
 to be combined with carbon, as it issues from the blast- 
 furnace. The coke is itself, moreover, carbon nearly pure, 
 and probably supplies this substance in part to the molten 
 metal. Much carbonic acid gas, however, escapes from 
 
36 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 the top of the furnace, as happens in the case of an 
 ordinary fire. 
 
 The blast by which the fire is urged in a furnace is 
 produced by a blowing-cylinder, in which is a piston like 
 that of an engine, which is driven from end to end in 
 alternate strokes, compelling the air to pass through valves 
 to the furnace. As there is an inlet and outlet valve at 
 each end of this cylinder, the blast thus produced is 
 continuous. The pipe carrying it onward first enters the 
 oven before mentioned, where it is made into a coil for 
 heating, and thence it passes to three tuyeres or nozzles 
 pointing to the fire, one of which is seen at A, another at 
 B, and a third at C, in the sectional drawing of the iron- 
 fnrnace. The fourth opening, from which, when the 
 furnace is tapped, the iron runs in a stream into moulds 
 of sand, is stopped by a plug of clay, which is broken 
 with an iron bar when the metal is melted. A little 
 above the tap-hole is the cinder-notch, from which runs 
 the slag or cinder in a molten state. This being lighter 
 than the iron, swims upon its surface, and is continually 
 flowing off down an inclined plane arranged for the 
 purpose. This slag frequently contains a good deal of 
 metal, which for a long time was allowed to run to waste, 
 but is now remelted with special fluxes, and deprived of 
 the iron contained in it. It is used for road-making, 
 coping for walls, rock work for gardens, and is thus in 
 
IRON. 37 
 
 many ways made useful. Nevertheless, it is produced in 
 such quantities that the hills in an iron district which 
 rise on all sides are in reality huge cinder-heaps, on 
 which, in course of years, an earthy stratum becomes 
 deposited, and here and there patches of stunted vegeta- 
 tion with difficulty grow. An iron district is a terribly 
 dreary and dirty region. 
 
 I wonder how many of my readers have seen an iron 
 sow, and her litter of iron pigs? One would deem such 
 a strange compound of the animal and mineral world, 
 yet these are the produce of every iron furnace or cupola 
 in the kingdom. When the iron is melted, as above 
 described, the furnace is tapped by destroying the plug 
 of sand, which the heat has hardened ; and the metal is 
 then conducted into a sand bed, in which, by means of 
 wooden blocks of a suitable size, a number of little 
 oblong recesses or pits are made. The main ones are 
 longer and larger than the rest, which branch off right 
 and left. The iron runs, therefore, first into these larger 
 moulds, and thence into the rest. The result is a num- 
 ber of masses of crude metal called sows and pigs, which 
 thence pass through various processes, to deprive them of 
 their brittleness and render them pure and malleable 
 (malleus, a hammer). For when these sows are cold they 
 are so brittle that by being dropped on a block of 
 wrought iron they will break short off like glass, and 
 
3 8 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 the broken ends appear of a beautiful crystalline form, 
 bright and shining, and of various tints, according to 
 quality. A sample is thus always broken, on purpose to 
 test the character of the metal, which a practised hand 
 will value at a glance. Even the same ironstone will 
 produce various qualities of metal, depending on the fuel- 
 flux and state of the furnace. 
 
 It will probably surprise some of our young readers to 
 learn that iron in this crystalline condition may be re- 
 melted without difficulty ; but if they were to try and 
 melt a piece of wrought metal, such as they could pick 
 up at a blacksmith's, they would find that instead of 
 melting it would burn, throwing off a number of bright 
 sparks, as it does when brought to a welding heat at the 
 forge. A piece of wrought iron, moreover, is only broken 
 with difficulty, by being bent backwards and forwards 
 until it gives way; and when it is thus fractured, it 
 appears to be composed of a number of long fibres instead 
 of crystals, so that its character since it was numbered 
 among the pigs has evidently been much refined and 
 improved ; its education has been evidently well carried 
 out, and we shall find satisfaction in investigating the 1 
 principles on which it has been conducted. 
 
 The pig-iron, is not pure metal, but, even when it has 
 been carefully smelted with good coke, contains many 
 impurities, as silicon, carbon, phosphorus, sulphur, and 
 
IRON. 39 
 
 probably manganese. These have to be got rid of as far 
 as possible, if the iron is to be used for any other purpose 
 than rough casting. 
 
 To effect such riddance it is first of all refined, then 
 puddled (sows and puddles are, we fancy, generally no 
 strangers to each other). The first operation is conducted 
 in a furnace of peculiar shape, called a finery, which need 
 not be here described in detail, as the main object is to 
 show in this place what it is designed to effect, and in 
 what manner its work is done. Its object is to supply to 
 the iron a charge of oxygen, which gas has the property 
 of combining with certain substances {all substances 
 probably, with very few exceptions), and by such com- 
 bination forming new compounds. The blowpipes, or tuy- 
 eres of the refinery are six in number, and are so arranged 
 as to pour upon the molten iron a continual and forcible 
 stream of air, by which it is kept in a state of movement 
 or ebullition. The best coke is used as fuel, and the air is 
 not now heated as it passes from the blower to the furnace. 
 
 The air of the blast, containing as it does a large 
 amount of the required oxj'gen, and impinging violently 
 on the boiling and seething metal, combines with its 
 carbon, and carries it off in the form of carbonic oxide 
 or carbonic acid gas, which escapes from the chimney. 
 Carbonic oxide burns with a blue flame, and is probably 
 partly consumed. 
 
4 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 The sulphur also combines with oxygen and escapes, 
 and the silicon and part of the oxidised iron form a 
 cinder or slag on the surface of the metal. The latter is 
 therefore deprived of many of its impurities, and runs 
 from the finery considerably altered in character and 
 appearance, being silvery, and not so grey in colour. 
 It now bears the name of " fine metal." I think we 
 might not inaptly call it Roast Pig. During the pro- 
 cess just described water is continually thrown upon 
 the molten iron, both to assist it in separating its cinder 
 or slag, and also to render it brittle, because it now has 
 to be broken up with sledge-hammers, thence to be handed 
 over to the not very tender mercies of the puddler. The 
 action of the water and the hammer, therefore, may be said 
 to produce on our pig something akin to " crackling." 
 
 The next operation is carried on in a furnace very like 
 an ordinary baker's oven — i.e., it has an arched top and 
 flat floor. In this, for the first time, the iron is not inter- 
 mixed with the fuel, the coal or coke — generally coal — 
 being laid on a grate at one end of the oven, which is 
 separated by a low wall, called a bridle, from the central 
 part or hearth, on which the bars of iron are piled, and 
 also by a similar bridle from the third division just under 
 the chimney. The arched roof reflects or reverberates the 
 heat upon the iron. I need hardly remind our boys that 
 re-verbero signifies to beat again, or perhaps to hit back 
 
IRON. 41 
 
 in return for a blow given, the flame being beaten back 
 upon the iron before it is allowed to pass on to the chim- 
 ney. The heat produced is very great, and in about an 
 hour the iron is melted, and fit for the peculiar work of 
 the puddler. He uses two long bars of iron, one some- 
 what hoe-shaped, the other flattened only, but straight, 
 each about eight feet long. These he introduces through 
 a hole in the door of the furnace, and with them stirs up 
 and works the melting mass with great labour and no 
 little skill. Some slag and " mill scale," similar to what 
 falls from the heated and hammered iron in a smith's 
 shop, and which is called in chemical parlance " black oxide 
 of iron," is always added to the metal in the puddling- 
 furnace, as this gives up its oxygen to the iron, which is 
 the object in view. Looking into the furnace at a par- 
 ticular point in the operation, you would see nothing 
 but a glowing mass, on which you could scarcely keep the 
 eye a moment. The workman, however, sees the iron 
 bubbling and boiling wondrously as it imbibes the 
 oxygen, and he turns on all the heat available by opening 
 the damper in the chimney to its full width, and by dint 
 of the skilful use of his iron " rabble," and its companion 
 " paddle," he gets the now pasty mass into lumps or 
 blooms of about eighty pounds weight, which are then 
 withdrawn for further operations. During the process 
 the slag flows off, and the iron becomes pure. I do not 
 
42 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 think any exact explanation has been given of the nature 
 of the above process. It results in a further partial 
 oxidation of the iron; but why this should render it pasty 
 and capable of being thus worked, and who discovered the 
 art of puddling, I cannot say. In England the process 
 seems to date about 1780, and Cort of Gloucestershire, an 
 ironmaster, was the one who did most to bring the art 
 to perfection. He, as is frequently the case with inventors, 
 did not reap the fruits of his skill, but died a poor man ; 
 though others, to say nothing of his country, were so 
 highly benefited by his discoveries, that many huge 
 fortunes resulted, and England stepped at once into her 
 proper place as the greatest seat of the iron trade in the 
 world. 
 
 We may now consider the iron thoroughly deprived of 
 its carbon, as well as of all other impurities, although 
 some will not entirely separate from it by any of the 
 above processes. Phosphorus, for instance, is found in 
 nearly every sample, and probably the iron is none the 
 worse for its presence. 
 
Chapter III. 
 
 TILTING AND ROLLING. 
 
 E now pass from the preliminary operations of 
 the iron manufacture, which have supplied us 
 with a lump of pure metal in a condition which 
 it has not hitherto attained. Deprived of its 
 carbon in the puddling-furnace, it will now bear to be 
 hammered and rolled, and otherwise tormented, without 
 fracture. It has become tough and malleable. As soon 
 as it leaves the hands of the puddler, it is taken in its 
 highly-heated state, on a little iron truck, either to the 
 squeezer, tilt-hammer, helve, or steam-hammer, by which 
 the metal is pressed or hammered with enormous power 
 until it becomes a thoroughly compact mass, and what- 
 ever cinder may have got into it in the puddling-furnace 
 is removed. There are various forms of both these 
 machines. The old tilt-hammer was worked by water- 
 power, and was of no very large size ; the helves, similarly 
 driven, were more massive. : The squeezers are of compara- 
 
44 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 tively modern date, and are not always so favourably 
 received as the hammer. Probably either effects the 
 desired object equally well, but there is a prejudice in 
 favour of the older friend, which we may adopt as a 
 
 moral. 
 
 " New friends may be wittier, handsomer, bolder, 
 But until you've proved them, stick to the older ; 
 A new coat may fit, and look faultlessly nice, 
 But the wearer feels much as if gripped in a vice ; 
 We gain little comfort from being well dressed, 
 So I say that old coats and old friends are the best." 
 
 The process, in whichever way it is conducted, is called 
 shingling, and a noisy process it is, though not nearly so 
 bad as a boilerniaker's. The tilt-hammers have been 
 mostly discarded in the manufacture of iron, because they 
 were found too light for the more massive productions of 
 modern days, and the helve and steam-hammer are now 
 generally employed. The helve (fig. 5) is a ponderous 
 hammer, lifted by revolving cams on the axis of the 
 driving-wheel. Steam is the power used, except where 
 water is plentiful. The whole helve is now of iron, 
 but used to be of ash, and was made up as a compound 
 beam bound with iron hoops. An old-fashioned forge on 
 the banks of a river, amid beautiful scenery, was a pic- 
 turesque object in days gone by; but everything has 
 changed now, and the ogre steam has swallowed up its 
 weaker rivals, driving the manufacturer and his machines 
 
HEL VE. 
 
 45 
 
 from the old haunts to the wild and black country of 
 coal-pits and cinder-heaps, so that it is only here and there 
 (as at Tintern) that one sees such manufactures still 
 carried on near the homes of salmon and trout and 
 grayling, whose ears, if they have any, seem insensible to 
 the sounds of noisy industry in their midst. The actual 
 hammer-head, which is rapidly worn out by the heavy 
 work it has to perform, is not made a permanent part of 
 
 Fig. 5.- Helve. 
 
 the machine, but fits into a socket in the extremity of 
 the helve, so that it can be speedily removed and replaced 
 by a new one, spare heads being always kept ready, so 
 as not to delay the work, which is carried on night and 
 day. The face of the hammer, and that of the anvil, is 
 divided into three parts or steps, as it is found better in 
 practice to subject the puddled mass to a force which shall 
 affect it variously, spreading it out sideways, or lengthen- 
 ing or flattening it at pleasure. The weight of such a 
 
4* 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 Fig. 6.— Steam- Hammer. 
 
STEAM-HAMMER. 47 
 
 hammer is 6 or 7 tons, and it makes about sixty 
 strokes a minute ; so that the reader can readily under- 
 stand why the head of a helve and its anvil require very 
 frequent renewal. 
 
 Fearful as the blow of the helve may be, it is a mere 
 joke to that of the steam-hammer (fig. 6), which neverthe- 
 less is so beautifully arranged, that it will crack a nut 
 without injuring the kernel, a feat it is often made to 
 perform for the delectation and astonishment of the visitor. 
 In many ironworks the helve has wholly been superseded 
 by this machine, which is very simple in principle, though 
 it may appear somewhat complicated in detail. There is 
 first of all a massive frame of wrought or cast iron, A, 
 fixed to a solid base of masonry below the floor of the 
 workshop ; for the vibration caused by the descent of the 
 hammer is enormous, and, in spite of all precautions, jars 
 and shakes the whole workshop and all within reach of its 
 effects. At the upper end of this frame is a steam-cylin- 
 der B, in which is a piston like that of an engine, but the 
 piston-rod is below, and at its extremity is the hammer- 
 head C. Steam is admitted below the piston, and the 
 hammer is thus raised, and when at the desired height, 
 communication with the steam is cut off, and air admitted 
 freely, and down falls the hammer by its own weight 
 upon the mass of white-hot metal upon the block below 
 called the anvil. The blows, mighty as they are, are given 
 
48 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 at the rate of about one a second. So far the machine 
 is easy of comprehension, but practically there are certain 
 requirements to be fulfilled to render it efficient for the 
 purpose designed. In the first place, the mass of iron 
 to be hammered will not always be of equal size or thick- 
 ness ; sometimes, therefore, a light blow will be required, 
 and sometimes a heavy one. Then, again, the workman 
 must have time between the strokes to adjust the mass of 
 metal, and consequently he must be able either to arrest 
 the strokes at pleasure, or to let them go on at high speed ; 
 so it becomes requisite to admit or cut off the steam in a 
 moment, to cause the hammer to rise to its full height 
 so as to fall with its utmost force, or to allow it only to 
 rise a few inches. By the very clever arrangements now 
 to be described all these several conditions are fulfilled, 
 and the whole is brought as much under the control of 
 the workman as the light hand-hammer by which the 
 reader may drive a tintack or a nail. In fact, the steam- 
 hammer is quite as competent to drive a tack as to reduce 
 a huge mass of iron to a flat plate. Now all these various 
 requirements are met by simple mechanical arrangements, 
 which are self-acting and under easy control, so that a 
 single attendant can, by moving a couple of levers, cause 
 the hammer to rise and fall, stopping each time in mid- 
 air, and then, the moment the iron is in position, come 
 thundering down upon it with a force of some tons. 
 
STEAM-HAMMER. 49 
 
 This is accomplished by the slide-valve E and its fit- 
 tings. This valve is contained in the box F at the bottom 
 of the cylinder, and its valve-rod is seen at G. A slide- 
 valve, we may explain to those few who have never seen 
 one, is a plate or shallow box, which, by being moved up 
 or down, opens a hole or slit under it, and admits steam 
 or air, as the case may be. Ordinarily this valve is open 
 in the steam-hammer, so as to admit steam under the 
 piston in the cylinder, and thus keep the hammer raised. 
 To this end the sliding-plate is below the steam-port. It 
 is so kept partly by its own weight, and partly by the 
 following contrivance: — H is also a small cylinder with a 
 piston (like that of a syringe or squirt) inside it. This is 
 attached to the rod of the slide-valve. Steam is admitted 
 to the upper side of this piston, pressing it down, and 
 so keeping open the valve already described. In order to 
 shut off steam, therefore, in the big cylinder, and so allow 
 the hammer to fall, we must draw the slide-valve rod 
 upwards, and so raise the slide and prevent steam from 
 entering. This raising of the valve-rod is of course 
 resisted by the pressure of the steam in the small cylinder 
 H, which acts therefore as a spring. One end of a lever 
 I is attached by a pinned joint to the valve-rod, and at 
 the other to a vertical rod by a swivel joint, for reasons 
 that will be presently understood. This rod is screwed 
 for a portion of its length, and another precisely similar 
 
5° 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 screw is fixed so as to be free to revolve parallel to it. 
 The first screw, however, is cut with a right-handed 
 thread, the second with a left-handed one. This is neces- 
 sary, because they are geared to each other, and therefore 
 turn in opposite directions, but the nuts which slide upon 
 them are needed to move in the same direction, up or 
 down, and to move precisely together. These nuts are 
 marked KK. That on the right-hand screw carries the 
 stud on which is hinged the bent lever L ; that on the 
 left carries a pin which acts on the tail of this lever. The 
 whole of this screw must be free to move up and down, 
 and it passes, therefore, through two sockets. This move- 
 ment, however, would interfere with the acting of the 
 bevel-wheels MM, which work by the handle N, and cause 
 
 the rotation of the screws on 
 their axes. The wheel, therefore, 
 on the screw is merely slipped 
 over, and is kept from turning 
 round by a pin or feather and 
 slot, as shown in fig. 7. We 
 illustrate it because it is a com- 
 mon arrangement in machines, 
 especially in drilling-machines, 
 and is a simple but very im- 
 portant mechanical contrivance. It will now be plain, 
 we think, to the reader, that, by turning the winch- 
 
 rig. 7.— Slot and Feather. 
 
STEAM-HAMMER, 51 
 
 handle, both these ferrules will move up or down, carry- 
 ing with them the bent lever, and bringing its end 
 nearer to, or more distant from, the head of the hammer. 
 It will also be clear that if the hammer, or a stud upon 
 it, touches the end of the lever in its ascent, it will 
 cause its other end to descend, and, by its connection with 
 the left-hand screw, will cause its descent also, but without 
 such descent affecting the relative positions of the bevel- 
 wheels. It will also be plain that when the screw moves 
 thus downwards, it will, through the means of the upper 
 bent lever, pull up the rod of the slide-valve against the 
 resistance of the steam in the small cylinder; and this 
 will cut off the steam, and allow the piston to descend, if 
 the air is also admitted above it, for without this the pistou 
 would remain suspended, or descend but a very little way. 
 Moreover, the piston could not ascend with the admission 
 of steam below it, if the air were shut in between it and 
 the top of the cylinder. To admit this air there are a 
 number of holes round the upper part of the main 
 cylinder of the machine, which remain open except when 
 the piston itself closes them by being opposite to them 
 in its ascent. When this happens, the air shut in above 
 forms an elastic cushion, which takes off a great deal of 
 the jar that would otherwise ensue, because it gives a 
 little impulse to the piston as it reaches its highest point, 
 
5 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 starting it on its downward course. This is technically 
 called u cushioning." 
 
 The steam is admitted from the boiler into the steam- 
 chest, and the small pipe from this admits steam to the 
 small cylinder freely, this being always open. Now we 
 may suppose the port in the slide-valve open, and that it 
 will remain so while pressed down by the steam in the 
 small cylinder acting on its rod by means of the piston at 
 the upper end. The result will be that the large piston in 
 the main cylinder will be raised, and will lift the hammer 
 at the end of the piston-rod. The latter, thus raised, cannot 
 drop till the steam is cut off by raising the slide-valve. 
 This is accordingly done, for as the hammer passes the end 
 of the bent lever (which has a roller at the point where 
 the projecting head of the hammer will touch it, to lessen 
 the shock) it will raise this, and thus, by lowering the other 
 end, pull down the rod with the screw, and, lifting the 
 valve-rod, shut off the steam. The exact time at which 
 the hammer-head will strike the end of the bent lever will 
 depend on the position of the latter, and this, as ex- 
 plained, is regulated by raising or lowering the nuts of 
 the screws by means of the handle attached to the bevel- 
 wheels. But under these conditions the hammer will 
 begin to fall, . and then the steam will raise it again ; 
 because, as soon as the lever is passed, the valve will 
 again drop, and admit steam to the cylinder as before. 
 
STEAM-HAMMER. 53 
 
 The hammer would thus oscillate, or move up aud down a 
 certain distance, but would not reach the metal on the 
 anvil below. For the latter purpose it will evidently be 
 necessary, after the left-hand screw has been depressed 
 (closing the steam -valve of the large cylinder), to retain 
 it in this position until the hammer shall have made its 
 full blow, and then release it instantly, and allow steam 
 to enter and raise the hammer as before. This is effected 
 by an automatic or self-acting contrivance, as follows : — 
 The rod on which the left-hand screw is cut, and which, 
 as explained, can be raised and lowered without moving 
 the wheel through which it passes, is enlarged at P by a 
 boss, and at Q is a kind of trigger or catch, with a handle 
 attached to it, the weight of which tends to keep the short 
 end against the enlarged part of the rod of the screw. 
 When the latter, therefore, has descended a certain distance, 
 the trigger slips over the boss and falls against the smaller 
 part of the rod, preventing the boss from moving upwards, 
 and this, therefore, holds the rod also off the slide-valve, 
 keeping it closed, and shutting off steam. Under these 
 conditions the hammer will fall upon the work laid on the 
 anvil below. And now comes into action a very ingenious 
 application of a mechanical law elsewhere explained in 
 this book — viz., the law of vis inerticz, by which every 
 moving body tends to continue its motion in the same 
 direction until some external force, impeding its further 
 
54 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 progress, brings it to a state of rest. Pivoted to the 
 hammer-head at is a bent lever weighted at one end, 
 the other end, which is shorter, resting against a vertical 
 bar VY, attached to the framing by links WW like those of 
 a parallel ruler. When the hammer falls upon the iron, 
 and is suddenly checked in its descent, the weighted end 
 of the lever, not being similarly prevented from further 
 descent, drops by the concussion, the spring by which it is 
 otherwise sustained yielding to its impetus. The opposite 
 short end, therefore, of the lever kicks against the vertical 
 bar yy, which is thereby caused to move sideways, and 
 its curved end striking against the trigger Q, knocks it 
 away from the boss of the screwed rod, which at once 
 rises under the action of the small piston, and, opening 
 the valve, readmits the steam to raise the hammer. The 
 attendant can by means of the lower handle draw down 
 the screw at pleasure, and close the valve, or by the other 
 he can move back the trigger from the boss. He can 
 therefore keep the hammer oscillating up and down until 
 the iron is placed in a proper position to receive the 
 blow. 
 
 The steam-hammer is, on the whole, one of the most 
 ingenious adaptations of certain mechanical powers, in the 
 whole range of machinery used in the arts and manufac- 
 tures. It places a force of almost irresistible power 
 within the management of a child. It will drive a tin- 
 
STEAM-HAMMER. 
 
 55 
 
 tack with gentle taps into a piece of deal, or it will 
 reduce by a few mighty blows a seething mass of iron 
 from the form of a large cubical block to that of a 
 flat plate, and withal so speedily that it can be thence 
 removed to the rolls, and further reduced to the condition 
 of a thin sheet before it has had time to grow cold. I 
 wonder if the Cyclopean forgers of Jupiter's thunderbolts 
 in their subterranean workshops would have combined to 
 get up a " strike " if old Vulcan had ventured to introduce 
 such a tool to replace the hand hammers and sledges 
 wielded by those brawny arms. Of course my classical 
 readers have no doubts as to the fact of the existence of 
 those giant blacksmiths. 
 
 Premising that Sheffield is meant by the word Sepkilcea, 
 we might give the following lines from a Latin poem of 
 Dr. Dering, a Dean of Ripon, as an exercise for our young 
 readers. The longe resonat, however, is not so applicable 
 to the steam-hammer as might be supposed, because its 
 heavy thump is heard at no great distance, while the clang 
 of the boilermaker's hammer sounds far and wide, and 
 is deafening when close at hand. 
 
 " Mille ardet Sephilcea focis. Fornace liquescit 
 Montibus effossi vicinis massa metalli, 
 Et longe resonat glomeratis ictibus incus, 
 Nee lunae aut cotis cessat labor. Insuper arma 
 Ante oculos fabri poimnt Romana ; notantque 
 Mutandum siquid; seu sint exempla sequenda." 
 
56 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 In the workshops, however, alluded to in the above 
 quotation, it was not exactly boiler-plate, but armour •> 
 plate, which had to be fashioned by the workman's cease- 
 less hammer, and in the fashioning of which these hardy 
 smiths were endeavouring to take a hint from their 
 enemies. There were no rolling-mills then, and the iron 
 sheets were made and formed by the laborious process 
 indicated above. 
 
 To move a large mass of iron about under the steam- 
 hammer or the helve, a long iron bar is raised to a 
 welding heat at one end, and laid upon it; the first blow 
 attaches it to the white-hot metal, and the workman is 
 thus enabled to move the latter about. The end of the 
 bar, however, is generally made with a cross handle, to 
 give him more power, and he is further assisted by his 
 companion or mate, who is similarly provided, or who 
 uses a gigantic pair of tongs, and other similar means 
 of manipulating the mass. A bloom, however, from 
 the puddling - furnace rarely exceeds eighty or ninety 
 pounds, and can be turned about by one man. In large 
 forgings the case is different, and two or more men are 
 needed. 
 
 The puddled mass we may now suppose to have been 
 freed from any cinder by the squeezer or hammer, and 
 to be considerably flattened, if intended for further reduc- 
 tion, to the form of a plate or sheet, but if intended for 
 
ROLLS. 57 
 
 bar-iron for rails or other purposes, the shape will receive 
 the necessary modification under the hammer, being 
 elongated in one direction only. 
 
 In either case the metal is probably destined for the 
 rolls (figs. 8 and 9). These are cylinders of iron, turned 
 very truly in a lathe, and either perfectly cylindrical 
 from end to end, for rolling plates for boilers, bridges, 
 tubes, or other of the many purposes to which flat plates 
 are now put ; or variously grooved, with semicircular, 
 angular, or parallel grooves, so that when a bar of hot 
 iron is made to pass between them, it becomes of a 
 sectional form corresponding with these. A semicircular 
 groove in each, the grooves being opposite to each other, 
 will result in a round bar, triangular ones in a prismatic 
 or square bar. For railways, in which the rails vary in 
 form, and are either rectangular, hammer-headed, or 
 doubly hammer-headed, each roller will need a groove 
 corresponding to the half section. Of whatever form 
 the rolls are made as regards their surfaces, there is 
 an arrangement for adjusting them at the required dis- 
 tances from each other. This is effected by a screw, with 
 arms bent so as to be within reach of the workmen, and 
 at each end ; so that as the plate gets thinner the rolls 
 can be brought nearer and nearer, until the plate is of 
 the thickness required. 
 
 To prevent the rolls from heating, a stream of water 
 
Ill 
 
 ^mp< ^'iinij(j|F 
 
 oi/yu, 
 
 fM/^>^ 
 
 MVn 
 
 Pig. 9. — Rolls for Bar- Iron of various secti 
 
ROLLS. 59 
 
 trickles constantly over them from end to end ; and as, 
 in spite of all care, they necessarily wear more or less 
 unevenly, they require to be freshly turned from time 
 to time. This is usually done in a lathe kept on the 
 premises for that special purpose. The speed at which 
 the rolls are driven is very great, so that the plate, when 
 first inserted, goes through in a moment with a sharp 
 crack. The second workman receives and tosses it back to 
 his fellow, or it is sent back through another pair of rolls 
 turning in the opposite direction. A few minutes reduce 
 a thick lump of metal to a broad and long plate, the 
 whole operation being completed " at one heat," or before 
 the iron has had time to get cold. 
 
 In the figures are two sets of rolls, and it will be seen 
 by the white spaces the shapes of the plates or bars that 
 will thus be formed. The very rough part of the first set 
 is used for the preliminary work on a bloom, by which 
 cinder is pressed out, and the piece reduced to a rough 
 sheet, or rather plate, the surface of which will be full 
 of indentations. It is then passed between the plain 
 rolls. 
 
 In the above operation the crystals or granules of the 
 metal become fibres, from being each drawn out in one 
 direction, so that the iron after being rolled is no longer 
 brittle ; but sometimes a bloom from the puddling- furnace 
 will fly to pieces from having been insufficiently decar- 
 
6o 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 bonised. In such cases the puddler has usually to submit 
 to a fine, and generally gets considerably chaffed as well, 
 for his negligence. 
 
 We may as well follow up now one of these iron 
 sheets in its plain state, and see what may be done with 
 it. First, it may be, and very often is, passed between 
 "slitting rolls," which cut it into strips of any desired 
 
 width. These rolls are shown 
 in fig. 10, and it is evident 
 that, during its passage be- 
 tween these, a sheet will be 
 divided lengthwise into as many 
 strips as there are divisions 
 in the rolls, the thickness 
 being that of the original plate. 
 Rods of flat and round iron 
 are both equally the result of 
 
 Fig. 10. 
 
 rolling ; and the reader can un- 
 derstand how easy it is in this way to make these rods of 
 any required sectional shape, as grooves can be turned 
 in one or both at pleasure. 
 
 We have now traced the iron steadily through the 
 processes required to reduce it from its ore to malleable 
 rods fit for nails and other purposes, plates for boilers, 
 girders, tanks, <fec, and sheets for lighter articles like 
 coal-scuttles, roofs of buildings, stove-pipes, and other 
 
IRON. 
 
 61 
 
 common and well-known requisites. Let us first inquire 
 how it is further reduced to the condition of wire ; and 
 as we may as well in this case leave the Black Country 
 for a more secluded spot of great beauty, we will pay a 
 theoretical visit to the precincts of the Abbey of Tintern, 
 in Monmouthshire, upon the banks of the Wye, and 
 describe the process as carried on there before our eyes. 
 
>^K 
 
 ^F" 
 
 Chapter IV, 
 
 WIRE-DRA WING. 
 
 AD we not been already introduced to iron sows 
 and pigs, we should have been able to make 
 acquaintance with them here at Tintern, where 
 they flourish in as great quantities as salmon 
 pink, or the more mysterious elvers. There is but one 
 wire-drawing establishment here, however, picturesquely 
 situated among the towering cliffs and woody banks of 
 the loveliest stream in England. The river, or a tributary 
 stream, is here made to take its share of unromantic toil, 
 and work the blowing-machines by which the furnaces 
 are kept up to the intense heat that is requisite. Even 
 here, however, we believe steam has established its 
 sovereignty, and does the heavier work of converting the 
 iron to the form of wire. But here we meet with what 
 we failed to see in the Black Country already visited. 
 The fuel used is charcoal, which is (or was not long since) 
 
WIRE-DRA WING. 63 
 
 transported on the backs of mules and donkeys from the 
 Forest of Dean, some ten miles distant from the furnaces. 
 This fuel is solely used at Tintern, because only the best 
 qualities of charcoal iron will stand the process of rolling 
 and drawing into wire. 
 
 Charcoal-burners of the forest have often been made a 
 subject for the pencil and brush of the artist, for very 
 picturesque they are in their sylvan home. The process 
 of making charcoal is a very simple one, yet needs some 
 experience and care ; but, as we shall presently explain, 
 that used at Tintern (and in the district for private houses) 
 is not all made on purpose for fuel, but is the refuse of a 
 chemical process for producing wood-naphtha. The ordi- 
 nary process of charcoal-burning is conducted as follows : — 
 The wood is cut down and split into billets of a con- 
 venient length and size, which are then built up in heaps 
 of a conical form, dry wood and other combustibles being 
 first laid as a means of setting fire to the mass. The 
 whole pile is then overlaid with clay and turf, a hole 
 being left at the summit of each conical heap for escape 
 of smoke ; other holes are also left near the lower part to 
 admit air. Thus built, these piles have something the 
 appearance at a distance of a group of Indian wigwams, 
 in which fancy may easily imagine a happy family of 
 Redskins sitting round the fire smoking the pipe of peace 
 while discussing the scarcity of scalps, by the number of 
 
64 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 which hanging at the waist the dusky braves were wont to 
 enrapture the eyes of the Indian belles. Well, happily 
 we have no such custom, though the pipe of peace — an 
 honest clay blackened with use — is very generally to be 
 seen in the lips of our dusky charcoal-burners, and not 
 seldom also in the lips of their wives. When the pile of 
 wood is ready, it is ignited at the base, and is soon in a 
 state of fierce incandescence, flames leaping forth from the 
 various orifices. As soon as the fire, however, is thoroughly 
 lighted, all the lower air-holes are stopped with turves, and 
 the whole heap then smoulders quietly until the substance 
 of the wood is charred completely through. The exclusion 
 of air prevents it from being "burnt" or converted into 
 ashes, as it w r ould otherwise be, and it retains its outward 
 form and inner substance, still appearing like wood with 
 its radiating marks and pores, but all alike is blackened 
 and converted into carbon, which can be easily reduced to 
 powder if desired. 
 
 The other way of making charcoal is to place billets 
 of wood in iron cylinders called retorts, and submit them, 
 thus shut up, to the heat of a furnace. In this case we 
 save much of the substance of the wood which is wasted 
 when charcoal is made in the manner already described. 
 This process can be shown by means of a little simple 
 chemical apparatus which I have here copied from Griffin's 
 " Chemical Recreations." I give it because it will show 
 
WIRE-BRA WING. 
 
 65 
 
 the results of burning wood in close vessels better than 
 any other illustration (fig. 11). 
 
 The apparatus is merely a bent tube, or tube retort, held 
 over the flame of a lamp (here it is a gas-lamp, but a 
 common spirit-lamp will do as well). This is connected 
 with a bent tube called a receiver, also of glass, by means 
 
 Pig. 11.— Distillation of Wood 
 
 of a bit of indiarubber tubing. The end of the receiver is 
 corked, and has a smaller tube passing from it to the pneu- 
 matic trough. This is merely a basin half-full of water, in 
 which there is a shelf or stand with a hole at the side and 
 in the top. It is here made as an earthenware box, and 
 may be replaced by a flower-pot with a piece knocked out 
 of one side. Over the hole in the top of this stands a 
 
66 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 glass tube, or it might be a phial, or any open bottle of 
 small size, which is filled with water, and then, while the 
 finger is held over its mouth, inverted so that the mouth 
 is under water in the basin. If the finger is then removed, 
 the water will not run out, and it is set up on end on the 
 shelf over the hole, as seen in the drawing. In this way, 
 you see, we shall catch all the products of our cookery or 
 distillation of wood, as it would be called. This wood 
 we place in the retort, and very soon it will become 
 red-hot. First it will emit steam and vapour, because all 
 such substances contain more or less water, and this will 
 condense in the cold receiver, and run down to the bent 
 part. In addition to this, gas will pass over, and rise in 
 bubbles through the water, which it will drive out of the 
 receiver or upright tube, and will occupy its place. Now 
 the charcoal will be at once seen, the wood having become 
 charred, and converted into this substance. At the bend 
 of the tube is what looks like dirty water ; but though it 
 is partly water, it contains two substances besides — a thin 
 clear liquor, and a thick brown one. The first is acetic acid 
 (a very strong vinegar) and wood-spirit, or wood-naphtha, 
 mixed together ; the brown liquor is wood-tar. But besides 
 these there are always other substances in combination or 
 mixed up with them. Now this little experiment is, in 
 miniature, what are called chemical works, in which, by 
 dry distillation of oak and beech in iron retorts, are pro- 
 
WIRE-DRA WING. 67 
 
 duced large quantities of wood-naphtha, tar, and acetio 
 acid, each of which has its own special uses in our various 
 manufactures. It is a curious fact, moreover, that various 
 substances, allowed perhaps for years to run to waste 
 in the production of some other substance required, have 
 ultimately become of even greater value than the substance 
 originally desired to be made. Such, for instance, is ben- 
 zolioe, once allowed to run to waste in the manufacture 
 of paraffine, and which is now largely used for lamps and 
 other purposes ; and glycerine, which was once considered 
 a waste production in the manufacture of stearine candles. 
 The produce, however, of this wood distillation which 
 we have to deal with now is simply charcoal, the refuse 
 of the manufacture of wood-naphtha. This, when taken 
 from the retorts and cooled, is packed in sacks and 
 conveyed to the ironworks. Probably (for our remi- 
 niscences of Tintern date back, we grieve to say, twenty 
 years) the old mode of transportation has become a thing 
 of the past. At that time, indeed, a railway was being 
 arranged in the immediate district, which bid fair to 
 exterminate a good deal of the old romance that for 
 centuries had lent its charm to the vale of Tintern. 
 Probably, therefore, as we have remarked, the mules and 
 donkeys, with their gipsy-like drivers, are no more. But 
 they formed a curious sight to a stranger as they appeared 
 in a long line creeping in and out among the wood} 
 
68 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 lanes, scarcely ever two abreast, but treading in each 
 other's footsteps, like Indian braves upon the war-path. 
 With this charcoal only the iron used for wire is smelted ; 
 because, there being no sulphur, the metal is not dete- 
 riorated, but refined and purified. As we have said a 
 good deal about the smelting-furnaces and finery, we may 
 quit these, and go across the yard to the rolls, where 
 the operation of reducing the iron to a coarse wire fit 
 for fencing and similar purposes is carried on. Imagine 
 a large shed, the floor black with scale and dust, furnaces 
 on one side roaring and devouring our litters of pigs, 
 and roasting them with the fury of demons. We ask to 
 look inside one of these mighty ovens. A lever is pulled 
 down, and the sliding-door is raised, and we at first only 
 see flames writhing and twisting, and licking with their 
 sharp tongues all sides of their prison-house. Presently 
 we distinguish some of the wretched pigs almost in a 
 molten state. One of these is seized, when just " done to 
 a turn," and flung across the floor to be further tormented. 
 It is to be passed, in short, between those relentless iron 
 rolls which will turn pig into snake in a twinkling. 
 The rolls are iron cylinders, of which three, one above 
 the other, revolve in contact. But at intervals a groove 
 has been turned in each ; so that when in contact, a round, 
 square, or other shaped hole is formed by the two sec- 
 tions, like fig. 12. According to the shape of these 
 
WJRE-DliA WING. 
 
 69 
 
 grooves will be that of the bar that is thus produced ; but 
 at Tintern round wire only is made in this way. A 
 workman stands at the furnace, and one on either side of 
 each set of rolls. The former, with drawing a pig from 
 the furnace, tosses it across the floor, where it is seized in 
 
 Fig. 12.— Rolls for Wire-drawing. 
 
 a large pair of tongs, and one end inserted in the largest 
 groove or hole of the rolls. A sharp crack announces that 
 our pig's first terrific squeeze is over ; and instantly another 
 crack is heard, and the iron comes back on one side 
 elongated and rounded. There must be no rest, however, 
 
7o AMONGST MA CHINE. 
 
 as the iron must be worked while at a great heat, and 
 thus a few more cracks and groans succeed as the bar 
 is passed to and fro through smaller and smaller grooves, 
 and in a few minutes the once plump pig is seen wrig- 
 gling forth from its last journey a long, straggling, red- 
 hot serpent, out of the way of which we find it prudent 
 to hasten. This is laid hold of by another workman, and 
 coiled upon an iron reel, from which, after the ends have 
 been secured by a turn or two of binding-wire, it is 
 taken and added to a heap of similar coils which await 
 the further processes of annealing, pickling, and drawing. 
 The rapidity with which the above operation is effected 
 can hardly fail to strike the observer ; and when one com- 
 pares the agricultural labourer, slowly following his plough 
 up one furrow and down another, with these mechanical 
 workmen, who cannot rest a moment lest the metal cool, 
 one can see how it is that the minds of the latter are so 
 much the more active, and that, in all their movements, 
 and even in speech, they stand apart from the others, 
 almost like a different class of men. Moreover, it generally 
 happens that mechanical craftsmen repair to their read- 
 ing or class room after the work of the day is finished, 
 while the agricultural labourer is too frequently con- 
 tented to spend Ms evening in the public-house, in a very 
 dreamy and lethargic way, as if he possessed a mind 
 incapable of enjoying intellectual pursuits. 
 
WIRE-DRA WING. 7 1 
 
 Yet here again, as education slowly advances, improve- 
 ment will, almost as a matter of necessity, take place, 
 and again, boys, I appeal to you to promote the good 
 work which will take place in your manhood. Agricul- 
 tural labourers have not at present, perhaps, an equal 
 chance with their mechanical brothers ; there is more 
 facility in the large towns for obtaining books and 
 papers, and for the establishment of literary and mutual 
 improvement societies. But notwithstanding all draw- 
 backs, a great deal more might be done in this direction 
 in country villages than has yet been accomplished ; and 
 if the better educated and more influential will but set 
 their shoulders to the wheel, and try to provide their 
 poorer brothers with means of mental improvement and 
 intellectual recreation, there can be no doubt that grand 
 results will at length ensue. Whenever you see an evil, 
 boys, either now or in later life, don't be content to 
 deplore it, but go courageously to work, and endeavour to 
 remove it. 
 
 But while I am talking of refining and polishing our 
 labourers, I ought to be telling you how the same work 
 is accomplished in respect of the wire. After leaving the 
 rolls and becoming cool, the iron is found to have become 
 very hard and stiff; and indeed it has had enough to make 
 it so. It must now be rendered soft and ductile, which is 
 accomplished in the following manner. The coils of wire 
 
72 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 are packed in what may be called iron tubs, and are then 
 placed in furnaces constructed for the purpose, where they 
 are subjected to a low red heat. They are then withdrawn 
 from the furnaces, and allowed to cool very slowly, when 
 the wire is found to be soft, and capable of being easily 
 bent, having entirely lost its springiness. It will, 
 however, have upon its surface scales and oxide from 
 previous heatings, and these have now to be removed. 
 The coils are therefore laid in a pickle of sulphuric acid 
 and water, which is made very weak, or it would soon 
 wholly dissolve the iron. A little copper is sometimes 
 placed in the solution, as the thin coating of this metal 
 which forms upon the wire is considered to facilitate the 
 " drawing ; " but this is one of those details on which 
 manufacturers are not agreed. After coming out of their 
 pickling-tanks the coils are washed in beer-grounds, which 
 further clean the surface, and prepare them for the opera- 
 tion of the draw-plate. Imagine a long room or workshop, 
 with a bench extending the whole length of it, at one end 
 of which are two short, stout uprights, against which leans 
 the draw-plate (fig. 13). This draw-plate is of steel, or 
 iron faced with steel, and has a number of conical holes 
 drilled through it, round, square, or triangular, according 
 to the proposed section of the wire. 
 
 The wire to be drawn is generally laid at one end of the 
 bench, in a tub of beer-grounds, close by the draw-plate 
 
WIRE- BRA WING. 
 
