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brush, appears of a perfect brown colour. It is then covered with a varnish, consisting of one quart of spirit of wine, dragon's blood in powder three drachms, shell lac bruised one ounce. This varnish is applied in the following manner :-The barrel, after the process of browning, is carefully brushed and wiped, and then is immersed in boiling water, which contains an alkali, whereby the acid on the barrel may be taken up the barrel is then rubbed dry, and made smooth by a burnisher of hard wood, after which it is heated to nearly 212° Fahr., when the above varnish is laid on. The varnish, when dry, is burnished until the surface of the barrel presents a smooth glossy appearance. In the meantime the stock is prepared to meet his spouse, the barrel, in a state of perfect costume, corresponding with that of his companion for life-the barrel; for it is stained and varnished, and its iron appendages are burnished. Such are the gradations by which a piece of wood and a piece of iron are converted into a powerful engine for the destruction of life.

Of late years there has been introduced into the service a variety of musket called the rifle. We have derived it from the French, and its peculiarities are, a very small bore, and certain vermicular canals, on its internal surface, varying in depth and number. These canals are called rays or threads, which are sometimes cut in such a manner as to make the line which begins on the right side of the breech terminate on the opposite side at the muzzle. By this contrivance the ball is made to revolve in the barrel (after the charge explodes) on its own axis, and it moves to its destination in a spiral manner. The following remarks of the author on the subject of the gun-trade are worthy of attention for various reasons, of which the reader will obtain a knowledge by perusing them :

Scarcely any thing can more strikingly illustrate the vast extent of our local manufacturers, and the freedom of dealing in an article, upon the export of which the political existence of continental states, and even the security of our country might depend, than the gun-trade of Birmingham. -Whenever warlike movements are seriously contemplated abroad, the great Warwickshire workshop is resorted to, and customers are welcomed according to their means of payment. The arms which Holland and Belgium employed in the recent struggle, or rather, perhaps, those that might have been required, had the two countries been allowed to continue the contest-were only not furnished by the Birmingham gunsmith because neither the Dutch nor Flemish agents could give that security for payment which was required. Poland, too, unhappy Poland! pending the struggle that, for the present, has decided the fate of that country, had its agents in Birmingham, with an order for 50,000 stand of arms; but the singularly novel and unsafe conditions required of the manufacturers,-namely, the safe delivery of the arms in Poland! stood in the way of a ratification of the contract. Attempts were made by parties to meet the emergency; and many cases, filled with iron piping, were arrested in transitu, the continental inspectors perceiving, at once, the difference of manufacture between tubes

for the conveyance of gas or water, and those for the discharge of powder or ball.

Even the the British government itself, if we may admit the authority of a Birmingham Journal, has no objection, under certain circumstances, to resell arms purchased from Birmingham, to other countries. It appears that, in November 1830, the French government despatched agents to Birmingham, where they were led to understand they might, upon the instant, purchase from 400,000 to 500,000 stand of arms. The contemplated use of these arms was the equipment of the National Guard. Upon enquiry, however, the French agents found they were mistaken as to the amount of ready-made muskets to be obtained in Birmingham; and were, in consequence, recommended by the manufacturers to apply to the British government for assistance. Ever since the close of the war, a large depôt of arms had been established in the Tower; and it was known to some in the trade, that of this warlike stock the government were desirous to dispose. Accordingly, the French agents adopted this advice; and immediately entered into a negociation with the English government. At first their applications appeared to be decidedly successful; but, subsequently, owing either to the unsettled state of Ireland, or the commotions and threatening prospects of our own country, the government declined to part with the arms, and the negociation was abruptly broken off. This immediately led to a renewal of the correspondence with the Birmingham manufacturers; the principal agent on the part of the French government being no other person than Mr. Rothschild, the eminent capitalist and money-broker. The total number required by the French government was 140,000 stand of arms, part of which were manufactured by London houses. The whole of this contract was required to be completed in seven months.

