strongest proofs of the absence of difficulty in making the change at home-facts of this kind, we say, are lightly brushed aside because the unit, or starting point, of those coinages is not as it would in the pound and mil scheme be, the pound sterling. There is, no doubt, some little ground for thus getting rid of the mass of evidence which travellers of every grade will be willing to furnish in favour of a decimal coinage, but indeed to us it seems that his lordship was driven to extremities when he availed himself of that ground. Without coming to the penny scheme, which, though having some advantages over the pound and mil scheme, is yet admitted to be inferior to it in many other respects, let us deal at once with the latter. It was stated in the report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, dated August, 1853, that that committee was 66 unanimous in recommending the pound sterling as the unit. Con"sidering," that report went on to state-" considering that the pound is the present standard, and therefore associated with all our "ideas of money value, and that it is the basis upon which all our exchange transactions with "the whole world rests, it appears to the committee that any alteration of it would lead to "complications and embarrassments in our "commercial dealings; in addition to which it "fortunately happens that its retention would "afford the means of introducing the decimal system with the minimum of change. Its "tenth part already exists in the shape of the florin, while an alteration of four per cent. in

themselves of decimal calculation, whilst the
latter would save them time, which is money!
There are many other points in regard to this
important subject which ought to be touched
upon; but feeling assured that the present
Government will not rest satisfied with the
able but one-sided report of the last Commis-
sion, but at once appoint another, of which Sir
John Bowring shall be a member, we reserve
them for consideration at some future day.
Our own decided conviction is that the further
introduction of the decimal system has been too
long delayed, and that the late Commission has
raised about it a cloud of mystery and doubt
which one year's practical experience of the
pound and mil system would cause to vanish
like the mists on the mountain tops on the ap-
pearance of the morning sun.

So far from sweeping away the florin, of
which Lord Overstone, with a good old-
fashioned prejudice in favour of the half-crown,
professes himself tired, we hope to see the day
when the supplementary coins alluded to shall
issue from the Mint, and prove themselves the
best arguers in favour of the decimal system.

THE LOCOMOTIVE: ITS PLACE IN

HISTORY.

IN Mr. Buckle's "History of Civilisation," the
following bold opinion is expressed: That
the locomotive steam-engine has done more to
unite mankind than all that philosophers, poets,
and prophets have taught from the beginning
of the world; and this is so emblematic both of

and institutions, our independence of speech and thought; and that this, working and fermenting in the best French minds of the 18th century, was, more than anything else, the cause of the great Revolution. What had the railway and steamboat to do with this? Or, to take an instance nearer home, has not the steam-engine been very busy recently in bringing French and Austrians together, and was it then "the bond of unity?" We would not be profane enough to ridicule a sacred fact. The steam-engine is a divine element in the civilization of the world. But the writings of Locke and Shakspeare are diviner than it; and only in the hands of a people transformed by thoughts like theirs can the steam-engine play its true part. This is the one great defect of this "History of Civilization," that it overrates what is material and external. It makes the character of whole nations depend upon food and climate. It sets up a doctrine of averages drawn from statistics, as throwing more light on the moral nature of man than all the accumulated experiences of former ages. It traces to external accident what the inspirations of individuals and races have achieved. It calls Cromwell's war a secular war; and Bacon's and Shakspeare's books, secular books. makes the superiority of Protestantism over Catholicism to consist purely of a superior common-sense and wider tolerance of difference

It

of opinion. It exalts tolerance above convic

tion. It exalts common-sense above reason and

"the value of the farthing will serve to convert the worth and of the defects of this noble book, this book are men of a metaphysical bent: Mon

that we give it in these pages as a sort of win-
dow-peep into the whole.