 73 
 
 One end is filed to a point, and is passed through the 
 plate far enough to be seized by a pair of pinchers or 
 grips attached to a chain, which chain is itself made fast 
 to a lever something like a pump-handle. By means of 
 this it is drawn little by little through the largest hole in 
 the plate, until a sufficient length is obtained for the 
 grip of another pair of large nippers. The latter are also 
 
 Fig. 13. 
 
 attached to a chain, and are dragged forward by steam- 
 power. The wire is thus forcibly drawn through the steel 
 plate, and reduced to the size of the largest hole. Again 
 and again it is brought back, and passes in turn through 
 smaller and smaller holes, until it has attained the fineness 
 required. It is, however, necessary to anneal it afresh 
 after each drawing in precisely the same way in which it 
 was annealed after leaving the rolls, namely, by heating 
 
74 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 it in closed cases, and allowing it to cool very gradually. 
 At the last drawing, however, it is very frequently left 
 bright and hard, as for some purposes it is better in this 
 state. 
 
 I have given the mere outline of wire-drawing in this 
 chapter, but it will, I think, suffice to give my young 
 readers an insight into this important manufacture. It 
 may easily be conceived that for iron to stand all these 
 processes without snapping off, the quality of the metal 
 must be extremely good. This is the reason it is smelted 
 with charcoal, as coal, which might be used instead, contains 
 sulphur and arsenic, and other impurities, which render the 
 iron more or less brittle and unequal in texture, and 
 though suitable for other purposes, renders it utterly unfit 
 for wire. 
 
 At the time of our visit to Tintern steam had not 
 usurped the place of water as a motive power, but the 
 hand draw-plate was even then only used to get a suffi- 
 cient length of wire to attach to the drum worked by 
 powerful machinery. This is still its only practical use ; 
 and indeed for this purpose it has for the most part been 
 displaced by self-acting tongs, which are themselves drawn 
 along the bench by a powerful chain, until enough wire 
 has been dragged through the hole in the draw-plate to 
 allow it to be taken hold of by the clip attached to the 
 surface of the drums, which latter are now made to revolve 
 
WIRE-DRA WING. 7 5 
 
 by steam-power alone. Watchmakers and goldworkers, 
 who often need fine wire of the precious metals, draw down 
 for themselves the coarser wire, merely placing a draw- 
 plate in the vice, and pulling the metal through the various 
 holes with a pair of pliers. In this way they easily obtain 
 short lengths of half-round, triangular, or square sections, 
 as required for various purposes of their trade. Wire made 
 of brass or copper is treated in a similar manner to iron 
 wire, so far as its general manufacture is concerned, any 
 difference in detail being due to the peculiar nature and 
 quality of the metal used. Zinc and lead are also now 
 obtainable as wire, chiefly for horticultural use, as they are 
 very convenient for tying up vine shoots, and training 
 roses and other plants, the strength of the fingers sufficing 
 to twist the metal without the intervention of pliers. 
 
Chapter V. 
 
 BXASS TUBES. 
 
 ^~EW people would guess the mode in which brass 
 tubes are made in the present day, still less 
 would they suppose that the process of their 
 manufacture is akin to wire-drawing, of which 
 we treated in the last chapter ; yet so it is, and they can 
 now be made either parallel or taper of almost any re- 
 quired length, and as smooth internally as they are on 
 the outside. A very little consideration will prove that 
 a very large number of brass tubes are used in our 
 various manufactures, as, for instance, in locomotive 
 boilers, condensers, astronomical and philosophical in- 
 struments, curtain - poles, gas - chandeliers, lamps, and 
 so forth. In old times only one way of making these 
 was known, namely, by folding thin sheets of brass over 
 a mandrel or round bar, and soldering or brazing the 
 seam. They are now made in vast quantities by casting 
 
BRASS TUBES. 77 
 
 and drawing, so as to be wholly without seam, and can 
 be made of any size required, down to one-fourth of an 
 inch in diameter. Brass, it must be remembered, is a 
 compound of copper and spelter (zinc), melted together 
 in an air-furnace. The operation is one requiring great 
 care, because zinc evaporates, and passes off as vapour, 
 under a temperature that will not melt copper. The 
 crucibles in which the melting is effected are therefore 
 closely covered and secured by a plastering of clay. As 
 soon as the copper is sufficiently hot to absorb the fumes 
 of zinc, the two metals combine, and, it may be re- 
 marked, metals thus combined frequently melt afterwards 
 at a lower temperature than would have sufficed to liquefy 
 the less fusible of them alone. This is the case with 
 brass, which also improves in quality by being melted 
 again and again. Consequently the founders always 
 mix a certain proportion of old brass with the spelter 
 and copper which is to form a new supply. 
 
 To cast a hollow tube there are required a flask or iron 
 box of the length of the tube, with a round recess or hole 
 from end to end when closed, and also a core or cylinder, 
 so laid that the metal may flow round it. The external 
 surface of this core must have the form that the interior 
 of the tube is to have : in the present case it will there- 
 fore be cylindrical. 
 
 In fig. 14, A is the flask closed, JB the core, C the 
 
7 8 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 interior of the half flask. The latter, when closed, is 
 secured by iron clamps EE. The cores consist of a rod 
 of iron upon which are layers of clay, or rather of sand 
 and loam ground together in a mill, and made into a 
 paste with water. The method of making these cores 
 is simple, but exceedingly ingenious. The iron rod is 
 supported at each end in what may be called two little 
 iron forks, at the ends of a bench. The rods beino" 
 
 7 o 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 
 squared at the right-hand end, a handle is slipped on, 
 which is turned by a lad while a handful of hay is held 
 against it, which is thus neatly coiled like a rope upon it, 
 from end to end. The wet loam is then plastered on it as 
 it continues to revolve, and is smoothed and rendered of 
 the exact cylindrical form by bringing up against it the 
 edge of a board which rests upon the bench behind it. 
 When one coat of the loam is dry, another is put on, and 
 
BRAbS TUBES. 79 
 
 the cores are ranged in a hot chamber, where they become 
 sufficiently hard to bear the pressure of the heated metal. 
 At one end of the flask is a recess to receive one end of 
 the rod, the other resting in a similar recess at the 
 opposite end, where room is also left for pouring the 
 metal, which is done with the flasks placed upright. The 
 end of the tube where the pouring took place is not 
 generally so sound as the rest, and has also a kind of 
 lip of metal attached ; but this is cut off by means of a 
 circular saw before the next operation is begun ; and as 
 boys like noise, this sawing ought to suit them exactly. 
 
 The cores are of course broken to pieces in removing 
 them from the tubes, and are ground up and mixed 
 with fresh loam. The tubes, which are not very rough, 
 are placed in a pickle or bath of sulphuric acid and water, 
 which cleans the surface by dissolving a small portion of 
 the metal. They are now ready for drawing, which is 
 performed as follows : — A long bench of massive propor- 
 tions has a broad and strong chain passing over rollers 
 at each end of the bench, and continued underneath, 
 where the ends are fastened together, so that it becomes 
 one continuous band. The rollers are cogged, so that 
 there can by no possibility be any chance of the chain 
 slipping, and they are kept revolving by a steam-engine. 
 At one end of this bench is an upright rest for a steel 
 die, conical on the inside, the small part of the cone 
 
So AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 being next to the bench. Through this die the tube 
 has to be forcibly dragged. To effect this it is 
 first placed on a mandrel turned for the purpose, with 
 a shoulder near one end. Fig. 15 shows aa the 
 tube slipped over the mandrel 55, cc the die in section. 
 d is a cross-bar by which the mandrel is attached to a 
 kind of clamp, so made that it will lay hold of the chain 
 at any part on which it is placed. Thus, as the chain 
 passes along the table the mandrel is carried with it, 
 
 Fig 15. 
 
 and the tube is forced to pass through the steel die, 
 which reduces its size, and considerably lengthens it. 
 By this operation the brass is rendered smooth, but 
 very hard and brittle; and before it can be further re- 
 duced it requires to be annealed, by placing it in a 
 furnace, and heating it to a dull red, allowing it after- 
 wards to cool very slowly. It is then drawn again 
 through a smaller die, and so on until reduced to the 
 required size. During these operations it will be lengthened 
 perhaps from four feet to twelve or more, remaining in 
 
BRASS TUBES. 81 
 
 all probability perfectly sound. This last point, however, 
 is of great importance, and the tubes are tested by a jet 
 of steam at fifty pounds' pressure admitted inside, while 
 the ends are plugged, or by filling them with water at a 
 similar pressure. Any flaw, even if invisible to the eye, 
 is at once detected by the escape of the water or steam. 
 During these operations the tubes very often become 
 slightly bent, and they require to be straightened before 
 being packed for the market. The straightening is rapidly 
 done by a boy, who merely passes the tube through a hole 
 in an upright post of wood, and presses it in the required 
 direction. This seems but a clumsy mode of proceeding, 
 and is in fact identical with that followed by the broom 
 and mop handle makers. It is, however, not only 
 perfectly effectual, but is, probably, the only way in 
 which this work could be managed. Such is the process 
 by which thousands of tons of solid tubing are made 
 every year, ready to pass into the hands of those who 
 give them their required form. A very large quantity 
 are used for gas chandeliers and lamps, being variously 
 chased and ornamented. Telescope tubes, which fit so 
 exactly inside each other, show with what accuracy it 
 is possible to draw the different sizes. If they are to 
 be bent, as for cornopeans and other musical instruments, 
 they are first filled with sand, or with soft solder that 
 can be subsequently melted and poured out. 
 
8 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 IRON TUBING. 
 
 Brass being far more costly than iron, the latter metal 
 is also largely used for tubes, some of which are cast, 
 such as stack pipes for house roofs and for gas ; but as 
 these are brittle, and unsuited for purposes in which 
 < toughness and strength are necessary, means have been 
 discovered for welding them from plates or strips of 
 wrought iron. It may, perhaps, not be known to our 
 younger readers that the properties of iron in the con- 
 ditions of cast and wrought are very different. The 
 first breaks easily, and the fractured parts reveal an 
 aggregation of bright crystalline grains, coarse or fine, 
 according to quality. By remelting, puddling, hammer- 
 ing, and rolling, these crystals become drawn out into 
 fibres, the metal becomes tough and malleable, and may 
 be drawn into wire, beaten or rolled into thin plates, and 
 welded — that is, at a heat a little below that which would 
 burn the iron it will unite under the hammer, and be as 
 sound at the joint as elsewhere. Iron in this state can- 
 not be remelted ; but when raised to a high temperature 
 it burns, and throws off showers of brilliant sparks. There 
 is, however, a peculiar property which belongs to wrought 
 iron which is not so generally known, except to engineers 
 and men of science. A bar, suspended and continually 
 hammered, so as to keep up constant vibration, will pass 
 
IRON TUBING. 83 
 
 into a partially crystalline condition, and break — some- 
 times falling apart spontaneously. In railway bridges 
 the wrought-iron girders sometimes attain a similar state 
 from the vibration produced by passing trains, and 
 accidents have not been unfrequent from this weakening 
 of the structure. 
 
 The iron for tubes must be of good quality, and is rolled 
 
 Pig. 16.— Bevelling. 
 CThe drawing of the flat chain does not show the links sufficiently open.) 
 
 first into sheets, which are afterwards cut to size between 
 slitting rollers. It is now necessary to bevel each edge 
 somewhat, that when welded there may be no raised seam. 
 This is effected by dragging the strip, by means of a flat 
 chain with a clamp attached, between a pair of tools fixed 
 inside two strong uprights which rise from the bench at 
 one end (fig. 16). The bench itself is very similar in 
 
8 4 
 
 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 appearance to that used for drawing brass tubes, as already 
 described. The iron is now ready to be folded, being up to 
 this time merely a long flat plate. First it is subjected to 
 the action of a kind of hammer with a convex face below, 
 similar to Hg. 17, the plate lying upon a hollow bed, which 
 represents a mould of the lower half of the tube. By this 
 operation it is made to assume a semi-cylindrical form. 
 
 Kg. 17. 
 
 Further hammering lays the two edges neatly together 
 from end to end, the bevelled parts overlapping. The 
 tube now has to be welded, which is very ingeniously 
 managed. The difficulties that had to be contended with 
 were great. It was necessary to have a rod or mandrel 
 inside to bear the strokes of the hammer, or the pressure 
 of the rollers used instead of hammers ; but having welded 
 
IRON TUBING. 85 
 
 a tube upon such a bar, the difficulty of withdrawing it 
 would be insurmountable. Moreover, a welding heat must 
 be kept up until the whole seam is complete and sound. 
 These difficulties have been met as follows : — The folded 
 
 Pig. 18.— Furnace and Rolls. 
 
 tube is placed in a long furnace (fig. 18), the seam having 
 been previously sprinkled with' sand, which, melting and 
 forming a glaze upon it, prevents in a great measure both 
 sealing and burning. 
 
86 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 Close to the mouth of the furnace are a pair of rollers, 
 set in motion by steam, with grooves or channels upon 
 their surfaces, which together form a round hole of 
 the exact size of the intended tube. These form the 
 compressing power by which the weld is made. The 
 mandrel for the inside consists of an iron rod considerably 
 less in size than the tube, but on the extremity is a short 
 piece which fits the inside of the tube. This is placed 
 between the rollers, so that as the tube is drawn from 
 the furnace it must of necessity pass over it. But as this 
 mandrel fits the tube, it would be carried along with k as 
 it emerges from the rollers. To prevent this, two men 
 with sledge-hammers keep on hammering the other end of 
 the rod to which it is attached, so as to keep the mandrel 
 in the right position between the rollers, and prevent it 
 from being jammed and fixed in the tube. The last blow 
 given drives it out of the end, when the process is com- 
 plete. It is very rapidly performed ; and the tubes are 
 so arranged that the moment the mandrel is withdrawn 
 from one, there is another at welding heat ready to be 
 operated on. These iron tubes are used in boilers and 
 elsewhere instead of brass, when the latter metal rises 
 considerably in price, as is very often the case. 
 
 There is one notable peculiarity in the manufacture of 
 iron and brass in the present day which steam has enabled 
 us to adopt, viz., the use of rollers instead of hammers 
 
IRON TUBING. 87 
 
 for forging. There is, indeed, a steam-hammer of 
 stupendous size commonly used in ironworks, but it is 
 adapted for the heavier and more massive objects, as, for 
 instance, anchor-making, and welding the huge coils of 
 iron for the Armstrong guns. It is also used to reduce 
 the blocks of iron from the puddling-f urn aces to thick 
 plates, as well as for many other purposes. There is also 
 a steam-hammer or forge, giving almost any number of 
 light blows per minute, which is used at the Small Arms 
 Manufactory near Birmingham, and at Enfield, and I dare- 
 say at many other places. I cannot now recall its name, 
 but it is a very clever piece of machinery, and rattles 
 away at an amazing pace, wholly superseding for some 
 purposes the hand-hammers previously used. The roller 
 system is, however, far more serviceable for work such as 
 I have described, because we have only to turn grooves of 
 any desired shape on the surfaces of the rollers, and then 
 any bar, rod, or tube made to pass between them as they 
 revolve (the metal being, of course, softened first of all 
 by heat) must receive an outside or superficial form 
 agreeing with the shape of the grooves. All the rails, of 
 whatever form, used for the permanent way of railways 
 are thus rolled, and could not be formed otherwise ; 
 because if they were cast in moulds, the metal would be 
 quite brittle, whereas if formed by rolling, it is fibrous, and 
 exceedingly tough. 
 
88 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 The " roller system," as it may well be called, has in 
 fact of late years swept out of the way many older con- 
 trivances, and is so simple and so effective that it will 
 always keep its place in our manufactures. It is now used 
 in printing-presses to give impressions of the type — the 
 paper passing over one set of rollers and under another as 
 they revolve above the forme, or frame in which the type 
 lies, so that both sides are printed almost simultaneously. 
 The forme passes to and fro under other rollers whose 
 surfaces are charged with ink, while another set deliver 
 the paper in sheets at one side of the machine. Calicoes 
 are similarly printed, by passing over and under rollers on 
 which the required pattern has been embossed. Paper, too, 
 which is composed of pulp made from rags, straw, and 
 other substances, is first of all little else but a sheet of 
 thin and loose felt ; but as it passes in its course between 
 rollers which press out the water, it gradually becomes 
 drier and more compact, and is eventually wound off on 
 another roller in one continuous and firm sheet, which is 
 afterwards cut and sized, and otherwise finished, as may be 
 required. If the illuminated or ornamented paper is needed 
 for wall-decoration, this is also now done in the same way 
 as the calico is printed, whereas in old times it was 
 entirely worked by hand with square blocks on which the 
 pattern was carved. These were covered with a layer of 
 the necessary colour, and pressed on the fabric, great care 
 
IRON TUBING. 89 
 
 being necessary, in applying consecutive blocks, to produce 
 a continuous pattern without apparent joins or seams. 
 
 I believe that corrugated iron, now used so largely for 
 roofs and portable bouses, as also perforated zinc, in which 
 there is a continuous repetition of the same pattern, is 
 made by passing the metal, in the first case, between 
 rollers with grooved or wavy surfaces, and in the second, 
 between pairs of rollers with pins of any desired form in 
 the one, and similar indentations in the other, which 
 would be, in fact, continuous punching, And in every 
 similar case where a pattern is to be repeated again and 
 again upon long sheets and strips of metal, rollers afford 
 the readiest method of producing the work. It is pro- 
 bable that the use of rollers for corrugating and fluting 
 metal was suggested by the crimping-irons of the laun- 
 dress, which consisted of two rollers made hollow to 
 contain heaters, and fluted on their outer surfaces ; these, 
 turning in contact with each other, frilled or corrugated 
 the material as it passed between them. There are many 
 other manufactures in which rollers are similarly employed, 
 but these suffice to show their general application. More- 
 over, one great advantage is that the machinery to actuate 
 them is of the simplest character, and not liable to get 
 out of order ; and there is no shock in their use, and 
 consequently no excess of wear and tear. The shock of 
 stamping machinery, on the other hand, is always great, 
 
90 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 and the expense involved in repairs proportionally heavy. 
 Our readers should try and visit some one of the various 
 ironworks and rolling-mills in the Black Country in the 
 north of England, and they would thus see for themselves 
 the prodigious power obtained by machinery of the above 
 character. It requires a painting to give any idea of the 
 effect of the iron furnaces and large works of the kind; 
 the pen and graver are powerless to give it expression. 
 
Chapter VI. 
 
 MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 EFORE entering further upon mechanical pro- 
 cesses, it will be as well to explain the prin- 
 ciples upon which all machinery is constructed, 
 whatever its special object may be. It was 
 indeed my intention to leave this for a concluding 
 chapter, but " second thoughts are best," as people say, 
 and I shall place it here instead. As people say, is 
 nevertheless hardly a safe dictum, and I am by no means 
 sure that second thoughts are best, as a rule. With some 
 rusty, crusty people, who have to think at least twice before 
 they can make up their minds to give a copper to the 
 poor, or with some irritable, bilious, old fogies who are 
 always imagining that people want to insult them, and 
 who immediately let fly the topmost word from their 
 internal reservoir of growls, second thoughts are best — at 
 any rate, they cannot well be worse than the first. Not 
 so with noble-minded, generous -hearted boys, always 
 
92 AM0NGS1" MA CHINES. 
 
 ready to do a kindness without counting the cost. I like 
 a boy who cannot always stay to balance pros and cons, 
 but with whom kindnesses are ever ready, waiting oppor- 
 tunity only for their exercise. With these, first thoughts 
 and first impulses are decidedly the best, although a cold 
 world may pronounce against their wisdom. It is better 
 to give to a humbug than to refuse a genuine object of 
 charity ; better once in a way to feel that you have been 
 "done" than to find out that you have failed to do a 
 kind action from too nicely arguing with yourself the 
 worldly wisdom of the same. If the heart is good and 
 honest and free, depend upon it good and Christian im- 
 pulses are upward; and I say, boys, never check them, 
 but let them tumble out as they will, and don't wait for 
 second thoughts. 
 
 Mechanical arrangements, however, do require second 
 thoughts — ay, and third and fourth, and many more. Much 
 consideration and deep study is often needed before the 
 crude idea, however excellent, can be worked out into a 
 practical form. The first necessity is a knowledge of the 
 principles of levers and cams and eccentrics, and suchlike; 
 what they will do, and what no contrivance will make 
 them do. Scores of otherwise rational, and even clever 
 people, have spent time and toil and money in trying to 
 circumvent mechanical laws, and compel 1 lb. to act like 
 2 lb., or a 6-foot lever to become alternately, as regards 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 93 
 
 its power, 6 feet and 3 feet, and thus, as they fondly hope, 
 startle mankind with "perpetual motion." But, boys, 
 it is no use to work at any such fallacy ; and when it 
 is considered that the Almighty Himself made all the 
 laws of nature, physical laws and mechanical laws 
 alike, it is not the least likely that any human being 
 will be able to upset them, and it can only be folly to 
 attempt it. 
 
 We will begin with levers, which are nothing but rigid 
 bars, straight or curved, as the case may be, but absolutely 
 inflexible — that is, cannot be bent. Now this, to begin 
 with, is a theory that cannot be wholly carried out, 
 because levers do bend ; but you must for the present 
 suppose that they do not. 
 
 Let the line AB (fig. 19) represent a straight bar of iron or 
 wood turning on the point C, m, jjb 
 
 which may be the upper edge y £ ^g 5 
 
 of a stone, or anything else -efe\^ 
 
 that will support it in a 
 
 similar way. If the part AC is exactly the length of CB, 
 like the arms of a pair of scales, it will require a force of 
 1 lb. applied at A to lift a weight of 1 lb. resting on B. 
 Here, therefore, you get no advantage in the way of 
 power, only perhaps it may be more convenient to pull 
 down A than to lift up B. It is frequently so in machinery. 
 Now let AC (fig. 20) be twice the length of CB, and 
 
94 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 let 1 lb. still lie on B. You will now find — for you 
 should prove this for yourselves — that a force or weight 
 of \ lb. at A will raise the weight. Here you have gained 
 apparently a great deal of power, and practically you 
 have done so. 
 
 But let us go a step farther. Suppose you have to 
 raise the weight 1 foot high, you will find that it will be 
 necessary to depress the longest end of your lever 2 feet. 
 
 A c B^ exactly double the 
 
 l 2 m% : 
 
 /\ lib, distance. Hence you 
 
 . may say it took \ lb. 
 
 O of weight or power to 
 
 TSIO. 
 
 Pig. 20.— Lever. raise the weight the 
 
 first 6 inches, and -^ lb. to raise it the other 6, and in 
 reality you have used a power of 1 lb. to raise 1 lb. In 
 short, take it as a standing rule that you cannot create 
 power. All you can do is to make the most convenient 
 use of such power as you have. 
 
 Now put the fulcrum or support of your lever in a 
 different place. Let the bar rest with one end on such 
 support, and hang the weight as before, Hg. 21. One pound 
 applied at A will lift 3 lb. suspended at B ; but to raise 
 the weight 1 foot, the end of the longest arm will have 
 to rise 3 feet. So that here again the apparent gain of 
 power is a fallacy. 
 
 But why in the second case is the apparent gain three to 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 95 
 
 one, and in the first case two to one ? Simply because 
 the rule of leverage is this : — The power to be applied 
 is to the weight to be raised exactly in proportion to the 
 distance of the weight from the fulcrum compared with 
 the distance of the power from the fulcrum. Or if we 
 regard it as a question of balance, which is perhaps the 
 
 Big. 2L —Lever. 
 
 A* 
 
 easiest way — " The weight {or resistance) multiplied by its 
 distance from the fulcrum must equal the power multiplied 
 by its distance from the fulcrum. 
 
 Thus in the first case, which is a lever of the first 
 kind, we have a weight or resistance of 1 lb. at a distance 
 of 1 foot from the fulcrum, and 1x1 = 1. We have a 
 power of -^ lb. applied at a distance of 2 feet from the 
 
96 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 fulcrum, and \ x 2 = 1. In the second case, which is a level 
 of the second order, we have the weight of 3 lb, at 1 foot 
 from the fulcrum, and 3x1 = 3, therefore we need a power 
 of 1 lb. at 3 feet from the fulcrum (1x3 = 3). I have 
 treated lifting-power and balancing-power as the same 
 thing, but of course a little more power has to be used to 
 produce motion. We have in addition to these levers 
 another of the third order, in which the power is nearer 
 the fulcrum than the resistance or weight. In this case, 
 we have more work laid upon us, for the leverage is 
 against us. 
 
 Let us again suppose a 3-lb. weight hung at B (fig. 22). 
 
 3 o 
 
 7\ 
 
 Fig. 22.— Lever. 
 
 It is 3 feet from the fulcrum, and 3x3 = 9. The power is ap- 
 plied at a distance of 1 foot from the fulcrum, we therefore 
 shall require a force of 9 lb. (9 x 1 = 9) in order to get the 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 97 
 
 balance correct as before ; that is, the leverage is as three 
 to one against us. But this loss is not without its equivalent 
 gain, for whereas in the previous cases we had to move 
 the power through a long distance to raise the weight a 
 little way, we now have only to move the power a short 
 distance to raise the weight a long one, and in the same 
 proportion. So that levers neither create power nor lose 
 it, but only supply means for the convenient application 
 of it. You must notice the real difference between these 
 three kinds of levers, and I think you will thoroughly 
 comprehend this first prime law of mechanics. In levers 
 of the first order the power is on one side of the fulcrum, 
 and the resistance on the other. In the second, both are 
 on the same side, but the resistance is nearest to the 
 fulcrum. In the third, power and resistance are still on 
 the same side, but the power is nearest to the fulcrum. 
 Now for a step further. 
 
 Let us try two or three levers in combination and see 
 the result. Here in fig, 
 23 A we have two levers B < 
 
 A .0 
 
 c 
 
 -ft = * 
 
 Jig. 23.— Lever. 
 
 both with equal arms, 
 these may be any length, 
 and it is not necessary 
 that both should be a- 
 like, but the arms of the first are to be equal, and like- 
 wise those of the second. Then a pressure of 1 lb. 
 
98 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 at B will raise 1 lb. at C, or press the arm of the 
 second lever upwards with a force of 1 lb., and the other 
 arm will be pressed down with equal force, raising 1 lb. 
 suspended, as shown. There is no gain here in any way, 
 but again, in machines, and notably in the key action of 
 organs, double levers like this are very much used ; and 
 wherever we have not room to make use of a single 
 long lever, this combination will be very convenient. 
 But this will be more apparent when instead of equal 
 armed levers we use those which form levers of the first 
 or second order, as in the following combination. 
 
 Here (fig. 24) E is a cord, CD is a stiff rod. Keeping- 
 still the same length of lever as before, 1 lb. pressure on the 
 HI upper and longer arm will 
 
 raise 2 lb. at E, pulling up 
 the long arm of the second 
 
 ^r 
 
 Pig 1 . 24. — Lever. 
 
 lever with that force. This 
 If will push down D with a 
 (ejp force of 4 lb. and a weight 
 
 of 8 lb. will be raised at F. 
 To have effected this with a single lever, we should have 
 required one 8 feet long, suspended or supported at one 
 foot from the furthest end. The rule before set down of 
 course will apply here. The weight is 8 lb. at 1 foot from 
 the fulcrum, 8x1 = 8. The power is 1 lb. x 2 = 2 ; 2 lb. 
 X 2 =4; 4 lb. X 2 — 8 ; the sum of the powers equalling 
 the sum of the resistances. 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 99 
 
 Now, I daresay my young readers will not at first see 
 the similarity between cogwheels and levers, yet, as 
 mechanical powers, they are identical. 
 
 A wheel mounted on an axle is in fact only a perpetual 
 or continuous lever, of which the axle is the fulcrum. 
 If we make our wheel with spokes we shall see this 
 quite clearly. As the axle is generally in the centre 
 of the wheel, we shall not gain any leverage by merely 
 allowing one to work into the other, unless we also make 
 some special arrangements. 
 
 Here in fig. 25 is a large wheel working into a small 
 one, which last is called a 
 pinion. The spokes a, c, b, 
 e, d, including the cogs, 
 are, as you will at once see, 
 only our old friends, levers of 
 equal arms of the first order. 
 1 lb. suspended at a, will 
 balance one at b; and one 
 at b, the end of the spoke of the small wheel, will 
 balance one at the end d. 
 
 But though a wheel is of necessity a lever of equal 
 arms, we can make it practically a means of power ; 
 and with this further advantage that the power is con- 
 tinuous. In fig. 26, the large circle represents a wheel; 
 let it be 24 inches across, from A to D. 
 
 (g) 
 
 Fig. 25.— Cogwheel*. 
 
IOO 
 
 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 Fixed to it let there be a small pulley BC, or let BO 
 represent a stout axle. Now we thus obtain a lever AC, 
 moving on a fulcrum B ; but AB is much longer than 
 BC, say four times as long, then by our old rule a weight 
 
 D, of 1 lb. hanging from it, will 
 balance a weight of 4 lb. suspend- 
 ed from C, and if the cords are 
 wound round the wheels, we can 
 by uncoiling the one, using a con- 
 tinual force of a little over 1 lb., 
 wind up the second with its weight 
 of 4 lb. This facility of continuing 
 the power over an unlimited space 
 gives to the wheel and axle its 
 advantage over a simple straight bar. Each spoke, in fact, 
 becomes a lever in turn, and we can imagine these so close 
 together that there is no cessation of their action. 
 
 In the next combination, represented in fig. 27, we have 
 again compound levers. The pinions or small wheels are 
 fixed to the axles of the larger ones, so as to revolve with 
 them. Let the first wheel AE be 4 feet diameter, and the 
 small one fixed to it 1 foot diameter. This works into the 
 edge of the second wheel, which is, we will suppose, 2 feet, 
 and carries on its axle a pinion of 6 inches. The first lever 
 will be AD, turning on its fulcrum C ; the long arm will 
 be 2 feet long, the short one 6 inches. Therefore a power 
 
 Fig. 26. 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 101 
 
 of 1 lb. at A will become four times as great at D, the cir- 
 cumference of the pinion (for 4x6 =*24 inches or 2 feet). 
 This force, thus already quadrupled and therefore equal to 
 4 lb., is applied (by moving the wheel) to the long arm of 
 the lever DGr turning on the fulcrum F (the axle of the 
 second wheel), and as the 
 pinion is only 6 inches 
 diameter, the short arm of 
 the second lever is but 3 
 inches. The power is there- 
 fore again quadrupled and 
 becomes equal to 16 lb., 
 which is the weight bal- 
 anced at the end of the 
 second lever. Thus, so 
 long as motion is con- 
 tinued we gain in the 
 proportion of 16 to 1, 
 and in the simplest man- ®/Z3 
 ner possible. You can 
 always get at the proportion of power to resistance in 
 wheels and pinions by sketching only the spokes which 
 lie in a horizontal direction, and considering them so 
 many levers acting upon each other. But the similarity 
 between wheels and levers does not end here, as we 
 6hall see presently; for if we gain apparently a power 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 
io2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 of 16 to 1, you may rest assured we have exercised 
 that power through a distance sixteen times as great 
 as that through which we have raised the weight ; 
 and if the weights are suspended from ropes coiled 
 round the rims of the wheels, we shall have uncoiled 
 no less than 16 feet to raise the weight 1 foot. 
 There is positively no way of circumventing this me- 
 chanical law. We will not continue this just now, 
 but speak of velocity or speed. Ah! perhaps here we 
 shall be able to manage better, and really gain something ! 
 Not a bit of it ! the moment we increase speed we lose 
 power, and if we have only a given force to work with, 
 and have to raise a weight many times greater, we shall 
 find it possible to attain that end only by doing our work 
 very slowly indeed. Keeping, however, this law before us, 
 we may arrange so that a child may raise a ton. 
 
 A wheel of 2 feet diameter, working into one of 6 
 inches, will evidently turn it round four times, while 
 itself makes but one rotation, the cogs being supposed 
 to be in number as 24 to 6, or 4 to 1- Dispensing with 
 cogs, and allowing the wheels simply to touch, and thus 
 move by " rolling contact," as it is called, the same rate 
 of motion will be obtained, and the surfaces thus in con- 
 tact represent what is called the pitch line upon which 
 the cogs are set out. If we could prevent slipping, the 
 rolling contact would be preferable to cogs ; and there 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 103 
 
 are some machines in which it is used. Of course it is 
 a perfectly silent action, whereas that obtained by cogs 
 is very noisy. 
 
 Now, if you take any one point on the circumference 
 of each of your two wheels (or wheel and pinion), and 
 measure from it, quite round the wheels, you will find 
 the length about three times the diameter, in this case 6 
 feet and 18 inches respectively. The end of your lever, 
 therefore, will make a circular journey of 6 feet, and in 
 so doing will move the end of the short lever also 6 
 feet ; but the latter will have to run at a much higher 
 rate of speed to accomplish its distance in the same 
 time — like the child, taking perhaps three steps to one 
 to keep pace with its father's strides. 
 
 Another rule of mechanics which both the lever and 
 the train of wheels exemplifies is this, To gain power 
 you must be content to sacrifice speedy and if you gain speed 
 you lose power. I shall conclude this chapter with a 
 drawing of a train of wheels (fig. 28), which I think 
 will make this quite clear. 
 
 In this figure let A, B, C, be three wheels of equal size — 
 say 2 feet diameter, or 6 feet in circumference — and let the 
 two pinions D, E, be each 6 inches diameter, or 18 inches 
 in circumference. The last has a handle H attached at 
 the extreme edge to give motion, and we will apply here 
 a force of 10 lb. ; as the pinion is one-fourth the size of 
 
£04 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 the wheel, we must at once multiply 10 by 4, which is the 
 power applied at the circumference of the second wheel. 
 This again multiplied by 4 gives 160 lb. applied at the 
 circumference of the third, and if this last has an axle of 
 6 inches diameter from which a weight is suspended, we 
 
 Fig. 23.— Train of Wheels. 
 
 may again multiply by 4 and find that 640 lb. may thus 
 be raised. The power gained is thus very great, but let 
 us inquire as to speed. 
 
 While the first wheel is turned once by its handle 
 carrying its own pinion once round, the latter will only 
 move the second wheel one-fourth of the way round ; its 
 pinion will therefore likewise move only that distance : 
 or, if the large wheels have eighty teeth and the pinions 
 twenty, one turn of the first will have only caused the 
 6econd to advance one-fourth of eighty, or twenty teeth. 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 105 
 
 and its own pinion five teeth. As these five teeth are in 
 gear with the next wheel, this will have moved but five 
 teeth, or just one-sixteenth of its circumference. Its axle 
 is 18 inches in circumference, and this will have likewise 
 moved only one-sixteenth of its way round (or revolution), 
 or one-sixteenth of 18 inches, i.e., -rl^lj inch, which is 
 the height the weight will rise during each revolution of 
 the handle. The distance the latter has moved, of course, 
 equals the circumference of the wheel to which it is fixed. 
 It has moved 6 feet, or 72 inches, in order to raise the 
 weight 1J inch. 
 
 Now see once more how nicely our principle of levers 
 works out and balances. We applied a power of 10 lb. 
 and it raised 640 lb., or sixty-four times its own weight. 
 But this power travelled 6 feet, or 72 inches, to raise the 
 said weight 1J inch. If you work out the sum you will 
 find that 72 is just sixty-four times 1 J inch, thus — 
 11 inch = f , and 72 inches = "£ 
 
 We can knock off the denominators, as they are equal, 
 and we have 
 
 9)576(64 
 54 
 
 36 
 36 
 
 There is nothing more beautiful than the way in which 
 the balance of leverage works out in all cases. If you 
 
1 06 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 gain ten times in power, you lose ten times in speed, and 
 vice versd ; and if you can get over this and gain power 
 and speed at once, you will not find it so exceedingly 
 difficult to obtain — perpetual motion, — but that little 
 word "If "I 
 
Chapter VII. 
 
 MECHANICAL POWERS* 
 
 [LTHOUGH a great number of mechanical ex- 
 pedients are but combinations or peculiar 
 arrangements of levers, there are one or two 
 others that I think should be illustrated before 
 going into further details. The first is the wedge. This 
 consists of one or two inclined planes, and when an 
 inclined plane is made continuous and coiled about a 
 cylinder we obtain a screw, one of the most generally 
 serviceable of all these powers. 
 
 Let us inquire into the peculiarities therefore of the 
 inclined plane. Here it is in iig. 29, A, B, C. This 
 may represent a board at an inclination, for purposes 
 of experiment, or a hill ; and I want to make it clear to 
 yon that in walking up that hill, you do precisely the 
 same amount of work, whether you walk up the long 
 plane AC, or the shorter and steeper one AD, or get 
 
io8 
 
 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 up BA as best you can. You have, in short, in all 
 cases, to raise a certain weight — that of your body — or 
 a stone, or something else, from B to A. Now, I will 
 venture to say that if the path AC were a winding 
 path round a hill with gradual ascent, and AD a steep 
 and awkward path by bush and tree, you boys would gc 
 up the latter, and I, the old fogey, should decidedly go 
 
 Fig. 29.— Inclined Plane. 
 
 the longer round ; anyhow, we should lift our bodies the 
 height AB, but I should expend a little power over a 
 long distance, and you would expend greater power over 
 a short distance, which is uncommonly like what we 
 discovered about the levers in our last chapter. To 
 understand the nature of this mechanical power, suppose 
 a weight of 10 lb. to rest on a level board, its effective 
 weight would be 10 lb. Now, if you were able to raise 
 
MECHANICAL POWERS. 109 
 
 the board to a vertical position (placing it on its end) 
 without allowing the weight to fall from its surface, such 
 weight, as regards its pressure upon the board, would be 
 nothing. The first case is shown at A 1 , the second at B 2 . 
 Then it stands to reason that the nearer the board lies 
 to the level position the more weight it bears, and the 
 nearer it is to the vertical the less. Thus it will bear 
 more weight at D than it does at C. If I were now to 
 tie a string to weight placed at the bottom of B, and 
 lift that weight by its means the height of the plank, 
 I should simply lift the whole weight, exerting a power 
 of 10 lb. without any assistance derived from the t)oard, 
 which might as well not be there at all. But if I were 
 to put the same weight on the board and incline it as 
 at C, the board would bear a portion of the 10 lb., and I 
 should have to exert less power ; or if, lastly, the board 
 were very slightly inclined, it would carry more of the 
 weight, and I should have less to raise. In all practical 
 cases of friction (or rubbing) between two, the surface 
 has to come under consideration, as it forms an element 
 of resistance, but this may be neglected in such a mere 
 sketch of science as the present. Obviously, then, the 
 more gentle the inclination of the board, the more it 
 assists me in raising a weight to the highest end of it, 
 because it relieves me of a portion of that weight. That 
 there is a simple rule in the matter, the foregoing remarks 
 
no 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 will abundantly show, and these we will now investigate. 
 Fig. 30 represents a plane raised at one end 10 feet, 
 the sloping surface of it being 100 feet in length. At 
 every 10 feet we may draw a perpendicular line, and by 
 drawing horizontal ones to meet these we make ten steps, 
 and evidently the rise or height of each will be 1 foot, 
 as the whole ten make up together a rise of 10 feet. 
 As long as we are on the level of the steps, the weight 
 is wholly supported, and it is only at the perpendiculars, 
 
 Tig. 30.— Inclined Plane. 
 
 or " risers," that we must lift our 10 lb. ; we shall there- 
 fore lift it 1 foot, and repeat this ten times, which is 
 the same as lifting it 10 feet at once. The former 
 would be certainly far easier. Doing away now with 
 the steps, but keeping the incline, the weight, at any 
 given point on that incline, exercises one-tenth of its 
 entire pressure, or 1 lb., and, with a plane constructed as 
 here, a force of 1 lb. would balance its weight; but we 
 drag our 1 lb. 100 feet, 1 x 100 = 100, or we may without 
 the plane lift the 10 lb. 10 feet, 10 x 10 = 100. 
 
MECHANICAL POWERS. in 
 
 If you make a little truck which will run easily upon 
 a pair of miniature rails, and arrange your incline by 
 hinging it at the angle so that you can raise or lower it, 
 you can prove this by experiment ; but remember you will 
 require rather more than the calculated weight to over- 
 come the friction, because, however smooth your rails 
 and well made your truck, it will not run quite easily. 
 Upon a level rail a truck of 1 ton weight can be theo- 
 retically moved by a power of 8 lb., practically it may 
 need 10 or 12, or even more. We have, however, now 
 attained a standard or unit of work for the inclined plane. 
 The weight multiplied by the height, together representing 
 the resistance, will equal the power multiplied by the 
 length of the plane. Here it is as stated, 10 lb. x 10 feet 
 = 1 lb. x 100 feet. 
 
 The wedge as commonly made consists of two such 
 planes, but the rule is here, again, that the less the in- 
 clination of its sides the greater is the power, or the 
 longer it is in proportion to its thickness the easier will 
 the work be done by its means. 
 
 I should state here that the above calculations are true 
 only when the power is exercised in a line parallel to the 
 incline — as, for instance, by means of the rope in the 
 drawing; and remember also that the direction of the 
 weight borne by an inclined plane is perpendicular to the 
 surface of that plane. In B, of this figure, for example, 
 
1 1 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 the direction of it is shown by the dotted line. In like 
 manner the direction of the force of a wedge C (fig. 31) 
 
 is perpendicular to its sides, 
 which force tends to split the 
 block into which it is driven. 
 The whole question, however, 
 of the " resolution of forces," 
 m & 31 - is one too complicated for full 
 
 discussion in these pages. We shall now therefore pro- 
 ceed to turn the wedge into a continuous force by making it 
 into a screw, just as we converted the lever into a wheel. 
 If we cut out of paper an inclined plane 3 inches in 
 height and 9 inches long, not on the base but on the 
 inclined part, and wind it round a cylinder, we make a 
 > crew. This is, in fact, a spiral ascent round a steep hill. 
 It makes no difference whether we wind it once round a large 
 cylinder or many times round a small one, we still ascend 
 an incline of 3 in 9, or 1 in 3, which is called the pitch 
 of the screw. If you ever went to the top of the monu- 
 ment on London Bridge, or up a high church steeple, you 
 know how delightful it is thus to screw your way upwards ; 
 and I suppose it is the tortuous walk of a drunkard that 
 has suggested the term of " being screwed" — a widespread 
 blot in the world, of which no genuine mechanical boy has 
 ever borne the stain. Why a miser should be called an old 
 screw is less clear. It is no doubt, however, a long and 
 
MECHANICAL POWERS. 
 