The celerity with which fire-arms were manufactured, and the high prices paid to workmen in periods of excitement and demand, are strikingly illustrative of the perfection to which our countrymen have carried this branch of manufacture. At Birmingham, during the war, it was understood that they made a musket per minute, and the contract price at which they were supplied to the British government was 36s. each. A serious reduction, however, took place when peace came; so that the prices paid by the French, in the contract above mentioned, and which were considered liberal, were about 28 francs, or nearly 23s. each gun. For gun-locks, which, towards the beginning of the previous year, only 1s. 6d. each was paid, the manufacturers were glad, at the end of 1830, to give 2s. 6d.

About the period in question, and when the French contract excited considerable attention, especially in connexion with the report that the order was for 1,400,000 stand of arms, a London newspaper asserted that the Birmingham manufacturers would require fourteen years for the completion of so extensive an order. The journal whose authority is before quoted contradicts this assumption, and on satisfactory data; for it appears, by reference to a table in Mr. Parsons's pamphlet on the manufacture of fire-arms, that, in the year 1813, there were fabricated in Birmingham, for the Board of Ordnance, not less than 320,643 stand of arms; and in 1812, 288,741. From the statement set forth in this pamphlet, from authorised returns, it further appears, that from the year 1804 to 1815, more than two-thirds of the fire-arms made for the Board of Ordnance, during the war, were made in Birmingham. Allowing for the reduction in the number of hands which has necessarily taken place within these few years, there is no doubt but at

the present time the manufacturers of Birmingham could set up 200,000 stand of arms per annum, while those of London would produce from 80,000 to 100,000.

It will be readily conceived that the fluctuations consequent on such an important but variable trade must be productive of serious inconveniences to the workmen, and even to the town of Birmingham. Such is the fact; and, owing to the comparative extinction of the trade, since the close of the war, the operative departments have often been abandoned by the workmen, for other more certain and permanent sources of employment and subsistence. But when there has been any stir, as with the contract before mentioned, these men, elated by the temporary prospect, generally in numbers return to their old avocations.-vol. ii. pp. 111-114.

Chapter the sixth is devoted to those manufactures which chiefly constitute the produce of the whitesmith or brightsmith, so called because he makes and finishes metallic articles which have a bright surface. After reciting the qualifications which a good mechanic with this title ought to possess, the author proceeds to describe the processes of forging, swaging, and filing; followed up by graphic and interesting accounts of lathes and screws, and their numerous varieties. In the seventh chapter he introduces us to the historical details and the modern improvements in the apparatus employed for securing the advantages of heat and warmth in houses. The rudimental condition of fire-places seem to have been this: the fuel was lighted in the middle of the floor, and the smoke was left to escape by a hole in the roof. The first advance to a better state was signalised by the use of the portable fire-pan, a mode which is still employed in several countries in Northern Europe. According to Seneca, tubes were constructed in the walls, in his time, which carried off the smoke. By degrees the modifications of these tubes, and the receptacles for the fuel, amounted to something of the nature of the flues and stoves which we now use. Before the fourteenth century there existed in this country scarcely any desire, even amongst the baronial families, of obtaining artificial heat in their dwellings, independently of such means as cooking and the forge required. We find that, at the University of Oxford, no fires were allowed, even so late as the reign of Henry VIII.; and that the boys, during winter, went to sup at eight, and afterwards to their books until nine, when they were allowed to take a run to warm themselves. At the close of the twelfth century there was scarcely a chimney in all England, for such a luxury was only permitted either in a religious or manor house, or in the great hall of a lord's castle. In every other habitation the fire-place was a raised hearth, where the inmates dressed their food and dined, leaving the smoke to get out in the best manner it could. Chimneys, nevertheless, are of great antiquity in England, and in the Vision of Pierce Plowman, written in the reign of Edward III., there is particular mention made of a chamber with a chimney. Newcastle coal was burned as a staple article of fuel as early as 1400 in London,