This sentiment well expresses the writer's

"that coin into the lowest step of the deci-
"mal scale which it is necessary to represent
by an actual coin, namely, the thousandth
part of a pound. To this lowest denomina-healthy, brave appreciation of things material
"tion the committee purpose, in order to mark and secular. No doubt, in the theory of life
"its relation to the unit of value, to give the
we have been educated in, there has been
"name of mil. The addition of a coin to be a most unholy divorce of the material life of
"called a cent, of the value of ten mils, and
man from his mental life. In nature, in idea,
equal to the hundredth part of a pound, would these two are one; and to make them one in
serve to complete the list of coins necessary universal fact is the great task of mankind. The
to represent the monies of amount, which street, the shop, or the cloth-mill is as holy a
"would accordingly be pounds, florins, cents, place as the church, if intelligence, heartiness,
and conscience be there. The steam-engine,
looked at as the product of mind, is as holy as
for noble ends, performs a true divine service.
a prayer-book; and when employed by mind
In short, bring the whole man into any material
act, interpenetrate it with energy, intellect,
heart, conscience, and the act is no longer ma-
terial, but as divine as the breath of prayer.

46

"and mils."

Such was the very distinct and unmistakeable definition of the pound and mil scheme of 1853, and such is a clear exposition of that scheme as it stands now, and was dealt with by Lord Overstone-we beg his lord hip's pardon -by the Commission which has recently delivered itself of its final report.

It is said of Dr. Arnold, that when he first saw the railway-train shoot by, he exclaimed, same spirit is the locomotive the favourite of Mr. Buckle. He is the firmest, most entire, and most pitiless foe of all artificial and false restrictions. Undo every fetter you have laid upon man, is the voice of his book from beginning to end of it. The inmost life of it is a protest against all false restraints. Thus Adam Smith, the father of our modern free trade, in writing the "Wealth of Nations," is extravagantly said to have given us, considering all its results, the most important book that ever was written. And just as inveterate is Mr. Buckle against false social as false fiscal restrictions. So democratic is he, it really seems a pure misfortune in his eyes to be born with a title and a name.

"That's the death-blow to feudalism." In the

We have not time nor space to follow Lord Overstone's wanderings through France, Sardinia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, and America, in his search for condemnatory evidence of decimal systems in general, and of the proposed pound and mil system in particular. It is quite certain that foreigners generally prefer the particular decimal plans which may be employed in their own countries; and there has unquestionably been much skill employed in framing many of them to suit the peculiarities of the peoples of those countries. It is admitted by his lordship that men of science throughout England are almost universal in their faith in the practicability of a decimal coinage, as also of its great value and simplicity as compared with the existing system. Among these scientific men, indeed, may be named the late, and the present master of the But, returning to our point, will the fondest Mint, Sir John Herschel and Dr. Graham, Pro- believer in machinery thus exalt the steam-enfessor de Morgan, Sir William Hamilton, and gine above the philosophies and poetries of the Many others. The scholastic profession, pro-world? Mr. Buckle has shown, towards the bably from their intimate acquaintanceship with close of his book, how the French, wholly igdecimal notation, are strong advocates of a de-norant of us English people during the reign of cimal coinage. The coins themselves, they say, Louis XIV., after his death suddenly became would teach the people generally how to avail acquainted with and enamoured of our 1 anners

imagination; "useful knowledges" above meta-
physics and poetry. And this, too, with a
strange inconsistency; for the main figures of
taigne, Descartes, Bichat, Locke, and Newton.
No doubt man is a unity; and 'tis foolish to
pit one faculty and possession against another.
But 'tis equally true that there are grades and
stairs of existence. There are things for the
senses; things for the logical or ratiocinative
power in us; and there are things for belief,
wonder, and love. Adam Smith gave us much
Watt still more; but Shakespeare, Homer, and
Plato far more than they. Community of trade,
community of intercourse, community of know-
ledge and opinion are unspeakably good; but
community of perception, conviction, belief,
good will, far better.
tude in some races and ages than in others; in
within, not from without; are in greater pleni-
checked or furthered by innumerable conditions
some individuals than in others. They are
and circumstances, but created or killed by none
of these. They do not quite depend upon
Egyptian, or an Arabian, eating dates, surely, or
"climate and food." They can come upon an
upon a Hindoo that subsists on rice, as upon a
Their rise and decline are not calculable by any
European eating bread in his temperate climate.
doctrine of averages. They come as the summer
lightnings and the summer breezes, when and
where we cannot foretel.