 "3 
 
 tortuous path from the bottom of his pocket to its open 
 mouth. The nature of the screw as a mechanical power 
 will be easiest understood from noticing one or two appli- 
 cations of it. To make use of it we always require a nut, 
 or block in which an internal thread is cut of the same 
 pitch as the screw ; and having this, we can use either as 
 the actual source of power. For if the screw is so fixed 
 
 Pig. 32.— Screw. 
 
 that it cannot move endwise, it will, if turned, draw the nut 
 along; or if the latter is fixed, and the screw permitted to 
 travel lengthwise, the latter may be used as the interpreter 
 of power, as in fig. 32, where, if we fix the nut and cause 
 the screw to revolve, we can use the latter to raise the 
 heavy stone. The screw-jack for lifting weights is con- 
 structed on this principle, and is in daily use by engineers 
 
H4 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 and mechanics. The rule is, that the finer the screw the 
 greater will be its power. This we should expect, because 
 a fine screw uncoiled would represent an inclined plane of 
 great length in proportion to its height. A screw of the 
 supposed pitch of one in three would do exactly the work 
 of a wedge of the same dimensions in raising a given 
 weight to a certain height. You might place the stone 
 upon a platform D, free to rise perpendicularly by being 
 passed through guide-bars, and by pushing the wedge 
 along upon its base you would raise the stone. The little 
 friction-wheel would be added in practice to reduce the 
 resistance. But when great power is required, a very long 
 and gently-inclined plane would be needed, which would 
 in most cases be exceedingly inconvenient to use in 
 practice. It is therefore wound round a cylinder, and 
 converted into a screw, which takes up less room ; and this, 
 too, being turned by a lever-handle, a second power is 
 brought into use, so that we can readily overcome heavy 
 resistance in the form of weights or otherwise, as the case 
 may be. 
 
 Now we come to the rule by which to calculate the 
 power of a screw, and it is of course exactly that of the 
 inclined plane. The total height to which the weight is 
 to be raised multiplied by that weight, equals the power 
 multiplied by the length of thread or the whole incline or 
 spiral. In other words, as the height of the inclined plane 
 
MECHANICAL POWERS. 115 
 
 wrapped once round a cylinder represents the pitch from 
 thread to thread, and the length of the plane is the cir- 
 cumference of the cylinder, the distance between the 
 threads (or pitch) multiplied by the weight, must equal 
 the circumference of the cylinder multiplied by the power, 
 expressed in inches or feet, or otherwise ; and hence, the 
 less the pitch the greater will be the power. 
 
 The screw is used in many ways in addition to that of 
 lifting weights, one common application being to move 
 the slide-rests of self-acting lathes. These, which are 
 arranged to carry the tool, slide the whole length of the 
 lathe-bed, and the motion is produced as follows : To the 
 under-side of the rest, which either projects between the 
 bearers or hangs down in front, there is attached a screw- 
 nut, which, however, is sawn into two parts that can be 
 opened or brought together by a lever. Through this 
 nut passes a screw, which lies along the lathe-bed from 
 end to end, and turns in bearings which only allow it to 
 rotate, but not otherwise to move. To one end of the 
 screw a cogwheel is attached, which gears with others 
 put in motion by the lathe itself. The result is, that 
 when the screw rotates upon its axis it carries the nut, 
 and with it the rest, along ; but upon pressing the lever 
 which opens and closes the two halves of the nut, the 
 latter is released, and no further motion of the rest takes 
 place Great power not being necessary in this case, the 
 
1 16 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 screw is cut with only two, three, or four threads to the 
 inch, and of course it then requires two, three, or four 
 revolutions to move the slide-rest (and with it the cutting 
 tool) that distance. Sometimes, instead of a regular 
 thread, either square or V-shaped, the cylinder has a 
 groove traced spirally upon its surface, and into this a 
 single pin, or perhaps two or three pins, arranged on a 
 sliding bar, fall. On causing the screw to revolve, the 
 pins are compelled to advance, and carry the bar along 
 in a vertical, horizontal, or other direction parallel to the 
 length of the screw. For a V-threaded screw, a mere row 
 of similar notches in a flat bar are sometimes used as a 
 nut, or a half nut only is used, but the action is similar 
 in all cases. 
 
 I have sketched some of these arrangements in fig. 
 33. 
 
 The screw is so extremely valuable an arrangement of 
 mechanical power, that an enormous amount of expense 
 and labour has been expended in order to cut it perfectly. 
 It is, among other uses, invaluable in telescopes, micro- 
 scopes, and philosophical instruments, as affording means 
 of providing motion in any direct direction in the minutest 
 degree. In many mechanical contrivances, as, for example, 
 in ornamental turning, it is necessary to move a point or 
 tool so small a distance as the j^ or even xo~Vo" P art °^ 
 an inch. In astronomical instruments, for purposes of 
 
MECHANICAL POWERS. 
 
 "7 
 
 measurement, the 10000 of an inch is not uncommon.* 
 These are readily obtained by the use of the screw. Let 
 there be one cut with ten threads to the inch, and let the 
 head of this be marked with ten equal divisions. One 
 whole turn will move the nut, to which we may suppose 
 a pointer attached, ^ of an inch ; and if the screw itself 
 is turned only one division of its head, instead of one 
 
 iiiilii' 
 
 Fig. 33.— Screw-gearing. Nuts, (fee. 
 
 complete turn, the movement will be only ^^ of an inch. 
 A movement of half a division will result in an advance 
 of xoVo > anc ^ u 7 combining screws, by means of change 
 wheels, so that a whole turn of one shall cause another to 
 move ^ or yj^, still more minute subdivisions may be 
 
 * In Sir Joseph Whitworth's workshop 1,000,000th of an inch is measured 
 by meacs of the screw. 
 
1 1 8 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 measured. Whenever, in short, we require a slow equal 
 movement in a certain direction, whether for parts of 
 machines or for measuring distances, the screw generally 
 supplies the need more readily and with greater accuracy 
 than any other contrivance. It is, however, exceedingly 
 difficult to make a screw perfectly alike from end to end, 
 especially if of slow pitch, or with many threads in a given 
 length. 
 
 There is only one other recognised mechanical power 
 which it is necessary to speak of before going into details 
 of actual machines, viz., the pulley. Here again we shall 
 find what all nations seek after, and seek too often in vain, 
 a perfect balance of power. A pulley consists of a sheave 
 or round wheel grooved on its edge, and turning on an 
 axle, which is generally fixed in a block, but may of 
 course be otherwise placed. Pulleys serve first of all to 
 change the direction of power, and secondly to increase it. 
 In fig. 34, A is a simple pulley, which is being used for 
 the first purpose. The power is applied to the weight, 
 through the flexible cord, and its direction is required to 
 be perpendicularly upwards. But the human body is so 
 constituted that it is easier to raise a weight by a down- 
 ward than an upward pull, because the weight of the 
 body itself can in the latter case be brought into action. 
 We therefore pass the weight over a pulley, and draw the 
 cord downwards. Here is no gain of power, but in some 
 
MECHANICAL POWERS. 
 
 119 
 
 degree a loss, because of the friction of the rope, and of 
 the sheave of the pulley upon its axle. Theoretically, as 
 before, disregarding the question of friction, a power of 
 ] lb. applied in any direction will raise the weight of 
 1 lb. But we can, nevertheless, so arrange pulleys as 
 tG make a power of 1 lb. equal to the raising of a weight 
 
 Eg. 34.— Pulley. 
 
 of 100 lb. or 500 lb. It will be observed in the first 
 case, in which the pulley is only used to change the 
 direction of a force, all parts of the cord are equally 
 strained, and the weight or power is equally distributed 
 throughout its length. 
 
 In fior. 34 we have two pulleys, one fixed and the 
 otner loose, and the weight of 10 lb. hangs from the 
 
1 20 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 latter. Inspection of the drawing will show that 'as 
 the cord is of equal tension throughout each part, A and 
 B bear equally the burden that hangs between them, 
 consequently each bears 5 lb. ; but the second part of the 
 cord goes on over the fixed pulley to the hand, which 
 therefore only has to pull with a power of 5 lb. to hold 
 up the weight. Thus the arrangement evidently doubles 
 the power. Theoretically there is no limit to our multi- 
 plication of pulleys, but in practice it is not usual to make 
 a combination of more than eight or ten, and even this 
 is not of frequent occurrence. 
 
 As we balanced our accounts neatly in treating of the 
 other powers, and took from them the honour of creating 
 force, which they appear to do and do not — like too many 
 human hypocrites — we will see now what is the real full 
 and actual value of a set of pulleys in regard to the work 
 which they are capable of performing. 
 
 Take first the combination of two, one fast and the 
 other loose, as in fig. 34. We wish to raise the 10-lb. 
 weight a distance of 6 feet ; we therefore lay hold of the 
 cord, and pull. We pull down 2 feet " at a go," as you 
 boys would say, and rest a couple of seconds for a fresh 
 hold and a fresh pull, and down come 2 feet more of 
 cord, and of course the weight has risen 4 feet. Not a 
 bit of it ! it has just risen 2 feet, and no more, and we 
 have to pull down no less than 12 feet of cord to 
 
MECHANICAL POWERS. 
 
 121 
 
 raise it the desired height. Let us see why this is so. 
 When we pull down 1 foot, we shorten by that much 
 the loop in which the loose pulley hangs. Therefore we 
 shorten each half of the loop only 6 inches, and the 
 weight rises thus far, just half the length of cord drawn 
 
 Fig. 35. 
 
 out. Again, therefore, observe we use a power of 5 lb. to 
 raise a weight of 10 lb., but we exercise that power through 
 double the distance that the weight is raised. When, 
 as in fig. 35, we add to the number of the pulleys, 
 and by distributing the weight among a greater number 
 
1 2 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 of cords, lessen that carried by each, and consequently 
 that borne by the hand or power applied, we also increase 
 by just so much the length of cord to be pulled down — 
 increase the distance through which the power is exercised 
 just in the proportion that the power itself is increased. 
 
 As the pulley rises slowly by pulling out a great deal 
 of cord, so it will sink slowly as it draws out that cord ; 
 and by taking advantage of this, we can use the fall of a 
 weight through a short distance to draw out a cord of a 
 great length. This, if wound about a cylinder, gives us 
 the means of making that cylinder revolve many times 
 for each foot that the weight descends, a convenience 
 which our ancestors made use of in working the old- 
 fashioned kitchen jacks. I daresay hardly a dozen, how- 
 ever, now exist in EDgland, but I remember them well. 
 

 Chapter VIII. 
 
 APPLICATION OF MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 AVING now laid a sound foundation by explain- 
 ing the laws which govern mechanical action, 
 I propose in the present chapter to give some 
 details of their practical application in the 
 construction of machinery. We have seen that it is 
 possible by arrangement of cogwheels to obtain at 
 pleasure either quick or slow motion, the former entailing 
 loss of power, and the latter providing for its increase. 
 Levers and pulleys, as we found, follow a similar law; and 
 the first consideration in planning a machine for any 
 particular purpose is the nature and rate of the movement 
 which is required. To take, first of all, a machine of 
 universal application in the construction of mechanism, 
 the lathe, we have a motion originating in an up-and- 
 down movement of the treadle, converted by the cranked 
 axle into a rotary one, and this again communicated with 
 
124 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 great increase of speed to the material to be operated on. 
 Now, in the first place we begin with a loss of power ^ for we 
 use a lever of the third order, or of the second order badly 
 arranged, though the arrangement is necessary, because 
 we require speed. There are two kinds of treadle action, 
 
 therefore, used. 
 
 The first is A (fig. 36), the knifegrinder's, 
 
 Fig. 36. —Treadle Action. 
 
 in which the lever is of the third order. The fulcrum is 
 at the extreme end of the footboard, next to the workman, 
 the resistance at the other extreme, and the power, or foot 
 of the operator, only a short distance from the fulcrum. 
 
 If we suppose the treadle 4 feet long, the equation 
 will be as follows, taking the resistance at 40 lb. : 40 x 4 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 125 
 
 (the distance in feet from the fulcrum) = 160. The power, 
 supposing the foot placed at a distance of 1 foot from 
 the fulcrum, 160 X 1 = 160. It is, in fact, a loss of power 
 in the proportion of four to one. The advantage gained is 
 this. The foot rising and falling a very short distance, 
 moves the other end of the treadle up and down through 
 a much greater distance in the same length of time. We 
 have therefore gained in speed. The second form of 
 treadle is shown at B, and is that of the ordinary lathe. 
 The fulcrum is at the furthest point from the foot, the 
 back part of the treadle being pivoted at the end S ; the 
 resistance (the crank and flywheel), is at about two-thirds 
 from the fulcrum, the foot one-third on the side of the 
 resistance — i.e., supposing the treadle 3 feet long from the 
 footboard to the hinder bar or fulcrum, the balance of 
 forces may be thus stated, taking 40 lb. resistance as 
 before : R 40x2 (its distance from the fulcrum) = 80 ; 
 P 26f x 3 (distance of the power or foot from the fulcrum) 
 = 80. 
 
 The resistance, again, is here wholly against the work- 
 man; but he gains as before in speed, his foot having only 
 to rise and fall through an arc not very much larger than 
 that through which the resistance moves. Still the loss 
 of power is far less than in the other form of treadle. 
 Here we gain our balance with 26| lb., and in the first 
 we need 160 lb., the resistance being the same in each case 
 
126 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 But now we have another element of weakness, con- 
 venient as it is in its practical application, viz., the crank. 
 This, to begin with, has two dead-points, at which the 
 pressure of the treadle only tends to bend the crank-axle, 
 but not to cause its rotation. These dead-points are 
 obtained by the position e and/ (fig. 36), g being the link 
 
 A B\ F: E 
 
 • 
 I I 
 
 v g 
 Pig. 37.— Position of Crank. 
 
 which connects it with the treadle. At KL (fig. 37) 
 is another view of a crank seen sideways, the flywheel 
 being shown by the circle. In its present position, when 
 the arm is horizontal, which is half-way between the dead- 
 points, it is ready for starting (practically we start it just 
 after it has passed the upper dead-point), and is in its most 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 127 
 
 effective position, giving us the whole of its power, such as 
 it is. Let us examine it further. The spoke HK and 
 the crank together form a lever, of which the crank is the 
 shortest end and the spoke the longest. Now the resist- 
 ance falls on the rim of the wheel, or extreme end of the 
 long arm of the lever, the power on the end of the short 
 arm, the fulcrum being the axle. Thus whatever the 
 proportion the spoke bears to the crank, such is the resist- 
 ance to the power. Let the spoke be 1 foot, the crank 
 3 inches — a common proportion — then resistance being 
 taken as 40 lb. and expressed by B,, and the power 
 expressed by P, we require R 40 x 12 (inches) = 480, 
 P 160 X 3 = 480. 
 
 We have four to one against us, even when the crank 
 is in its most favourable position, which occurs but once 
 during the whole rotation of the axle and wheel. Thus 
 we lose power both in respect of the treadle and also in 
 respect of the crank. The way to reckon the actual power 
 indeed of the latter, at any given point between its 
 strongest and weakest, is to consider it as a bent lever, 
 of which the opposite spoke is the longest end. 
 
 Now the effective power of a bent lever ABC is the 
 same only as ABE, BE being shorter than BO; and as 
 BD represents the crank at full power, BE will re- 
 present its effective length a certain distance above and 
 BF below that point, and it becomes a shorter and 
 
128 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 shorter lever until its dead-point is reached. As it rises on 
 the other side it is of no power at all, and is only carried 
 on pa*t its upper dead-point by the momentum of the fly- 
 wheel. If its full power is represented by 10 when in a 
 horizontal position, it diminishes from 10 to during 
 its quarter revolution downwards, and remains at for 
 another half revolution and a little over. Its power then 
 increases during a quarter revolution, when it is again in 
 full power as before. 
 
 Without the heavy flywheel the crank would become 
 almost useless, being only an arrangement for altering 
 direction of motion. I have spoken of the momentum oi 
 the flywheel in this case as a source of power in the 
 lathe and similar cases. It does not generate power, 
 nevertheless, but acts as a savings bank for the deposit 
 of surplus power, which it pretends to give us back 
 with interest when needed. The interest is, however, a 
 fallacy. 
 
 When we put any inanimate object in motion, its 
 tendency is to continue that motion indefinitely in the 
 same direction. We call this " vis inertise." At first the 
 law seems against experience, because if we set a stone in 
 motion it soon ceases to move, and falls to the earth ; and 
 if we set a wheel spinning on its axle — our lathe-wheel, 
 for instance — it ceases to revolve soon after we dis- 
 continue the force which set it in motion. But a 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 129 
 
 moment's consideration shows 11s that inert matter has 
 no power or will of its own, it simply yields to that 
 which we impose npon it, and therefore has no power 
 to cease moving, any more than to commence. The 
 reason, therefore, that a body set in motion only con- 
 tinues to move for a very short time is that it meets 
 with resistance. The stone is opposed by gravity tending 
 to draw it to the earth, and by the air or atmosphere 
 through which it has to make its way. These very soon 
 bring it to a standstill ; the momentum, or tendency to 
 move, first imparted to it being insufficient to enable it 
 to withstand the contrary forces opposed to it. Now 
 when we set in motion a heavy wheel, we give it this 
 so-called momentum, and as the motion becomes more 
 rapid this momentum increases. It is therefore very soon 
 much more than is sufficient to carry the wheel round 
 once against the forces which oppose it, and suffices to 
 carry it round a great many times, and to overcome- more 
 than the obstacles resisting it. Thus, having accumulated 
 more power than is needed (but no more than has been 
 imparted to it), it is ready to give us back its surplus 
 power when needed. Thus it is that it carries the crank 
 past its dead-centres, and gives sufficient impetus to the 
 wood or metal on the lathe to enable it to revolve 
 against the action of the tool. The latter, however, would 
 soon bring it to a standstill were it not that after the 
 
r 30 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 upper dead-point has been passed we again bring 
 down the foot upon the treadle, and keep up the motion. 
 As the flywheel takes up surplus power if there be any, 
 and gives it out again, when otherwise the resistance 
 would stop the machinery, it becomes an equaliser of 
 motion, keeping power and resistance upon an exact 
 balance. This leads me to another beautiful law of 
 matter, which at first appears impossible, but is easily 
 proved to be true. 
 
 We will state it thus : — An express train is moving at 
 a uniform rate of speed — say forty miles an hour. Such 
 being the case, power and resistance are exactly equal. 
 You will say probably, " How can that be? If Puffing 
 Billy were not pulling harder than the resistance, the 
 train would not go on, and therefore the power must be 
 a little the greatest to keep it moving." Not so, as long- 
 as the power is greater than the resistance the rate of 
 motion will keep on increasing ; if, on the other hand, it is 
 less, the same rate of motion will constantly diminish. 
 Consequently, if the motion is uniform, neither increasing 
 nor diminishing, the train must of necessity continue to 
 move. Now when we hear of a railway accident, you 
 often hear of the carriages being piled up one on the 
 other, or one is even perhaps thrown over the other. 
 Why? Because the whole train (like the flywheel) has 
 been in rapid motion, and has accumulated an enormous 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 131 
 
 amount of momentum, tending to keep it in motion. 
 Perhaps this would of itself carry the whole train along 
 for more than a mile after the steam has been turned off. 
 Suddenly it meets with a new resistance — say a balk of 
 timber on the line, barring its progress. What is to 
 become of all the moving-force or " momentum"? It 
 must be expended in some way, consequently the hinder 
 carriages, being prohibited from advancing as before, are 
 thrown right over those in front, and the whole train 
 necessarily becomes, as it were, doubled up. When you 
 trip over a stone and fall, the reason is the same, — your 
 body has a certain " momentum," or tendency to move 
 forward; your foot is suddenly prevented from so doing, 
 and down you go, to the detriment of your nose and 
 knees. In the same way, if a rabbit or hare is running 
 fast, and is suddenly killed by a shot, the momentum 
 causes it to make a complete somersault head over heels ; 
 or sometimes, if its motion has been very rapid, it will 
 tumble over a second time before the momentum is 
 wholly expended. All this, you see, results from the fact 
 that matter once in motion tends to continue moving, and 
 will do so until resistance has become greater than power. 
 You cee, therefore, once more we have balanced our 
 account, as we did in the matter of levers, inclined 
 planes, screws, and pulleys. 
 
 To return, then, to our actual machine — the lathe. We 
 
1 3 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 find, first, that resistance is dead against us; and secondly, 
 that if it were not for the momentum of the flywheel 
 we could not even keep up motion, much less turn it to 
 account. But what we require for turning wood, especially 
 soft wood, is great speed, and to obtain this we can afford 
 to sacrifice power, " momentum " being sufficient for our 
 purpose. But when we wish to work on metal we cannot 
 make a similar sacrifice. The material offers greater 
 resistance to the action of the tool, and the latter would 
 become heated, and lose its edge, if the metal were to 
 revolve against it with rapidity. We shall therefore 
 require all the " momentum " which the flywheel can 
 give us, and in addition, as much additional power as we 
 can arrange to procure. 
 
 We have already seen that to increase power we must 
 sacrifice speed, which is exactly what we can in this case 
 afford to do, and there are two ways of accomplishing it. 
 First, we can increase the leverage of the crank by 
 diminishing the length of the other arm, viz., the spoke. 
 This is practically carried out by mounting a smaller 
 wheel on the axle of the large one, so that while we get 
 the full momentum of the latter, we cease to use it at such 
 disadvantage. We have the wheel A (fig. 38) as before, and 
 B is the small pulley from which the cord passes to that 
 above. The radius of this pulley equals here that of the 
 crank; not that it generally does so in practice, but we 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 1 33 
 
 may suppose such to be the case. The leverage, therefore, 
 
 here is at once vastly improved, and, for the moment that 
 
 the crank is at full power, the latter is equal to the 
 
 resistance. If the small pulley 
 
 of the lathe is as large as this 
 
 lower one, this amount of power 
 
 will of course be transferred to it 
 
 by the cord; and if the pulley is 
 
 6 inches diameter, and the iron 
 
 to be turned is only 1 inch, we 
 
 attack the latter with a power of 
 
 six to one. By enlarging our upper 
 
 pulley and lessening the lower one, 
 
 we can yet increase this power and 
 
 make the work easier ; but here 
 
 comes the balancing of our account 
 
 again, we keep on diminishing the 
 
 speed exactly in the proportion Kg. 38.— Lathe speed-wheeL 
 
 that we increase the power. This is the first and simplest 
 
 way of attaining our purpose. The second, and practically 
 
 the best, is as follows : — 
 
 Fig. 39 shows the upper pulley of what is called a geared 
 or back-geared lathe. It has a small cog-wheel or pinion 
 attached, which therefore always moves with it ; but both 
 pulley and pinion slip on the mandrel A, and turn freely 
 upon it, not being keyed or otherwise fixed to it, as io 
 
134 
 
 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 simple lathes. The mandrel, however, has a large cog- 
 wheel firmly fixed to it, as seen at A, where I have shown 
 it separately. First I may premise that it is possible to 
 
 clamp the pulley and this 
 large wheel together when 
 desired by a small bolt 
 and nut, and then, sup- 
 posing the other cog-wheels 
 which you see behind it 
 to be out of the way, the 
 pulley and mandrel will 
 turn together as in lathes 
 fitted only for wood. The 
 cogged wheels do not in 
 this case come into action 
 at all. But if we require 
 more power, we unfasten the bolt and nut, and thus leave 
 the mandrel and its own large cog-wheel free to revolve 
 independently of the pulley and pinion. We now slide 
 the back action into gear, which is generally done by 
 moving it endwise in its bearing. 
 
 Now observe the action of the whole. The lathe-cord 
 from the flywheel rotates the pulley, whose pinion sets 
 in motion the large wheel of the back action. The pinion 
 of this acts upon the large wheel on the mandrel, and 
 puts this in motion, and with it the metal which is to 
 
 Fig. 39.— Geared Lathe. 
 
MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 135 
 
 be turned. The power gained, supposing both spur-wheels 
 alike, and also both the pinions, is equal to twice the 
 difference in size or number of cogs between either wheel 
 and pinion. Let the spur-wheels have sixty teeth and 
 the pinions ten. While the pinion on the pulley moves 
 round upon its axis once, D will move but one-sixth of 
 its circumference, and its pinion, therefore, also but one- 
 sixth, equal to one cog and two-thirds of a cog ; and the 
 movement of the large wheel on the mandrel, and there- 
 fore of the work, will be but one thirty-sixth of its circum- 
 ference — less than two teeth. Or, to make it plainer, six 
 turns of G will give one of D, one therefore of its pinion 
 E, and only one-sixth (= ten teeth) of H and of the 
 mandrel. It will take, consequently, no less than thirty- 
 six turns of the first pinion to give one turn to the large 
 wheel and mandrel, and the gain, being proportionate, is 
 thirty -six to one. Thus, in cases where speed is no object, 
 and power only is required, the latter can be, and generally 
 is obtained through the medium of geared spur-wheels and 
 pinions in this way.* 
 
 All machines, almost without exception, for working 
 metal require this slow motion, whether used for turning, 
 or planing, or grooving. Drills, indeed, are often driven 
 
 * The above may be stated thus : — 
 
 Number of teeth in pinions ^10x10 = MM = ^ £ loss of speed or 
 
 Number of teeth in spur-wheels 60 x 60 3600 36 ) gain in P ower - 
 
136 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 at a somewhat high speed, but the area of their work is 
 very limited, and the resistance consequently small. The} 
 are, moreover, kept well lubricated and cool by water or 
 oil, to prevent them losing their temper. As a rule, if we 
 go to an engine-factory, and notice any machine moving 
 at what appears to you a specially slow rate, appearing to 
 be doing hardly any work, you may rest assured that is 
 some immensely-powerful machine working a great deal 
 harder than those which you see spinning so merrily, and 
 making so much more noise. In this I think machines 
 and boys are much alike — ay, and men too. Some go 
 plodding quietly along, doing their work very silently — 
 doing a hundred noble things which no one ever sees 
 except those benefited — and even these do not always 
 recognise the benefactor. The others go along noisily and 
 showily, saying to the world, " Only see what a deal of 
 work I am doing; what an excellent fellow I am!" — but 
 the one eventually becomes recognised as a benefactor of 
 his race, and is honoured of all men — the other fades from 
 sight like the gaudy butterfly, and none ever miss him, 
 because his real work was simply nothing. 
 
Chapter IX 
 
 OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 
 
 HEN, as is generally the case, a great number 
 of machines are to he set in motion by a single 
 steam-engine, a strap from the flywheel of the 
 latter passes to a pulley or "rigger" upon a 
 long shaft, traversing perhaps the whole length of the 
 workshop. Upon the shaft are other riggers, from which 
 straps descend to the main axles of the several machines. 
 These riggers are in pairs — one fixed to the shaft, the 
 other revolving loosely upon it. One is called the fixed 
 pulley, the other the loose or " idle " one, and when any 
 particular machine is required to be stopped, its strap is 
 merely slipped from the fast to the loose pulley. Thus the 
 stoppage of any one of a set of machines does not inter- 
 fere with the rest, and the main shaft continues to revolve 
 as before. The great advantage of strap action is that 
 under any sudden and unusual strain the strap will slip 
 
138 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 and save the machine from injury, and, in addition, by 
 this plan of fast and loose pulleys motion can be recom- 
 menced without any shock to the apparatus, at whatever rate 
 the main shaft may be moving. All sorts of " clutches," 
 as they are called, have been invented to enable the action 
 of a machine to be suspended and renewed while the main 
 shaft which imparts motion continues its rotation, but 
 none is so safe as this simple arrangement of fast and 
 loose pulleys. The difficulty of suddenly stopping or 
 starting a machine arises from "the law of momentum" 
 of which I have spoken. Suddenly to throw a machine 
 into gear while the prime mover is in rapid motion is like 
 running an engine full tilt against a stationary truck, 
 in which case you would probably smash it, although it is 
 perfectly free to move. You do not give the momentum 
 of the engine time to become imparted to the truck, and 
 time alone can save the shock in such a case. This is 
 indeed an instance of motion in a straight line, but it 
 explains equally well circular motion, which likewise can- 
 not be suddenly imparted to a stationary object or a still 
 wheel, but requires time. A strap exactly answers this 
 end, because it is quietly slipped from the loose to the 
 fast pulley, and if the resistance is too sudden, it will 
 slip a little, or stretch slightly, from its elastic nature. 
 
 I may as well mention here that some manufacturers 
 are taking up the practice of using several small engines 
 
OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 139 
 
 connected with one boiler, so that perhaps only three or 
 four machines are driven together as a group. Then if 
 there should be an accident to any one of these engines, 
 only a single group of machines are brought to a stand- 
 still; whereas, if one large engine drives the whole series, 
 a breakdown, or a necessary cleaning of the prime mover, 
 necessitates the stoppage of all the machines upon the 
 premises. It is evident that as the engine imparts only a 
 rotary movement to the main shafting, and thence to the 
 various machines, the latter have to be fitted with 
 appliances of some sort by which this rotary motion may 
 be converted into other movements of various kinds. The 
 present chapter will be devoted to a description of the 
 methods that have been devised for this purpose, and 
 vice versa for the purpose of converting rectilineal motion 
 into rotary. Some of these methods are exceedingly 
 ingenious, and all, or nearly all, are in daily practical use. 
 To make the movements clear, I propose to group them, 
 and shall explain each group individually. 
 
 Let us first see how we can convert circular or rotary 
 motion into rectilinear. The planing-machine will illus- 
 trate one usual method, or the shaping-machine, which is 
 a smaller one of the same class. In these either the bed is 
 moved to and fro while the tool remains stationary, or the 
 tool itself traverses and the material to be planed is clamped 
 upon a level platform or bed underneath it. Let L (fig. 40) 
 
140 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 represent the pulley or rigger by which motion is imparted 
 to the machine from the main shafting. On the opposite 
 end of the same axle is a crank-plate or solid circulai 
 wheel, with a deep slot or groove cut across its face. In 
 this is a slide, with a strong pin rising from its centre, 
 and the slide can be clamped in any desired part of the 
 main plate. The arm A has an eye which fits over the 
 
 Fig. 40. — Shaping-Machine. 
 
 pin, and at the other end is attached in a similar manner 
 to the main slide of the engine, which carries the tool- 
 holder. This slide has only a to-and-fro motion between 
 guides, and therefore, as the rotation of the crank-plate 
 acts on one end of the bar or connecting-rod A, the other 
 end draws the tool-slide backwards and forwards. The 
 length of stroke varies according as the driving-pin is 
 nearer to or further from the centre of the crank-plate, 
 
OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 141 
 
 its longest stroke being of course when the pin is at the 
 extreme edge of the disc, and its shortest when almost at 
 the centre or axis of rotation. The handle K is for the 
 purpose of raising and lowering the tool in the slide-rest, 
 to which it is attached, and there is a movement also of 
 tool or work sideways between every stroke, so that 
 eventually the whole of the latter becomes levelled by the 
 action of the tool. Details of these motions are omitted 
 here. These crank-plates, being simple and convenient 
 arrangements for converting circular into reciprocating 
 movement, are very frequently used for that purpose, but 
 there are several other modes of obtaining a similar result. 
 It will be seen that an ordinary crank, as, for instance, 
 that of a lathe, which, when the flywheel is moved, lifts 
 and lowers the treadle alternately, is exactly the same 
 thing in principle as the one here alluded to, but not 
 being adjustable in length, is not so convenient for shap- 
 ing-machines, in which it is often necessary to alter the 
 distance of traverse of the tool. 
 
 Closely allied to the crank is the eccentric (fig. 41), which 
 gives a very beautiful to-and-fro motion, and is generally 
 used to move the slide-valves of engines, and for many other 
 purposes. On the main or other revolving axle of the 
 machine is a thick metal disc or solid wheel ; but this 
 is not concentric with the axle, which passes through it 
 at any given distance from its real centre. When, there- 
 
1 42 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 fore, the axle revolves, this disc revolves with it ; but while 
 one point in its circumference describes a large circle, 
 another will describe a smaller round its axis of rotation, 
 so that, to use a common expression, it appears to wobble. 
 A ring of metal embraces the edge of this disc, fitting 
 it nicely, but so that the disc can move easily inside it, 
 and to this ring a long rod or light framework (which 
 acts as a simple rod) is attached, and its end is connected 
 to that part of the engine or machine in which a recipro- 
 
 Pig. 41.— Eccentric. 
 
 eating motion is required, being pinned or johited to it 
 in such a way that the connection forms a hinge. Very 
 frequently the end is formed into a hook, which drops 
 over a pin in the plate to which sliding motion is to be 
 imparted. An eccentric is nothing more than a solid 
 crank, its " throw " being twice the distance between the 
 real centre and that on which it revolves. It is generally 
 used where only a short stroke is required, and gentle, 
 easy motion, and where an exceedingly short-armed crank 
 could not so readily be applied. The motion of a crank 
 
OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 
 
 143 
 
 or eccentric is not uniform, being quick at two opposite 
 points and slow at two other points halfway between 
 them. The rate of motion is consequently always be- 
 coming accelerated or retarded between these points. An 
 eccentric is sometimes used as a " cam," without its 
 encircling ring, as in fig. 42. Here it gradually raises 
 and lowers the arm of the lever connected with it, which 
 may represent one handle of a pair of fixed shears. 
 " Cams " are of all possible shapes, and are used in 
 
 Pig. 42.— Eccentric Cam and Shears. 
 
 machines of various kinds, as they can be arranged to 
 produce uniform or varied motion, and provide means 
 for the application of enormous power. In the construc- 
 tion, for instance, of the massive punching and shearing 
 machines used for cutting boiler-plate and preparing it 
 for the rivets, cams are used, in connection with a train 
 of wheels, to produce very slow and powerful motion. 
 The working part of this machine is shown in fig. 43. The 
 flywheel K, of which there are often two with very heavy 
 rims, is put in motion by means of a strap from the engine 
 
144 
 
 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 attached to its rigger F ; or frequently a separate engine 
 belongs to the machine, and cog-wheels only are used to 
 work it. On the main shaft is a very strong pinion 
 gearing into a spur-wheel, which again carries a second 
 
 Pig. 43.— Punching-Machine. 
 
 pinion, and gears into a spur-wheel with a massive axle 
 on which is the cam C — an eccentric boss, in one piece 
 with the axle. Here I have, for the sake of clearness, 
 shown but one pinion and spur-wheel, which will answer 
 
OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 145 
 
 if a vast amount of powei is not required. As the main 
 shaft with the flywheels revolves with a fair amount of 
 speed, giving the necessary "momentum," the lower 
 shaft and cam revolve very slowly, owing to the great 
 difference in size between the pinion and spur-wheel, as 
 in the geared lathe already described. Slowly, therefore, 
 and in large machines with irresistible force, the head 
 of the sliding part Gr, which carries the punch or cutting 
 edge, is depressed by the eccentric cam, and the metal is 
 sheared or punched as if it were cheese rind. The shape 
 of the cam is such that it commences to give a quick 
 descent to the slide, but gradually diminishes its speed 
 while increasing its power. 
 
 I know of no machine which strikes the looker-on with 
 a greater sense of the power produced by machinery than 
 these massive machines, which are now so generally used. 
 Sheets and bars of iron, nearly or quite an inch thick, are 
 bitten tn two by these huge jaws as (apparently) easily as 
 you could cut a piece of card with a pair of scissors. If, 
 however, you pick up a piece punched out, you will see by 
 the depression on one end, and also find by the heat of it, 
 what vast force has really been exercised upon it. Of 
 course the frames of these machines are very massive, and 
 all parts as strongly made as possible. 
 
 Another common application of eccentric- cam action is 
 to cause the necessary pressure for printing and for the 
 
146 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 stamping paper or envelopes with crests or addresses (fig. 
 44), and indeed for supplying pressure in various cases, 
 where a quick, powerful action is needed, and it would 
 take too long to obtain it by the rotation of a screw. 
 
 Our subject, however, is not cam action or eccentric 
 action generally, but only the method of producing 
 
 Fig. 44.— Section of Die-Press. 
 
 rectilineal motion by means of rotary, of which these 
 powerful actions are common examples. Sometimes the 
 up-and-down or horizontal movement of a slide is not 
 required to be continuous but intermittent — to begin, 
 cease, and recommence either in the same or contrary 
 direction ; and this, at first sight, complicated movement 
 is to be derived from a primary rotary motion of the 
 
OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 
 
 U7 
 
 main shaft of the machine. There are many different 
 ways of accomplishing this. First of all, a wheel with 
 only a few cogs may be made to act alternately on an 
 upper and lower rack, attached to the end or other part of the 
 bar to which it is necessary to impart the intermittent mo- 
 tion alluded to, as shown at A, iig. 45. The wheel con- 
 tinues to revolve in one direction, but necessarily moves 
 the rack to and fro. B is another method of producing 
 
 Fig. 45— A, B, and C. 
 
 similar motion, in which, instead of cogs and racks, a set 
 of tappets or wipers are made to act against a single pin 
 or tooth in the two bars. In the case of the slit or 
 slotted lever b, moved by a pin in the face of the 
 revolving wheel A (the lever vibrating on a centre pin), 
 a varying intermittent motion is produced. 
 
 We will now reverse the case and see how rectilinear 
 motion can be converted into circular. First, we have 
 our friend the crank and treadle, which has been 
 
148 
 
 AMONG SI" MACHINES. 
 
 described, and is, moreover, generally known and used. 
 But when Watt in his steam-engine desired to use it, in 
 order to convert the up-and-down motion of the end of 
 the beam into a revolving motion of the crank axle, he 
 
 Kg. 46.— Sun and Planet Wheels. 
 
 was prevented by some one else claiming the discovery. 
 He therefore arranged two cog-wheels, which, owing to 
 their movement round one another, went by the name of 
 "sun and planet wheels" (fig. 46). One of the cog- 
 
OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 149 
 
 wheels is fixed to the axis of the flywheel, the other 
 to the rod AB, which oscillates on the point C as the 
 beam end goes up and down. The wheel, be it observed, 
 does not turn on a centre of its own, being immovably 
 fixed to AB. A link keeps the two wheels in contact, 
 and this link is free to move on its centres. As there- 
 fore AB oscillates to and fro at each movement of the 
 engine beam, the wheel attached to it revolves round 
 
 Pig. 47.— Ratchet and Pawl. 
 
 that one on the axis, and puts the flywheel in motion ; 
 and if the two wheels are of one size, the flywheel will 
 revolve twice, while a common crank would have given it 
 but one rotation on its axis. This method, not being so 
 simple as the crank, has fallen into disuse, and was never 
 very generally adopted. The ratchet and pawl (&g. 47) 
 have been used in various machines — notably in the 
 
1 50 AMONG S T MA CHINES. 
 
 planing - machines for metal, and in sawing - machines. 
 They were used also by Bain and others in his electric 
 clock, and form a very simple but ingenious mode of 
 converting rectilineal into circular motion. 
 
 The lever AB is pivoted at C, and can be moved 
 up and down like a pump-handle. As the end A rises, 
 the pawl, which is loosely hinged, slips over the sloping 
 side of the wheel-tooth ; but as the lever descends, it falls 
 on the other side of the tooth, which it is compelled 
 to push onwards, giving the required motion. Some- 
 times there are two pawls, as in fig. 47, so that one 
 tooth is moved both at the upward and at the downward 
 motion of the lever, and the wheel revolves continuously 
 instead of intermittently. 
 
 The Archimedean drill - stock, and the pump - drill, 
 used generally by menders of china and glass, and the 
 drill-bow of the watchmaker (fig. 48, A, B, C) are all 
 examples of a to-and-fro or rectilineal movement being 
 used to obtain a circular one. The pump - drill con- 
 sists of a flywheel with a heavy rim, round the 
 axle of which two cords are twisted, being also fast- 
 ened to the top of the axle. The latter is vertical or 
 upright, and is bored out at the lower end to receive the 
 drills. A cross handle, through the middle of which 
 the axle passes, has one of the cords fastened to each 
 of its ends, and it is the sudden pressure on this handle, 
 
OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 
 
 151 
 
 after the cords have been coiled once or twice about the 
 axle, that causes the drill to spin round with rapidity. 
 In so doing the momentum of the flywheel keeps up the 
 action, and twists the cords in the opposite direction, 
 thereby shortening them and raising the cross handle— 
 
 fig. 48.— Drills. 
 
 the pressure of the hands being withdrawn to allow it to 
 rise. The handle is then pushed down again, the cords 
 unwind, and fresh impetus is given to the drill, the motion 
 of which is continuous in one direction. The other two 
 
152 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 drills owe their action to a different cause. The stock or 
 Bhaft has a quick screw cut upon it, and on this is fitted 
 a nut. By pulling the latter up and down upon the 
 screw, this is caused to make a few quick turns, first in 
 one direction and then in the other. These twisted drills 
 are beautifully adapted for small work, and are ex- 
 tensively used, but the bow-drill is by no means gone 
 out of use in the watch trade. This same bow is used 
 also by the watchmaker to give motion to small wheels 
 and pinions which are to be turned in his miniature 
 lathe. This is done by taking one turn of the bow- 
 string (gut or norsehair) round a small brass pulley fixed 
 upon the drill-shaft, or upon the work to be turned, and 
 pulling the bow to and fro by the left hand, while the 
 tool is held in the right (see fig. 49). Of course the 
 
 cut can only be taken while 
 T^- " the work revolves against 
 
 the tool, and therefore time 
 is wholly lost while it re- 
 volves in the contrary di- 
 rection. It may seem 
 wonderful that good accu- 
 rate work should be done 
 by such means, but even now, not only is the bow- 
 lathe used generally for watch-work, but the spring pole 
 of the large lathe, fixed up above the head of the turner 
 
 Fig. 49.— Bow-Lathe. 
 
OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 153 
 
 from which a cord descends to the treadle, may still be seen 
 in the shops of some soft-wood turners and chairmakers. 
 The action is just the same as that of the bow. The cord 
 of raw hide descends from the pole, takes a turn or two 
 round the piece of wood to be turned, which rotates be- 
 tween two fixed points, and passes to the treadle, where it 
 is fastened. When the foot presses downward, the wood 
 revolves against the tool; and when the foot is raised, the 
 spring pole or bow draws up the treadle, and rotates the 
 work in the opposite direction. 
 
Chapter X. 
 
 VARIOUS MANUFACTURES — STEEL PENS, 
 
 HAYE already explained the form of stamping- 
 press used for embossing notepaper, and for 
 similar light purposes. When, however, great 
 and sudden power is needed, the screw made 
 with a quick thread — i.e., with one complete thread in 2 
 
 inches or so of its length — is 
 used instead. One turn of a 
 screw of this pitch will cause 
 Plllllll a die to descend 2 inches with 
 
 great rapidity. Such a stamp- 
 ing-press is shown in fig. 50, and 
 the heavy balls on the lever 
 supply the place of a flywheel 
 Kg. 50. -stamping-Press with heavy rim, and give the 
 necessary impetus or momentum. As already explained, 
 this arrangement of " fly-press/' as it is called, is used 
 in the Royal Mint for punching the coins from flat strips 
 
STEEL PENS. 155 
 
 of gold and silver, for hand - presses for printing and 
 copying letters, and for many processes in our manu- 
 factures — one of the most notable being the punching 
 from flat ribbons of steel the pens of which so many 
 thousands are now used, and also for bending them into 
 the various forms which are usually given to them. The 
 present chapter will be devoted to an account of steel- 
 pen making, as witnessed by the writer on a recent visit 
 to the manufactory. We will sketch the trip as we 
 scribbled it down at the time, and it is just such a one 
 as we should wish our boys to take. 
 
 A VISIT TO BIRMINGHAM IN 1872. 
 