the introduction of that fossil being supposed to have taken place in 1234. The apparatus in which it was consumed must have been formed of iron, and might possibly be some form of those tressels or handirons (or andirons) which were once so common, and are still retained by some staunch lovers of antiquity, under the name of dogs. These irons were placed near each other, and their length could be accommodated to that of the brands intended for fuel. Strutt gives a full account of those used in the royal palaces in the time of Henry VIII. These andirons are little known in the commerce of England; but they are articles of considerable traffic with America, being sent out from Birmingham chiefly to countries where wood is the entire fuel. By degrees a complete transition was effected from these irons to actual fire-places, which were composed of bars connected with each other. Moveable fire-places were established in general use two hundred years ago. It is only in the last century that we may look, however, for those marked improvements in stove-grates and hot-air apparatus, whereby great importance was given to the manufacture. Thus, in 1780, we find the most extensive ameliorations taking place in chimneys and stoves, in consequence of the diffusion of right principles regarding the theory of heat in its practical application to domestic purposes, and one of the results of this knowledge was the plan of contracted fire-places. From 1780 to 1800 the markets of England were almost exclusively supplied by a variety of stoves, called bath, pantheon, and forest. The latest improvement which has taken place in stoves is that of the register, the name being adopted from the principle employed in it, that of registering the draught of air up the chimney. It is so made as to fill the whole space within the chimney jambs; it is perfectly close and entire, the backs, sides, roof, and front, being all composed of metal plates. The front is fixed in the opening in the apartment which leads to the flue; the sides are coved or inclined backwards, for the purpose of throwing back the heat into the room; and in the roof will be found a falling door, which is capable of being raised or lowered so as to regulate the draught or to let off the smoke. The scientific principle elucidated in these stoves is, that the sides or coves of the fire-place should not be in contact with the metal around the fire, but that they should be put into an oblique position, which would enable them to reflect the heat of the fire.

We now arrive at that portion of the work which is dedicated to the subject of iron printing machinery. To this, with an excusable attachment, we shall devote the remaining space which we have prescribed for the present paper. Until the time of the late Earl of Stanhope, the presses employed in this country differed but little from those used in the rest of Europe-all being principally composed of wood. This old fashioned press was constructed as follows On two upright cheeks of wood were stout cross pieces, in which an iron screw was worked. To some tackle at the end of this screw

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was suspended a wooden table, sometimes faced with iron, called the platten. By means of the platten, when pressed down by the screw (the latter being forced down by a bar or lever handle), an impression was effected on one side of a sheet, placed on the forms, or masses of type, beneath it. Earl Stanhope was the first to change this apparatus. The principle on which the old press acted was to produce, by the action of a common lever on the screw, an impression from the types: but the Stanhope press comprehended, instead of the common lever, the application of a compound leverage, which concentrated an immensely increased power in the screw. The improvement was so obvious, that the principle of the new press was sought to be embodied in the old; but this attempt was unsuccessful, for the leverage of the Stanhope shook the wooden frame-work to pieces, and, in a very short space of time, iron succeeded, with the general consent, as the great material for presses. Most of the facts in the history of the different iron presses are derived by the author from the clever and elaborate work of Mr. Johnson, called Typographia. It would be in vain to endeavour to give the reader any idea of the machinery as it is modified in the presses of highest estimation, called the Stanhopian, Columbian, and Albion, except through the assistance of the excellent diagrams which accompany the author's descriptions, and to which we find it necessary to refer at every instant. The Stanhope press was the result of many laborious experiments engaged in by the Earl, with the assistance of Mr. Walker, a late ingenious mechanic. The first press was completed in the year 1800, and its powers tried at the office called the Shakspeare Press. Great generosity of mind, which happily was, in this instance, united with genius and assiduity, prompted him to abandon the sordid advantages of a patent, and the use of the press was thrown open. A great number of alterations have, since 1800, been made, particularly in those parts called the rounce and the ribs.

The Columbian press was invented by Mr. George Clymer, of Philadelphia; and was first introduced into Europe, practically, in the year 1817: it still continues to maintain its right to a general preference amongst the profession in this country. This sort of press is now the established one in the different offices immediately connected with the government; in Oxford, Cambridge; in the printing establishments of the Emperor of Russia and King of Holland; in America; the East Indies; and in about four hundred of the first printing establishments in the principal cities and towns of the United Kingdom. This press seems destined especially for heavy jobs; and, when employed merely on such, it produces better work than any other.

The other press, the Albion, has ranked high in the estimation of printers; but its use has lately been superseded by the Imperial press of Messrs. Sherwin and Cope, which is a beautiful and compact machine, the works on which the power of this press depends

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