These come from

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL BENEVO

LENT COLLEGE. THERE is no greater characteristic of the present age than the rapidity with which longrooted prejudices have been removed, and their places taken by well-grounded and enlightened views. And in no one especial direction is this more remarkable than amongst the agricultural community of Great Britain. It is within the recollection of even ourselves that the farmers, as a body, persistently opposed every innovation against prescribed rules in reference to their soil

rules that were told off upon their fingers, and were revered and followed only because their tathers revered and followed their fathers before them. When it was first made apparent that the plough could be rendered less unwieldy, and

THE CASE OF HENRY CORT,

AND

HIS INVENTIONS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF BRITISH IRON.

BY

THOMAS WEBSTER, M.A., F.R.S., &c., Barrister-at-Law.

No. V.

do as much with two or even one as had before" per acre the same amount would be produced. | clusive evidence of the laborious detail with taken six horses to manage, the sharp edge of "It is a cause in which the humblest may do which the invention had been matured. Comimproved mechanical appliances entered not "good, the 50 pennies from the 50-acre farmer mencing with what are termed "large uses," only the earth, but the minds of the most im-" will, in its proportion, do as much real good such as shanks, arms, rings, and palms of anportant members of the landed proprietors also." as the contribution from the 10,000-acre hold- chors, it describes the laying bars of iron of Prejudice, driven from the centre of the citadel," "ing; do not, therefore, permit a false delicacy suitable lengths, forged on purpose, and tapertook refuge in the outposts, and amongst the "to crush a good intention, but give it existing, so as to be thinner at one end than the working men reigned triumphantly for a time. ence in a cause that will bear you tenfold other, one over another in the manner of The destruction of machinery by the illiterate "interest hereafter." bricks in buildings, so that the upper bars and ill-advised labourers perhaps hastened its everywhere cover the joints of those underneath, development, inasmuch as opposition is a great and thereby make a faggot, two bars wider than element in producing the essentials of persevethose which compose the beds, being laid at the rance in the English character. Chemistry folbottom and top and bolted so as to be better lowed close upon mechanics, and the wonders laid on the anvil and receive the first strokes of worked in consort with agriculture are now bethe hammer; the faggot is bound together as fore the world. It is not, then, a matter of close as possible. The system here described surprise to find the trio in juncta linked and is now known by the technical terms of bound together as with one mind, and zeal- HENRY CORT, the author of these inventions "piling" and "faggoting." The faggots so preously engaged in consecrating so great a victory. and of that system which has been described as pared by the system of piling to the amount of The Royal Agricultural Benevolent College constituting the third epoch in the history half-a-ton more or less, are to be put into a "for the Relief of Decayed Farmers, their of the British iron manufacture, was born in common air furnace and usually called a ball"Widows and Orphans," is the embodiment of 1740; his father was a builder at Lancaster. ing furnace, and there is brought to a welding a co-operative thankfulness for a grand and About the year 1765, Henry Cort had esta-heat at the same time with greater despatch continuous social progress. The thought, we blished himself as a navy agent in Surrey-street, than can be effected in a hollow fire with a believe, has emanated from Alderman Mechi, Strand, and in 1768 married Elizabeth Hey- blast. The giving this welding heat in a ballwho, it would seem, has by the application of a sham, the daughter of a solicitor in Stafford-ing furnace according to the method and prosimple, soul-stirring appeal from Tiptree, prac- shire, and steward of the Duke of Portland. tically effected the humane object of his advo- The issue of that marriage was as follows :cacy. Already the first men in literature and the Henry Bell Cort ........born 29th Dec., 1769. arts, whether in the ranks of wealth or genius, Conningsby Cort 12th Nov., 1770. have given in their adhesion to the proposal; William Thomas Cort... 16th Dec., 1771. Eliza Jane Cort and so great has been the instant success 21st April, 1773. Harriet Ann Cort. 22nd April, 1775. attendant upon the promulgation of the scheme John Harman Cort Jany., 1777. that, strange to say, for once, it has left the Maria Cort..... important labours of the journalist far in arrear. Charlotte Cort The has to record what has been done, not Frederic John Cort Caroline Cort.... that which it is desired to do. Richard Cort.. Louisa Cort

66

pen

We cannot do better than reprint a few extracts from the addresses of Alderman Mechi upon this subject, and we do it not as a work of supererogation but as placing on record the fact that, with energy and tact, great good may be effected, and that as the field of philanthropy is by no means over-cropped, others may profit by this example of the Christian farmer, who has left the gate open for those who would glean, and showed the way to yet further tillage for the production and fruition of good works.