 In the early spring of the above year, we found our- 
 selves beneath the magnificent glass roof of the Birming- 
 ham New Street Station, into which we had emerged, with 
 a shriek of recognition, from the bowels of the earth — 
 our somewhat tedious and monotonous journey having 
 ended with a rush through a tunnel. Almost before the 
 pantings and snortings of our iron horse had died away, 
 we had seized our limited assortment of traps, and were 
 on our way; for be it noted, for the edification of 
 travelling readers, that our traps, or duds, or baggage, or 
 lumber, are always on an exceedingly limited scale when 
 we migrate apart from the wife of our bosom and certain 
 innumerable pledges of her affection, which always 
 
1 56 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 suggest to us " unlimited liability." Our boys will of 
 course understand that we refer to the girls and the 
 babies. The bassinette and perambulator, and trunks 
 aud baskets for dresses, they will appreciate as literally 
 u impedimenta " on such journeys as the present. A 
 drive to the quarters assigned to us in the hospitable 
 mansion of an old friend suggested very decidedly smoke. 
 Smoke above, denying a glimpse of the outer walls' of 
 heaven — smoke below, in sooty griminess trodden into 
 black mud — smoke on all sides, giving effects of cloud- 
 land and distance, in which Turner would have rejoiced — 
 but smoke that was ever repeating the dictum of the 
 alchemist, that baser metals could be turned into gold. 
 Under that dark canopy, day by day and hour by hour, 
 patient workers were toiling with that unremitting labour 
 of head, of hand, which helps forward not only the wealth 
 of nations, but their civilisation. 
 
 " Labour for the chapman at his trade, a dull unvaried round. 
 Year after year unto death ; yea ! what a weariness is it ! 
 Labour for the pale-faced scribe drudging at his hated desk, 
 Who bartereth for needful pittance the untold gold of health. 
 Labour with fear, for the merchant, whose hopes are ventured on the 
 
 sea; 
 Labour with care, for the man of law, responsible in his gains ; 
 Labour with envy and annoyance, where strangers will thee wealth ; 
 Labour with indolence and gloom, where wealth falleth from a 
 
 father; 
 Labour unto all — whether aching thews, or aching head, or spirit." 
 
 M. Tupper. 
 
STEEL PENS. 157 
 
 Soon, however, we found that we had left the smoke, 
 emblem of darkness, behind, and that either the cloud had 
 cleared away, or we had reached the silver lining; and a 
 suddeD turn in the road introduced us to a clear atmosphere, 
 goodly houses, pleasant fields, and fair churches ; another 
 turn, and we were safely housed, and, what is even far 
 more to be prized, warmly welcomed. Thus auspiciously 
 began our introduction to the sights of Birmingham, and 
 what we saw, and what we did, and what we thought will 
 occupy the following pages. 
 
 As the pen is our weapon of offence and defence, our 
 cherished friend and our general messenger, we thought 
 it best to commence our tour of investigation by visit- 
 ing its birthplace, and an introduction to Gillot & Co. 
 quickly procured us the desired permission. This manu- 
 factory is always open to inquiring visitors, and this is not 
 one of the sealed manufactories which are daily becoming 
 more numerous. There is a visitors' book on which auto- 
 graphs of all nations may be studied, and in which hence- 
 forth our own caligraphy may be inspected and admired. 
 
 The steel used for pens is rolled into thin plates before 
 it reaches the Birmingham factory. It is, however, rolled 
 again at the latter place to the exact gauge required, and 
 is given into the hands of the blank-cutters as narrow 
 slips wide enough to allow of two pens being cut therefrom 
 end to end, as shown by D in fig. 51. The flat blank of 
 
158 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 an ordinary pen appears as A, that of a small barrel pen 
 as B, and the larger or magnum bonum as C. There are 
 
 D 
 
 Fig. 51. 
 
 other forms used by different makers, and also by the 
 Messrs. Gillot, but the above, which are the most common, 
 
STEEL PENS. 159 
 
 will suffice to give a clear notion of the various processes 
 required. All these are cut at fly-presses by women, who 
 are very largely employed in this work. The machines 
 required are made and repaired upon the premises, which 
 appears to be a very general rule with the Birmingham 
 manufacturers. The waste pieces like D, especially those 
 from which the long barrel pens have been cut, would, if 
 polished, have a highly ornamental appearance, and might, 
 one would have supposed, be used for various purposes 
 of decoration. Such, however, is not the case, and they 
 return eventually to the melting - pot, or are otherwise 
 worked up anew. It must be understood that in this, and 
 indeed in all similar manufactories, division of labour is 
 carried out to the utmost. Each workman is tied to a 
 single operation, which he (or she, as the case may be) 
 constantly practises from day to day, and in which there- 
 fore rapidity and neatness of execution are quickly attained, 
 and, in many instances, the special work originally learned 
 is the only one that is understood. After the flat blanks 
 have been punched out as above, they pass to another set 
 of presses, in which the hole E, for the retention of the 
 ink, and the two small slits are made, for the purpose of 
 giving greater elasticity to the pen. The size, shape, and 
 position of these are varied according to the pattern of 
 pen required, but in all cases the punching operation is 
 the same. 
 
1 60 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 » 
 
 The next operation is stamping upon the blank the 
 maker's name, with the number or letter by which the 
 particular kind of pen is to be recognised. As rolling and 
 stamping deprive the steel to some extent of its flexibil- 
 ity, the blanks are now sent to the annealer, who softens 
 them by the application of heat, rendering them fit to 
 undergo the process of bending to the required form. 
 This is done as before by a set of punches, the common 
 pen being placed on a simple hollow die, and' struck by 
 a convex one. The barrel pens are similarly begun, and 
 finished between a pair of concave dies. It will be readily 
 perceived that these dies regulate both the curve and 
 figure of the pens, the variety of forms issued by pen- 
 makers with different high-sounding names being each 
 supposed to impart some special quality to the instrument. 
 For our own part we believe in two qualities only, 
 elasticity and breadth of point, and as to the latter we 
 commonly grind it down to suit ourselves; but when we 
 have done, and made our pen somewhat like an elastic 
 stick, we are still fain to confess there is nothing equal 
 to a good quill, albeit it is difficult to procure. 
 
 The present volume certainly would never see the light 
 of day, if the writer were compelled to resort to steel pens 
 for the necessary preparation of MS. At the same time, 
 it must have been a grand day of rejoicing among the 
 Lincolnshire geese when the first steel pen was an accom- 
 
STEEL PENS. 161 
 
 plished fact ; for it is also a fact, and to the geese a 
 painful one, that the quills were ordinarily plucked from 
 the living bird, who was then turned loose to grow a fresh 
 crop the following year. This, I suppose, was a necessary 
 barbarity, as it would hardly have paid to kill a goose for 
 the dozen pens that the wings afforded, any more than it 
 paid to kill another fabled goose which laid golden eggs. 
 
 After the various fly-presses have done their work, the 
 pens are finished upon a grinding-wheel dressed with 
 emery, upon which also the points are carefully finished. 
 The blanks may now be considered to have assumed the 
 features of steel pens, but are not slit. This, again, is a 
 stamping operation, and is effected by two sharp punches, 
 which meet like the edges of a pair of scissors — one being 
 fixed in the bed, and the other in the facing part of the 
 press. The metal now needs to be tempered, which is 
 effected by heating a number together in a muffle, or close 
 iron vessel, in a furnace, and throwing them, when of a dull 
 red, into oil. The sudden cooling renders the pens so hard 
 that they would break to pieces instantly under a blow, 
 and they have in this state no elasticity whatever. They 
 are raised on a kind of colander from this oil-bath, and 
 placed in a revolving cage over a number of gas-jets, where, 
 as the heat gradually increases, they assume various colours, 
 beginning with the palest straw, and passing through 
 deeper yellow, orange, purple, and blue. The latter is 
 
 L 
 
1 62 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 spring temper, which must not be exceeded. The pens are 
 now practically finished, but are often coated with varnish, 
 which, when dry, gives them a smarter appearance. 
 
 Such is briefly the process of steel-pen making ; but 
 there are one or two additional softenings or annealings 
 of the steel as an intermediate operation, and certain 
 scourings in revolving vessels, in which they are shaken 
 about with pounded gritty material until they are rendered 
 bright, and their rough edges, caused by grinding and 
 stamping, rounded off. Now that steel pens are every- 
 day affairs, we think little of the process of manufacture ; 
 but the amount of thought and capital expended on the 
 necessary machinery, simple as it may now appear, was 
 very great, and does great credit to the enterprising firm 
 of Gillott & Sons of Birmingham, who originated and per 
 sonally made the greater part of it. 
 
 Having the pen at hand, we require a suitable holder, 
 and (except for barrel pens) this article consists of a well- 
 formed, and frequently ornamented, stick of cedar or other 
 wood, with a metal addition for the actual reception of the 
 pen. The latter part is made, like the pen itself, by means 
 of stamping-presses, which first cut out and then roll up 
 the metal into a tubular form. For this work sheet brass 
 and other metals are used as well as steel. The wooden 
 sticks are made wholly by machinery, and a large quantity 
 of timber is cut up yearly for their production. First of 
 
STEEL PENS. 
 
 163 
 
 all the wood is cut into boards of a suitable thickness, and 
 these boards are passed into a machine which is practically 
 a plane with semicircular notches cut in the iron. The 
 board, being placed first on one side, appears thus (fig-. 52). 
 It is then reversed, and similarly worked on the opposite 
 side, when the long rounded strips are sepa- 
 rated. These are long enough for several' 
 penholders, and are cut rapidly into lengths 
 by a circular saw, there being a gauge to 
 regulate the sizes required. These are now 
 placed in a machine in which each stick is 
 made to pass between figured dies, which 
 not only impress upon them the desired 
 pattern, but also by simple compression di- 
 minish slightly that part upon which the tube 
 of metal is to be placed. So perfect is the 
 operation of this machine, that it rejects auto- 
 matically any damaged sticks, throwing them 
 out of one part, while the finished holders fall from another 
 into a box placed for their reception. If the handles are 
 to be tapered, the dies which form them are made gradually 
 to close as the stick passes through them. All that is re- 
 quired is to feed the machine with its allotted number of 
 sticks, and these are digested and finished in form and 
 figure with a rapidity and certainty astonishing to the 
 looker-on. Yet to those practically acquainted with the 
 
1 64 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 powers of machinery, and the possibility of so adapting the 
 different parts of machines as to render them capable of the 
 most complicated and varying motions, no work of the 
 kind seems impossible. The precision with which these 
 pen-making machines, however, work, is, to say the least, 
 equal to clockwork, and the wear and tear they have to 
 undergo necessitates excellence in material and fitting of 
 the very highest degree. 
 
 Before the public receive the steel pens they require to be 
 packed in boxes, which are nevertheless charged at so low 
 a price that no practical difference is made on the cost for 
 100 pens loose or 100 thus securely packed. The box-mak- 
 ing is both simple and ingenious in its details, and the 
 modus operandi is as follows : The fly-press at a single 
 blow cuts out the thin cardboard into pieces of the shape 
 shown at A, fig. 53. Where the folds are to take place 
 the card is also partially cut, that it may bend easily and 
 form sharper edges. 
 
 Women, who are very generally employed in pen-making, 
 sit at a long bench, on which lie paste and scissors, paper 
 of various colours, and little wooden blocks, of certain 
 sizes, which are the moulds on which the pen-boxes are 
 made. One of these is shown at B, and it will be seen 
 that it has a horizontal groove cut round it about the 
 middle, but a little higher than the exact central line. The 
 blank of card is laid on the table, and one of the blocks 
 
STEEL PENS. 
 
 16S 
 
 which fits it laid inside. A similar blank is laid upon the 
 top, and the edges of the two exactly meet, as here shown, 
 the junction being just over the groove cut in the block. 
 A slip of coloured paper is rapidly folded round, and 
 another piece laid upon the top with a speed and dexterity 
 only to be attained by constant practice. The box and 
 cover are thus made as one (C), and when dry a sharp knife 
 is passed round on the line of the groove. The top and 
 
 Pig. 53.— Pen-Boxes. 
 
 bottom are thus separated, and the block falls out. It is, 
 however, necessary that the cover should slide over what a 
 carpenter would call a rabbet (rebate), D, as it could not be 
 made to keep its place. A strip of cardboard already cut, 
 and folded over a similar block to ensure an exact fit, is 
 therefore pasted inside the box so as to stand up a quarter 
 of an inch above its edge, thus forming a guide and 
 
1 66 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 resting-place for the cover. The whole operation is carried 
 on a great deal more quickly than it could be described even 
 by the most rapid pen ; but it must not be supposed that 
 one person could complete the whole with the necessary 
 speed to make the work pay. The blanks are stamped by 
 one, passed on in piles to the next, who has these on one 
 side of her and the wooden blocks on the other. Having 
 enclosed the latter as already described, and pasted a slip 
 of paper on, to hold them together (this paper being cut and 
 pasted ready for use by another), the box is passed on to 
 the next, who covers it. Another carries the piles to a warm 
 place to dry, and then another cuts the top and bottom 
 asunder, and places the thin slip inside for the cover. Thus, 
 like the pens, each box goes through a number of hands 
 trained to do their own special part in the manufacture. 
 When the boxes are all complete, the pens are counted and 
 placed in them, secured by a single strip of paper, on which 
 the number and quality are marked. A gross, or twelve 
 dozen, are very commonly in one box ; but of the magnum 
 bonum and other large pens a dozen only are usually packed. 
 
 In the showroom may be seen pens a great deal larger 
 than any commonly used, and also others so small that it is 
 almost impossible to believe they can be pens. Under the 
 microscope, however, they are seen to be perfect and 
 beautifully finished. Of course these are but curiosities. 
 
 One thing that especially strikes the visitor to Messrs. 
 
STEEL PENS. 167 
 
 Gillott's factory is the happy and contented appearance of 
 the numerous workers. For all the lighter work women 
 appear to be employed, hut for the heavier machinery for 
 rolling the steel and planing the boards which are to be 
 made into penholders men are necessary. The whole range 
 of buildings is well adapted for the work to be carried on. 
 The rooms are large and lofty, well lighted and ventilated, 
 and are kept scrupulously clean, and everything that can 
 promote the physical and moral welfare of the workpeople 
 is adopted. I have spoken of rolling the steel, but the 
 latter is manufactured elsewhere, and the rolling done at 
 the pen manufactory is merely necessary as a finishing 
 process to reduce the ribbon-like strips to the exact gauge 
 required, and put a better finish upon the surface. 
 
 I have now done with steel pens, but I strongly advise 
 my young readers to take any chance that may present 
 itself of visiting the manufactory and personally witness- 
 ing the various processes. After reading the present brief 
 account, they will be far better prepared for a visit than 
 if they had previously been entirely ignorant of the work. 
 They now know what to expect and what to look for, and 
 minor details, merely hinted at in this brief paper, but 
 which are nevertheless of importance, will be noted ; and 
 the whole process from beginning to end will not only be 
 seen as a matter of interest, but will be fully understood, 
 and appreciated as it deserves. 
 
^>v 
 
 \^&r 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 
 PINS, 
 
 E shall again come across our coil of iron wire, 
 of which we have described the manufacture in 
 a previous chapter, and we shall find that One 
 purpose for which it is used is the manufac- 
 ture of screws for the carpenter and joiner, for which 
 purpose it has superseded the forged blanks used in 
 ancestral days. Brass wire, made in a similar manner, 
 is also used for screws, such as we see in the handsomer 
 articles of house furniture — pianos, and so forth. Drawn 
 still smaller, we meet with it in the form of pins, the 
 sizes ranging from 3 inches down to that of minikins 
 half an inch in length, or even less. When we think 
 of the tens of thousands of pins used in the present 
 day, we wonder what people used to do before they were 
 invented. Well, they are, after all, of no very ancient 
 date. Until the middle of the sixteenth century they 
 
PINS. 169 
 
 were wholly unknown ; and bone, wooden, and ivory 
 skewers, or (with rich people) gold and silver ones, with 
 brooches and clasps of divers kinds, were used by ladies 
 for the purposes for which pins have since been substituted. 
 The first pins were introduced, like most novelties, from 
 abroad; but in Henry YIII.'s time a manufacture of 
 pins seems to have had sufficient footing in England to 
 call for an Act of Parliament. This Act required that no 
 person shall put to sale " any pins but such as be double- 
 headed, and have the heads soldered fast to the shank, 
 well smoothed, the shank well shaven, the point well 
 and roundly filed, canted, and sharpened." What these 
 double-headed pins were the writer does not know. 
 
 A pin now consists of only one piece of wire pointed 
 and headed. In old days it consisted of two, the head 
 being itself a little coil of wire slipped on the pin, and 
 secured by a blow from a punch. To make these heads 
 a thin wire was coiled round another of the same size as 
 the pin, the coils being quite close together, and after- 
 wards, by means of a pair of shears or hinged knife, the 
 coil was cut up into short lengths, each of the requisite 
 size for one head. I fancy you would not have liked the 
 job of slipping each wire into its little bead-like head, yet 
 this was done with considerable rapidity by those well prac- 
 tised in the art. They were not threaded, indeed, one by 
 one, but the workman used to put a number of heads 
 
1 7 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 into his apron, take a bundle of pins in his hand, and by 
 a little shaking and manoeuvring pick up as many heads 
 as he could. The pins thus loosely headed were in 
 succession placed under a punch worked by the foot, and 
 one blow completed the process. Whether the head thus 
 arranged was firmly fixed, some of us who are no longer 
 boys know pretty well. In point of fact, they continually 
 slipped either wholly off, or too far on, leaving the naked 
 wire to hurt the fingers. I have often wondered, when 
 pins were made, why soldering was not tried, the shank 
 being dipped into melted tin before the head was put on, 
 and both heated for a second afterwards. Luckily, how- 
 ever, I did not patent this brilliant idea, nor another of 
 equal value, viz., to form the head of a drop of solder, 
 and finish it under a punch ; for all at once it occurred to 
 one Wright (I believe) of Derby to form the head as a 
 blacksmith forms that of a nail — hammering it up from 
 the solid metal of the shank. I can remember the first 
 appearance of these solid-headed pins, which, like red- 
 legged partridges, soon drove their weaker brethren 
 from the field. Several machines for the above purpose 
 have since been protected by patent, for it is, of course, 
 possible to vary the details considerably ; but the main 
 working parts, and the principle of action, are the same 
 in all. A few months since, we visited a pin manufac- 
 tory in Birmingham, in which they manufacture all sizes, 
 
PINS. 171 
 
 from 3 inches down to about J or f , baby pins or mini- 
 kins, yet as beautifully finished as the larger ones. As 
 you stand in front of a long row of these machines, yon 
 see pins falling rapidly into boxes from a long spout or 
 shoot, pointed, headed, and complete, except in polish and 
 colour. There were, perhaps, ten machines in the row, 
 each disgorging about 300 pins every minute, and 
 requiring hardly any attention. Rather noisy they are, 
 these pinmakers ; but so are boys, and if both do their work 
 satisfactorily, I suppose we must not expect them to be 
 over-silent. It was a perpetual click and hammer — fairy 
 blacksmiths forging nails with the utmost regularity and 
 precision. Having taken a general view, and picked up 
 a handful of pins, to see if they were all alike well made, 
 we proceeded to search for details. First there is the feed, 
 on which the machines are to exercise their digestive 
 powers. This is represented by a bright coil of brass 
 wire coiled on a conical wheel or drum, which revolves 
 freely on its upright axis at the back of the machine, at 
 its upper part. The wire, as it leaves this drum or swift, 
 passes through a double row of pins fixed in a zigzag 
 fashion, so that it is bent in its passage first to the right 
 and then to the left ; and having had enough of bending, 
 it issues from the pins quite straight, and begins its 
 eventful journey. 
 
 What that journey is we will endeavour to describe 
 
1 7 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 with the aid of a drawing or two ; but the details of pin- 
 making machines vary according to the many patents by 
 which, from time to time, the different contrivances for 
 pointing, heading, cutting off, &c, have been protected 
 since Wright's first invention was established in 1820. 
 The simplest way will therefore be to give a plan of the 
 different parts, omitting the framing, and not confining 
 ourselves precisely to any single patented machine. The 
 several processes will be — (1) Straightening the wire ; 
 (2) drawing forward enough for one pin ; (3) holding it 
 fast that (4) it may be headed ; and it has then (5) to be 
 cut off, (6) pointed, and then lastly delivered into boxes 
 or baskets as a complete pin, requiring only to be whit- 
 ened, finished, and packed for sale. A single machine 
 now accomplishes the whole of these operations except the 
 two last, viz., the whitening and finishing. The insertion 
 into papers in rows is now done by machinery also. The 
 brass wire is wound upon a slightly conical reel (A, fig. 
 54), which revolves upon an upright axis or pin fixed at 
 the back of the machine. This may be called the " feed," 
 which is rapidly drawn into the insatiate maw of the 
 machine, to be metamorphosed into the article in question, 
 which article we take as the representative of inappreci- 
 able value, simply because the supply is so prodigious. To 
 obtain such valueless article has, nevertheless, cost a mint 
 of money, and much wear and tear of mind and braia 
 
PINS. 
 
 I 73 
 
 The wire is drawn from the reel, or "swift" as it 
 is technically called, by a pair of rollers or cams BB, 
 revolving on an axis in the direction of the arrows. 
 These rollers have each a flat 
 face in one part of their cir- 
 cumference, so that as they 
 revolve they clip the wire and 
 draw it forwards until these 
 flattened parts face each other 
 and let go their hold, begin- 
 ning again to grip the wire 
 when the flats have passed. 
 Thus their united action is to 
 draw forward a certain length 
 — release it — and then repeat 
 the process until all the wire 
 has been unwound. The wire 
 thus sent forward is now gripped 
 between two dies or jaws EE, 
 which separate from each other 
 by a spring, until a cam F 
 in its revolution brings them 
 
 together, and Causes them tO ^ ^-MaeMne for making Pin* 
 
 hold the wire firmly. The time of action of the cams is so 
 arranged tha/. these dies grip the wire just as a very little 
 of it projects beyond them at K, at which moment the 
 
1 74 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 pair BB cease to draw it forward, and the catting dies 
 DD advance and sever this length from that on the reel. 
 At the same moment the punch G is made to strike the 
 projecting end by the action of cams, or tappets on the 
 disc, completing the head at three blows. The dies 
 EE instantly fall back, and release the pin, which only 
 requires to be pointed. When it is considered that 300 
 pins are thus completed in one minute, the speed and 
 exactness with which these various operations have to 
 be carried on only serve to show the perfection of the 
 mechanism employed. 
 
 But the pointing has still to be done, and is effected by 
 the same machine. As soon as the grip opens, the pin 
 falls into a kind of trough below, which inclines just 
 sufficiently downward at one end to carry the pins for- 
 ward by their own weight, aided by the continual shaking 
 of the machine itself. This trough inclines to the 
 left, turns at an obtuse angle, and comes back along 
 the front of the machine. It has a slit extending its 
 whole length along the bottom, which slit is just 
 sufficiently wide to allow a pin to drop through as far as 
 the head, so that it will travel along its course point 
 downwards. In this position, therefore, the pins gradually 
 pass onward to the front ; and as they pursue their 
 appointed course they come in contact with a long grind- 
 stone of a cylindrical form, or slightly conical, which 
 
■FINS. 175 
 
 revolves in bearings in the forepart of the frame. As 
 they hang in contact with this, they are made to rotate 
 on their own axis by a bar, against which they lean as 
 they hang, and which traverses to and fro, lengthwise. 
 They are thus pointed very evenly, and pass on till they 
 fall from the end of the trough into a box or other recep- 
 tacle placed to receive them. Little people often make a 
 great noise in the world, and not seldom do but little real 
 work, and that of an inferior kind; but these little machines, 
 of which a number are placed side by side, are of the very 
 noisiest, rapping with tenfold the vigour of the spirits 
 who are wont to amuse themselves thus, but doing their 
 work so well that you may search among a bushel of 
 pins and hardly find one that is incomplete. 
 
 The pins, thus completed as regards head and point, 
 are of course still of the yellow colour of the brass wire 
 from which they were made, and if left in this state 
 would very quickly become tarnished. They are there- 
 fore first of all scoured in sand, and then tinned by being 
 boiled in a solution of tin and bitartrate of potash, after 
 which they are dried in bran with friction, which leaves 
 them as white and bright as silver. Nothing now 
 remains but to pack them in boxes made in a similar 
 way to those described in the chapter on steel pens, or 
 to stick them into folded papers. The latter work is done 
 in a machine in the following manner ; but the operation, 
 
1 76 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 though easy to understand if seen, is not so easy to 
 describe. The pins, first of all, are thrown upon the 
 surface of a kind of sieve from a hopper or box, into 
 which they are cast: higgledy-piggledy — heads and tails 
 anyhow. By a shaking motion something like that used 
 in a thrashing or winnowing machine, they gradually roll 
 down a slope to the further end of the sieve. This sieve has 
 only bars running lengthwise, not across, and these are 
 close enough to prevent the pins from falling through, 
 so that they all hang by their heads, point downwards. 
 Thus they are now all in position alike, heads up like 
 soldiers, tails down, and thus they advance in ranks down 
 the inclined surface of the sieve. When a row arrives at 
 the bottom, a bar or plate descends and separates the end 
 row from the rest, holding it fast in position, while the 
 paper, already creased and folded in another part of the 
 machine, advances against the points and is pierced by 
 them. Another simple movement drives them home. 
 
 In pin-making machinery there are several differently 
 constructed machines used by different manufacturers, and 
 inventors are constantly devising new methods and new 
 arrangements for accomplishing the end in view. And in 
 this case some have contrived a machine in which the pins 
 lie fiat on their sides in parallel and horizontal channels, 
 Instead of being suspended vertically by their heads. It 
 is capital exercise of the inventive talent of boys to con- 
 
PINS. 177 
 
 trive to effect in one way what others have done in 
 another, and onr young readers may now set to work with 
 paper and pencil, and try to plan a pin-machine, or 
 paper-sticking machine, for themselves. 
 
 If they have skill to construct a model, it will tend to 
 show them how many little details must be rigorously 
 attended to, before any invention can be successfully com- 
 pleted. They will learn also that, in all machinery, the 
 greatest degree of accuracy is needed in shaping and 
 fitting the various parts. A " bearing " out of square, 
 a hole drilled with what may seem trifling inaccuracy, 
 a wheel not mounted at right angles to its axle, will not 
 only be a witness against the maker of bad workmanship, 
 but will cause the action of the machine to fail altogether, 
 and may possibly induce the inventor to cast aside as a 
 failure a design which was in reality of great value and 
 importance. Accuracy in drawing a design is not by 
 any means less necessary than accuracy in a model, or 
 in a machine. Indeed, it is in our humble opinion 
 the one lesson to be learned by the mechanic before all 
 others. He must never be content with " almost a 
 fit," or " almost true to scale." From the very com- 
 mencement of his boyish career he must determine to 
 do always first-class work, or he will fall into the ranks 
 of the bunglers, whose carelessness and inability are 
 stamped upon all that they do. 
 
Chapter XII, 
 
 HAIR-PINS, 
 
 HAIR- PIN is a simple enough article, and withal 
 a cheap one — a bit of wire bluntly pointed, and 
 doubled in the middle. But examine it, and try 
 if you can design a machine in your own mind 
 to make one, a machine that shall be competent to turn 
 them out by thousands of any given length, all bent 
 exactly and uniformly in the middle. I know of no 
 better exercise than this for boys of a mechanical turn of 
 mind. Let them take up any simple article of everyday 
 life which they have not actually seen made, and let them 
 take pencil and paper, and try to hit off a machine that 
 will do all that is required. All such machines are 
 actuated by levers and cams, of which we have already 
 spoken, and it is the cunning arrangement of these which 
 gives motion to the several parts, and causes each to do 
 its special work at a given moment. 
 
HAIR-PINS. 
 
 179 
 
 Now, to make a hair-pin we require to straighten the 
 wire, gauge it to a certain given length, cut it off, point 
 the ends, and bend it accurately and roundly in the 
 middle. The straightening is always effected by dragging 
 the wire between pins put zigzag fashion in a board or 
 metal plate. These, by bending the wire this way and 
 that, as it passes between them, take out the curl it had 
 acquired from being wound upon a reel, and deliver it 
 quite straight for any further operations required to be 
 effected upon it. But even in this there is a little skill 
 
 
 Fig. 55.— Straightening Wire. 
 
 necessary in order to arrange the pins correctly, and there- 
 fore they are not absolutely fixed in one plate, but in two 
 or more, so as to admit a certain degree of adjustment, i.e., 
 they can be made to stand quite in a line, or at various 
 distances on either side of it. In fig. 55, one or more 
 of the pins B D is fixed in a plate that slides in a direc- 
 tion at right angles to the general line of the pins, which 
 enables them to be fixed in the position found by repeated 
 trial to be the best. 
 
i8o 
 
 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 After leaving the pins, the wire passes through a guide- 
 hole in a block of metal to the feed apparatus, which draws 
 it along until its end touches a stop-plate in the point of 
 the machine, and determines the length required for one 
 pin. This is something like the feed of a sewing-machine 
 in appearance, only the stitch is rather a long one. What 
 is, however, the " cloth forwarder " in the one, is more of a 
 vice in the other. We can perhaps make the action clear 
 by giving it separately. 
 
 Let the plate AA (fig. 56) slide between guide-bars CO 
 
 Fig. 56.— Feed Action. 
 
 fixed to the top-plate or bed of the machine, and let there 
 be a thick piece D firmly screwed to it to form one side or 
 jaw of the vice. B is the opposite jaw, of the shape here 
 shown, and it turns on a screw or pin near the angle. On 
 the face opposite the fixed jaw there are a few teeth point- 
 ing towards A, and of the same shape as the teeth of an 
 ordinary handsaw, so that the wire might be pulled forward 
 
HAIR-PINS. 181 
 
 in the direction of the arrow easily, but would be caught 
 by the teeth if attempts were made to pull it in the opposite 
 direction. E is an elastic indiarubber spring ; F is a 
 catgut or wire band passing round a pulley Gr, and then 
 to a crank of considerable throw fixed to the upper re- 
 volving axis of the machine. By the rotation of this 
 crank the band F is alternately pulled and released ; and 
 when released, E pulls the jaw B and the sliding-piece 
 A in the contrary direction. Now, owing to the form of 
 the jaw B, and to the fact of its being hinged near its 
 angle, the indiarubber band will open it, and release the 
 wire; but a pull of the band F will first close the jaw 
 upon the wire, and then pull the slide itself forward, 
 carrying a length of wire with it. As soon as the crank 
 which effects this has passed its centre, the elastic band 
 pulls back the slide, and at the same time opens the jaw 
 of the vice which passes along the wire, but does not now 
 take hold of it; and this backward motion will continue 
 until, by its semi-revolution, the crank again exerts a 
 pull upon the vice and slide. Thus it is that the vice 
 brings a certain length of wire forward, and then goes 
 back open jawed for a new supply. There are two ways 
 of regulating this movement, so that the wire shall be just 
 the right length. The crank may be adjustable, as ex- 
 plained in the description of the planing-machine, so as to 
 lengthen or diminish its throw at pleasure; or the wire 
 
i82 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 coming against the stop-plate, may be made to throw the 
 feed action out of gear. Either will of course regulate 
 the length of wire to be cut off for a single hair-pin ; and 
 this cutting off is the next operation, and it is effected in 
 the following manner : The knife is like one blade of a 
 pair of large shears, the handle being very long, and the 
 cutting part short, to give leverage. The cutting edge 
 works close against a fixed piece of steel, which practically 
 forms its other blade. Upon the same axle that carries 
 the crank, and forming a continuation of its base, is a 
 projection constituting a cam (A, fig. 57). 
 
 Fig. 57.— Shears or Guillotine. 
 
 This cam at each revolution engages with the long arm 
 of the shears, and forcibly depresses the short end, causing 
 the latter to descend upon the wire and cut it off, as will 
 be understood easily by the aid of the drawing. These 
 shears come into action the very instant the jaws release 
 the wire and the latter touches the stop-plate. This stop 
 is adjustable, and can be placed at any required distance 
 from the cutter. A, the cam ; H, crank ; C, long arm of 
 the shears ; D, the fixed jaw ; B, the wire ; and E, the axle 
 
HAIR-PINS. 183 
 
 on which the crank is fitted. Hair-pins, though made 
 rapidly, are less quickly turned out than ordinary pins, 
 not being required in such great numbers. 
 
 We now have simply a length of wire cut off, but not 
 pointed at either end. The next movement is a very 
 curious and ingenious one. The wire has to be rolled 
 forward upon the bed of the machine, that it may be 
 sharpened, at each end at the same time by the action of 
 a pair of emery wheels or grindstones, revolving at a 
 rapid rate, one on each side, these being put in motion 
 by two bands passing from a large flywheel below. 
 Another crank is the prime cause of the advance of the 
 wire, and this gives motion to a flat rubber, which is 
 made to press on the wire as it rests upon and. passes 
 over it. 
 
 This slide and rubber are represented in iig. 58. 
 There is, first of all, a slide A, working to and fro upon 
 the bed of the machine upon guide-bars D. This slide 
 has fixed upon its upper surface bearings BC. The end 
 of the connecting-rod from the crank K is hinged to one 
 of these at B, and the tail of the lever, which forms part of 
 the rubber H, is hinged at C. By the motion of the crank 
 as it revolves, the slide A will be moved to and fro upon 
 its guides, carrying also with it the rubber H, and this 
 resting upon the wirey*, will cause it to roll over and over 
 beneath it, carrying it forward ; but also, on the return 
 
1 84 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 stroke, carrying it backwards. Now, this latter motion 
 has to be got rid of, because when the wire has been 
 carried towards f 9 it requires to be released, that it may 
 fall across a pair of hooks, of which one is seen at g. 
 Hence it is that the rubber itself is hinged at C, instead 
 of being made part of the slide A. Thus arranged, the 
 tail-piece rests upon the end of the connecting-rod, shown 
 again at M on a larger scale ; and as the crank advances 
 and recedes from the rubber, the end of the connecting-rod 
 oscillates up and down, alternately raising the tail-piece 
 
 Fit 
 
 of the rubber and allowing it to fall by the action of a 
 spring not shown in the drawing. As the slide recedes, 
 therefore, the part of the rubber resting on the wire is 
 slightly raised, and is again lowered as soon as the wire 
 next cut off is ready for its action. Each wire is thus 
 rolled forward under pressure until it falls off into the 
 pair of hooks g. 
 
 We have already stated that during the forward-rolling 
 motion of the wire its ends are brought into contact with 
 
HAIR-PINS. 
 
 185 
 
 a pair of rap idly- revolving grindstones. These are in such 
 a position as to have only a very small part of their circum- 
 ference above the level of the bed of the machine, so that 
 they act only on the extreme ends of the wire, and render 
 it conical and bluntly pointed. This will be easily 
 understood without any additional drawing. The wire 
 thus pointed now falls off the bed on which it lay, and 
 
 Mg. 59.— Action of the Bending-Tool and Grindstone. 
 
 rests in two small hooks attached to the front of the 
 machine, and its centre is then, over the space between 
 two grooved pulleys A and B (fig. 59). In this drawing WW 
 is the wire, hh the hooks on which it rests ; it also lies on 
 two pins pp. The grindstones are shown by the circles 
 GGr. H is an upright bar which we may term a plunger, 
 and it works vertically up and down by means of a crank 
 
1 86 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 and connecting-rod attached to it. Upon its face next 
 the wire is a projecting knob K, which, as the plunger 
 descends, comes down on the wire and bends it, carrying 
 it between the pins pp and pulleys AB. The actual 
 bending-tool, or knob K, is not attached to H as one 
 with it, but is made to fall into a recess in the plunger 
 so as to lie flush with its face, until, by the action of 
 a stud in a fixed bar in front, it is pushed out so as to 
 act on the wire, a second stud again driving it back 
 into its recess, and so enabling it on its ascent to pass 
 by the wire without coming into contact with it. The 
 plunger and its projection or bending-tool are drawn 
 separately at S, which is a side view of it. In this is 
 seen the projection p on the opposite side of the bending- 
 tool, which comes into contact alternately with the fixed 
 studs 11 upon the stationary bar in front of it. The 
 angular sides of the slides cause the peculiar action 
 required, one pushing, the other pulling the bending- 
 tool by means of its hook and wedge-shaped attach- 
 ments. 
 
 Whether we are read by any of our boys' sisters we 
 can hardly tell, but if so, they will know at any rate 
 of such modifications of hair-pins as are brought out 
 from time to time; and, among others, of the corrugated 
 form, in which the two legs are wavy instead of straight, 
 being supposed less liable to fall from the head when 
 
HAIR-PINS. 187 
 
 made in this way. This is done in a very simple and 
 ingenious way, by merely using rollers and a bending- 
 tool with corrugations on their sides, instead of smooth 
 ones as shown in fig. 59. When these are used, they are 
 arranged to turn on their axes and bring the corru- 
 gated parts gradually against the wire, a spring drawing 
 them back immediately. The corrugations, as seen in 
 fig. 60, which represents the machine as seen in front 
 only, extend round a part of the circumference of the 
 pulleys. Such is the machine in all its principal details, 
 by the aid of which tons of wire are converted into hair- 
 pins for the use of the ladies ; and though comparatively 
 simple, it is nevertheless a very cleverly-devised machine. 
 We have added here lettered references to its several 
 parts. 
 
 AA, the cast-iron stand. B, flywheel on the main 
 shaft. C, crank on the same shaft to give motion to 
 the plunger F, through the medium of the connecting- 
 rod D. EE, fixed guides in which the plunger works. 
 II, grindstones worked from the flywheel by two cords 
 not shown. MM, corrugated pulleys, as described. G, 
 upper part of plunger, in which the bending-tool is 
 fixed. H, fixed bar holding the angular studs pro- 
 jecting towards the plunger, as represented at S in 
 fig. 59. LL, springs acting upon the corrugated 
 pulleys, as explained. KK, elastic cord attached to the 
 
i88 
 
 AMONGST MA CHINE. 
 
 feed R, to the opposite side of which is fastened the cord 
 passing over the pulley J to the long crank Q actuating 
 
 Fig. 60. — Hair- Pin Machine, front elevation. 
 
 the feed. X, straightening pins, one of which is fixed tc 
 
HAIR-PINS. 189 
 
 a cross dovetailed slide, to render it capable of adjust- 
 ment. 
 
 The whole of the movements required for the action of 
 the different parts are obtained, it will be observed, from 
 one main shaft and driving-wheel ; the second shaft and 
 crank at the upper part, which actuates the guillotine and 
 feed motion, not performing more than a partial revolution 
 upon its axis, as it is only required to have a to-and-fro 
 motion, and this is obtained from a crank upon the axis 
 of the flywheel, from which a connecting-rod with 
 a double or block joint extends to this second shaft. 
 There are a few minor details which a maker would 
 require to have specified, but the above will, we think, 
 suffice to make plain the action of this machine. 
 
Chapter XIII. 
 
 SHEET-METAL GOODS. 
 
 HESE are even more numerous and more varied 
 in form and character than those which are 
 forged or cast, and there is a wonderful 
 amount of ingenuity exercised in their manu- 
 facture. Most of our young readers have probably stood 
 beside the tinker and watched him at his work, or paid a 
 visit to his superior fellow-craftsman, the tinman ; and 
 they are, therefore, tolerably conversant with the mysteries 
 of soldering up pots and kettles and saucepans, which 
 are cut out of sheet tin, and hammered into shape upon 
 anvils of various forms and sizes, and which are called by 
 various names, according to the special work for which 
 they are designed. These processes are, after all, very simi- 
 lar to, and not of much greater difficulty than, modelling 
 on paper and cardboard, in which gum replaces the solder 
 and a pair of scissors the tinman's shears. But the pro- 
 cess now about to be described is one that cannot be 
 
SHEET-METAL GOODS. 191 
 
 carried out in this material, and consists in forming bowls 
 and teapots, candlesticks, and other articles out of sheet 
 metal folded, but not soldered; and in which there are 
 neither seams nor creases. For shallow and open work, 
 this is effected by the use of stamping-presses and dies of 
 various forms — some of enormous power ; but other works 
 are made by a process called spinning. 
 
 Among the articles made by stamping are baking- 
 dishes, meat-covers, silver dishes, spoons, ladles, and such- 
 like ; while teapots, candlesticks, sugar-bowls, and such 
 hollow ware as is bulged out, and therefore smaller at 
 the mouth than elsewhere, are very generally made by 
 spinning in the lathe. At first sight it would appear 
 impossible by any process to convert a circular flat sheet 
 of block tin, pewter, or other malleable metal into a tea- 
 pot without any join. In fact, the same difficulty would 
 seem to exist in making the little tinned-iron vessels 
 called tart-tins, in which obliging cooks bake jam tarts 
 for voracious schoolboys ; because it would naturally be 
 expected that the metal would crease and pucker, the 
 same as paper would, if we were to take a circular disc 
 and turn it up all round. Such, however, is not the case 
 under proper management. To understand the generally, 
 accepted theory of this, a plate of metal must be supposed 
 to be made up of an infinite number of minute particles 
 or grains, which in a state of rest are held together by 
 
i 9 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 mutual attraction, but may by the application of force be 
 separated and made to move about amongst each other 
 and take up a different arrangement. In the present 
 instance the power used is the stamping-press. Mallea- 
 bility, or the capability of being spread out by hammering, 
 which is the property of gold and silver, tin, lead, and 
 some other metals, may rest upon the fact that their con- 
 stituent particles are thus capable of readjustment as to 
 position, without losing their mutual power of attraction ; 
 brittle metals, having less of this innate cohesion, allow a 
 complete disunion of their particles under a blow. If 
 such is the case, it is easy to understand that the particles 
 of metal which would otherwise cause plaits or puckers 
 glide over each other, and become so rearranged as to pro- 
 duce a perfectly smooth and even surface. Such is the 
 theory accepted by scientific men, as accounting for facts 
 otherwise incapable of explanation. The simplest form of 
 hammer and die work is that by which a tinman hollows 
 the lid of a kettle or makes a scale-pan. For this purpose 
 he cuts a round disc of tin, and lays it upon a hollowed 
 bit of hardwood turned out in the form of a bowl, and with 
 a boxwood mallet, rounded at one end, he hammers the 
 tin while it rests upon the block, until it gradually 
 assumes the desired form. During this time he turns the 
 piece of metal about in all directions, correcting any ten- 
 dency to pucker which it assumes, and regulating the 
 
SHEET-METAL GOODS. 193 
 
 strokes of the hammer accordingly. This requires but 
 little skill or practice if the work is shallow, and any 
 one of our young mechanics would succeed almost as well 
 as a professional workman. An ordinary thimble is but 
 a deep and narrow cup, the principle of its manufacture 
 being the same ; but the deeper the article is, the more 
 gradually the work has to be done, to avoid the unplea- 
 sant contingency of knocking a hole through the centre of 
 the disc of metal, instead of inducing it to take the de- 
 sired form — a mistake that, no doubt, sometimes occurs 
 even with skilled workmen, if the metal is not of 
 good quality, or has been insufficiently annealed. For 
 the action of a hammer upon metals is to consolidate 
 the particles, and render them hard and brittle, and it 
 becomes necessary to soften them by repeated heating 
 and gradual cooling; or no deeply-recessed articles could 
 possibly be made by stamping or rolling. In making 
 dish-covers, therefore, and other similar articles, the metal 
 is first placed between dies only slightly recessed, and, 
 after their form has been imparted by a few blows, the 
 sheet of metal is passed to the annealing-furnace, and 
 then compressed between more deeply cut dies, and the 
 operations of stamping and annealing are again and again 
 repeated alternately, until a sufficient amount of relief 
 is given to the article. The dies are of steel, and are 
 recessed chiefly by hand, so that the cost of a set with 
 
 N 
 
1 94 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 an elaborate pattern is very considerable. Special designs, 
 moreover, are registered, and are the property of the 
 designer, or of the manufacturer for whom he works ; for 
 most large establishments keep artists upon the premises 
 whose whole work is to invent new patterns for their 
 employer. A visit to Elkington's suffices to prove how 
 worthy of the name of Artist these trade designers are, 
 who nevertheless simply work at so much per annum to 
 supply food and clothing to themselves and their families. 
 They are, in fact, many of them, men of whom the outer 
 world knows nothing, and whose exquisite productions 
 bring credit and honour and wealth to their employers, 
 while their own names are absolutely unknown ; yet this 
 order of things, unfair as it may appear at the first glance, 
 cannot very easily be reversed. The busy and well- 
 educated brain may be capable of designing, but after all 
 the pocket of the capitalist only can bring its productions 
 into the market, and the employer and employed are thus 
 mutually benefited. It must not be supposed, either, 
 that artistic talent of the class alluded to is badly paid ; 
 certainly not by the leading manufacturers, who not only 
 appreciate high art, but are always ready to give hand- 
 some remuneration to secure it. A great majority of these 
 artists are foreigners — chiefly Germans and Italians — for 
 somehow or other John Bull has scarcely so good a head 
 for originating an elegant design as he has for devising 
 
SHEET-METAL GOODS. 195 
 
 the means of carrying it out in practice, and making it 
 remunerative. Our schools of art, however, are trying 
 hard to put Englishmen on a better footing in this respect, 
 the rules of art and design being now satisfactorily taught 
 by the most able professors of the day, and it is to be 
 hoped that ere long our own countrymen will be better 
 able in this respect to compete with foreigners. 
 Probably, however, high-class artistic talent may prove 
 to be in some sense national, and that our capacity for 
 it is somewhat limited. If so, we must still be content to 
 import design, and rest satisfied if in actual manufactures 
 we are able to distance all competitors. Even now our 
 position is a tolerably high one. 
 
 Among the articles of daily use, which are to be seen 
 in every house, made of sheet metal by the process of 
 stamping or spinning, not one perhaps carries more deceit 
 on its face than the ordinary door-knobs of brass. Like 
 many human faces of smooth and sleek appearance, they 
 appear to be what they are not. Looking solid, there 
 is nevertheless little solidity about them. The part next 
 to the lock, through which the small screw passes which 
 secures it in its place, is a solid casting, with a square 
 hole through it to receive the iron spindle by which the 
 bolt is drawn back. This is turned in the lathe, with a 
 groove at the end next the knob, which is dovetailed in 
 shape, i.e., the brass is left larger at the outside of the 
 
196 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 groove than at the inside. Thus anything made to fit the 
 groove could not be pulled off in either direction. The 
 knob itself is cut out of sheet brass as a flat disc by one 
 blow of a stamping-press, and by the process of alternate 
 annealings and stamping between suitable dies it is first 
 rounded and made like a half globe, and then ultimately 
 folded so closely round the casting that its edge clips the 
 groove turned in it. The whole is now polished in the 
 lathe, and comes forth as if one solid knob of brass. It 
 would at first sight appear as if it would be far easier and 
 less expensive to cast the whole in one piece, but in reality 
 so rapid and easy is the process above described, that the 
 apparently inconsiderable saving effected in quantity of 
 brass needed is of sufficient importance to make this 
 hollow work the least costly and the most remunerative 
 to the manufacturer. 
 
Chapter XIV. 
 
 SCEEWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 
 
 doubt our young readers have made use of 
 these in their more or less successful attempts 
 to rival the carpenter and blacksmith; but 
 probably it has never occurred to them to in- 
 quire by what means they are produced in such numbers, 
 and so well finished. Wood screws especially, which are 
 now so clean in thread and so nicely tapered, can hardly 
 fail to have attracted a certain degree of attention, 
 especially if comparison of them has been made with any 
 of more ancient date, with their blunt ends and generally 
 rough appearance. Here, again, is the result of well- 
 arranged machinery cunningly devised and scientifically 
 applied. In old days screws were produced by hand only, 
 chiefly by women and children, who produced the thread 
 by very imperfect means, after husbands, fathers, or 
 
1 98 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 brothers had forged the blank. If a screw is examined, 
 it will be seen to consist of a head with a slit across it 
 for the application of the screwdriver, by which it is 
 driven into the wood — a shank, turned or otherwise 
 formed, quite smooth and round — and a threaded or 
 screwed part, sometimes of equal size throughout, but now 
 generally taper towards the point, that it may be capable 
 of being driven into the softer woods without the previous 
 use of a gimlet. Now in old times these were produced 
 as follows : First of all, a rod of iron of the requisite 
 size was heated at the end in a forge fire, and when taken 
 out was drawn down as a nail is forged by the blacksmith, 
 but not so much as to form a point, the object being to 
 produce a cylindrical blank with a blunt end. As this 
 required to be of as nearly equal size as possible from 
 end to end, it was finished between dies by help of a 
 simple tool called an Oliver — but I know not how the tool 
 obtained its name. Perhaps it will be understood with- 
 out a drawing, as we have already trespassed somewhat 
 heavily on the engraver. Imagine two upright posts, 
 driven securely into the ground a short distance behind 
 an anvil, and 2 or 3 feet apart. Between these, turn- 
 ing at each end on gudgeons, was mounted a roller 
 hooped with iron at each end, much the same as the axle 
 of the wheel of a common garden-barrow, which, if a 
 little longer, would fairly represent the roller in question. 
 
SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 199 
 
 Instead of the spokes, imagine the end of the handle of 
 a sledge-hammer to be inserted in the central hole, and 
 so arranged that when this handle was horizontal the 
 hammer's head would rest fairly upon the anvil. Over- 
 head was a spring pole of ash or other suitable wood, 
 from which a rope or chain descended to the handle of the 
 hammer, so as to lift it about 2 feet from the face of 
 the anvil. Now, imagine a short arm or spoke on the 
 right hand of the hammer-handle, and a short distance 
 from it, from which also a chain descended to a treadle by 
 the right foot of the workman. By means of this treadle 
 and short lever the hammer could be brought down with 
 great force and rapidity, and after each stroke it would 
 be raised up again by the spring pole from the face of 
 the anvil, on which it would fall each time at precisely 
 the same spot. This contrivance took the place of the 
 second man or boy, usually called a striker ; and I can 
 only suppose that some ingenious young shaver of the 
 name of Oliver invented this contrivance to save his own 
 labour while he sat down to eat lollipops or plan mischief. 
 At any rate the machine, simple as it was, showed ingen- 
 uity, and was a very efficient contrivance for the intended 
 purpose. But though the arrangement as we have 
 described it is correct up to a certain point, the end of 
 the sledge-hammer and the anvil were formed respectively 
 as two halves of a die in which the iron would take the 
 
200 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 required cylindrical form, both being hollowed out with a 
 semi-cylindrical groove, so that when placed in contact, a 
 perfectly cylindrical cavity appeared of the exact size of 
 the shank of the required screw. Any number of blanks 
 formed in these dies would consequently be precisely 
 similar. The shank having been thus formed by a few 
 rapid blows, the bar was cut off a little above it, and the 
 head also formed by a few blows, while the blank was 
 suspended by it in a " heading tool," which was merely 
 a steel block with holes in it of the form of the head 
 required. All this was done at one heat, and before the 
 iron had time to cool below redness. These rough blanks 
 were next passed to the turner, who, with a lathe specially 
 adapted to the purpose, took off the rough outside, and 
 perfected the shape of the head. There was another way, 
 however, of forming the head as well as the shank, which 
 is used at the present time by gunsmiths, and others who 
 have frequent occasion to make their own screws. A 
 cylindrical block of steel, with a tail-piece or projection, to 
 enable it to be held in the vice, is bored with a hole of the 
 exact size of the shank of the screw — a little less, there- 
 fore, than the size of the forged blank. The edge of this 
 is then filed into teeth something like very large file-teeth, 
 and the hole is also enlarged at one end, and this also is 
 similarly cut round with teeth. A blank is taken, and a 
 saw-cut made across it for the screwdriver, but the latter 
 
SCfiEWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 201 
 
 is put into the end of a brace — the smith's brace and bits. 
 With this the screw-blank is driven through the grinder, 
 and its head and shank are, at a single operation, beauti- 
 fully turned and finished. A somewhat similar process 
 was used to form the screw-blanks, but the dies were in 
 halves, and made to spring open and drop the blanks as 
 soon as the turning of their shanks was accomplished. 
 There were from time to time various improvements made 
 and patented whereby the process might be expedited and 
 the work more satisfactorily accomplished, but these need 
 not be entered into here. A visit to the Patent Office 
 Library in Southampton Buildings, London, would do far 
 more than we can do here in teaching the young mechanic 
 the various ingenious modifications of the screw-blank 
 machines of the days of their forefathers. 
 
 The screw-blanks had now to be threaded, and this 
 work was carried on at the homes of the workmen, who 
 were paid by the gross. The result of the inefficient 
 appliances used was a very inferior quality of screw, 
 which, however, found an ample market when nothing of 
 a superior kind could be obtained for love or money. 
 The thread of a screw may be formed, and was formed 
 for some time, by a screw-plate, i.e., a plate of steel with 
 a hole in it, which had a thread cut inside it by means of 
 another screw or tap made of hardened steel. After such 
 thread was cut, the plate itself was hardened, and would 
 
202 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 form a thread upon any metal softer than itself. But 
 this thread was of little strength, because it was burred up 
 and not clearly cut, and in all screws made thus (and the 
 process is used constantly for small screws) there is this 
 fault still prevalent. But if a thin tile or small metal 
 saw is inserted into the hole in the screw-plate, and two 
 or three notches are cut quite through the threads into 
 the plate beyond it, we obtain certain cutting edges 
 at each notch, besides places for the escape of the metal 
 shavings formed during the process. Screws, therefore, 
 made by such a plate are very much better, because the 
 thread is partly cut and partly formed by the compression 
 of the metal. But by a further improvement the 
 screw-plate was replaced by dies. 
 
 Suppose the plate made of steel, half or three-quarters 
 of an inch in thickness, and after being drilled and 
 tapped, sawn through so as to divide it across the centre 
 line of the hole, a pair of screw dies would be formed, 
 and if these were placed opposite to each other in a pro- 
 per clamp or holder, they could be tightened on the 
 blank as the work proceeded. It was by similar dies the 
 blanks were cut with a thread in the wood screws we are 
 describing. The blanks were fixed one by one in a kind 
 of chuck in a lathe-head, and the dies, standing open, 
 were made to enclose it, and gradually brought together 
 until the thread was as deep as required. It was a toler- 
 
SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 203 
 
 ably quick process, but the head was turned separately, 
 and altogether the screws could not be made very 
 cheaply, unless the work was too rapidly and carelessly 
 done. No other plan, however, was made use of for many 
 years. 
 
 But some ingenious individual, whose name, however, 
 we do not know, conceived the plan of making screws of 
 wire, similar to the way in which pins are made, and 
 which we have already described in this volume ; and 
 although, of course, the various parts of the machine 
 needed great strength, owing to the fact that the wire for 
 the larger screws required to be of considerable size, this 
 plan has now superseded entirely the old method of 
 making the screws by hand. The process is precisely that 
 of pin-making as regards the formation of the blanks, 
 but the grindstone is no longer needed. The wire is 
 drawn from the swift, or reel, cut off by a guillotine 
 action, and the head formed by two or three blows from a 
 suitable punch. The blank then drops into a box or other 
 suitable receptacle, in which it is conveyed to another 
 machine difficult to describe, but of great ingenuity. 
 Imagine a revolving wheel without a rim — a wheel, in 
 short, with spokes only, each spoke being forked at the 
 end. These forks dip into the reservoir of screw-blanks 
 as the wheel revolves upon its axle, and picks them up 
 one by one by their heads, and in addition carries them 
 
204 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 past a small circular saw revolving at great speed, which 
 in a moment cuts the nicks for the screwdriver. The 
 blanks then drop into a basket ready for further opera- 
 tions. They are now placed in a lathe-chuck one by one, 
 and instead of being screwed by a pair of dies, they are 
 made to traverse to and fro, while a fixed tool cuts the 
 thread deeply and cleanly, leaving it quite sharp and 
 bright. Even this description, however, of improved 
 mode of manufacture hardly gives an account of to-day's 
 screwing machinery, so rapid have been the changes of 
 late years, and to such high perfection has the machinery 
 been brought. In fact, there is now little left for the 
 exercise of the skill of workmen, who are only called 
 upon to empty backets of screw-blanks into the various 
 hoppers, from which they are delivered into the machines 
 by automatic action, and are turned, cut, nicked, and 
 screwed by a succession of mechanical contrivances with- 
 out any intervention of the human hand. 
 
 The improved machinery, of which Messrs. Nettlefold 
 k Chamberlain of Birmingham are the chief proprietors, 
 was originally introduced into this country from America, 
 which has supplied us with so many inventions for the 
 supersession of hand labour. From America came the 
 plan of using tapering blanks, and making the screws 
 with sharp points, like that of a carpenter's gimlet, 
 which, on the whole, was the most valuable of all the 
 
SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 205 
 
 improvements made from time to time in these well- 
 known little articles of daily use. 
 
 Of late wire Bails have come into extensive use. They 
 too originated abroad, and may be seen in fig-boxes and 
 similar cases from Turkey, France, and elsewhere. They 
 were introduced in the Exhibition of '51 as Eussian 
 nails, but whether invented in that country or not, we 
 cannot say. No doubt the idea was gained from the pin 
 manufacture, as it was comparatively an easy matter to 
 make similar machines of more solid construction strong 
 enough for these nails, or for screw-blanks. They are 
 easily driven into soft wood, and not being wedge- 
 shaped like the forged nails, have no tendency to split the 
 material. If one of these nails is taken in hand, the grip 
 of the vice-like clams by which they are held while being 
 headed will be easily seen, as no care is subsequently 
 taken to obliterate it ; and the roughness thus formed 
 just below the head no doubt adds to the security of hold 
 which they take in the wood. They are even, in spite of 
 this, rather too easy to draw, but are very handy to use, 
 besides being very much lighter and of less bulk than 
 ordinary nails. Pins, nails, and screws depend, there- 
 fore, it will be seen, upon machines of precisely similar 
 description, and are turned out not only of very beautiful 
 finish, but in such abundance as to be cheap enough for 
 all to buy who need them. 
 
2o6 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 How pins are made, and whence they come, we know, 
 
 Bnt it remains a mystery where they go. 
 
 Millions are yearly made, and yet how rare 
 
 The cry, " Behold, a pin is lying there ! " 
 
 One solitary pin ! alone upon the floor, 
 
 Where we should have expected half a score ; 
 
 And even if we searched the dustman's bin, 
 
 'Tis ten to one we shouldn't find a pin. 
 
 And yet they go, soon lost to sight and sense — 
 
 'Tis well they can be bought at small expense. 
 
 But 'twas not always thus — in years gone by 
 
 To own a pin was quite a luxury. 
 
 " Pin-money " then was claimed by every dame, 
 
 And husbands found 'twas no mere empty name ; 
 
 But in these days husbands would gladly pay 
 
 For pins to use and pins to give away, 
 
 If " pin-money " required by wife and mother 
 
 Did not say one thing while it meant another ; 
 
 But count the cost, and husbands cry, " God bless 'em ! 
 
 Our wives must need a lot of pins to dress 'em ; " 
 
 For pins, though cheap, imply a lot that's dear 
 
 (Mysterious items of a lady's gear) 
 
 To stick them into. Dressmakers can say 
 
 For what et ceteras pin-money must pay, 
 
 Such things we know not — and we dare not ask. 
 
 Ours is an easier, more congenial task, 
 
 To teach how pins, and nails, and screws are made 
 
 To meet the stern necessities of trade ; 
 
 This is a pleasant subject — but the other 
 
 We gladly leave to bride, or wife, or mother. 
 
 Having, however, been beguiled by our very trouble- 
 some and not very polished muse to go astray somewhat 
 from the even tenor of our way, we must return to our 
 sober, prosaic statement of facts about screws, with which 
 we have as yet hardly done. Passing from the wood 
 
SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 207 
 
 screws used by carpenters, the formation of which we 
 have now described, we may turn our attention to the 
 manufacture of bolts and nuts, of which, since the estab- 
 lishment of railways, the number required every year is 
 simply beyond calculation, and gives employment to the 
 operatives in many large factories in the hardware 
 districts. 
 
 SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 
 
 These are, indeed, things of daily use. Not a machine 
 can be made without a number of them, and if you were 
 to walk along the railway, you would see, at the junction 
 of every rail with that next to it, an iron plate, called a 
 fish-plate, on each side, with four screw bolts and nuts 
 to keep all secure. This will give you an idea of the 
 enormous number in use — and indeed number is not 
 considered, for these things are sold by the ton. Now, in 
 order to give an idea of what is meant by a labour-saving 
 machine, I shall first tell you how bolts and nuts are 
 made by hand, which a few years ago was the only 
 method known, and then I will describe the present mode 
 of operation. 
 
 To begin with the bolt. If the head was to be very 
 large in proportion to the size of the shank, the smith 
 took a rod of iron the size of the latter, heated it in 
 his forge fire, and cut it off, probably by help of an 
 assistant or striker. He then took a rod of square bar, 
 
208 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 heated, and bent it round the nose of his anvil until it 
 had assumed the shape of a ring the size of the bolt. It 
 was then cut off and placed over one end of the bolt, and 
 both again heated to a welding temperature, and the two 
 were then hammered until the union was complete. If 
 the head of the bolt was to be six-sided, which was often 
 the case, it was hammered on a swage-block, or block of 
 iron with a deep notch in it, and turned over in this 
 again and again until the head was properly formed. 
 Then, as in all probability this process left the part in a 
 very rough, unfinished condition on its upper and lower 
 faces, these were rectified in a proper pair of swages after 
 the bolt had been reheated, and subsequently the file was 
 used to render the head complete. At other times, if the 
 head was not required to be of so large a size, it was 
 hammered and swaged up out of the solid metal, and thus 
 made in one piece with the shank of the bolt, which had 
 then to be screwed to the requisite length with stock and 
 dies. The heading-tool was similar to that used for nails, 
 namely, a bar of case-hardened iron or steel with holes in 
 it, through one of which the shank was passed while the 
 heated iron left on the upper side of the plate, and which 
 was purposely left of larger size, was spread out on all 
 sides by the hand-hammer ; but for bolts the hole was 
 square, to give that form to the neck of the bolt just below 
 the head. This is always necessary in a screw-bolt, to 
 
SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 209 
 
 prevent its turning round under the action of the wrench 
 used to tighten the nut. The Oliver already mentioned 
 was a great improvement upon the ordinary hammer 
 which had been hitherto used, both for forming the head 
 and the shank, and for many years this was all in the 
 way of machinery used in the manufacture of bolts and 
 nuts. But as the demand for these articles increased, the 
 need was felt of some readier method, and the ingenuity 
 of inventors was successfully aroused, with most gratify- 
 ing, because practical, results, and the whole system of 
 bolt-making was revolutionised. 
 
 In the first place, the lengths of iron requisite for the 
 bolts are cut off by a single stroke of a cutting-press, 
 which only requires to be continually fed " from morn till 
 dewy eve," and not unfrequently from eve till morn 
 again. The short pieces thus produced are carried in 
 boxes or on hand-barrows to a lad who stands before a 
 furnace, the thick iron door of which is pierced with a 
 number of holes, each of a size to receive a single bar. 
 Into these holes the bars are placed, and while that part 
 which rests in the holes is only partially heated, the short 
 bit which is to form the head, being exposed to the full 
 heat of the fire, soon attains a white heat. It is then 
 withdrawn, and tossed to a lad or man who presides over 
 the press which has superseded the Oliver. The lower 
 part, or anvil, as we may call it, consists of a pair of 
 
210 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 strong dies, which, when closed, form a square hole like 
 that of a heading tool above, but a round hole of the size 
 of the shank of the bolt below. In these dies each bolt 
 is placed, and upon the heated end descends with irresist- 
 ible force, but with a most deceitful quietness, a hollowed 
 die of the form required for the head of the bolt — and in 
 a moment the work is complete — the dies which hold it 
 open, and a shapely blank falls out upon the earthen 
 floor. The lad who attends the furnace has always a bolt 
 at the proper heat for the heading-press, which he picks 
 out of its cell the instant it is ready, supplying its place 
 from the heap of bars at his side, so that there is never 
 a moment's delay, and the supply is unremittingly kept 
 up. The rapidity of the process is therefore exceedingly 
 great. 
 
 The screwing of the bolts, which is in a great measure 
 left to the superintendence of women, as there is little 
 labour required from those who attend to the several 
 machines, differs hardly at all from the method used in 
 forming wood screws. The bolts are chucked in a machine 
 similar to a lathe, and the cutting tool forms the thread 
 upon it as it traverses. There are, as might be expected, 
 modifications of the machine, but the principle is always, 
 as a matter of course, identical in all. Either the tool 
 traverses at a given rate, or the bolt ; the speed of 
 traverse depending on the number of threads required to 
 
SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 211 
 
 be cut in one inch of the length of the bolt. It is easy 
 to understand how rapidly the above process of making 
 bolts has superseded the old plan ; one great advantage 
 in all machine-work being, that any number of such 
 articles can be made with perfect uniformity in size and 
 shape. The threads, too, are cleanly cut, and very much 
 deeper than those formed by the screw-stock of the black- 
 smith, or the dies hitherto exclusively used for this pur- 
 pose. In some machines, however, recently patented in 
 America, dies are again introduced, but of a far superior 
 pattern to the usual kind. Of our own inventors in this 
 department, Sir Joseph Whitworth stands facile princeps. 
 Not only did he greatly improve the dies used with the 
 6crew-stock, but he introduced the system of standard 
 pitches — i.e., the number of threads to the inch is always 
 the same for any given diameter of bolt ; so that if a nut 
 were lost from any machine, or any bolt required to be 
 replaced by a new one, there would be no difficulty in 
 matching the thread. 
 
 If we have, in the machines which I have described, 
 instances innumerable of economy of manufacture — time 
 and material being managed so as to ensure the utmost 
 attainable profit — another kind of economy may often be 
 witnessed in the doings of the workmen, of which the 
 following is a sample : At the time of my visit to a 
 manufactory of this kind the dinner-hour was drawing 
 
2 1 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 near, and I had an opportunity of observing an ingenious 
 and economical adaptation of means to a desired end. The 
 camp-kettle being placed on the ground, the red-hot bolts 
 as they fell from the machine were ranged neatly round 
 it, thus supplying the heat required to boil the tea or 
 soup without expenditure of fuel. This is ordinarily done 
 by the men at each meal. 
 
 The nuts for these bolts are made in a similar way to 
 the bolts themselves. A man, standing by a furnace or 
 forge, places in the fire a flat bar of iron, of which he heats 
 a length of perhaps 2 feet at a time. Close by him is 
 a strong punching-machine, the cutter of which is fur- 
 nished with a central pin to form a hole in the nut, and 
 the punch and die, or block over which it rises and falls, 
 are so shaped as to give to the nut its proper form when 
 the cut is made. Thus at every stroke a nut is severed 
 from the iron, bored, and finished, with the exception of 
 the screw thread. During this operation a stream of 
 water flows continually over the punch and nuts, which 
 drop into an iron box at the rate of about fifty a minute. 
 As two or three bars are kept at once in the fire, one is 
 always ready to be drawn and placed in the machine 
 The bolts and nuts thus made are next carried to the 
 workmen and women whose office it is to cut the threads 
 on each, and thus finish them ready for the market. The 
 shop in which these final operations are performed is in 
 
SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 213 
 
 the form of a long well-lighted shed, in which screwing- 
 machines are ranged in long rows, the whole being 
 worked by a series of bolts coming down from a shaft 
 overhead, on which a pulley is fixed over each machine. 
 On the driving shaft of the latter is a fast and loose 
 pulley, one revolving with the shaft on which it is immov- 
 ably fixed, the other running easily upon it. To stop or 
 start the machine it is only necessary to shift the strap 
 from one pulley to the other. The nuts are here fed 
 up to the tap one by one, and a single passage of the 
 latter through them perfects the thread. I daresay most 
 of our young readers have noticed that the old-fashioned 
 square nuts are seldom seen now, even at the shop of the 
 village blacksmith. These used to be cut with a chisel 
 from a square bar heated to redness, and a central hole hav- 
 ing been made through it by a punch, a thread was cut by a 
 tap, and the whole was finished by a few strokes of a file. 
 These nuts were either weak or unnecessarily clumsy. 
 The corners were strong but the sides weak, and if the 
 latter were widened by using a broader bar of iron from 
 which to cut them, the nut became so large as to be out 
 of all proportion to the bolt. Hence the hexagonal or 
 six-sided nut was introduced, which being the nearest 
 possible approach to a circular one, gave equal strength 
 at all parts of its circumference, while it enabled the 
 ordinary screw-wrench to be applied, which was used pre- 
 
2 14 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 viously for square nuts. But it is not every one who can 
 file up correctly the six sides of such a nut, and, indeed, 
 to do so is such a proof of skill in the use of a file, that 
 it has been generally made a test for the candidates for 
 the Whitworth Scholarship. Since the introduction, 
 however, of machine-made nuts, the blacksmith has been 
 able to purchase them of all sizes as blanks, and all he 
 has to do is to cut whatever thread he may require by 
 means of a tap. Sometimes eight instead of six sides 
 are given to nuts, but though these are theoretically 
 more perfect than the others, the ordinary wrenches, 
 unless very well made, and in perfect condition, are apt 
 to slip round without turning them, and the corners thus 
 get rubbed off. Machine-made nuts being formed between 
 dies, are beautifully made — somewhat thicker in the middle 
 than at the edges, and with a raised circular surface on 
 each side, which gives them the appearance of having 
 been turned on each face in the lathe. This is, indeed, 
 done to give them a more perfect finish, if they are 
 required to be bright to match the machine in which they 
 are to be used. 
 
 Having had occasion, in treating of bolts and nuts, to 
 speak of the general use of pressing or stamping machines 
 in their formation, I may here remark that this process has 
 been of late years very extensively applied to forgings of all 
 descriptions in which a repetition is constantly required of 
 
SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 215 
 
 the same outward form. Exact imitation of any desired 
 pattern was only attained for many years by the process 
 of casting, but these productions of the foundry being very 
 brittle, were not suited for articles likely to be subjected 
 to concussion. A piece of wrought iron, however, heated 
 to whiteness, and placed between the dies of a stamping- 
 press, is readily brought to the desired form without de- 
 priving the metal of its toughness and malleability, and 
 the form can of course be repeated as often as may be 
 desired. The value of such an application of the stamping- 
 press is therefore beyond calculation, owing to the 
 innumerable articles in everyday use which demand the 
 repetition of the same form, unaccompanied by the defects 
 inseparable from cast iron. 
 
Chapter XV. 
 
 MACHINES FOR CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD, 
 
 N addition to the innumerable articles made of 
 metal, there are a large number formed of wood, 
 and for the more speedy and economical pre- 
 paration of this material machinery has of late 
 years been extensively called into action. Metal and 
 wood work must of necessity be to a certain extent 
 mutually dependent on each other, and their manufacture 
 has always gone on side by side, but of late the softer 
 material has been gradually replaced by the harder, with 
 more or less practical advantage. The old wooden walls 
 of England, the raw material of which was that British 
 oak of which we were so justly proud, and which well 
 typified the hearts of oak of our brave seamen, have to a 
 great extent disappeared. The splendid frigates with 
 which our many glorious victories were won no longer 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 217 
 
 ride in triumph upon the ocean wave. They have given 
 place to those unwieldy-looking ironclads which have on 
 more than one occasion earned but too justly the significant 
 name of " iron coffins," and whose outline will never bear 
 comparison with the graceful form of the old wooden ships 
 that sat or sailed so proudly upon the waters. Never- 
 theless, it must be confessed that ironclad and heavily- 
 armoured ships have become a sad necessity, owing to the 
 extraordinary power of the guns against which they must 
 henceforth be matched. The mass of iron which, with 
 these guns, can be readily and accurately sent against a 
 ship from the distance of a mile — guns which, with less 
 accuracy, will hurl a heavy shot three times that distance, 
 has rendered wooden ships utterly useless, and altogether 
 modified the details of warfare. And if we turn from 
 vessels of war to vessels of peace, we recognise also here a 
 similar change from wood to metal ; and in our various 
 public buildings, and notably our railway stations in large 
 cities, we cannot fail to notice the displacement of 
 wooden roofs by lighter and more durable structures of 
 iron and glass. Nevertheless, wood can never be wholly 
 replaced by metal, and although iron beams may take the 
 place of wooden ones even in private houses, we should 
 hardly be contented to give up our wooden floors in 
 favour of the more durable material. Hence wood must 
 of necessity occupy an important place, and will always 
 
218 . AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 be extensively applied to those manifold uses for which it 
 is so beautifully adapted ; and machines for the speedy and 
 accurate conversion of this raw material are every year 
 coming into more general use. To begin with that well- 
 known implement, the saw, — how slowly, and with what 
 vast amount of monotonous labour it is made to take its 
 course through the timber which has to be cut into planks 
 and boards ! Even the honour of being top sawyer can 
 hardly recompense the workman for the unremitting 
 exertion he is called upon to exercise in the prosecution of 
 his task; and as to him who is below, with the sawdust 
 threatening to blind him, and the end of the saw taking 
 its course in dangerous proximity to his body, his place 
 can scarcely be described as an enviable one. Yet for 
 centuries all the timber needed for the various purposes of 
 trade had to be reduced by these means to the required 
 form. But before the inventors of the steam-engine had 
 given an impulse to our manufacturing industries, such as 
 was never previously felt, a machine had been invented 
 and extensively used to take the sawyer's place — the 
 motive power being generally a stream of water, but some- 
 times a windmill. The arrangement was very simple, and 
 by no means difficult to carry out practically. 
 
 A number of saw-blades, placed side by side at such 
 distance apart as equals the proposed thickness of the 
 planks, are fitted to a cross bar at each end, these cross 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 219 
 
 bars being also united by side pieces so as to make up a 
 rectangular frame. This frame is constructed to slide up 
 and down vertically within an outer frame ; the up-and- 
 down motion being imparted to it by a crank, to which 
 either the top or bottom cross bar is attached. The axle 
 of this crank is also that of the flywheel of the engine 
 from which the motive power is obtained. The saw- 
 blades can be arranged at any desired width apart by 
 means of wedges or screws. The timber to be sawn 
 rests upon a series of horizontal rollers in front of these 
 saws, and motion is given to these by the engine, so that, 
 as the work proceeds, the log of wood is gradually ad- 
 vanced. It is evident that whereas a single blade passing 
 once through the timber would only divide it into two 
 parts, a single passage of this many-bladed instrument 
 will cut a number of planks ; and so perfect is the action 
 of the machine, that it may be almost left alone to do 
 its work without attention. One man can at all events 
 attend to several such machines. In a similar way, a 
 very much narrower set of blades, arranged at a greater 
 distance asunder, can be readily made to describe a curved 
 path, such as is required for cutting out wheel-felloes, 
 chair-backs, and any other articles of curved pattern. 
 An automatic feed is, in this case, not so easy to arrange, 
 and more attention to such labour - saving machines 
 becomes necessary. 
 
*2o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 The inconvenience in certain cases of the reciprocating 
 or up-and-down movement of the saw-blade, with the 
 loss of time incurred in the up stroke, led to the inven- 
 tion of the band-saw, which has come into extensive use 
 in cutting out articles of complicated form. In this 
 case, a long thin blade is joined together at the ends, 
 so as to make one continuous band, the junction being 
 so beautifully made as not to increase at that point the 
 general thickness of the blade. The endless web thus 
 formed is strained quite tight by being passed over two 
 large pulleys, one of which is placed at some distance 
 above, and the other below the platform upon which the 
 material to be sawn is laid. In this platform is a slit 
 through which the blade passes, and the teeth point 
 downwards, so that the cut shall be in that direction 
 and tend to keep the work down upon the platform as 
 the operation proceeds. The workman has the pattern 
 into which he desires to form the material plainly marked 
 upon its upper surface, and with the hands he keeps 
 turning it about so that the saw may trace the lines 
 accurately. It requires a little practice to do this, as a 
 very little undue pressure will give the saw a bias in the 
 wrong direction, and there is then no remedy for the false 
 cut that has been made. With care and practice, however, 
 very complicated forms are thus produced ; and the orna- 
 mental letters seen on shop fronts, 2 or more inches 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 221 
 
 thick, are frequently made in this way. The cutting 
 being continuous, no time is lost, aDd the execution of 
 such work is of course very rapid indeed. Many of these 
 band-saws, moreover, are made of hard steel, and are 
 employed not only upon wood but also upon brass, which 
 can be cut in this manner almost as expeditiously as 
 the softer material. 
 
 In cutting smaller timber in any case where curved 
 work is not required, the circular saw has come into 
 general use, as its work is rapid and very true. It has 
 also this advantage over the vertical sawing-machines, 
 that it is easily arranged as a portable one, there being 
 only needed a platform of iron, similar to a table, on 
 which to fix it, and a farm engine as the motive power. 
 These machines can therefore be hired out at any time, 
 and are largely used to slit fir timber for making 
 railway and farm fences. 
 
 A circular saw is merely a round plate of steel, the 
 circumference of which is cut into teeth similar to those 
 of a pit-saw if for large work, or of a hand-saw if only to 
 be used on light material. In the centre of the plate is a 
 hole through which is passed an axle, and which also 
 carries the pulleys or riggers for a strap from the fly- 
 wheel of the engine. The axle is fitted to work in bear- 
 ings below the saw-table, and a slit is made in the latter 
 to allow about one-third of the saw to stand above it. 
 
2 2 2 AMONGST MA CHINES, 
 
 The timber is laid upon a frame upon rollers, the end 
 resting upon the surface of the table, and it is fed up to 
 the saw by hand. 
 
 At one side of the table stands up an adjustable fence 
 or guide, which can be set at any required distance from 
 the saw, to regulate the thickness of the boards or rails to 
 be cut ; and as soon as one face of the timber has been 
 trued, by having its uneven parts removed, it becomes a 
 guide to the next cut, as it is pressed against the fence 
 while the work is being driven forward. The saw is made 
 to revolve with great rapidity, and the operation is a noisy 
 one, but it is a very efficient and economical method of 
 converting small timber. But the circular saw is not con- 
 fined to the work of slitting timber, but is used as a very 
 rapid means of cutting grooves, rebates, tenons, and othei 
 forms. The slate-frames, of which such vast numbers are 
 now required to meet the demands of our many schools, 
 are all cut out with this instrument, and the groove also 
 for the slate itself is similarly made. It is evident that 
 if the saw is only made to project a very little above the 
 surface of the table, and a piece of plank is run across it, 
 the latter will not be divided wholly, but only cut from 
 end to end with a longitudinal groove, and that the width 
 of such groove will depend on the thickness of the saw. 
 Moreover, two or more saws can be mounted on the same 
 axle, each doing its own special work, so that many such 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 223 
 
 grooves can be cut at once, or several strips cut at trie 
 same time. And it is also easy to understand that if a 
 thicker circular plate be taken and the edge turned to any 
 required shape — bevelled on one side or both, or rounded, 
 or cut into the shape of a moulding, and teeth be cut 
 round it — it will cut grooves of similar section in wood or 
 metal, or reproduce such moulding. 
 
 It is by circular cutters of this nature that mouldings 
 are now made in vast quantities for the use of carpenters 
 and builders, instead of being made by a moulding-plane 
 — a tedious and somewhat costly process. These circular 
 cutters, whether for metal or wood, are often used in the 
 lathe to plough grooves of given form, such as the V 
 grooves needed for the slides of eccentric chucks, which it 
 is very much more difficult to form with the file. Some- 
 times the cutter is fixed in a suitable holder in the slide 
 rest, and driven from the " overhead," while the work is 
 between centres or mounted on the chuck or face plate ; 
 and sometimes this mode is reversed, the work being 
 clamped to the slide rest, and the cutters fixed in the 
 mandrel. In a similar way stone is now sawn into slabs 
 by circular saws without teeth, but fed by sharp sand 
 and water, superseding, in a great measure, the old pro- 
 cess of sawing by hand ; but our readers will readily per- 
 ceive that when very large saws become necessary, as they 
 are for work of considerable diameter, the power required 
 
224 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 to drive them is very great, and as no more than about 
 one-third of the saw-plate can be employed, owing to the 
 interference of the axle, vertical saws are more suitable 
 for heavy and massive work, whether of wood or stone. 
 The circular saw, nevertheless, is of such extensive use in 
 works in which various articles of wood are manufactured 
 on a large scale, that it now seems strange that we could 
 have ever done without it ; and its use, from the rapidity 
 with which, by its means, wood can be cut up into the 
 forms most suitable for the further operations of the 
 carpenter and joiner, is invariable in all parts of the 
 civilised world. By far the greater number of wood- 
 working machines have reached us from America, which 
 is a veritable land of timber, though Sweden and Norway 
 rival it in its pine forests, and supply us with vast quan- 
 tities of wood of that particular kind ; and since the first 
 Great Exhibition, in which nearly all the carpenter's work 
 was executed by machinery, the prejudice against this 
 mode of work has passed away, and all kinds of joinery, 
 such as window-sashes, doors, staircases, and handrailing, 
 can be bought at the manufactories, where large quantities 
 of the usual standard sizes are kept in stock. Of course 
 these are far cheaper than hand-made work, though fre- 
 quently not quite so cleanly finished off. For green- 
 houses, garden frames, fowl and pheasant houses, aviaries, 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 225 
 
 and similar outdoor buildings, few persons would now fall 
 back upon the village carpenter. 
 
 Among the many appliances by which timber is con- 
 verted, the wood-planing machine must here be noticed, 
 as coming in order next to the machine-saw. Here again 
 the work is performed by revolving cutters, which are not 
 very dissimilar from the knives of some kinds of chaff- 
 cutters, or of the lawn-mowers now so common. Steel 
 blades with sharp-cutting edges are arranged round a 
 cylinder or cylindrical frame, which is made to revolve 
 with great rapidity, and the plank or board is made to 
 pass evenly below it, being laid for this purpose upon a 
 long level table of iron, and carried forward by gripping 
 rollers. The whole is generally contained in a glass case, 
 to prevent the shavings from flying about, as they are 
 thrown off from the work in a perfect cloud. One great 
 advantage of machine-work is the exact truth with which 
 planks or timbers are worked squarely — the sides and 
 faces at right angles to each other — this squaring up of 
 carpenter's stuff being the very pons asinorum of aspiring 
 amateurs and carpenters' apprentices, and being a work 
 always of labour and difficulty even to more experienced 
 workmen. The planing-machines remove this difficulty at 
 once ; for while each of the broad surfaces of boards are 
 thereby planed, and faced parallel and true to each other, 
 rendering the thickness equal everywhere, cutters arranged 
 
226 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 for that purpose square up the edges at the same time. 
 Nevertheless, if the latter are required to make any 
 smaller or greater angle with the sides, or to be bevelled, 
 these side cutters are able, by a simple arrangement, to be 
 placed at the necessary inclination, and the required result 
 is obtained with ease and exactness. By far the greater pro- 
 portion of machine- work, therefore, as our readers will 
 observe, is now done by revolving cutters of various kinds, 
 and as a general rule these are stationary, and the work is 
 made to traverse in the required direction. The advantage 
 of a revolving cutter is that the action is continuous, there- 
 by evidently saving time. When a carpenter saws or 
 planes, the back stroke of the tool is of course thrown 
 away, while with a circular saw or revolving plane there is 
 no such back action. Time saved, it must be remembered, 
 means cheaper production, as well as increase of quantity — 
 both matters of very considerable importance when all 
 classes of the community have to be provided with at least 
 the necessaries of life. Eeciprocating action is never- 
 theless in many cases a matter of necessity, and we must 
 not dismiss the subject in hand without making a few 
 remarks upon fret-saws, which have found a place now 
 in so many private houses, and which afford a means 
 of amusement of a very interesting, because artistic, 
 character. The arrangement of a fret-saw may be varied 
 in many ways to suit the fancy of amateur or professional 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 22- 
 
 workmen, but primarily it is a very simple matter to 
 plan such a machine, and to make it sufficiently well 
 to' answer the required object. To convert the circular 
 motion of a flywheel and axle into a rectilinear one is 
 the first requirement, and the simplest and best known 
 method is the crank with a connecting-rod or " pitman." 
 This is the plan usually adopted, and is applied by 
 straining the saw in a suitable frame, and attaching this 
 frame to one end of such connecting-rod, or by omitting 
 the frame, and tightening the saw-blade by connecting 
 one end of it to a spring overhead of wood, steel, or 
 vulcanised indiarubber, the blade being made to pass 
 through a plate or saw-table upon which the wood to be 
 sawn is placed. 
 
 As many of our readers are in possession of lathes, and 
 others are well acquainted with this tool, we may as well 
 illustrate this subject by a drawing (fig. 61) of a simple 
 machine to be attached to the mandrel, and driven by 
 the foot, and it is designed to be made entirely of wood, so 
 as to be easily constructed by an amateur. The base of 
 the machine A is a piece of board 2 inches thick, and 
 should be of oak, ash, or beech. It is to be a little wider 
 than the lathe-bed, and accurately planed to rest fairly 
 upon it. Under it is to be screwed a wooden block, just 
 fitting between the bearers or cheeks of the lathe-bed, 
 so as to retain it always in one position. Its length may 
 
228 
 
 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 be 12 or 14 inches. B is a view of, the under side, 
 C being the block, and E a square hole half an inch 
 
 t * 
 
 <P>- 
 
 V 
 
 X 
 
 7^ 
 
 "5 
 
 IS 
 
 ! 
 
 r^ 
 
 ! 
 