66

13th June, 1778.
12th Oct., 1779.
10th Oct., 1781.

18th Jany., 1783.

20th April, 1784.
21st June, 1786.
24ht Feb., 1790.

Catherine Frampton Cort
Of those thirteen, the son, Richard Cort, born
20th April, 1784, and three daughters, are the
only survivors, their united ages being upwards
of 290 years.

cess specified, is stated to be part of the invention. The specification, after describing the method adopted where several weldings are to be made, concludes the part of the description by stating as follows:-"The whole is neatly finished under a large hammer without the use of either chaffery or hollow fire. And I find that the largest uses thus finished by me are in all respects possessed of the highest degree of perfection. I also have found that the fire in the balling furnace is better suited for its regularity and penetrating quality to give the iron a perfect welding heat throughout its whole mass without burning in any part, than any fire blown by blast, insomuch that if bar or other massy iron is bound into a faggot of five or six inches diameter by an old cask hoop the After ten years of success as a navy agent, sixteenth part of an inch in thickness, the one during which period he amassed a considerable will acquire a complete welding heat and the sum of money, Henry Cort was induced, about other not be burnt or wasted, and the iron is the year 1775, to relinquish his navy agency welded to the centre instead of, as in the usual business and to prosecute a series of experiments method practised being covered only with an in the manufacture of iron at Fontley, near Fare- incrustation." In the above is the announceham, Hants, in partnership with one Adam Jelli- ment of the system of piling, faggoting, and heatcoe, of the Pay-office. He erected a forge and milling, in an air or balling furnace, of iron to be on the estate of Mr. Delme; he purchased the forged by hammers into various uses, as a means premises and the goodwill of a business at Gos- of securing uniformity of constitution in opposiport, which, with the debts for iron supplied to tion to the old system of heating in a hollow fire the navy, were valued at upwards of £39,000. under a blast. The specification having reIn his business of a navy agent, Cort had be- marked on the imperfect removal by the forge come well acquainted with the inferiority of the hammer of the impurities-earth, salt, and sulBritish and the superiority of the foreign iron, phur-describes a process of cleansing if the and he entered with zeal and enthusiasm into iron be in a dirty state, as conducive to producing the attempts to improve the home manufacture iron of purer grain and more perfect contexture of iron, so as to make Great Britain independent proceeds to describe the working of the faggots of foreign nations for the supply of this most by passing through rollers, and states as folimportant article. It is much to be regretted lows:-"and by this simple process all the that no record exists of the steps by which Cort earthy particles are pressed out and the iron arrived at the series of processes constituting becomes at once free from dross, or what is his invention; prudence would prevent the usually called cinder, and is compressed into a disclosure of the results of his experiments fibrous and tough state." Such is the simple until after the patents should have been cb-process of manufacture producing a result which tained, and recourse must be had to the speis thus stated:"Accordingly, a bar of the cifications as the only authentic records of the worst ordinary iron in which the grains of metal invention. are large and much separated by the impurities with which it is impregnated being passed through the simple operation becomes instantly of good quality, and two or more of the same bars or of any pieces of impure iron heated in the same manner, and passed through the rollers together, become at once welded into one solid body and meliorated into good tough iron, without being previously cleansed in the scouring barrel or otherwise. If the iron to be welded by this method is intended for plates of any kind, it is bundled or laid together,