 B 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Fig. 61.— Fret-Saw. 
 
 each way, cut very cleanly at right angles to the. face 
 of the wood, and quite through it. At D is seen what 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 229 
 
 not only appears like a second block, but practically acts 
 as such. It is, however, the end of the upright, which 
 is here mortised into the base projecting below it, and 
 slotted to receive the lever H, by means of which motion 
 is communicated to the saw. To make this part quite 
 clear the upright is shown again at K, and there will 
 be noticed the main standard, the saw-platform P, the 
 base X, the horizontal arm R, from which depends the 
 indiarubber spring, the slit T through which the saw 
 passes, and the slot S in the part of the standard which 
 projects below the base to take the oscillating lever. The 
 platform, of hard wood three-fourths thick, is notched out 
 to fit the standard at one end, and is supported at the 
 other by a couple of turned pillars, or by an upright 
 standard of half-inch wood. In the profile of the machine 
 A is the lathe-bed, and upon the mandrel is seen screwed 
 a round disc of wood, an inch or so in thickness, into the 
 face of which is inserted an ordinary wood screw. This 
 acts as the crank or driver plate which actuates the 
 machine, and converts the rotary movement of the man- 
 drel into a reciprocating one. The further the screw is 
 from the centre or axis of the disc, the longer will be the 
 stroke of the saw ; but this admits also of being varied 
 by making several holes in the oscillating lever H. M is 
 a squared bar of mahogany, or it may, if preferred, be of 
 any other hard wood, or of metal, but a piece of Spanish 
 
230 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 mahogany answers very well. At one end is screwed into 
 it a small brass eyebolt, and at the other is cut a slit 
 to receive the tail of a little brass clamp by which the saw 
 is fastened. This clamp is easily filed up, and is shown 
 at Y. The tail part is filed flat to fit into the slit in the 
 mahogany bar, and there is a slot and screw by which to 
 secure the saw. A similar clamp has to be attached to 
 the lower end of the indiarubber spring, which is itself 
 attached to the horizontal arm by such another eyebolt as 
 fastens the strip of mahogany to the link uniting it to 
 the lever below. This link may be of wire or of catgut. It 
 is here represented as made of wire screwed to take a 
 small hand-nut. The wire is passed through the arm, and 
 by means of this nut the tension of the saw can be 
 regulated. The object of the square bar is to prevent the 
 saw from turning round upon its axis. In making this 
 simple but really efficient fret-saw, care should be taken 
 to give ample length to the horizontal arm and platform, 
 or only very narrow work can be done, because in sawing 
 fretwork the material has to be constantly turned about 
 in all directions in order to follow the pattern, and if the 
 distance between the saw and the standard is not of toler- 
 ably ample width, it is impossible to do this. If it should 
 appear that the saw needs additional strain put upon it, 
 as may sometimes be the case, the link connecting the 
 screw on the crank-plate with the arm of the lever maj 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 231 
 
 itself be a spring, and a bell-spring of coiled steel wire, 
 purchasable at any ironmonger's, will be found to answer 
 the purpose excellently. Its connection with the lever 
 may be by a wire loop or link, of which the tail-piece 
 may be screwed for a nut. Thus all parts can be regu- 
 lated with the greatest nicety, and the saw kept tightly 
 strained. This is very important, as otherwise it is sure 
 to break. Although it is not our province here to do 
 more than describe various machines and processes, we 
 may add the remark that the material must be held down, 
 and not suffered to rise as the saw ascends ; and an india- 
 rubber ball with a length of tubing should be so arranged 
 that, by compression of the former, at each stroke of the 
 saw the dust may be blown away from off the work, so as 
 not to conceal for a moment the lines of the pattern. 
 
 Of course there are many other designs of fret-saws, 
 and some of them are beautifully made in iron and brass 
 with high finish and ornament, but the simple one here 
 described will be found practically equal to any of these. 
 In large manufactories, as, for instance, where fretwork is 
 cut for the decoration of cottage pianofortes, the saws are 
 worked by steam-power, and the platform is of large 
 dimensions. The saws used make often 600 to 800 
 strokes a minute, so that an elaborate pattern is traced as 
 rapidly as it could be delineated by pen or pencil. There 
 is only one more saw that we need describe, and which is 
 
232 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 by no means commonly seen, although for one special 
 purpose it is of great service. This is the crown-saw — a 
 steel band bent into a hoop, and brazed together like a 
 band-saw, but very much wider and stiffer, and of small 
 diameter. The teeth are formed upon the upper or lower 
 edge, as may be most convenient, and the other is riveted to 
 a circular plate, to the centre of the back of which a driv- 
 ing axle is attached with its riggers. This saw was invented 
 for cutting out the round sheaves or movable pulleys of 
 ships' blocks. It can, of course, only cut circular pieces all 
 of one size, but this it does with great ease and rapidity. 
 We have said that no other machine-saw remained to 
 be described, but there is yet one kind of circular saw 
 of very large dimensions — so large that it cannot be 
 made of a single plate, but requires to be built up 
 in sections. One side is flat, the other is bevelled. 
 The actual saw or cutting part is formed of segments of 
 steel, which are riveted all round the edge of the cast- 
 iron plate which forms the main body of the saw, and to 
 the centre of one side of which the axle is fitted ; for in 
 this case the axle does not pass through, as in the smaller 
 saws, but is attached to the convex side only, somewhat 
 similar to the way in which the face plate is attached to 
 the mandrel of a lathe. This is the saw used for cutting 
 veneers, or those very thin boards of various handsome 
 woods, which are glued down upon the cheaper sorts by 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 233 
 
 the operation called veneering. This is extensively used 
 for all kinds of furniture. The log, squared up as truly as 
 possible, is made to traverse across the flat side of the saw, 
 being just near enough to detach a very thin slice, almost 
 like a broad shaving. Being so thin, this is easily bent 
 aside, and curls off on the bevelled or convex side of the 
 saw, and is guided by upright rollers out of the way, in a 
 path almost at right angles to that pursued by the timber 
 itself. The thickness of each slice is regulated by a 
 screw adjustment. Thin as such veneers are, there is 
 a still thinner kind, which has been lately introduced 
 to supply the place of wall-paper, and which is said to 
 be as easy to hang as the latter. The object is to give 
 to rooms the appearance of being panelled with oak, 
 mahogany, or other wood of handsome appearance. We 
 believe this is accomplished by a knife edge, and not by 
 a saw — the principle being that of a plane ; but we have 
 not seen the work done, and cannot speak certainly upon 
 the point. 
 
 BORING AND MORTISING MACHINES. 
 
 In addition to saws and circular cutters, such as planes, 
 we require in large manufactories various machines for 
 cutting holes in wood, both round and rectangular, and also 
 machines for cutting tenons. Such as are made for cutting 
 round holes go by the general name of boring-machines ; 
 the others are usually called mortising - machines. The 
 
234 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 former are very similar to the drilling-machines, of which 
 drawings have already been given in this volume ; but the 
 tools used are mostly of the character of screw-augers, 
 which work easily and cleanly. Hard woods, however, re- 
 quire stronger tools, like the augers used by wheelwrights. 
 These are made in sets of varying sizes, and fit into a 
 spindle driven by steam-power. In some machines this 
 spindle works vertically, in others horizontally ; but in 
 both cases there is a level table of iron on which to lay 
 the work, and generally also clamps and guides to hold 
 it, and to ensure its advance in a proper direction as the 
 operation proceeds. With these any number of pieces 
 can be bored exactly at the angle required and precisely 
 alike, without any necessity for measuring and marking 
 each individual piece. In the Great Exhibition building 
 these machines were used to a greater extent than they had 
 ever been before. The sash bars required to have gimlet 
 holes made for the reception of the nails, all at precisely 
 the same distance from the ends of the bars, and to effect 
 this surely and rapidly there were long benches arranged, 
 or platforms like very long tables, upon which were a row 
 of horizontal borers or gimlets revolving at great speed, 
 and projecting horizontally towards the lads or men who 
 attended to the work. An upright light framework be- 
 hind allowed the long rails to rest against them in a 
 sloping position, while the other end rested on the table. 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 235 
 
 The gimlets thus made the requisite holes in them at a 
 certain fixed angle, and all were "bored exactly alike. 
 This is merely an instance of the immense advantage of 
 machinery over hand lahour in cases where a very great 
 number of articles are required of one exact pattern. It 
 would not generally answer the purpose of a carpenter to 
 use such machines, because his work is of so varied a 
 nature. In all manufactories the case is different. 
 Thousands or even tens of thousands of pieces of boards 
 may be required exactly alike in size and shape, and with 
 holes in the same relative position, and these could neither 
 be produced fast enough nor cheaply enough, unless they 
 were shaped and bored by machinery. The result, too, of 
 its introduction has been the possibility of increasing not 
 only the necessaries but the comforts and luxuries of life, 
 and enabling the middle and poorer classes to obtain what 
 before was only to be had by people of large means. 
 Orchard-houses, for instance, greenhouses, garden frames, 
 and vineries of all sizes, are now everyday affairs, and by 
 no means unknown in cottage allotments ; and articles of 
 household furniture are likewise by the same means so 
 cheapened, that what at one time was a luxury only for 
 the few, has become the possession of the many. Not 
 many years ago I remember seeing no less than 3000 
 wheelbarrows lying ready for shipment, all precisely 
 'alike, the frame only of the bottom being in each case 
 
236 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 put together, but the sides and ends merely sawn out, 
 and bored where necessary. The whole could be put 
 together with no possibility of difficulty or chance of 
 error, and the entire 3000 had been so far constructed in 
 the course of a few days. In the same way, by the appli- 
 cation of machinery, a close railway truck was made 
 within twelve hours, to show the possibility of so doing. 
 The iron-work was cast, forged, turned, and shaped ; the 
 timber sawn, planed, shaped, bored, and fitted ; and the 
 whole put together, every bolt and nut and screw in its 
 place, within the prescribed period. With equal rapidity 
 and exactness of workmanship the gun-carriages and 
 ammunition-carriages are made in time of war. 
 
 Mortising-machines are chisels fitting into a socket in 
 an upright or vertical frame, so as to rise and fall only 
 in a perpendicular direction. The upward and downward 
 movement is frequently effected merely by a long arm or 
 hand lever in a very simple manner. Imagine a lever, 
 for instance, like a pump-handle, hinged at one end, and 
 a chisel fixed to it near the fulcrum by a joint — this chisel 
 moving in guides to keep it upright — add a table below 
 on which to rest the wood, and you have at once the main 
 part of a mortising-machine. But in addition to the 
 above would be required for practical use a clamp to hold 
 the work, and also some kind of feed motion to shift it 
 forward little by little between each stroke of the chisel, 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 237 
 
 or the latter would always descend on the same spot, and 
 not cut a mortise. 
 
 This is managed by attaching to the vice or clamp 
 which holds the wood a finely-cut screw, which in self- 
 acting machines is turned by automatic gearing, a very 
 little at each stroke, thus causing a slow movement of the 
 material in a right line across the table. There is not 
 always a feed action in the contrary direction, but the 
 socket which carries the chisel is round, and can be 
 turned at right angles to its former position, being 
 retained there by a stop, after having been turned by 
 a short hand-lever. In some machines, however, the 
 reversing action is contrived by giving the table a move- 
 ment upon a central vertical axis, which places the vice 
 in any desired position, and of course the wood also. 
 Thus, by simple means, mortises can be cut which are 
 not rectangular, and may also be arranged radically 
 around a common centre. Instead of the long hand- 
 lever to pull down the chisel at each stroke, the latter 
 is sometimes acted on by an eccentric cam like that 
 used in the machines for punching and shearing iron, 
 already described and illustrated. There is only the 
 necessity here again of converting circular motion into 
 rectilineal, different methods of effecting which we have 
 alluded to before. 
 
 Among wood-working machines are also those of 
 
238 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 American invention for tenoning and dovetailing. The 
 former consists essentially of two circular saws at the 
 exact distance apart to give the proper thickness to the 
 tenon, the parallel sides of which are thus both cut at 
 the same time, and the cheek pieces are then cut off by 
 a single circular saw. The latter alone is quite sufficient 
 to diminish labour in cutting a tenon, but the latter then 
 needs to be marked out by a gauge, as it is marked for 
 hand-saw work, whereas by self-acting machinery and 
 permanent stops or guides there is no need thus to 
 measure at all. The dovetailing -machine is far too 
 complicated to be explained without more drawings than 
 we have space or opportunity to give here, but the 
 principle of it consists in setting pairs of circular saws 
 at an angle to each other upon separate spindles, so that 
 the cuts tend to a common point. This machine has 
 not come into anything like general use, and is of 
 course of very limited application. A good deal of work 
 is now done by means of shaping-machines used with a 
 dummy pattern of iron, and revolving cutters, acting simul- 
 taneously upon the various parts to be worked. Imagine, 
 for instance, an axe-handle of the usual crooked form, 
 made of cast iron, and pivoted at each end on centre 
 points, so that it could turn round and round as if it were 
 fixed on an . ordinary lathe. This revolving motion is 
 given to it, and there is a slide rest with a to-and-fro 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 239 
 
 motion, capable of being imparted to the tool-holder by 
 means of a tail-piece or rubber which comes against the 
 iron handle. Thus, as the latter revolves, it makes the 
 tool go in and out according to its own shape, while at 
 the same time the tool-holder is carried lengthwise, from 
 end to end of the machine. A bar of wood which is 
 to be made into an axe-handle is also centred at each 
 end, and made to rotate against the tool, so that as the 
 latter advances or recedes, it cuts shallower or deeper 
 according to the shape of the iron pattern handle which 
 regulates its movements. The tool is not, however, a 
 fixed but revolving one — in short, a set of gouges fixed 
 round a circular block of cast iron, to which rapid rota- 
 tion is given, and which cut more cleanly than a fixed 
 tool. This machine is called a pattern or spoke lathe, 
 because wheel-spokes are now so made in great quantities 
 for agricultural implements and carriages. It is curious 
 to watch one of these, owing to the peculiar restless 
 variety of its motions ; but the work is done very quickly, 
 and needs only to be cleaned off a little to render it 
 quite equal to the best hand-work. 
 
 There are none of these machines except the fret-saw 
 at all suitable for amateurs ; but to those who have a lathe, 
 the circular saw, up to about 6 inches diameter, presents 
 a great many advantages. It is very easily mounted upon 
 
240 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 a spindle to run between the lathe centres, and a very 
 nice platform can be bought of planed iron for fifteen 
 shillings, with a slot for the saw, and a parallel guide 
 complete. 
 
 In the construction of any light articles in which the 
 material does not exceed half an inch in thickness, the 
 «aw can be driven by the foot with no greater exertion 
 than is requisite for ordinary turning of wood ; but for 
 material of an inch and upwards a good deal of power is 
 required to drive the saw, and the work may be good for 
 exercise, but is decidedly too laborious to be pleasant, 
 especially if it is to be long continued. Circular saws 
 are priced at so much per inch of. their diameter. One 
 suitable for a 5-inch centre lathe — say 6 inches diameter 
 — would cost from three to five shillings, and may be 
 had second-hand very often for half that price, spindle 
 and all complete. 
 
 We need not say more of the few other wood-working 
 machines, as they are after all little else than sawing and 
 planing machines, modified in their details to suit them 
 for particular operations. Grooving and tonguing as 
 needed for floor-boards, mitring for picture-frames and 
 similar articles, and various other modes of preparing 
 work for joints, either at right angles or otherwise, are 
 at last but modifications of the usual saw and chisel work 
 
CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 241 
 
 of the carpenter performed by mechanical means, and 
 machines called universal joiners are chiefly the combina- 
 tion upon one frame or stand of the boring, sawing, and 
 tenoning apparatus already described. 
 
Chapter XVI. 
 
 PAPER-MAKING MACHINES, ETC, 
 
 T is probable that not a few of our boys who have 
 toiled over the rudimentary difficulties of writ- 
 ing have almost wished that copy-books had 
 never been invented, yet perhaps they have 
 wondered how the paper is made of which the said copy- 
 books are composed. And those boys who have passed 
 through, and now almost forgotten, the mysteries of pot- 
 hooks and hangers, and have dug and delved in the mines 
 of classic lore, know all about the wax tablet and stylus 
 with which the writers of old days had to be contented, 
 or the papyrus rolls of Egypt, the tree bark, metal, and 
 stone which served as a medium of recording passing 
 events, and handing down for future generations the 
 interesting history of occurrences which must otherwise 
 have remained unknown. Even the sand upon the sea- 
 
PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 243 
 
 shore lias served as a slate on which to trace the mys- 
 teries of Euclid's pons asinonim, and many interesting 
 problems were no doubt worked on that fickle tablet, to be 
 erased and blotted out for ever by the returning wave. 
 
 Terribly laborious must the work of the scribe have 
 been in ancient days for want of a better material on 
 which to write, and many, no doubt, were the experi- 
 ments made from age to age to find a material to replace 
 the various defective substitutes for paper then in use. 
 Of these the most convenient and most durable were 
 skins, prepared like our parchment and vellum, to receive 
 and retain the writing with more or less probability of 
 standing the wear and tear of use, or the destructive effects 
 of atmospheric changes. But those who have had to 
 write on this material know that, however well prepared, 
 it is not pleasant to use, and that its natural greasiness, 
 which hinders it from taking the ink properly, is never 
 completely overcome. Its chief value as a writing material 
 consists in its indestructibility, which of course renders 
 it of the greatest possible service in legal deeds, wills, 
 and suchlike, and public records which it is desirable to 
 preserve uninjured, it may be, for many generations. 
 But for general purposes we should hardly be satis- 
 fied with this material ; and we can assure our boys 
 that if no better substance for our work had been 
 invented, these books for boys would not have seen the 
 
244 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 light. Yet whilst we write we can almost hear the 
 sarcastic remark made, that in such case there would also 
 have been a blessed dearth of Latin grammars and similar 
 unlovable abominations, making it a questionable fact 
 in the schoolboy mind, whether, after all, the blessings 
 of the invention of writing-paper are equal to the evils 
 thereof. Well, well, youngsters, time will modify even 
 the difficulties of that question, and we may remind 
 you that after the schoolboy and satchel all are past, 
 Shakespeare has a word to say of another age, in which 
 certain sonnets to young ladies' eyebrows demand the 
 whereon and wherewithal to write, and possibly when 
 that age of sighs has arrived, the true value of paper 
 " cream laid " may begin to be appreciated. To the 
 scholarly boy, with the " Balliol " or other prize in view, 
 the question presents an altogether different aspect ; and 
 if he has any regrets upon the subject, they are simply 
 that paper was not invented and profusely used ages 
 before it was actually known. 
 
 To begin at the beginning we must go back for awhile 
 from amongst machines to a period of paper-making by 
 hand, which dates from a very early age, and comes down 
 almost or quite to the present century. Indeed there is 
 " hand-wove " paper to be had even now, and for certain 
 purposes it appears to find special favour, though the 
 quantity so produced has long proved utterly inadequate 
 
PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 245 
 
 to meet the demand of modern times. Animal matters 
 occupy, we believe, absolutely no place in the manufacture, 
 vegetable fibrous substances being alone found suitable. 
 These require to have a certain natural degree of tough- 
 ness ; and although experiments have been made with 
 substances which are deficient in this quality, they have 
 not proved altogether satisfactory, as the resulting paper 
 is too easily torn to be of sufficient durability. But for 
 some of our daily newspapers, and similar publications, 
 which are not generally required to last beyond a very 
 limited period, paper made of straw and other naturally 
 brittle substances is found to answer sufficiently well, 
 and being cheap, is sure to meet with a satisfactory 
 market. Probably further research may be rewarded by 
 the discovery of a far greater quantity of available 
 material in the vegetable world. Nettles, for instance, 
 furnish a fibre of great toughness ; and if this and certain 
 other plants of similar character were not imbued with a 
 colouring matter difficult to bleach to perfect whiteness, 
 there is little doubt that it would be used to a great 
 extent in this important manufacture. At present the 
 material most in demand is linen and cotton rag, col- 
 lected, as is well known, by the rag-and-bone merchants 
 from every cottage and mansion in the kingdom. These 
 consist of hempen, cotton, or linen fibre, silk and wool 
 belonging to the animal kingdom, and being useless for 
 
246 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 the required purpose. We hardly like to comment upon 
 the condition of this raw material as it enters the sack 
 or donkey-cart of the rag-collector — it is simply a state 
 of unmitigated and apparently hopeless dirt; yet when 
 it next appears in public it may be upon the writing- 
 table of royalty, in the form of the fairest and most 
 spotless notepaper, embossed with the royal arms and 
 commanding a royal price — or perhaps it attains to yet 
 higher dignity, and having been converted into paper of 
 a peculiar crisp and altogether pleasant though flimsy 
 quality, and stamped with certain mysterious figures and 
 emblems, takes a very important place in the wealth of 
 nations, and is worth at least a million times its weight 
 of solid gold. 
 
 The three substances mentioned above as the raw 
 material of rags possess qualities rendering them admir- 
 ably adapted to the requirements of the papermaker. 
 The fibres are easily separated from the surrounding 
 parts, and are tough, procurable in great quantity, and 
 easily bleached. Of these qualities the cotton-spinners 
 and manufacturers of woven goods take advantage first 
 of all ; and when the productions of the loom are no 
 longer capable of the use originally intended, they 
 descend by rapid steps from the wardrobe to the kitchen, 
 thence probably to the beggar, and often even to the 
 dust-bin, from which being rescued by the rag-picker and 
 
PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 247 
 
 ragamuffin, they find their way to the sheds of the paper- 
 makers. 
 
 The first work, and by no means a pleasant one, is to 
 separate the heap of rags into the various qualities of 
 which it is sure to consist. This is sometimes, but not in- 
 variably, done by the rag merchants, who purchase from the 
 collectors, and of whom many make large fortunes by 
 patient energy and toil in this uninviting sphere of 
 labour. The finest linen rags are set aside for the manu- 
 facture of the highest qualities of writing-paper. The 
 cotton rags make paper suitable for the printer, while 
 hempen rags come in for a place as constituents of paper 
 of coarser qualities, as brown, whity-brown, and house- 
 hold paper of various denominations. But as may be 
 supposed, there are many intermediate qualities to be 
 obtained by a judicious combination of two or more of 
 these materials, which are also adulterated by the addition 
 of straw and certain grasses, cotton waste from the 
 loom, and various odds and ends which alone would be 
 utterly unsuitable, but thus combined are made to lend 
 their aid in the manufacture. It is by such admixtures 
 and combinations that the manifold qualities of paper 
 with which we are familiar are produced, the smooth 
 or rough surface depending partly on the nature of these 
 combinations of raw material, and partly upon spec'al 
 details of manufacture. In some we see a number of 
 
248 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 equidistant lines running up and down or across the 
 surface; in others these are not apparent. Some are 
 to a great extent absorbent, as filtering and blotting 
 paper ; others so highly polished as to receive ink with 
 difficulty, and hence we meet with such terms as 
 "absorbent," "blotting," "hot-pressed," "laid," "roau," 
 and similar technical names by which manufacturers 
 have agreed to designate the various qualities sold. 
 Some or all of these terms we shall be called on to explain 
 as we pursue our description of the art of paper-making. 
 
 The rags having been duly sorted, are first of all freed 
 from mere dust ; but some of this is removed during the 
 sorting process, the rags being placed on coarse wire 
 frames, which form sieves through which a good deal of 
 the coarser dust and dirt falls as they are tossed over by 
 the sorters and pickers. This wire-covered table is 
 called by the technical name of a " Lettice," probably a 
 corruption of the well-known name Lattice. This, how- 
 ever, only removes the loose dirt, which forms but a 
 small portion of the multifarious defilements which re- 
 main upon the rags under the operation. But the next 
 process is to place them in the " willowing "- machine, 
 the origin of the name being unknown to me. This 
 consists of a large cylinder set with teeth, which, re- 
 volving at a very great speed close to a concave board 
 also set with teeth, tears the rags at once into fragments. 
 
PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 249 
 
 during which process a great quantity of dirt separates, 
 and is got rid of by the falling of the torn fragments on a 
 sieve. From this machine the rags are carried to another 
 for final dry cleansing. This is a revolving sieve, of which 
 one end being fixed at a higher level than the other, the 
 rags have a constant tendency to fall towards, and finally 
 drop out of, the lower end, which is open. This sieve has 
 a sidelong motion as well as a circular one, being shaken 
 all the time from side to side for the more effectual 
 disintegration of the particles of dirt and dust. This is 
 all that can be done by the dry process alone towards 
 complete cleansing of the rags; but as yet they are of 
 course far from clean, and are now subjected to the pro- 
 cess of boiling. This is conducted in boilers which are 
 made to revolve during the operation, and into which 
 steam at a high pressure can also be admitted, which 
 keeps the contents of the boilers in a state of constant 
 agitation, and drives the boiling fluid with great force 
 among the rags and other materials. A quantity of soda- 
 ash or caustic soda is for this washing added to the 
 water, in order to get rid of grease and other impurities, 
 which it does very effectually. 
 
 After the rags are removed from the hot- water boilers, 
 they are placed in washing-pans, where they are subjected 
 to thorough rinsing and agitation in clean cold water, 
 which removes all trace of the soda-ash. These washing- 
 
250 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 pans or washing-cylinders are not only made to receive 
 and rinse, but also to further cut and subdivide the rags 
 by a series of knives within them, and the rags are driven 
 against them by the rush of water, which, by a compli- 
 cated arrangement, is made to take place with great vio- 
 lence, so that the rags, now fast becoming pulp, are dashed 
 and driven again and again against these sharp cutters, 
 until thorough disintegration of every part has taken 
 place, and a uniform fibrous, pulpy mass is produced. 
 This now has to be bleached with chloride of lime, and 
 is coloured or not as may be desired with various well- 
 known earths or mineral colours. The pulp has at this 
 stage no consistency. It is evidently full of fibre, but so 
 wholly disintegrated by the processes which it has under- 
 gone, as to have apparently no cohesive property. But if 
 a portion of pulp is now lifted on a strainer or sieve of 
 any kind, so as to allow the water to drain off, it will 
 become at once felted together and consolidated, and is, 
 in point of fact, unsized paper. Formerly the sheets 
 were wholly made by hand in this way. A wire deckle 
 was taken, which was a square of fine wire gauze with 
 a very shallow frame resting on it of the thickness of the 
 sheet of paper, and with this a workman dipped up a 
 portion of pulp from an open vat, shaking the deckle 
 from side to side as it was raised, to get rid of the liquor 
 and cause the felting of the pulp. In the coarse old 
 
PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 251 
 
 papers the wires of the deckle are very plainly impressed, 
 giving a very rough surface, which, strangely enough, is 
 again coming into fashion, but is to our mind anything 
 but agreeable to write upon, and must always have been 
 terribly destructive to the point of the pen while the 
 latter was made from quills, and so far as we can say 
 from a brief experience, equally unsatisfactory with steel 
 pens, the points of which, if not broader than usual, are 
 liable to stick and hitch in the unequal surface of the 
 paper. With finer wires or webbing, in which the threads 
 of metal are made to run across as well as lengthwise, to 
 form a closer and more compact web, the marks made by 
 them in the paper are much less conspicuous. This paper 
 is called by the name of " wove ; " the other is designated 
 " laid," being blue-laid or cream-laid according to tint. 
 The laid papers, although they still show plainly the 
 marks of the wire of the deckle, are now made with a 
 beautiful surface, sometimes very highly glazed, some- 
 times less so, according to the demand for rough or 
 smooth. Similarly, the wove papers may be had variously 
 finished to suit the fancy. 
 
 We have already stated that hand-made paper is still 
 in great demand for various purposes, especially for water- 
 colour painting, but by far the greater quantity in the 
 market is wholly made by machinery, the principle of 
 which is identical with that just described. But in order 
 
252 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 to provide this material in sheets of any required length, 
 as required in wall-papers for decoration, it was seen by 
 manufacturers that the hand-deckle must be superseded 
 by some kind of continuous web, and as the art of weav- 
 ing fine wire into netting and webbing became perfected, 
 it was an easy matter to form such a medium into a con- 
 tinuous or endless band of any desired width. Such an 
 endless band passing over rollers at each end, to which 
 motion is imparted by the steam-engine or water-wheel, 
 is fitted just in front of the vat in which the pulp is 
 contained, and this is caused to flow out in a regular broad 
 but thin stream or layer upon the wire, which is at the 
 same time given a shaking motion in imitation of that 
 imparted by hand to the deckle, and for the same purpose 
 of shaking out the water, and causing the felting and 
 consolidation of the pulp. By this travelling belt of 
 webbing the paper is carried forward from the vat in an 
 endless sheet, and made to pass under rollers placed at 
 intervals in its course, which by the pressure they impart 
 consolidate and dry the pulp more and more in its passage, 
 until it assumes the necessary consistency, and is wound 
 as a continuous sheet upon a roller at the further end of 
 the machine, which looks somewhat like a long table 
 fitted up as a series of mangles, or as some kind of wash- 
 ing and wringing machine. We have said that in its 
 course from the vat the pulp passes under and over 
 
PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 253 
 
 certain rollers ; one is called a dandy-roll, and the lines 
 on laid paper which is machine made are impressed by its 
 means, this roller being of wire arranged to form any 
 device which it may be desired to impress upon the sheet, 
 and which is well known as the water-mark. This is fre- 
 quently the private mark or the name of the manufacturer. 
 In addition to this wire dandy-roll are cylinders heated 
 by steam, over which the paper is carried on a felt web, 
 to assist in drying it rapidly, pressure rollers of polished 
 steel giving it a still further finish. We have omitted 
 mention of one or two other details of the machine in- 
 tended to secure its perfectly pure surface by assisting to 
 remove any sand or dirt which the pulp may have brought 
 with it, and which must be carefully strained off in order 
 to produce the best qualities of paper. For the coarser 
 kinds of brown paper this is less requisite, and on inspec- 
 tion of some of the kind known as sugar-paper, many 
 bits of extraneous substances will be seen upon its surface 
 and embedded in its texture. But these coarse unsized 
 papers are just the kinds to give an insight into the 
 nature of the manufacture, because in them is clearly 
 seen the felting of the pulp, the crossing and interlacing 
 of the fibres which give it consistence, and it is plain that 
 no substance which has not this fibrous texture can be 
 used alone, although it may be added in moderate quantity 
 to materials which possess this quality without any serious 
 
254 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 diminution of the tenacity of the paper produced. It is 
 thus that straw, which is naturally brittle, owing to the 
 abundance of silica which it contains, is made to serve the 
 purpose of the paper manufacturer by admixture with 
 the linen or cotton rags. 
 
 The paper thus made and dried needs to be sized to a 
 greater or less extent, according to the purpose for which 
 it is designed. In its unsized condition it is similar to 
 blotting-paper, and ink or colour would run if used upon 
 it. Size is prepared from the cuttings of leather and 
 parchment from glovemakers, bookbinders, and others, 
 which contain a quantity of the substance known as 
 gelatine, which is similar to isinglass, but of a coarser 
 quality. It is, in fact, a light kind of glue. The paper 
 is drawn through a vat rilled with this size, which is 
 sometimes made to intervene between the drying cylinders, 
 so as to complete the paper before it is wound upon the 
 rolls, and sometimes is made a separate operation. In 
 either case the paper, after passing through the vat, is 
 pressed between rollers to squeeze out superfluous size, 
 and dried by a current of air or by steam-heated cylinders, 
 and very frequently is further smoothed and finished by 
 passing finally between other polished rollers, to give extra 
 gloss to the surface. A paper manufactory is a regular 
 Turkish bath, always full of steam and heated air; for it 
 is necessary to dry the paper completely in its passage 
 
PRINTING-MACHINES. 255 
 
 from one end of the machine to the other, and it is mar- 
 vellous to see how rapidly this drying is effected by the 
 means employed. At one end is the pulp in a perfectly 
 fluid state, at the other is a roll of dry paper, rapidly 
 increasing in bulk every minute, and ready to be delivered 
 as a continuous sheet, or to be cut up as occasion may 
 require into foolscap, notepaper, or other samples 
 recognised as standard sizes by the retail dealers. Paper- 
 mills used to be erected on the banks of streams and 
 rivers, for the sake of obtaining water-power to drive the 
 machinery, and were very picturesque and favourite 
 subjects for the artist's brush. We remember one of 
 this class at Iffley, near Oxford, which is now, I believe, 
 burnt down ; but steam has so effectually rivalled water- 
 power, as to make locality a secondary object. 
 
 PRINTING-MA CHINES. 
 
 What a terribly laborious, not to say tedious, opera- 
 tion writing is, we need hardly, perhaps, tell our boys 
 who have struggled at the elements thereof, and idled 
 over their exercises. And after the jacket has been 
 exchanged for the much-coveted "tails," and the whiskers 
 have become established facts, writing, though it may 
 have become a comparatively easy work, is still at best 
 a very slow and unsatisfactory way of recording one's 
 
256 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 thoughts for the benefit or the vexation of possible 
 readers. When a lad takes up a book, whether of adven- 
 ture or of fiction, or of something of a drier and less 
 interesting character, he seldom, in all probability, cares 
 much about the labour expended upon it before it reached 
 his hands. He knows nothing of the many hours of 
 patient industry and thought which it cost the writer ; 
 the painful diligence and care required in setting up the 
 type, letter by letter, especially if the manuscript were 
 not of the most legible character, which it seldom is, in 
 point of fact, as it is generally written more or less 
 hurriedly, and the hand gets cramped and stiff after a 
 lengthy spell with the pen. But if in addition to this, 
 and the revising and re-revising of the proof sheets, the 
 folding and stitching, and binding and packing are 
 taken into consideration, it will be evident that the 
 production of a book is by no means the simple matter 
 that many suppose it to be. 
 
 But what a multiplication of all this toil would result 
 if it were necessary to rewrite the whole for every addi- 
 tional copy required ! — and yet at one time this was the 
 sole method known of producing books. Before the art 
 of printing was discovered, every volume was the work 
 of the pen alone, and each copy required had to be 
 produced by the labour of the professional scribe. 
 
 We read in the Prophecy of Jeremiah, and in some other 
 
PRINTING-MACHINES, 257 
 
 parts of the Bible, of the " roll of a book;" and the 
 sacred law of the Jews, written upon such a roll, is, we 
 believe, still in existence, if not in actual use in their 
 synagogues. This roll was a long strip of parchment or 
 paper, mounted at each end upon a wooden rod, upon 
 either of which it could be coiled, so as to- reduce it to 
 a small compass, and preserve it from injury. 
 
 The word " volume" which we still use, being derived, 
 as our boys will now at any rate guess, from the Latin 
 word Volvo, to roll, was applied to each of these, 
 and they were usually numbered on the outside, and 
 placed upright side by side in the several compartments 
 of the public libraries, few persons in those days having 
 a private supply of such volumes, owing to the cost of 
 their production. But there were not many able to read, for 
 there were no Elementary Education Acts in force in the 
 villages, although in the later periods of these rolled-up 
 volumes schools under the government superintendence 
 began to arise in Greece and Rome, and were, very 
 probably, also existent in those mysterious and ancient 
 nations China and Japan, and perhaps in India also. 
 It may also be mentioned here, in reference to educational 
 matters, that Ireland, or the Sacred Isle, was a strong- 
 hold of learning centuries before England had any pre- 
 tensions to be called a nation of arts and sciences. It is 
 curious and very interesting to find the traces of civilisa- 
 
 R 
 
2 5 3 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 tion in these countries which date back into some by- 
 gone ages, the very records of which are buried in 
 oblivion — traces, and traces only, which hint at knowledge 
 and a state of high culture subsequently lost, and only 
 now tardily emerging again from the barbarism and 
 ignorance which mysteriously overwhelmed it. But so it 
 is, and it is more than probable that we are now pain- 
 fully and laboriously recovering inventions and processes, 
 and knowledge of various kinds, which in those bygone 
 ages were universally known. But this subject opens 
 out too wide a field for our investigation in these pages, 
 and we only speak of it here with the chance of address- 
 ing the minds of some of our boys whose proclivities 
 may tend in this direction, and in whom we may possibly 
 kindle the spark of inquiry which may one day lead 
 to valuable investigation and research. It appears, at 
 any rate, certain that many nations have retrograded, 
 and lost a great amount of knowledge which they once 
 possessed. Of mechanical knowledge, for instance, we 
 have standing evidence of this loss in the stones of those 
 Druidical monuments like Stonehenge or Avebury, or the 
 Egyptian pyramids and monoliths so interesting to the 
 archaeologist. Of the mode in which these huge stones were 
 quarried, moved to their present site, and made to stand 
 upright, not only does no reliable record exist, but it is 
 questionable whether with our present knowledge of steam- 
 
PRINTING-MACHINES. 259 
 
 power and various mechanical appliances we could have 
 accomplished the task. 
 
 But it is easy to understand how knowledge was lost in 
 any age in which the arts of writing and printing were 
 unknown. When even manuscript volumes were few, 
 and when the material of which they were made was 
 perishable, it is plain that there could be very little chance 
 of their preservation ; and although we have records in 
 more durable material — viz., the inscriptions upon stone 
 which have lately occupied so much of the attention of 
 savants — the characters are difficult to read, owing to 
 their long exposure to the elements, and when deciphered, 
 are equally difficult to understand. Whatever of know- 
 ledge, therefore, existed in ancient times when these rude 
 and unsatisfactory methods prevailed of recording it, our 
 own rapid advance in civilisation must date back to the dis- 
 covery of the art of printing and paper-making. From 
 that time books have multiplied, and their cost has been 
 reduced, until it has become a question whether such cheap- 
 ness of production is the blessing which at first sight it 
 may appear to be. Although it is an unquestionable 
 blessing to be able to provide copies of the Holy Scriptures, 
 and of many other good books, at a price which is almost 
 nominal, this same cheapness introduces thousands of 
 immoral and baneful publications, which have become a 
 very curse to our nation ; and it is sad to find in this, as 
 
2 6o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 in other things, that wherever good is present, evil is sure 
 to find a place at its side. However, we must not delay 
 our special work in order to moralise, although it is 
 difficult to speak of the arts of writing and printing with- 
 out some allusion to their practical influence upon 
 the world at large. So far as can be ascertained, the 
 Chinese were the first in this, as in many other inventions 
 of importance, and the first experiments were doubtless 
 made with wooden blocks, upon the face of which letters 
 and other devices were cut so as to stand in relief, 
 these being then smeared with ink or colouring matter, 
 and impressed upon the paper by hand. It is also 
 by no means improbable that another mode was used 
 which we now call stencilling, and which is of great use 
 where a great number of copies of the same device need to 
 be produced in colour upon the surface of walls, ceilings, 
 paper, and various other substances. In this case thin 
 plates of metal are pierced quite through with the intended 
 device, and this is imprinted, not by pressure, but by hold- 
 ing the stencil-plate down upon the material, and rubbing 
 the colour by means of a short-haired stiff brush on the 
 space exposed by the plate. This process is extensively 
 used in the arts, and is very likely as old as the inscrip- 
 tions on Egyptian mummies. In fact, wherever we find 
 'perfect similarity of form repeated very frequently, there 
 is good reason to think it was produced in this way. 
 
PRINTING-MACHINES. 261 
 
 Type-printing is, like wood-engraving, always from raised 
 letters ; copper-plate and steel engraving from lines cut 
 into the surface by means of the graver. In the first the 
 projecting parts receive the ink ; in the latter it goes into 
 the lines, and thence is transferred by pressure to the paper. 
 The large letters seen in hand-bills are cut in wood blocks. 
 The ordinary-sized type for printing books is formed upon 
 the end of slips of a metal similar to zinc in appearance, 
 called type-metal. 
 
 Printing was first discovered or invented by one Coster, 
 at Haarlem, in Holland, in the year 1430, if we except 
 the Chinese knowledge of the art, which, though claimed 
 to have been centuries prior to Coster's, is of course not 
 absolutely reliable as an historical fact. At the same time, 
 the statements made by them may possibly be correct, 
 for we know very little of the history of their arts and 
 manufactures. Coster, however, did not print from 
 movable types, but from wooden blocks on which the 
 words were cut. This Coster, however, had an apprentice 
 called Fust or Faustus, who one day ran off with his 
 master's printing apparatus, and established an office of 
 his own at Mentz. Movable types, upon which individual 
 letters were separately cut, were the invention of Fust's 
 own apprentice, Peter Schoeffer, and the letters were first of 
 all cut in imitation of handwriting. But the Parisians 
 who bought copies of the Bible, or of parts of it printed in 
 
2 6 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 this way, soon saw that no writer could have made all so 
 precisely similar, and with the superstitious feelings of the 
 day, accused Fust of sorcery ; and so this Dr. Faustus was 
 supposed to be in league with the Evil Spirit, or to be in 
 very truth the Evil Spirit himself. The result of this report 
 was that Faustus was obliged to reveal his secret, and was 
 compelled to make known the system of movable types, 
 which laid the foundation of the art as it has ever since 
 been practised. Yery rapidly after this printing made 
 headway throughout the whole of Europe, and by 1480 
 one book at least had been printed in England. At first 
 no press was used to take off the impressions, and one 
 side only of the sheet was printed, the operation being 
 conducted entirely by hand. It was soon found necessary, 
 however, to use greater power of pressure than the hand 
 could supply, and the screw-press was consequently intro 
 duced ; but for each impression required it was necessary 
 to give several turns to the screw by means of the lever- 
 handle, and this occupied more time than was convenient, 
 and the screw had also to be turned several times in the 
 contrary direction to raise the platen from the type. The 
 screw, moreover, though it would supply the required 
 power, did not exert it suddenly, and in the special way 
 in which the clearness of the impression was most likely 
 to be secured. 
 The first great improver of the press, however, Earl 
 
PRINTING-MACHINES. 263 
 
 Stanhope, did not discard the screw as a means of power, 
 but by making it of a quick thread, he gave it the neces- 
 sary rapidity of motion, while by the addition of a couple 
 of levers the handle was brought closer to the operator, 
 and the power was increased. This, moreover, was an iron 
 press instead of the wooden ones hitherto used — a great 
 improvement, not only in appearance, but also, which is of 
 greater moment, in the accuracy attainable in the various 
 parts, especially the accurate surface of the platen, and the 
 table upon which the type was placed. Earl Stanhope, who 
 gave his invention to the public, did a great deal by this 
 means to advance the art of printing in England, and his 
 press met with great favour at the hands of practical men. 
 But, like most other inventions, this was supplanted in 
 course of time by presses of greater power, notably by the 
 Columbian and Albion presses, in which the arrangement 
 of the working parts was greatly improved, and it became 
 possible to print pages of greater size, as well as to obtain 
 clear impressions of woodcuts. These last need an aston- 
 ishing amount of pressure to bring out every line and mark 
 clear and sharp, and hitherto success in this particular 
 department had been but small. In all these presses the 
 power depended either on the screw alone, or in combina- 
 tion with an arrangement of levers. One object aimed 
 at in this was to reduce the distance through which the 
 handle of the press required to be pulled by the workman ; 
 
264 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 another was to increase the power, and so arrange it that, 
 instead of causing only a gradual and uniform descent of 
 the platen, it should bring it down gently at first, and 
 then suddenly increase the pressure of it on the types. 
 This the screw cannot effect, and subsequently to the 
 invention of the Columbian a press of great power was 
 constructed somewhat upon the principle of the knee- 
 joint. We know that in rising from a kneeling to an 
 upright position we can, by the act of straightening 
 the legs, raise a considerable weight resting upon the 
 shoulders. The power thus exercised is but small when 
 the knee is much bent, but increases as the ]eg becomes 
 straighter. In the press made on this principle the 
 joint is not quite so simple as a mere hinge in the centre 
 of a bar, but the principle is the same — the rotation of 
 a cam fixed to an upright shaft causing two short pins 
 to rise from a slanting position into a vertical one, prac- 
 tically adding a little to the length of the shaft and so 
 pushing down the platen, upon the upper surface of which 
 the lower ends of the short pins rest. This is evidently 
 only a modification of the knee or toggle joint before 
 alluded to, and is a mechanical combination of great power. 
 For many years no other means was devised for taking off 
 the impression of the types. The latter were inked by 
 means of two balls or stuffed cushions faced with leather, 
 with short handles attached to the backs. These were 
 
PRINTING-MACHINES. 265 
 
 covered with printing ink by first smearing the latter 
 upon a slab of stone, and rubbing the balls upon it, so as 
 to distribute the composition evenly and thinly over the 
 surface; the type, set up and securely clamped together in it- 
 chase, so as to form one or more pages, was then struck 
 with the balls until thoroughly inked ; the forme was then 
 run back under the platen to receive the pressure. 
 
 But perhaps it will be as well, whilst speaking of the hand- 
 press, to enter a little more into details of its construction. 
 We have hitherto been chiefly engaged with that part of 
 its mechanism by which the pressure is imparted, and 
 have said nothing about the way in which the paper to be 
 printed is arranged and held. Travelling on a pair of 
 horizontal bars or bearers, one end of which is under the 
 screw or lever giving the required pressure, and the other 
 on a pair of legs, is a travelling carriage, which is made to 
 run to and fro at pleasure by a winch-handle, and a roller 
 upon which the carriage rests. This is called the coffin, 
 and in the earlier presses, which were made of wood, this 
 was like a shallow tray, which was made to contain the 
 large flat slab of stone or marble upon which the forme 
 was placed after being damped in its frame or chase. 
 This stone was, when iron presses were substituted for 
 wooden ones, replaced by that metal, which was easily 
 planed to a perfectly level surface. Attached to this coffin 
 at one end by hinges is a frame of iron covered with a 
 
266 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 blanket called a tympan, to the extremity of which is 
 attached by a second pair of hinges another frame called 
 the frisket, with adjustable bands or tapes stretched 
 across it, which fall upon the margin of the paper and 
 between the columns, and serve to keep them clean. The 
 paper being placed upon the blanket of the tympan, the 
 frisket is shut down upon it, and both are then turned 
 over upon the forme of type, the latter having been 
 inked by means of a roller of indiarubber or composition, 
 which is first worked on the inking-slab. By means of 
 the rounce, or winch-handle and roller, which moves the 
 carriage to and fro, the whole is then run under the 
 platen, and one pull of the handle by the pressman 
 takes off an impression. The carriage or coffin is then 
 run back, the tympan and frisket raised, and the printed 
 sheet removed. About 300 impressions an hour can be 
 struck off on a hand-press of this kind. The paper is 
 always used damp, as it yields better in this condition to 
 the types. 
 
 Such was, and is, except in large establishments, the 
 machine by which the literature of all nations has from 
 time to time been printed for many years. Presses of 
 this kind were found quite sufficient for the work. But 
 when newspapers and periodicals began to multiply and 
 increase, and especially the " Times " newspaper, mechan- 
 ical ingenuity was turned in this direction, in order to 
 
PRINTING-MACHINES. 267 
 
 discover a more rapid and effectual method of meeting the 
 demands of the public. Even with plenty of hands at 
 command, 500 sheets an hour was accomplished only with 
 the greatest difficulty, and means were required of at least 
 doubling or trebling that number. 
 
 The printing-machine which resulted from the labours 
 of inventors, and of which the 'principle has ever since 
 remained the same, although the details have been modi- 
 fied, consists of a series of rollers of large size mounted 
 upon axles in appropriate frames fixed at the edge of a long 
 table or frame across which the rollers lie in a horizontal 
 directioD. Over and under these the sheets to be 
 printed are carried by means of tapes, which lie upon the 
 margin and between the columns like the tapes of the 
 frisket, and these served the same purpose of keeping the 
 paper clean in the places where they fall, and also of con- 
 ducting the sheets squarely and accurately upon their 
 course. To make the action clear, we may suppose two 
 such rollers only, parallel to each other at a short distance 
 apart, and revolving in contrary directions, and that tapes 
 pass over the first and then underneath the second, and 
 that types are set in order upon each cylinder. If a piece 
 of paper were laid on the types, and caused by their move- 
 ment to travel onward, it would come in contact with the 
 types, first on one side as it passed over the first cylinder, 
 and then on the other as it passed over the second, taking 
 
268 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 the impressions of the types on its passage. This was 
 the plan first tried, the types being made smaller at one 
 end than the other, or wedge-shaped, so that they should 
 fit close to each other side by side when fixed upon the 
 curved surface of the cylinders. The types were inked by 
 revolving in contact with an inking-roller, against which 
 they were brought just before the sheet of paper reached 
 them. There being a difficulty found in setting the types 
 evenly upon a curved surface, the next arrangement made 
 was to fix them as usual in a chase, and to place the latter 
 upon a level table or bed, which is moved to and fro by 
 a rack-and-mangle movement under the cylinders, the 
 speed of rotation of which is accurately adjusted to corre- 
 spond with that of the type-table. The paper is fixed 
 securely by clips upon the cylinder, so that it shall not be 
 able to slip from its exact position. There was great 
 difficulty experienced at first in communicating to the 
 type just as much ink, and no more, as was needed to 
 produce a satisfactory result. This was accomplished at 
 last by causing a thin film of ink (which is about the 
 consistence of treacle) to fall upon a roller of steel from 
 the edge of a plate of steel upon which it is spread, which 
 plate is accurately ground on the edge so that its distance 
 from the roller can be accurately adjusted. From this 
 distributing roller the ink is transferred to others, the 
 surfaces of which are covered with an elastic composition 
 
PRINTING-MACHINES. 269 
 
 made of glue and treacle, and under two of these the 
 forme of type passes backwards and forwards after each 
 impression. There are two of these formes in action at the 
 same time in the double machines of Cowper and others, 
 at each end of the carriage. In fact, the double machine 
 for printing both sides of the sheets at once is merely a 
 pair of single machines, each part being in duplicate and 
 alternately coming into action. It was considered excellent 
 work at first to print 1000 sheets an hour on both sides, 
 but even this vast increase over the work attainable by 
 the hand-press was found in sufficient. The more news- 
 papers people got the more they wanted, and very soon by 
 means of improved machines 3000 copies an hour were 
 printed, and soon after this was increased to 4000 and 5000, 
 which one would have supposed amply sufficient to meet 
 every demand. Far from it: the public had an insatiable 
 appetite for news of all kinds, and with a quadruple press, 
 made for the proprietor of the " Echo " by Messrs. 
 Marinoni k Co. of Paris, 20,000 copies of that paper, or 
 any other, are produced with ease in an hour beautifully 
 printed upon both sides. I believe I am right in stating 
 as a recent modification of the printing-machine an 
 arrangement for automatic supply of paper from a roll 
 placed at one end, which delivers it in one continuous 
 sheet. This is not only printed on both sides, but cut 
 into single newspapers as it passes onward, saving the 
 
270 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 original cost of dividing the paper before feeding it into 
 the press. 
 
 Such is the steam printing-press as it is now made; 
 and considering the rapidity of its action and accuracy of 
 its various movements, we cease to wonder that literature 
 of all kinds has so vastly increased of late years, while it 
 is ever a cause of regret that the " liberty of the press," 
 whereby it is freed from almost all State control, should 
 ever be abused by the circulation of vicious works, dis- 
 graceful to the writers as well as the publishers, though 
 unfortunately profitable to both. 
 
 TYPE FOUNDING AND STEREOTYPING. 
 
 This is not a work that is carried on " amongst 
 machines," but is nevertheless so closely associated with 
 our subject as to demand at least a brief notice in this place. 
 Each letter and stop is separately cast in a mould divided 
 vertically into two parts. When put together, these form 
 a square or oblong channel down the centre the size of a 
 letter, and as the channel is enlarged at the upper end to 
 facilitate pouring the type-metal, it becomes funnel-shaped 
 at the part, producing a similarly enlarged end to the letter 
 or type cast in it. This is afterwards broken off, and the 
 
TYPEF0UND1NG. 271 
 
 end dressed by a kind of plane. A mould of this kind 
 therefore will, it is evident, cast a rectangular slip of 
 metal, but it will have no letter or device upon it. The 
 same mould, however, is in a very ingenious way made to 
 serve for casting different letters if their shanks are to be 
 nearly of one size, for there is a little power of adjustmen 
 also in this particular. Near the bottom of the double mould 
 is a slot or channel, into which is slid a slip of copper called 
 the matrix, on one side of which — the upper side when it is 
 in place — is stamped by means of a punch the letter, or 
 stop, or figure which is required. The letter is cut on 
 the end of the punch, which is of steel, by suitable tools, 
 and it is then hardened. It is afterwards laid on the slip 
 of copper, and struck with a hammer, by which the letter 
 is indented in the copper. When the metal, therefore, is 
 poured into the mould, it takes the form of this indented 
 letter, which stands up in relief upon its end, and only 
 needs a very slight dressing to make it sharp and clear, 
 forming a type for printing. Thus, as any one of these 
 copper matrices will slip into the groove in the mould, the 
 latter will serve to cast any letter that may be required of 
 one size. Of course some letters are wider than others, 
 requiring a broader type; but for these the mould is 
 adjustable to a certain extent, as the two halves of which 
 it is composed will slide sideways on each other, increas 
 
272 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 ing in one direction, but not in the other, in the thickness 
 of the type. 
 
 We have nothing to do in these pages with the actual 
 work of printing, our object in these books for boys being 
 rather to give the latter a taste for scientific and mechan- 
 ical research, and to give them a good " notion " of how 
 the manufactures and industries of our great country 
 are carried on. We wish them, therefore, having gained 
 from these pages some insight into machines, to go and 
 inspect them for themselves, and thus perfect their know- 
 ledge. A visit of an hour to a printing-office will do more 
 to give them a knowledge of the work than a hundred 
 additional pages of our present book ; but the latter will 
 prepare them for what they are about to see, and render 
 everything which they will meet with more easy of com- 
 prehension. We must, however, add a few words about 
 stereotype work, because this has done so much to multiply 
 and cheapen all classes of literature, and the process is 
 not difficult to understand or describe. 
 
 Supposing that it is wished to preserve a book in type, 
 so that other editions may at any time be printed in all 
 parts like the first, it is easy to perceive the cost of having 
 all the millions of letters locked up and useless while the 
 first edition is being sold. The forme therefore, i.e., the 
 frame of type sufficing to print a sheet, which may be two, 
 
STEREOTYPING. 273 
 
 four, eight, or more pages of the book itself, is laid face 
 upwards in a kind of square shallow box or tray, and 
 plaster-of-Paris is poured on the face of the type pre- 
 viously oiled. When dry and set this is removed, and 
 made a mould on which to cast a plate of type-metal 
 similar to that of the single letters themselves. If this 
 operation is carefully carried out, the result will be a solid 
 plate of type precisely similar to that set up in the chase, 
 and affording in the press just as good an impression as the 
 original. These stereotype plates are not cast, however, as 
 thick as the length of a single type, and would not stand 
 the requisite pressure by themselves. They are therefore 
 backed with wood to bring them to the required thick- 
 ness. A large number of such plates must lie stored to 
 make up a whole volume of any size; but the expense is 
 comparatively small, as, when done with, they are broken 
 up to be recast when required. Another plan of making 
 stereotype plates, without using plaster-of-Paris, is by fix- 
 ing the types as before in the chase, and striking them 
 suddenly, face downwards, into a tray of semifluid type- 
 metal, just as a seal is struck into melted wax, only for this 
 a special apparatus is needed to hold up the chase until the 
 proper moment, and then, just as the semifluid type-metal 
 is on the point of setting, to dash it vertically down upon 
 it. The impression thus made, in what is in a few 
 moments a solid block of metal, serves to take the place 
 
274 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 of the original, and is struck in a similar manner into 
 a second tray of semifluid metal. The latter now con- 
 sists of raised letters fit to be used in the press. Very 
 sharp impressions are taken in this ingenious manner, but 
 the mould must be struck at just the proper moment. 
 
Chapter XVII. 
 
 GLASS-MAKING. 
 
 MONG- the various things made and used every 
 day, there are few more interesting in their 
 manufacture than articles made of glass ; yet 
 it is not every boy — no, nor every boy's parents 
 — who has the slightest idea of the processes carried on in 
 glass-works. Bottles and glasses of every form are taken 
 in hand to be used or broken as the case may be, and 
 curiosity is not roused as to how they were manufactured : 
 all that is known is that all such articles are extremely 
 brittle, much given to come to grief, and not so wonder- 
 fully cheap as to make breakage an inconsiderable item 
 in the family outlay. 
 
 Probably most of us are acquainted with the old story 
 of the accidental discovery of this valuable material by 
 some Phoenicians, who, being shipwrecked on the coast 
 
2 7 6 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 of Tyre, where the plant kali grew abundantly, noticed 
 that the ashes of this plant, combining with the sand 
 under the heat of the fire used for cooking, fused into 
 the substance now called glass. At all events the material 
 was known to ancient Egypt, and certainly mentioned 
 three hundred years before the time of Christ. Like 
 many other things now well known to us, the real origin 
 of glass-making is buried in obscurity. No doubt, how- 
 ever, can be entertained that, if the story above named 
 is true, the glass produced was a comparatively opaque 
 body, apparently little likely to become of extensive use 
 where perfect transparency might be needed. Neverthe- 
 less this union of sand and kali through the agency of 
 heat is veritable glass, although the mode of preparing it 
 now adopted is somewhat different. 
 
 It is now a very long time since the days of unglazed 
 windows. Two hundred years, or nearly so, ago, cottagers, 
 and even tolerably well-to-do people, were obliged to be 
 content with wooden shutters, except in a few state rooms; 
 but soon after, glass became much more common. The 
 old window-tax, however, which was not removed till 
 1845, hindered the manufacture of glass for admitting 
 light to our houses, as the fewer the windows, the less 
 there was to pay for this tax. It is not more than thirty 
 years since the second-class carriages on the South-West- 
 ern had shutters of wood to pull up instead of the glass 
 
GLASS-MAKING. 277 
 
 windows now universal, even in the third class. There 
 can be no question that, so long as an obnoxious tax 
 existed, the health of the people suffered considerably, 
 because plenty of sunlight is as essential to the human 
 body as plenty of fresh air and pure water. Moreover, this 
 tax prevented the manufacture of glass from being carried 
 on with that energy and spirit which are so essential to 
 progress. The result of its removal was quickly felt all 
 over the kingdom. Windows multiplied in the houses of 
 the great and the cottages of the poor. Hothouses and 
 glass structures of all kinds arose, both in private gardens 
 and public nurseries ; and probably that grand exhibition 
 building in Hyde Park in 1851 would never have been 
 erected had not the necessary stimulus been given to the 
 glass trade by the repeal of this onerous duty. England 
 has no longer anything to dread from foreign competition 
 in this material, and, as in most other important manu- 
 factures, she is well able to maintain her position. Referring 
 to that exhibition, the like of which will probably never 
 be seen again, because the novelty of the idea is incapable 
 of repetition, we recollect especially the crystal fountain 
 erected by Messrs. Osier of Birmingham in the centre of 
 the transept. It was reported in the official catalogue 
 as 27 feet in perpendicular height, and as containing 
 4 tons of pure crystal glass. It had no rival then, 
 nor has any similar structure been since made. What 
 
278 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 has, however, heen done can certainly be done again : 
 and probably an order to the same firm, or to Messrs. 
 Chance, for a crystal fountain double the size would now 
 be executed with speed and facility. What can be done 
 in the way of plate-glass windows a stroll through Eegent 
 Street and Belgravia suffices to show; and here again, were 
 a demand made for still larger sheets, they would most 
 certainly be produced to meet it. 
 
 In one detail of the manufacture, however, England 
 is not yet in the front rank, although considerable ad- 
 vance is being made in that direction from year to year. 
 She has not yet been able to rival those magnificent 
 windows of stained glass which used to be the glory of 
 our abbeys and cathedrals. Certain of the tints cannot 
 as yet be reproduced, and although there is plenty of 
 colour in a modern stained-glass window, there is too 
 often a want of effective blending of tints and tender 
 gradation, which is so exquisitely carried out in the oldei 
 specimens. 
 
 In addition to stained windows, coloured glass has 
 long been used in Venice and elsewhere in the decoration 
 of ornamental vases, drinking utensils, and other articles 
 of a lighter description. These Venetian manufactures 
 were, until a comparatively recent date, wholly un- 
 rivalled ; but now the mode of producing them has been 
 discovered, or at any rate a process is known and used 
 
GLASS-MAKING. 279 
 
 which produces very similar results. The colours are 
 in many cases arranged side by side in very narrow 
 strips, or lines, as they might be more accurately 
 described; and these sometimes run straight and some- 
 times form spirals running round the cup or vase, or 
 are interlaced like fairy network. Beautiful, however, 
 as coloured glass is, it has always appeared to the writer 
 that a thin beautifully-formed vase or goblet, perfectly 
 colourless and transparent, without speck or bubble or 
 striae, has an inherent beauty and delicacy which no 
 colouring can improve ; and it may be added, that to obtain 
 glass in this state of perfection, as needed for optical 
 instruments, demands as much care and skill and un- 
 remitting attention to detail as the production of variously- 
 coloured specimens. In point of fact, even now, in 1876, 
 the lenses of Yoigtlander, and one or two other foreign 
 makers, are considered superior to any of our home 
 productions. Possibly, however, prejudice comes into 
 action in this matter ; for though we used at one time 
 to import all glass required for first-class optical instru- 
 ments, and the names of one or two foreign makers stood 
 prominently forward, we have of late years so improved 
 in this respect that we now export a considerable quan- 
 tity of glass for this very purpose. Probably a trial 
 of manufacturing skill in preparing glass lenses would 
 now end in perfect equality, as both our own manufac- 
 
2 8o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 turers and foreigners are able to produce glass of equal 
 perfection. 
 
 We must, however, now pass to the actual manu- 
 facture. All glass is not alike, and very generally 
 different manufacturers turn their attention to the pro- 
 duction of different qualities ; for it seldom happens that 
 any single establishment makes all kinds indifferently. 
 The finest, perhaps, of all is flint glass, which invariably 
 finds a place on the tables of the rich, because of its 
 high lustre and freedom from imperfections. Then comes 
 crown glass, German and English, which is cut up 
 in enormous quantities for glazing windows, and for 
 horticultural buildings. As a substitute for this, where 
 expense is no object, plate glass now fills a very impor- 
 tant place. Sitting by a window of crown glass, every 
 movement of the head gives apparent motion to the 
 landscape, because the glass, though transparent, is full 
 of waves and inequalities ; whereas plate glass, from the 
 different manner in which it is made, is free from these 
 imperfections, and the forms of objects are as clearly 
 defined as if there were no such medium interposed. Last 
 comes green-bottle glass as the commonest of all, being 
 varied in tint and unequal in transparency, but serv- 
 ing extremely well for the particular purpose to which it 
 is applied. In colour it varies from a pale green to 
 deep purple, ordinarily termed black. 
 
GLASS-MAKING. 28; 
 
 Two ingredients are always present in glass, as stated 
 in our introductory remarks, viz., kali, which is commonly 
 called potash or soda, and sand. The latter is the generic 
 or general name for a variety of substances containing 
 silex or flint. We have, for instance, the beautiful white 
 or silver sand of Reigate — precious to gardeners; the 
 deep-yellow and red sands, used for various household 
 purposes ; the salt sand by the sea, of which too often 
 masons make use in the formation of mortar when en- 
 gaged in building marine residences or villas, and which 
 are constantly damp, owing to the affinity of salt for 
 water. Alum Bay, in the Isle of Wight, as some of our 
 readers know, produces sands of many colours, which 
 are sold to visitors in glass bottles — the delight of 
 youngsters, to whom the bright tints of varied forms 
 representing hill and dale and impossible landscape 
 scenery were, and are still, a puzzle and a mystery. When, 
 mischievously inclined, they chance (?) to break these 
 treasures, they see the mystery solved ; but we will not 
 solve it here, and perhaps spoil the pleasure of some of 
 our young friends. Now, all these sands are varieties of a 
 substance known to geologists as silex. Any one of them 
 will make glass, but the greater part are in their natural 
 state intimately associated with earthy matters, which if 
 admitted render the glass opaque. These can be sepa- 
 rated in a great degree by washing. Let our readers try 
 
282 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 the experiment in this way : Take common house sand, 
 and throw a handful into a basin of water ; stir it up well, 
 and after allowing it to settle a little, pour off the water, 
 which will be quite thick and muddy ; add fresh water 
 and repeat the process, and presently pour this also away. 
 After a few additions of fresh water, it will be found 
 that the muddiness is far less than at first ; and by re- 
 peating the process a few times more, the water will 
 remain quite clear, and the sand will be quite clean at 
 the bottom of the vessel. Pure silex, therefore, does not 
 render water turbid, and the muddiness in the early 
 stages of this washing process was wholly due to earthy 
 impurities. The sand of the seashore gets washed so 
 continually by the waters of the ocean, that it is well 
 fitted for glass-making. This is also silex, and is 
 chiefly made up of minute particles of quartz, pulverised 
 by the action of sea and air in the course of many 
 centuries. Alum Bay sand is very pure quartz, and can be 
 obtained in any quantity, and is consequently much used; 
 but other parts of our coasts add their share of this raw 
 material. Land carriage of so .heavy a material, indeed, 
 regulates the quantity supplied from any particular 
 locality, as this is of course a very serious item of 
 expense ; and glass-houses near the sea-coast, or situated, 
 like London, upon navigable rivers, have a natural advan- 
 tage in this respect over rival towns less fortunately 
 
GLASS-MAKING. 283 
 
 situated. The kali or alkali required is now obtained 
 in any quantity from our various chemical works devoted 
 to this special manufacture, but was formerly obtained 
 by burning wood, barilla, kelp, sea-weed, and other 
 vegetables, which naturally contain a considerable quan 
 tity of the required substance. The production, however, 
 of this material is not within the scope of the present 
 chapter to describe. Kali and silex, though the funda- 
 mental ingredients in all glass, are never used alone, as 
 the product is not sufficiently clear and transparent, but 
 oxides of lead and manganese and iron, especially the 
 former, are always added, as will be presently explained. 
 
 As the heat required to fuse together the several 
 ingredients of glass is very great, furnaces are used of 
 solid construction and scientific arrangement, so as to 
 produce the highest degree of heat with the least quantity 
 of fuel. These furnaces are generally round, with a central 
 chimney, and consist of what I may call a series of ovens, 
 in each of which stands a melting-pot exposed to the 
 fierce heat of the flames which curl around it. The 
 substance put into the pots is called "frit." It is simply 
 glass in its impure state. The sand and kali are first 
 melted together in a furnace, or, as it would be called in 
 the process of smelting iron-ore, "roasted," and the 
 resulting product is broken up and piled in heaps, and is 
 supposed to improve by age. If the sand is very fine, or 
 
284 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 if ground flints are used, which is now seldom the case, 
 there is no necessity for this previous roasting, and the 
 ingredients are placed at once in the melting-pots. But 
 when this is not the case, the latter are filled from the 
 store of frit, and after this has been a long time under 
 the action of the intense heat, the impurities rise to the 
 top and are skimmed off, leaving the glass beautifully 
 clear. The ingredients of flint glass vary with different 
 manufacturers, but all use some flux with the sand and 
 soda to assist the fusion and improve the quality. 
 
 White sand, redlead, pearl ash, nitre, and oxide of 
 manganese or oxide of arsenic, is a very usual composition, 
 and these are all intimately mixed before being placed in 
 the pots. 
 
 Glass in which there is much lead will melt at a 
 comparatively low temperature ; and if any of our young 
 readers have studied or played at chemistry, and bent 
 tubes of glass by means of a spirit-lamp, they may possibly 
 have noticed the lead reduced to the metallic state, and 
 shining with a black lustre about the bend. Hard glass 
 used in chemical analysis, not having lead in its composition, 
 fuses with difficulty, and is employed where the substance 
 to be tested has to be exposed to the heat of the blowpipe. 
 
 Oxide of lead does not give any colour to the glass, 
 unless used in too large proportion ; but oxide of cobalt, 
 iron, manganese, and other metals, will stain the glass ol 
 
GLASS-MAKING. 285 
 
 any required tint, and these are used in the manufacture 
 of coloured glass for the windows of churches and mansions. 
 As we always like to add as much as we can to the 
 interest of our descriptions of the various great manu- 
 factures, we would suggest to our readers the expediency 
 of experimenting in a small way in glass-making with a 
 lamp, blowpipe, and a few very simple and inexpensive 
 materials. The use of the blowpipe is easily acquired, the 
 only difficulty being, at first, the keeping up a constant 
 and uniform blast of air. The cheeks are to be the spring 
 bellows, and not the muscles of the lungs, which are to 
 continue their usual quiet and regular action, as if no blow- 
 pipe operations were in progress. The cheeks are to be 
 distended like those of iEolus, and the blowpipe being 
 placed between the lips, the stream of air is to be sent 
 through it by the muscles of the cheeks alone , and as the 
 supply of air becomes exhausted, the mouth is to be refilled 
 from the lungs by a momentary action difficult to describe. 
 The blowpipe is so useful for chemical operations, or for 
 soldering where neatness is required, that our young 
 readers should certainly take the necessary pains to 
 acquire the knack. If the cheeks are distended, the blow- 
 pipe not being used, it will be found an easy matter to 
 breathe as usual through the nose without allowing the 
 cavity of the mouth to have any share in the operation. 
 It is plain, therefore, that we can isolate the, mouth alto* 
 
286 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 gether from the lungs as well as the nose, which we do by 
 shutting the valves of communication unconsciously. Now 
 all we need is to keep up this isolation, except when we de- 
 sire to refill the mouth with air, when we momentarily open 
 and as quickly close this valve. While, then, the cheeks are 
 distended, go on breathing as usual, expiring and inspiring 
 through the nose. Now let a little air pass out between 
 the lips, still keeping up the regular breathing: you will find 
 that for this you are calling into action the muscles of the 
 cheeks. As the mouth gets emptied, try and refill it by a 
 momentary action of the tongue, which is the valve, against 
 the roof of the mouth. It will make a little noise something 
 like the word "tup," and the mouth will be full of wind 
 instantly. This is the whole secret of blowpipe work, and 
 a quarter of an hour's determined practice will suffice to get 
 any one accustomed to the management of the breath. 
 The lungs must on no account be used to act directly upon 
 the blowpipe, but only to fill the distended cheeks. 
 
 Now place upon a bit of pumice-stone — which any 
 painter will give you — a little sand and soda (or potash), 
 with a small portion of redlead or minium in powder, and 
 send upon this mixture a stream of flame from a spirit- 
 lamp by means of the blowpipe until the ingredients fuse 
 together into a bead of glass. Of course you will need 
 a very little of each ingredient, as the whole bead will be 
 about the size of a peppercorn or less, according to your 
 
GLASS-MAKIAG. 287 
 
 power of using the blowpipe and the size of the flame. 
 A little turpentine with the spirit of wine (not enough to 
 make the lamp smoke) will materially increase the heat 
 and help the operation. 
 
 A softer glass may be first experimented on, made by 
 fusing borax, which, after boiling up in an eccentric 
 fashion,* will settle down into a clear bead; and if this 
 is touched with a drop of nitrate of cobalt, or if a little 
 morsel of the powdered mineral itself be added, a beauti- 
 ful blue bead will be the result. In the same way a 
 little rust of iron, or a little of the salt called sulphate of 
 iron or green vitriol, or manganese, copper, and other 
 substances which contain metallic oxides, may be tried, 
 and the colours noted. In these simple experiments the 
 whole process of glass-making may be learned in a prac- 
 tical manner, and the details will be thoroughly under- 
 stood. 
 
 The process of glass-blowing may similarly form a fire- 
 side amusement, experiments being made upon the glass 
 tubing which may be obtained at the chemist's. But we 
 must return now to the manufacture as conducted on a 
 large scale in glass-works. 
 
 The pot of glass having become thoroughly melted and 
 clear, and the scum removed, which is called sandiver or 
 glass-gall, the workman dips into it a tube of iron pre- 
 viously made hot, and gathers upon the end as much 
 
2 88 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 glass as will cling to it, and when this is slightly cooled, he 
 repeats the operation until he has as much upon the tube 
 as he requires. He then reheats this lump of glass at the 
 furnace mouth, and when it is soft enough, allows it to run 
 partly off the end by holding the tube in a perpendicular 
 position a few seconds. Then by blowing down the same 
 the glass swells out like a bladder or soap-bubble into a 
 globular form. Probably this will not prove large enough at 
 first ; but by holding the glass at the mouth of the furnace 
 it becomes soft enough to be still further acted on by the 
 breath, and gradually — but quickly — swells to the required 
 size. If this requires to be flattened (as, for instance, for 
 a glass jar such as pastry-cooks use), it is rolled while 
 hot on a flat slab of iron mounted on legs like a low 
 table until it takes the necessary form. If, on the other 
 hand, the globe is required to be elongated to a pear- 
 shape, the blowpipe, which is about 5 feet long, is 
 swung round the head, and the centrifugal force acting 
 on the softened glass causes it to extend lengthwise. 
 There is nothing more marvellous to a looker-on than to 
 see how rapidly, by such simple means as these, differently- 
 formed articles are produced ; and certainly, to see the 
 way in which the workmen toss it about, no one would 
 suppose glass to be the fragile article that it is. In 
 short, when soft, no material is so easy to work, and 
 scarcely any requires for its manufacture tools so 
 
GLASS-MAKING. 
 
 289 
 
 simple and few in number. If, for instance, the globe 
 requires to be spread side wise like fig. 62, a pattern 
 given to some decanters, and vessels liable to be upset, 
 
 Fig. 62. 
 
 the workman rests the blowpipe horizontally upon a bar 
 of iron, and gives a rotary or twirling motion to it, and 
 the form required is instantly assumed. 
 
 While hot, glass is cut with perfect ease by shears or 
 scissors ; and it is detached when necessary from the 
 blowpipe or pointel (which will be presently spoken of) 
 by being touched with a rod of iron wetted at the end. 
 The pointel is a solid rod, rather larger at the end than 
 the blowpipe. This is dipped in melted glass, so that it 
 shall take up a small portion on its extremity. This 
 being applied to the globe of glass on the blowpipe, sticks 
 to it, and the latter instrument is then detached by a 
 touch of the wet rod, and at once replenished for the use 
 of the blower, while another workman takes the pointel 
 
2 9 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 in hand, and proceeds to fashion still further the par- 
 tially-finished article at the end of it. "We will suppose, 
 first of all, that this is to be formed into a sheet of 
 window-glass, which at first sight would appear a very 
 unlikely thing to be thus made. The operation, neverthe- 
 less, is extremely simple. The man with the pointel holds 
 the globe of glass, which is now open at the end where 
 the blowpipe was attached, to the mouth of the furnace 
 until the glass is soft. Resting it on a horizontal arm 
 of iron, he twirls or trundles it rapidly, while an assistant 
 with an iron tool opens wider the neck of the globe. 
 Continuing this rapid rotary movement, the glass all at 
 once seems to fly wide open, or " flashes " into a round 
 disc, of which the punt is the centre, and the bull's-eyes, 
 as they are called, used sometimes for the windows of 
 stables and out-buildings, are the central parts of these 
 sheets where the pointel was attached. In cutting up the 
 discs for house windows, these parts about the centre 
 are cut out, and the sheet divided into halves and quarters, 
 such as may be seen packed in wooden crates at any 
 glazier's shop. This was at one time the only method 
 known of making sheet glass, but it will be readily 
 understood, from the very means employed to produce it, 
 that it is always wavy, though much less so near the 
 outer edge, which formed the circumference, than near the 
 bull's eye or punty mark. 
 
GLASS-MAKING. 291 
 
 The next step in improvement of window-glass was 
 as follows: The globe is produced as before, by blowing; 
 and then after being reheated is rolled upon the iron slab or 
 maver, so as to reduce it to a cylindrical form. To assist 
 in this the workman stands on a high stool, and swings 
 the glass to and fro, so as to elongate it while hot by its 
 own weight, while he still keeps up the blowing. By this 
 means the globe is considerably lengthened, and takes a 
 pear-shape. An assistant now with a pair of shears cuts 
 open the lower end, and also enlarges with this tool the 
 hole thus made until it is the size of the largest part of the 
 glass. The blower assists the operation by a few dexter- 
 ous rotations of the blowpipe until the form assumed is 
 that of a cylinder open at one end, but attached to the 
 blowpipe at the other, which is still more or less globu- 
 lar. A pointel with a cross-piece at the end, which is of 
 such length as just to fit the inside of the open end, is 
 dipped in melted glass and applied to the cylinder, which 
 is itself made hot, and attaches itself to the latter firmly, 
 allowing the blowpipe to be detached from the other end 
 by wetting the hot glass as previously described. The end 
 thus detached is now heated, and opened just like the 
 first, so that there is now a cylinder of glass open at 
 both ends attached to the pointel. An assistant now, 
 while the glass is hot and soft, cuts this cylinder open 
 from end to end, and lays it flat by unrolling it on an 
 
292 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 iron slab, upon which it is laid at once in the annealing- 
 oven. Like all operations of the glass-house, this is very 
 simple, and to the spectator looks also very easy; but it 
 nevertheless requires skill and strength, for glass is a 
 heavy substance. 
 
 All glass articles, if merely left to cool, would fly to 
 pieces with a touch — and often without, on being exposed 
 to change of temperature. They therefore are placed 
 in an annealing-oven. This has a fire at one end below 
 it, so as to be very hot ; but as it is of a long shape, 
 the other end, which is also open, is tolerably cool. The 
 articles are put in shallow iron trays, and while still very 
 hot, are placed at the furnace end of the oven. The next 
 tray introduced pushes the first farther on, and thus 
 gradually all reach the cool end ; and after this process 
 they will bear all the ordinary usage and changes of 
 temperature, so that you may pour boiling water into 
 a well - annealed tumbler without breaking it, but a 
 thick and badly - annealed glass will crack immedi- 
 ately. 
 
 Such is briefly the process. of glass-making, and there 
 is no manufacture that surprises a visitor more than this. 
 The facility with which in a few moments the material, 
 which we only regard as a brittle substance, flashes into 
 various forms,, the simplicity of the different operations, the 
 Bkill and ease, to say nothing of rapidity, with which the 
 
GLASS-MAKING. 293 
 
 work is carried on, are indeed marvellous ; and if this 
 little volume could have been extended to include details 
 of cutting and engraving glass, casting, pinching, and 
 stamping it, colouring it to represent precious stones for 
 cheap jewellery, with various other particulars all of 
 equal interest, our account would have been much more 
 complete. We must, however, reserve this and much 
 more for a future occasion, as Glass-making almost 
 needs a volume to itself. What we have given is little 
 more than a faint sketch of the process, but sufficiently 
 detailed to justify us in hoping that the result of our 
 labours may be an increase of our boys' knowledge and 
 extension of their pleasure. The acquirement of know- 
 ledge of all kinds is delightful to any veritable young 
 mechanic, and all our boys, whether mechanical or not, 
 ou ;ht to make themselves acquainted with the manu- 
 lactures of their own and other countries ; for it is to 
 these industries that we owe our present greatness, and 
 by them we may well hope to attain still higher degrees 
 of refinement, culture, and civilisation. 
 
>^ 
 
 Chapter XVIII. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC MACHINES, 
 
 HESE may be said to differ from those already 
 described as not being manufacturing machines, 
 although even in this respect no hard and fast 
 line can be drawn. An electric machine or 
 galvanic battery, for instance, though primarily it would 
 come under the head of scientific apparatus, becomes a 
 manufacturing machine when used for electrotyping and 
 electroplating, as the telegraphic apparatus becomes a 
 printing-machine when fitted with additional mechanism, 
 registering automatically the passage or stoppage of the 
 electric current. As the telegraph is now to be found in 
 almost all towns, and will probably not be long absent 
 even from country villages, we will treat of this first. 
 We cannot tell our readers what electricity is, but we may 
 compare it to light and heat, in making us conscious of 
 its presence by its effect. It may also, like these, be 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 295 
 
 regarded as flowing onward in waves or currents from the 
 source which produces it ; and we can, as might be ex- 
 pected, deflect it from its course and turn it into another 
 direction, or altogether check its progress. Heat and 
 electricity we can also accumulate and store up; but 
 light, though it is very probably another form of these, 
 we cannot as yet by any known means entrap. Our most 
 reliable scientific men, or " Scientists," have long regarded 
 these three elements as one and the same, under different 
 conditions, but they are so subtle in their nature that 
 many difficulties exist in proving their identity. This is, 
 however, certain, viz., that electricity will produce light and 
 heat ; and heat and light will apparently return the com- 
 pliment — heat most decidedly will, and light gives tokens 
 of so doing, besides being possessed of many qualities 
 common to the other two. The universe is perhaps the 
 great storehouse of electricity, but there is no reason to 
 believe the high-flown statement of advertisers of galvanic 
 appliances, who state in big letters in every paper that 
 " Electricity is Life." It is quite true that within a 
 certain period after death an electric current will cause a 
 movement of the limbs, or even renew the action of the 
 heart ; but when death has once actually taken place, and 
 the soul has quitted its mortal tenement, no amount of 
 this subtle fluid will give back the life that has become 
 extinct — the fire once out may not be rekindled until the 
 
296 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 word which first lighted shall renew it. But electricity, 
 nevertheless, acts wonderfully and powerfully upon the 
 human frame. Exciting the nerves, it gives motion to 
 the limb by causing violent spasmodic action of the 
 muscles, and if of sufficient power will even paralyse or 
 kill the experimentalist. 
 
 Very gently and continuously applied, it is in many 
 diseases of the nerves, especially in rheumatism, of great 
 service as a curative agent, by stimulating into action 
 nerves which have ceased to do their work properly. It 
 is not, however, by any means an agent to be trifled with 
 or indiscreetly used, and any one of delicate constitution 
 might be seriously injured by injudicious experiments 
 with the electric fluid. We have said that electricity is 
 apparently laid up in the great storehouse of our universe, 
 and so it is, but not in a state of tension ; and we may 
 explain this by comparing it in its quiescent state to an 
 uncoiled powerful spring, or to uncompressed steam or 
 air in which enormous power exists but is not sensibly 
 apparent. Wind up the spring, or compel a given bulk 
 of air or steam to occupy considerably less space, and we 
 have a very good representative of electricity in a high 
 state of tension, ready to burst forth in the lightning 
 flash, capable of rending trees and rocks, and depriving 
 instantly of life any animal or human being that may 
 intercept its course. Yet that fiery dart, so awful in the 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 297 
 
 intensity of its brightness, so fatal to its victim, can be 
 controlled and directed in its course, entrapped, subdued, 
 and made the willing servant of mankind. You might 
 stand within an iron room, for instance, in the wildest 
 storm that has ever burst from heaven, and though a 
 hundred flashes fell upon that metal barrier, you would 
 be perfectly safe, although the thickness of the shield 
 were no more than that of cardboard. We cannot, how- 
 ever, here enter very deeply into the theoretical part of 
 our subject, and it must suffice, for the present, that we 
 can conduct, or deflect, or check the flow of the electric 
 current at pleasure. We need not go to the clouds for 
 our supply of the subtle fluid, for although, perhaps, it 
 would be incorrect to say that we can create it, there is 
 not a doubt about our capability of producing it, or at 
 any rate of giving it such a degree of tension as will 
 render it an active agent in our hands. We can do this 
 in two ways — first, by friction of certain easily obtainable 
 substances, notably glass, and resin, gutta-percha, and 
 vulcanite; but as these three are so far identical that 
 they are exuded as gums from trees, except that the 
 latter is also compounded with sulphur (itself an exuda- 
 tion from the earth), we may still divide the substances 
 from which electricity may be produced by friction into 
 vitreous or glassy, and resinous, as it is a convenient 
 division to make. 
 
298 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 By rubbing dry glass or dry resin we can, under certain 
 conditions of insulation, make the electrical state of such 
 substances visible by a spark which they respectively give 
 off, accompanied by a snap ; and after this spark has 
 been emitted, the tension of our electrical spring ceases, 
 and whatever electricity still remains is quiescent and 
 inactive. But frictional electricity is not practically well 
 adapted for telegraphic purposes, for which we require 
 rather a continuous stream of tolerably high tension, and 
 not a sudden discharge like the flash of lightning, or the 
 instantaneous release of a tightly - coiled spring. We 
 require, if I may so term it, pressure, and not a blow. 
 The electricity is usually called galvanic, from the name 
 of its earliest discoverer, and seems to depend upon 
 chemical, rather than mechanical, facts. If we place a 
 piece of copper and a piece of zinc in a solution capable 
 of exerting a powerful action on the one and not on the 
 other, an electric current is at once set up ; and if the two 
 are connected at the top by a wire, which is a good con- 
 ductor of the fluid, the latter will flow from the zinc 
 along the wire to the copper, and thence to the zinc 
 again. With these simple elements, salt-and-water will 
 be sufficiently active as an exciting solution, and is for 
 our young friends much better than sulphuric acid and 
 water, which, though it produces a more powerful action 
 on the zinc, is also ready to do the same on the clothes 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 2 9 q 
 
 of the operator, the result being a decided shock to those 
 who have to pay the piper. Salt-and-water, too, being 
 less active, will continue to excite the " battery," as it is 
 called, for a much longer period, and powerfully enough 
 for the purpose of experiment. But how can we tell that 
 any electricity is passing? Probably our readers know 
 well, and some, no doubt, possess pocket-compasses, some 
 of which are made to hang as charms from the watch- 
 chain. Let them stand their little battery on the table, 
 in such a position that the wire (which should be of 
 copper, and soldered to the zinc and copper plates, so that 
 one is at each end) shall stand north and south. Then 
 let them bring under its centre the compass, whose 
 needle, of course, also points in the same direction, and 
 let them note the result. The needle will point east and 
 west, standing at right angles to the wire. This is 
 always the effect produced by a current of electricity 
 passing round a magnetic needle, and if the battery is 
 very powerful, the wire between its ends might be of 
 nearly any length, but the same effect would be produced 
 on any number of compass-needles placed in its course. 
 This is the electric telegraph in its most simple form, 
 but we need a power of controlling the motion of the 
 needle before it can be made to serve our purpose. Now, 
 while the needles are standing at right angles to the wire, 
 or as nearly so as the strength of the current will make 
 
3 oo AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 them, let us snip the wire in half with a pair of nippers. 
 Don't take your sister's scissors unless you've no better 
 tool at hand ! Instantly the current ceases, and the 
 needles stand north and south as before. Bring the ends of 
 the cut wire together again, and see ! the needles go back 
 again. Here you observe we have the elements, at all 
 wents, of a very beautiful machine ; we need only agree 
 to make any letter we wish to express by moving the 
 needle once, twice, thrice, or more times, and we can 
 spell out words — slowly, it is true, but certainly. Now, 
 if we give the wire a turn round a compass at one end 
 of a room, and carry it on, and give it a turn round a 
 second at the other end of the room, and arrange that the 
 cut ends of the wire shall be within easy reach of one of us. 
 then the other may go and watch the other needle, and 
 as both will make similar movements, they will represent 
 telegraphs at London and York; only, you see, in the 
 case supposed, one must do all the talking, and the other 
 all the reading, for he can't answer back, which would, I 
 daresay, be very aggravating to most boys. Moreover, 
 our alphabet would be terribly puzzling, and take no end 
 of counting. We can remedy this, however, for there is a 
 way of making a magnetised needle move to right or left 
 at pleasure, which will give us two motions instead of one, 
 and make a shorter number of oscillations answer. We 
 must also, for practical purposes, contrive to get greater 
 
SCIENTIFIC MACHINES. 301 
 
 power, and it is more convenient to let the needle hang 
 upright before us than to have it in a horizontal position, 
 so that we have to look down upon it. Whichever way 
 it hangs, however, the principle is the same, and if we 
 cause a current of electricity to traverse a wire which is 
 coiled round it, such needle will be acted upon by it. It 
 is important to note, however, two particulars relative to 
 the effect produced upon a magnetised needle by an 
 electric current. 
 
 If this current passes from north to south above the 
 needle, the north pole of the latter will turn to the east. 
 If the same current is caused to pass below it, but in the 
 same direction, i.e., from north to south, the needle will 
 be deflected in the opposite direction. Now, if instead of 
 this current being carried once across the path of the 
 needle by a single wire, we coil the wire many times 
 round it, so as to multiply the power, it is plain that the 
 effect produced will be many times greater, and as, in 
 addition, the current will thus pass above and below at 
 the same time, but in contrary directions, the needle will 
 be doubly influenced. But at the same time that the 
 electric current tends to move the needle out of its normal 
 position, the magnetism of the earth tends to draw it back 
 again to stand north and south as usual; hence we have 
 a certain resistance to contend against, and we should 
 gain power by getting rid of it if possible. We manage 
 
3 o2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 to do so in electric telegraphs by very simple means, viz., 
 by what is called an astatic needle. This is simply a 
 pair of needles on one common axle, or suspended to the 
 same support, the north pole of one being over the south 
 pole of the other. As the earth's magnetic action thus 
 ceases to act upon the needles, it might be supposed that 
 the influence of the electric current would also be lost, as 
 the tendency of the one or other pole to turn east or west, 
 instead of north or south, would seem to be done away; 
 but such is not found to be the case. Although the poles 
 of the needle are neutralised, it will still tend under the 
 action of the electric current to stand at right angles to 
 its former position, and whether it will move one end (we 
 can call it the north or the marked end) to right or left, 
 will depend upon which direction the current travels in 
 round the coils of wire ; for we can send it either way at 
 pleasure, as will be evident on consideration. Let us, for 
 the present, suppose our simple battery to be in use as 
 before, with the wire cut so that we have one end attached 
 to the zinc and the other to the copper. We will also 
 suppose that we have our needles, and the coils surround 
 ing them, attached to some sort of stand, with the ends 
 of the wires projecting. Now, the current of electricity 
 flows out from the battery at the copper end, and passing 
 through the wire enters the battery at the zinc end. It 
 is plain, therefore, that we can apply either end of the coil 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 303 
 
 to either end of the battery at pleasure, and that thus we 
 can make the current enter the coil and traverse it from 
 right to left, or from left to right, and this will cause the 
 marked end of the needle to move right or left accordingly. 
 Of course, when we come to the practical working and 
 construction of the telegraph, some means must be devised 
 for instantaneously altering in this way the direction of 
 the current, for it would take too long to be obliged to do 
 this by constantly shifting, by hand, the four ends of the 
 wires; this is effected by what is called a commutator 
 (from muto, to change), and the simplest form, perhaps, 
 for merely experimental purposes is as follows : It is to 
 be remembered that we want metallic communication — 
 the current will not pass through wood, bone, ivory, 
 sealing-wax, gutta-percha, &c. &c. The plan here given 
 is from a small elementary work by Angell, but there 
 being no diagram of it in that book, I have been obliged 
 with some little difficulty to make a drawing from the 
 description there given. A (fig. 63) is a mahogany board, 
 which is, together with the . battery, drawn as it would 
 appear to any one looking down upon it from above. The 
 needle and coil would also thus be horizontal, although 
 in practice it stands vertical. F F are two slips of hard 
 brass, half an inch wide and 3 inches long ; G, a T- 
 shaped piece of the same width. These do not lie flat, 
 but are bent so as to spring up about half an inch from 
 
3°4 
 
 AMONGST MACHINES. 
 
 the board, and the long strips remain in contact with the 
 cross head of the T-piece, unless purposely pressed down. 
 E is the battery, here represented of an old pattern, 
 consisting of a number of cells full of sulphuric acid and 
 
 Fig. 63. 
 
 water, acting upon a series of alternate zinc and copper 
 plates ; and the last in the series at one end is zinc, and 
 its fellow at the other is copper. The current, multiplied 
 greatly in power by proceeding from many plates, instead 
 of a single pair, leaves as before at the copper, which forms 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 305 
 
 one end, and returns to the other after traversing the wire 
 and coil. At K K are two studs, being the ends of a 
 long bent staple of stout wire put in from below, the ends 
 standing up a little distance, so that either piece F F, if 
 pressed down, would rest upon a stud. A wire soldered to 
 this staple goes to the binding screw C at one end of the 
 battery, while a second wire in contact with G goes to the 
 other end. This should rather be represented, like the 
 staple, as being under the board, and would be soldered 
 to the screw by which the piece G is fastened to the 
 board. Similar wires, attached to the screws which 
 hold the long strips G F, are, by means of binding 
 screws, placed in metallic connection with the ends of 
 the coil. By this instrument the current flowing from 0, 
 the copper end of the battery, can be made to traverse the 
 coil in either direction, according as E or F are pressed 
 down upon the studs below them. 
 
 Let us press down the right-hand spring F, and trace 
 the course of the electric current. Beginning at C, it will 
 pass along to the right-hand stud on which the spring 
 is now resting, thence along this spring to the binding 
 screw, and round the coils. Then, leaving the latter at 
 the other end, it will pass to the other spring F, thence 
 to G (because not being pressed down, it is in contact 
 with G, but not with its own stud), thence by the screw 
 in G and wire attached to D, the zinc end of the battery. 
 
306 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 To make the needle move in the other direction we must 
 reverse the course of the current thus : Taking off the 
 finger, the right-hand spring F will rise, and touch the 
 T-piece as before. We now press the other spring down 
 upon its stud. The current will then pass from the 
 battery to this stud — along its spring — round the coil in 
 the other direction, down the right spring to the T-piece, 
 and, by its screw and wire, to the zinc as before. In its 
 course it will have deflected the needle. Thus we can 
 instantaneously cause the latter to oscillate as we please, 
 for the action is perfectly instantaneous, as the current 
 would go round our globe in one-tenth of a second. We 
 now can very much simplify our alphabet. We have the 
 movement of the needle's point to the right to signify one 
 letter, to the left for another, twice to the right and once 
 to the left for a third, twice to the left and once to the 
 right for a fourth, and so on. In practice, however, the 
 single needle is now generally replaced by two hanging side 
 by side, each with a coil of its own, thus increasing very 
 considerably our power of conversation by signs, because 
 with two needles half the oscillations only will be 
 necessary. Even with these it may be easily seen that 
 a good deal of practice is needed to enable messages to be 
 sent and read with speed and facility. Such is the 
 principle of a needle telegraph, the detail only being 
 modified, as we shall proceed to relate. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 307 
 
 We must now say a word or two more about the battery, 
 and then proceed with a description of the manner in 
 which the line-wires are practically arranged. We have 
 shown that a plate of copper and another of zinc, placed 
 together in a solution acting more upon the one than 
 upon the other, generates a current of electricity. During 
 this process the zinc, which is called the positive element, 
 is gradually dissolved, and gives off from its surface a 
 quantity of hydrogen gas, which you will see, if, as I 
 hope, you make experiments upon the subject, rising in 
 copious bubbles through the liquid, which, if of sulphuric 
 or muriatic acid and water, appears boiling, so rapidly is 
 the gas disengaged. A good deal of this is waste of 
 power and of material, and the zinc is usually amalga- 
 mated with mercury, by being rubbed with that substance 
 while wet with acid and water. The surface will be 
 entirely coated, if the operation is carefully carried out, 
 and will be perfectly bright, and, in this state, will 
 not be attacked so fiercely, but will give out a 
 sufficient quantity of electricity, and the action will con- 
 tinue for a much longer period. But in a battery of this 
 kind it has been found that another drawback exists. 
 Bubbles of hydrogen cover the copper plate and do not 
 readily leave its surface ; a deposit of zinc also takes place 
 upon it, whereby its action is first impaired, and ultimately 
 ceases entirely. If this is the case in a single cell, it ia 
 
3 o8 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 evident that it will be so in any number; and this defect 
 for some time gave great trouble, although it was usual 
 to make telegraph batteries in the form of a long box 
 with divisions, in each of which was a zinc and a copper 
 element. Sulphuric acid and water was used as the 
 exciting fluid, and very often this was poured upon sand, 
 with which the cells were filled, by which there was less 
 danger that the solution would get upset or wasted, while 
 at the same time it was considered that this material 
 exercised a certain degree of influence in keeping clean 
 the surfaces of the two metals. 
 
 Our present papers not being devoted to the theory of 
 Voltaic electricity, we cannot enter at any great length 
 into the laws of electric currents ; but upon one point 
 bearing specially upon the batteries used for telegraphic 
 purposes we must of necessity say a few words. If the 
 zinc and copper plates are respectively of large size, they 
 will give off electricity in great quantity. It will not, 
 however, provide exactly the power required. It is, to 
 use our old type, a strong spring uncoiled. We coil it by 
 multiplying the number of cells, connecting the zinc of 
 one with the copper of the next ; and in telegraphy, while 
 the oblong wooden troughs of many cells were used, it 
 was usual, for long distances, to connect these together 
 in a similar way— the last cell of one with the first cell 
 of the next, and so on. If quantity, however, is required, 
 
SCIENTIFIC MACHINES. 300 
 
 two such batteries can be used in a different way, by con- 
 necting all the coppers and all the zincs together as one, 
 so as practically to compose two large plates of the metals. 
 These will act in this case like a single pair. But Pro 
 fessor Daniell, whose name is an honoured one among 
 electricians, set to work to find a substitute for the zinc-and- 
 copper arrangement, owing to the defects of these already 
 stated. He therefore had to consider two points. First, 
 the deposition of zinc upon the copper ; and secondly, the 
 drawback caused by the bubbles of hydrogen resting upon 
 the plate. Of the amalgamation of the zinc we have 
 already spoken, and the next step was to enclose this 
 metal in a porous case with its own exciting fluid, either 
 sulphuric acid and water, or sulphate of zinc in the form 
 of a concentrated solution ; and to place the copper in an 
 outer cell, which was filled with a solution of sulphate of 
 copper. This being decomposed by the electric current, 
 constantly deposited a fresh coating of the metal upon 
 the copper plate, thereby renewing its surface and using 
 up the hydrogen that would otherwise have rendered the 
 battery defective. 
 
 To keep up a supply of copper deposit, crystals of the 
 sulphate of copper salt are laid upon a perforated shelf, 
 so as to touch the solution and gradually dissolve, being 
 replenished when necessary. The porous diaphragm was 
 originally of sailcloth, but brown paper or bladder was 
 
3 1 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 also used. These have now given way to plaster-of- Paris, 
 which is formed into the shape required, and answers the 
 desired purpose admirably. Of course it matters little 
 whether the cell is round, to receive a cast rod, or flat, to 
 contain a plate of zinc, and the copper cell may surround 
 it, as is often the arrangement, or the contrary plan may 
 be used. For electric telegraphs the form preferred is that 
 of a trough about 2 feet long, divided into compartments 
 by water-tight divisions, and subdivided by plaster-of- 
 Paris partitions. The plates of zinc and copper are joined 
 in pairs by a copper band at the top, which being bent 
 over in the form of an arch, brings the copper and zinc 
 plates face to face in the cells, but with a porous diaphragm 
 between them. The solutions are, as before, sulphuric acid 
 and sulphate of copper. From what has already been 
 stated, it will be understood that at each telegraph station 
 there is needed a battery, and also a coil or coils with 
 their respective dial-plates. After the current has passed 
 through the instrument at the operator's station it does 
 not return at once to the other pole of his battery, but 
 goes on to the coil at the distant station, and thus deflects 
 the needle at that place in the same way as it deflects it at 
 the sending station, so that it is read letter by letter by the 
 one who is despatching the message, and also instantan- 
 eously by him who is intended to receive it. It may also 
 evidently deflect needles similarly fitted with coils at any 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 3 1 1 
 
 number of intermediate stations. Having passed the last 
 coil in the series, the current used to be brought back by 
 a return wire to the other pole of the sender's battery. 
 
 What a splendid discovery it was ! and how rapidly it 
 has become a practical medium of business, and also of 
 private correspondence ! Borne now by a wire cable across 
 the Atlantic Ocean, the electric fluid, once toyed with only 
 in the lecture-room, now bears message after message with 
 lightning speed from one continent to the other. What- 
 ever is taking place in one country is instantly reported 
 in all directions, and the news upon which perhaps depends 
 a nation's destiny is read by the excited throngs thousands 
 of miles away. Before the sound of the last cannon-shot 
 has died away, the victory or the defeat is known in every 
 land; and indeed, as some of our young readers will under- 
 stand, a telegraphic report is announced in one country 
 before the event has actually occurred, owing to the 
 difference of time between eastern and western lands. 
 When the telegraph was first invented by Wheatstone upon 
 the foregoing principle, several wires appeared to be 
 necessary to convey messages to different parts, and in 
 all cases a return wire was used to carry back the current 
 to the battery of the sender. But it turned out on further 
 experiment that this was unnecessary, as the earth itself 
 was ready to be man's slave, and to transmit the current 
 unaided ; hence one wire was immediately done away 
 
3 1 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 with. The negative pole of the sender's battery to which 
 the current has to return is simply placed in metallic 
 connection with the earth by a wire with a plate of copper 
 attached to it, or very often it is simply led into a pit 
 with coke in it, or attached to the gas or water pipes. It 
 seems not to be of great importance how this is carried 
 out, so long as the wire is capable of readily conducting 
 the current to a bed of damp earth. The negative wires 
 of all the batteries are similarly treated, and according to 
 the theory commonly accepted, the electric current finds 
 its way back through the earth as readily as by means of 
 a metal conductor ; but don't forget, boys, to experiment 
 on this, for there are yet secrets to be evolved, or we are 
 mistaken. 
 
 But for our present purpose we may consider the con- 
 nection between the poles of the battery to be completed 
 by what is called the earth circuit, the effect being the 
 same as if the current passed from one terminal to the 
 other through a connecting wire. The transmitting in- 
 struments in use are not like that illustrated, as the 
 motion requires rapidity, which could not be attained in 
 this form of apparatus. The coil is placed, as stated, 
 upright, so that it appears something like the hand of a 
 clock. The outer or reading needle, however, is not of 
 metal but of ivory, and is simply fixed to the end of an 
 axis, which carries the astatic needles within the coil. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 313 
 
 The working parts are concealed inside the case of the 
 instrument, and on the outside is merely the ivory needle, 
 prevented from oscillating too far to the right and left 
 by little ivory studs ; and the handle is below, by which 
 the commutator is worked. An alphabet or a code of 
 signals is engraved upon the dial- face to assist the 
 memory. The handle alluded to is attached to the end 
 of a horizontal wooden roller, capped at each end with 
 brass, and there are slips of brass let into it lengthwise, 
 which reach to these caps. Two brass springs rise on 
 each side resting against the roller, so that by turning the 
 latter a little distance to right or left, these springs can 
 be made to rest on the brass slips, completing metallic 
 connection with the battery, or upon the intermediate 
 wooden part which breaks the connection. By moving 
 the handle to the right, one slip comes into action, and a 
 movement to the left does the same with the other, the 
 needles moving right or left accordingly. After what has 
 been said, the instrument will be, probably, understood 
 without a special drawing. 
 
 There is yet another system of electro - telegraphy 
 dependent upon quite a different principle. In this the 
 message is not conveyed by the oscillations of a needle 
 under the influence of an electric current, but by the 
 action of an electro - magnet upon certain clock -like 
 mechanism. This principle we must endeavour to explain, 
 
3 1 4 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 as it is applicable to other than telegraphic purposes, and 
 if it were not for the drawback of costliness in use, would 
 very likely supersede steam, or at any rate hold an 
 important place beside it as a motive agent. It was 
 known very early to experimenters upon Voltaic electricity, 
 that if a sewing-needle were laid within the coils of a 
 wire attached to a battery, it would become magnetised, as 
 also if a charge from a Leyden jar wire passed through 
 it. But it was subsequently discovered that if a bar of 
 soft iron were made the centre or core of such a coil, it 
 would retain its magnetism only so long as a current 
 from the battery continued, but that the moment con- 
 nection with the latter ceased, the iron would return to 
 its normal unmagnetised condition. 
 
 Suppose, therefore, a bar of iron fixed vertically upon 
 a stand, and surrounded by a closely -wound coil of 
 insulated wire. If a keeper, i.e., another bit of iron, were 
 suspended a short distance over its upper end by a light 
 spring, this would be attracted every time that connection 
 was made with the battery, and when the connection 
 ceased, the spring would raise it to its former position. 
 A short bar, 2 or 3 inches long, suffices for experiment, 
 and any little bit of iron may be fixed to the end of 
 a piece of watch-spring, so as to keep it one-sixteenth 
 of an inch from the end of the bar. The wire, we have 
 said, must be insulated, i.e., covered with a layer of non- 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 3 1 5 
 
 conducting material, generally silk or cotton wound round 
 it by machinery, but sometimes gutta-percha. The reason 
 is evident, for if the coils of wire touched the iron and 
 also each other, they would simply act as one plate, 
 becoming a mere solid conductor. But if the coils are 
 insulated, we can carry a current round about the iron as 
 many times as we please, thus multiplying greatly the 
 effect of the electric current. Suppose now — to make 
 the matter as simple as possible — that every time the 
 keeper descends upon the magnet, it represents a letter 
 or sign, as with the oscillations of the needle. It is plain 
 we can devise a code of signals as before, or by simple 
 mechanism we can make each movement of the keeper 
 act upon a needle or clock -hand, as in the telegraph 
 described. Thus we can use this electro-magnetic power 
 as easily as the other. This, however, is not the actual 
 way in which the telegraphic apparatus has been arranged, 
 but we shall revert to this presently. The first use made 
 of electro-magnets in respect to the telegraph was the 
 sounding of a bell as a signal to the distant station to 
 be ready to receive a message. As soon as the bell was 
 heard, the man at the receiving instrument replied by 
 moving the needle once to the left, to show the sender 
 that he was prepared to attend. These bells are not so 
 general as they used to be, however, for they made a 
 deal of noise in an office, where perhaps there were a 
 
3 1 6 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 dozen or more instruments; and, generally speaking, 
 a signal is announced as coming, by the sender moving 
 both handles to and fro with great rapidity, which, 
 causing the needles at the distant instrument to click 
 incessantly against the ivory studs on each side of them, 
 suffices to attract attention. The electric bell, however, 
 has recently been introduced into both hotels and private 
 houses, doing away with cranks and fittings, which so 
 continually get out of order that the change is found to 
 be a considerable benefit. A comparatively small con- 
 stant or Daniell battery in the cellar will continue months 
 in action without attention, and is easily replenished when 
 desired. In the telegraph instruments the bells were 
 usually on the top of a small case containing clockwork, 
 above the instrument. This was wound up, and the 
 electro-magnet did no more than release a catch for a 
 few moments, allowing the striking apparatus .to run 
 down as in an ordinary timepiece. When, however, 
 instead of many strokes of the hammer, only one is 
 required to be made, no clockwork is necessary, as the 
 sudden attraction of the keeper can be used directly, 
 being made to act upon the hammer itself. The distance, 
 however, through which attraction is exercised between 
 the magnet and keeper is very small, and the power of 
 attraction diminishes as the square of the distance; i.e., if 
 an attractive force of one pound is exercised upon a keeper 
 
SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 3 1 7 
 
 when it is one-twentieth of an inch from the end of the 
 magnet, it is but a quarter of a pound at the distance of 
 one-tenth of an inch. This is the drawback to the use of 
 such a power in practical machinery. It is a great power, 
 but it acts only so close to its source as to be unavailable, 
 and it is also far more costly than steam, owing to the rapid 
 consumption of the metal under the action of the exciting 
 liquid. Whether some other source of electricity may be 
 one day discovered, rendering its application less costly, 
 we cannot say ; but there is here again something to 
 occupy the attention of our boys, and they can indeed 
 experiment largely upon Yoltaic electricity long before 
 their jackets and knickerbockers have developed into 
 "tails" and those unpicturesque articles which disfigure 
 our legs. 
 
Chapter %\%. 
 
 THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 
 
 jf§?ND now, boys, we must say a few words about 
 the great human machine, whose value tran- 
 scends all which have been described in 
 these pages. And of this there are moving 
 parts very similar in arrangement to some of those 
 which we have set before you. But when we come to 
 the more intricate details, and especially to the secret 
 of the motive power which drives the machine, we find a 
 limit to our knowledge, and confess at once that we know 
 very little about it. For there comes a time when this 
 great and mysteriously - made machine ceases to do its 
 work ; frequently there appears, on examination, nothing 
 particular the matter. Every joint, and bone, and 
 muscle is in its proper place, and if we could but re- 
 kindle the fire which has suddenly gone out, all would 
 work as before. But that fire of life is extinguished, 
 
THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 319 
 
 and human hand avails not to relight it. And for want of 
 it the machine has become useless for worldly work, and 
 we lay it in the grave to become gradually dissolved 
 into its component particles, and then a few centuries 
 may pass by, and no visible trace can be found. Our 
 machine has become dust — as truly dust as the coffin of 
 wood in which we laid it — as truly dust as the iron, and 
 the brass, and the wood of which any other machine is 
 made, will become, after a similar interval ; so that to 
 the turner and his lathe, to the weaver and his loom, to 
 the carpenter and his tools, there is but one end, and that 
 end is dust. Theoretically, the motive power of the 
 machine is centred in the brain, and thence is carried 
 (just as we might convey the electric current by a 
 metallic conductor) down the spinal marrow, which is a 
 continuance of the brain substance, to the nerves, which 
 radiate from it like white threads to every part of the 
 human frame. These nerves, however, have their own 
 centres of energy, reminding us again of supplementary 
 batteries, sometimes added in a circuit to supply addi- 
 tional power. These are called, technically, nervous 
 " ganglia," and are arranged where it is required to con- 
 centrate nervous force. There is such at the pit of the 
 stomach, called the solar plexus, and a sudden blow upon 
 this has caused instant death, and is always dangerous. 
 If the nerve connection is severed, as, for instance, by any 
 
320 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 injury to the spinal marrow, the parts below it are so far 
 dead that they cease to be under the control of the will, 
 and then we call them paralysed. As long, however, as 
 the connection with the brain is perfect, and the nerves, 
 or human telegraph wires, are in sound and serviceable 
 condition, a message is instantly conveyed from the brain 
 to any part of the body, and motion is the result, so that 
 the will and the resultant action are almost simultaneous. 
 This is, however, comprehensible only as electricity is 
 comprehensible. We find, experimentally, a power exist- 
 ent, and that under certain laws it can be made 
 subservient to our desires; but what the power is, how 
 the human mind acts upon the will, and the will upon 
 the nervous system, this is the mystery we cannot 
 fathom — the mystery of life. And treating of life, we 
 allude here to physical or animal life generally, because 
 the animal world displays the same mysterious connection 
 between the will and the brain, the spinal marrow and 
 nerves and muscles, as is found in ourselves. The horse 
 wills to go forward, and it does so, or it wills to jib and 
 kick off its rider, and there is no doubt about that will 
 inducing the energetic action of the necessary muscles. 
 Many of our boys have had " croppers " in this way. 
 
 Passing from the motive power to the mechanical 
 structure of the body, we shall find, first of all,- a strong 
 but light framework, which we call the skeleton, to 
 
THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 321 
 
 which are attached, by wonderfully-arranged joints, the 
 various limbs or movable levers whereby the work of the 
 machine is carried on. The main difference between this 
 frame and that which we arrange ourselves is that it is 
 nowhere absolutely rigid, being, as it were, built up in 
 sections, each of which is attached to its neighbour 
 by cartilage, which may be compared to very stiff india- 
 rubber. Even single bones, which at first sight may 
 appear to be composed of but one piece, will be found, on 
 examination, to have the enlarged ends, which form the 
 actual hinges of the joints, attached to the shank by this 
 substance, which, being partially dissolved by long boil- 
 ing, is frequently seen to have become separated, espe- 
 cially in such young animals as lambs and calves. In 
 old carcasses much of this substance ossifies or becomes 
 absolute bone, losing, of course, its pliability. It is 
 partly from this cause that you boys are able to beat 
 your elders at various athletic exercises. There is more 
 pliability in your cartilage, and your joints are more 
 flexible ; but then, on the other hand, your muscles are 
 weaker, and your brain — well, we won't say anything 
 about that, it is active enough for } r our requirements, and 
 has wisdom enough for your years, and we should not 
 like old heads on young shoulders, nor that you should 
 begin very early in life to experience the various worries 
 which assail your elders. We are content to be the " old 
 
322 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 fogies" now, and some day old fogyism will get hold of 
 you, and your levers and cords, and system of joints and 
 pulleys will begin to fail as ours are now doing. So 
 make the most of your boyhood, for it is the most precious 
 time of life, if only it is used well and honourably as it 
 ought to be. 
 
 There are altogether about 252 bones in the human 
 skeleton, so that the wonder is not that rude shocks 
 occasionally dislocate joints, but that we are able to do so 
 much, and to endure so many vicissitudes, without putting 
 the whole machine into irreparable disorder. 
 
 Suppose that we break any part of a machine of 
 wood or metal, we either glue, or solder, or weld the 
 parts together ; and very often 'tis at best a clumsy 
 job, and the united parts are weak. But if we break a 
 bone of the great living machine, nature will make a 
 splendid job of mending it, if only we can keep the 
 broken ends together immovably for a few weeks. First 
 of all, inflammation of the part ensues, giving pain, but 
 originating the cure. Then there exudes from the broken 
 ends a fluid called lymph, which thickens into cartilage, 
 and then ossifies into bone, and the place where fracture 
 occurred is actually stronger than before. This, at any 
 rate, is a theory of the curative process commonly 
 received, but it is only right to state that some doubt has 
 been cast upon it, because it is found that pure bone, 
 
THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 323 
 
 without its natural sheath or thin covering of periosteum, 
 as it is called, will not then unite, so that it is quite 
 possible that the gelatine or cartilage is provided from 
 this sheath and not from the broken ends of the bone. 
 At all events, cartilage is first formed, and then, by a 
 deposition of lime, becomes osseous or bony. 
 
 Here again, you see, boys, the mysterious work of life, 
 the vis medicatrix natures, or natural tendency of nature 
 to repair injury. I fancy we might leave a broken bit of 
 wood or metal a precious long time in splinters without 
 such reparative process taking place ; but nature provides 
 a regular system of welding broken bones, and the points 
 of union are often less visible than those of the smith's 
 welding. 
 
 But we will now pass on to the consideration of the 
 strictly -mechanical arrangements of the human body. 
 Let us consider the arm first of all, as it is practically 
 hardest worked of all our members. Here fig. 64 is its 
 skeleton. In the hand is a weight B to be lifted. JSTow, 
 we find here a lever of the third order, and you will 
 remember that in this case there is loss of power but 
 gain of speed. It would scarcely be convenient to be 
 obliged to move our hand slowly ; we want it generally 
 to move through a good deal of space in double quick 
 time, and to do so with moderate force. The elbow- 
 joint is the fulcrum upon which the forearm, from the 
 
3 24 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 elbow to the hand, moves, and the latter is the rigid bar 
 or lever. The power is obtained from the contraction of 
 the muscles, one end of which is inserted below and 
 the other above the joint. C might be a doll's arm of 
 the usual Anglo-Dutch elegance of form, with a band of 
 indiarubber to represent one of the muscles by which the 
 
 Fig. 64. ^he bones of the forearm are badly drawn, but will suffice for the present pur- 
 pose of explaining their leverage and action of the muscles.) 
 
 forearm and hand are raised. The hand, you see, will 
 describe .a large arc, while the point at which the india- 
 rubber is fixed makes a small one, and this point being 
 so near the fulcrum, shows us that not much power is 
 obtainable, the strength of our indiarubber spring being 
 more than its total amount, because of its slanting posi- 
 tion. In the real human arm a number of muscles act 
 at once, and these are attached to the arm at various 
 
THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 325 
 
 parts, and to the bones of the trunk about the shoulder, 
 before and behind. Their power of contraction is very 
 great, and when you young rascals bend the arm to give 
 a blow to another boy who has " cheeked " you, you see 
 a great lump rise near your shoulder, which is the 
 heaping up of a big muscle called the biceps, caused by 
 its contraction. 
 
 All our limbs, as well as the head itself, are moved in 
 this way by muscles inserted at various points of the 
 skeleton, enabling us to perform all the mechanical 
 functions necessary to life. A muscle is composed of 
 fleshy fibres, which are combined at the ends into a 
 stringy or wiry substance called tendon. Where there 
 is not much of the fleshy part, you may see these tendons 
 looking almost like small bones — as, for instance, at the 
 back of the hand, where they radiate from a common 
 centre at the wrist to the knuckles. And at your heel is 
 a very good example of a strong tendon, called tench 
 Achillis, which, soon becoming very fleshy above, forms 
 the calf of the leg, of which well-developed youngsters 
 are so proud. 
 
 So much for our human levers and sources of mechani- 
 cal power. But in certain cases the direction of motion 
 needs to be changed, while the muscles remain in their 
 normal position ; and we come to just such an arrange- 
 ment as that of the pulley and cord, where a downward 
 
326 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 pull at one end is changed into an upward one at the 
 other. We have one special instance of this in the eye. 
 There is a muscle attached to it on one side, which, soon 
 after leaving it, passes through a cartilaginous loop, and 
 then returns at an acute angle to its former direction, 
 and is ultimately attached to a bone of the skull. This 
 muscle is called the superior oblique, and is the most 
 perfect instance of the system of motion by a cord and 
 pulley to be found in the human frame. The actual 
 pulley turning on its axis is indeed wanting, but its place 
 is well supplied by the ring of smoothly-polished cartilage. 
 While speaking of muscular action, I may once again 
 call attention to the difference between the machinery 
 devised by ourselves and the great human machine, that 
 is so fearfully and wonderfully made that its divine 
 creation is manifest in every part. In those which we 
 construct, we need to take hold of the rope or lever, or to 
 attach it to some extraneous motive power to give it 
 action ; but in man the will suffices as the prime mover, 
 and at once the muscle contracts, and the eye is moved, 
 or the hand lifted, or the leg advanced, and all is done 
 without noise through the vital agency which, for want 
 of a better name, we call " nerve force." 
 
 Let us advance a step farther. In all machines compris- 
 ing parts which move upon each other, such parts require 
 constant lubrication, and to prevent undue friction they are 
 
THE GREA TEST MA CHINE OF ALL. 327 
 
 made as smooth as possible. This is precisely the case in the 
 human machine. Wherever there is a joint, the rubbing 
 surfaces are coated with cartilage, presenting a highly - 
 polished aspect, as may be seen at any time by separating 
 the bones of a leg of mutton ; and over this surface 
 there is diffused an oil vulgarly called joint oil, but 
 which medical men term synovial fluid, secreted by the 
 membranes surrounding the joint. This is supplied in 
 moderate quantities only, just sufficing for perfect lubri- 
 cation of the parts ; but if the latter are injured, there is 
 generally either an increase in quantity or the quality is 
 impaired. The liquor is contained in what is called a 
 bursal sac, as we might keep a supply of oil for a shaft 
 in an oil-cup, and this sac often becomes inflamed and 
 enlarged, forming a swelling at the knee-joint known as 
 housemaid's knee, because it is often caused by kneeling 
 to scour floors. In this, as in other cases, the increased 
 supply of synovial fluid is due to the curative process by 
 which nature throws out additional protection to the 
 joint itself, by increasing the lubricating fluid, and thus 
 forming a natural cushion. Eventually, however, serious 
 injury results, causing sometimes a stiff joint. 
 
 The human machine I have so far compared with 
 those of wood and metal, as if the latter were rather the 
 pattern of the former ; but, as we all know, fingers were 
 not only made before forks, but the bodies of animals 
 
328 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 and men preceded by any number of centuries the 
 mechanical contrivances by which labour is abridged. 
 Indeed, if we go forth into the natural world, we shall 
 there find many a valuable model set before us if we use 
 our eyes and minds to discover them. There is, for 
 instance, a necessity sometimes for a joint that will 
 permit ready motion of the adjacent parts in all direc- 
 tions, but which shall, nevertheless, be close and compact. 
 We find our model here in the shoulder-joint, and we 
 apply it under the descriptive title of a " ball-and- 
 socket" joint. There is, first of all, at one end of tho 
 bone which forms the shoulder-blade, a shallow cup, 
 lined, as before, with cartilage, and supplied with synovial 
 fluid. Into this fits with great accuracy a spherical knob, 
 also covered with cartilage and as smooth as polished 
 ivory. To keep the two in contact there is a strong 
 cartilage, and the joint is encased in powerful muscles; so 
 that, although the arm may readily be swung about in 
 all directions, the ball will not leave the socket unless 
 the application of undue force wrenches it out, causing 
 the head to slip over the edge of its cup and to teal 
 some of the ligaments. This happens in dislocation, 
 when we say that the shoulder-blade is out of joint. In 
 the ball-and-socket joint used in mechanics, the principle 
 of this is carried out ; but instead of the tendons and 
 ligaments, the cup is made to embrace a larger portioD 
 
THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 329 
 
 of the ball, so that the latter cannot escape, or, as in 
 pendent gas-chandeliers, the cup is placed with its 
 bottom part downwards, and its centre is cut out. The 
 pipe to which the ball or hemispherical part is attached 
 is then dropped through this central hole, so that the 
 curved parts rest closely together. 
 
 In many centuries no substance was discovered at all 
 comparable to the human skin. This, under the micro- 
 eeooe, is seen to consist of cells in several layers ; but 
 what chiefly concerns us here is that it is an elastic, soft, 
 and yielding substance — waterproof, yet full of pores 
 through which the perspiration passed freely, far more 
 freely than is generally supposed, it being calculated that 
 no less than two or three pounds weight of water are 
 daily exuded through the skin, and that we have not less 
 than twenty-eight miles of tubing through which it 
 passes. This, at any rate, shows the necessity of keep- 
 ing the pores open by daily ablution, " cold tumbies " 
 being happily much in vogue for the purpose; but pro- 
 bably an occasional Turkish bath, which results in rivers 
 of perspiration, is necessary to maintain the skin in its 
 natural fine condition of elasticity. Now there are many 
 purposes in mechanics and in the departments of natural 
 science in which just such an elastic substance is 
 required, and for which human skins are certainly not 
 available, though, as an experiment, very excellent leather 
 
33c AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 has been made from this substance. A careful search 
 discovered first of all a tree called Ficus elastica, the 
 indiarubber-tree, the juice of which could be run into 
 moulds, and when dry, was found at ordinary tempera- 
 tures to possess the above qualities. But, unfortunately, 
 in cold weather, indiarubber becomes almost as hard as 
 board, and its elasticity then disappears; otherwise, 
 especially when worked into very thin sheets, it is not at 
 all unlike skin, and is applicable to many purposes in the 
 arts. But an accident discovered the fact, that in con- 
 junction with sulphur stirred into it when in a melted 
 state, indiarubber became equally pliable at all tempera- 
 tures, and was thence known as vulcanised. 
 
 Now this substance is perhaps the most completely 
 comparable to human skin of all materials known to 
 manufacturers, i.e., the skin of a living body. It is 
 waterproof, pliable and elastic at all ordinary tempera- 
 tures, can be worked thick or thin, and is also very 
 durable. Gigantic strides have been made since its 
 discovery in various directions, as it is just the substance 
 that was required for various purposes of trade ; and it 
 has proved applicable far beyond what was originally 
 intended to be its use. The first, or almost the first 
 application of it, was the construction of goloshes or 
 overshoes, which were orginally made by pouring liquid 
 caoutchouc, or indiarubber, over a stockiDg filled with 
 
THE GREATEST MACHINE OE ALL. 33 r 
 
 sand, and this was first done at the spot where the tree 
 grows, by allowing the juice or gum to flow at once over 
 this primitive mould. But these overshoes were very 
 expensive, generally as hard as board, so that until they 
 were laid by the fire to warm thoroughly, it was impossible 
 to put a foot inside them. As to shape ! dandy boys 
 of the present day, we can imagine the scorn and deri- 
 sion which would be shown could we present such 
 to you to wear ! Talk about beetle-crushers, boats, 
 portmanteaus — these were veritable canoes, and yet, for 
 want of a good substitute, they found a ready sale. But 
 when the vulcanised rubber was discovered, which can 
 be used as above, or in combination with elastic cloth and 
 other materials, it was at once seen how beautifully 
 applicable it was to the manufacture of overshoes. And 
 all at once these came by thousands into the market 
 from America, of moderate price, good shape, and of all 
 sizes. Indiarubber canoes hid their diminished faces, 
 and were seen no more — being sentenced to the knife 
 of the executioner, who cut them in pieces for the use of 
 artists and schoolboys for erasing pencil-marks. 
 
 Any trade list of vulcanised rubber goods will show 
 to what a pitch this trade has grown. Almost every 
 article of daily use is formed of it, for it is found that 
 by properly arranging the proportions of the sulphur and 
 gum, it may be made hard as wood, or soft as the softest 
 
332 AMONGST MA CHINES. 
 
 leather. Hence we can buy elastic rings to hold bundles 
 of letters ; elastic cord to be devoted to the window- 
 smashing contrivance called a catapult ; polished combs 
 to arrange the flowing locks of youth, or the long hair 
 (all her own of course) of the demoiselle ; buckets for 
 water, hose for fire-engines, and ten thousand articles 
 tedious to name. So we may have taken a hint from the 
 outer covering of the human frame ; but our cherished 
 skins are safe, and though perhaps we may one day be 
 cremated, if it should become the fashion, we need not 
 fear that we shall first be decorticated to provide elastic 
 membrane, or questionable leather, for the use of 
 survivors. 
 
 Recurring again to the mechanism of the human frame, 
 we have the arch and the dome beautifully shown us in 
 the skull, the hollow bones, and also in the ribs and pelvis. 
 The structure of the bones, moreover, teaches us the impor- 
 tant lesson of how to combine lightness and strength ; 
 and from these, and perhaps also from the hollow stocks 
 of reeds and corn and other plants, we first learned to cast 
 hollow iron pillars, and, if necessary, to strengthen these 
 towards the ends by sharp ridges or ribs, just as we find 
 many of the human bones strengthened in the neighbour- 
 hood of the joints. Then, again, in our veins and arteries 
 we have perfect models of elastic tubing for the convey- 
 ance of fluids. In the heart and windpipe we find valves 
 
THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 333 
 
 of perfect design and action. Nor is there any part of 
 the human frame which has not, or may not give to the 
 machinist valuable hints in the art of construction, if he 
 will but make use of eye and mind in studying God's 
 handiwork. And although we call this human machine 
 greatest and noblest of all, because it is the abode of that 
 mysterious something which we denominate the "soul," 
 yet nature — the great universe which we see around us — 
 is also such another glorious machine, of equal perfection 
 in the arrangement of all its details, and in their adapt- 
 ability to the various purposes for which they were de- 
 signed. Here we have mechanism and architecture 
 wherever we turn the eye ; and it is in the volume of 
 nature that the student must ever search to discover 
 each principle of these and kindred sciences, as well as 
 their practical application. 
 
 The oak in its giant strength, with buttressed trunk, 
 to which each bough is attached, with its spreading base, 
 " shouldered" as it might be called, at the point of junc- 
 tion, calculated to resist the strains brought upon every 
 part of it by the winter's storms — the stately poplar, 
 tapering gracefully from base to summit, yielding but 
 resisting, " stooping to conquer " — the waving corn in 
 the harvest-fields, with slender hollow stem supporting its 
 golden ears, heavy with their autumn gifts to thankless 
 man, — these, and such as these, teach us to combine 
 
334 AMONGST MA CHINES, 
 
 lightness with stability, pliability with strength. Every 
 scientific fact, it must be remembered, has been gathered 
 from careful observation of nature in her various moods, 
 and upon these is based the mechanical theory of con- 
 struction, whether of machinery or of buildings. And 
 not only so, but nature, in all probability, suggested in 
 turn to man the great majority of those arts and appli- 
 ances whereby he has surrounded himself with creature 
 comforts. 
 
 The spider and silkworm have given him his earliest 
 lessons in spinning and combining a number of yarns to 
 make a stronger rope or a coarser thread. The caterpillar 
 has shown him how, by such threads crossed and recrossed, 
 he may weave the fabrics of the loom. The tailor-bird 
 has suggested the use of needle and thread to unite such 
 fabrics to supply him with clothing. 
 
 The bee, in her economical use of the wax wherewith 
 she raises her many-chambered palace, has taught us 
 how to produce the greatest results with the least possible 
 material. The beaver as a hydraulic engineer, the rabbit 
 and the fox as constructors of tunnels and underground 
 abodes, have originated, in all probability, the idea of 
 penetrating hill and mountain with railways and canals, 
 and in nearly every instance of new inventions and new 
 discoveries the models will be found in nature's storehouse. 
 But we cannot here carry the subject into further detail. 
 
THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 335 
 
 We gladly leave our young readers the interesting task 
 of hunting out for themselves the mechanical examples 
 which our universe furnishes to instruct her zealous 
 students, and we do so the more readily, that in these days 
 of infidelity they may recognise the stamp of the Creatoi 
 in all His works, and be led to a deeper reverence and 
 love to Him who made all these things, permitting man 
 to use them for his help and comfort, until admitted to 
 a still more glorious universe, where no spot of sin shall 
 sully its perfections or hide its everlasting glories. 
 
 TEE END. 
 
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