"If we reflect for one moment," says Mr. Mechi, "wherein can we discover a reason why "the industrious farmer should be specially "screened from the frowns of fortune, or those vicissitudes which are the painful lot of every "other class? Why should he expect to be exempt from that stern misfortune and bitter poverty which we see so frequently too painfully illustrated in every other department of daily life? None can say that his risks are "less frequent, or his chances of success more "certain. Why, then, should he in his suffer"ing and his tribulation be shut out and ex"cluded from the enjoyment of that support and sympathy which are diffused so profusely throughout the length and breadth of the land, for the benefit and solace of every "suffering class but his own? Let us remove "this reproach. Let us assume that place in "so noble and charitable a list which the in"fluence and the dignity of agriculture demand, "and I am assured the bare mention of such a "project for the amelioration and relief of those "who, while suffering, complain not, will Cort's first patent bears date the 17th speedily realize such a happy and much-January, 1783. It is for "A peculiar method "needed consummation. Towards the fulfilment of such an object, I have received "promises of hearty and zealous support from some of the leading agriculturists and imple"ment manufacturers in the kingdom, who "most cordially sympathize with the sugges❝tion. One farthing per acre, on the 48,000,000 acres farmed in this country, would produce “£50,000, or, if one-fourth only gave one penny

before being put into the furnace, in the shape and size best suited to the use for which such plates are intended, and passed repeatedly through the common rolling and slitting mill rollers with flat surfaces till it acquires the requisite degree of thinness. If it be intended for flat or square bars, rods, hoops, or the like, as soon as welded and made sufficiently thin under the rollers, it may at the same heat be passed through the slitters, and from them again through the rollers, if needful, for proper uses. When the iron thus to be welded through the rollers is designed for bars, half flats or thimble iron, with feather edges, a groove of the requisite dimensions is made in the under roller, through which groove the iron is to be passed in the state of welding heat."

these consisting in their adaptation and manner of application. It should also be observed that the improved blast or application of improved blowing machinery was wholly immaterial to Cort's invention, which required only the ordinary reverberatory or air furnace.

THE SEWING MACHINE.
ITS VALUE.

No. III.

Few persons in Great Britain are aware of the immense value of the sewing machine trade either to those who use machines, to those who own them, to those who manufacture them, or to the public in general.

motion takes place, accompanied by the emission of a bluish flame or vapour; the operation is continued, as occasion may require, of raking, separating, stirring, and spreading the whole about the furnace till it loses its fusibility, and is brought into nature; the iron when so brought into nature is collected together in lumps called Cort, at the conclusion of his specification in loops, of sizes suited to the intended purposes, the passage already cited, declares his practice and so drawn out of the doors or furnaces. The to be "entirely new, and contrary to all received specification declares the above method and opinions amongst persons conversant in the process of preparing, manufacturing, and work- manufacture of iron." That he should have ing of iron, in substitution and instead of the to encounter detraction, disbelief, and opposiuse of the finery, to be Cort's invention, and tion is the inheritance of such men; fortunately, never before used or put in practice by any however, his position in society, and the means other person or persons. The specification pro- in his control, enabled him to demonstrate be ceeds to state that the iron so prepared may beyond cavil the truth of his representations as to afterwards stamped into plates, and piled and the improvements resulting from his combined The specification also states :-" Much of the worked in an air furnace; but that the method processes in the manufacture of iron. success of the operations described depend on and process invented and brought to perfection the iron being properly cut, faggoted, banded, by Cort is to continue the loops in the same or placed together;" and that in mills of suffi- furnace, or to put them into another air furnace cient power, with rollers large enough to admit or furnaces, and to heat them to a white or of grooves and collars for the purpose, very welding heat, and then to shingle them under great sized iron may be welded in this manner a forge hammer, or by other machinery; and as well as under the hammer, the heat being after having been shingled to the size of the the same in both cases, and claims such process grooves in the rollers are worked through the as his own invention, and put in use by him grooved rollers, in the manner in which Cort only. It is material to observe that Cort, in used bars or wrought iron faggoted, and heated The running of a sewing machine is a remarkably this specification, speaks of the rollers, furnace, to a welding heat; which manner of working and separate processes as well known; there is any sort of iron in a white or welding heat healthful and pleasant employment. The erect no claim to any of them separately, the claim is through grooved rollers, Cort declares to be attitude of the operator, the exercise of the lower to the reducing of the faggots of piled iron into entirely his own invention. The following is limbs in giving it motion, its lively clicking, and lars, and the welding of such bars by rollers in- the concluding paragraph of the specification: the rapidity with which "band and gusset and seam are sewn up-all tend to keep up the spirits stead of by forge hammers. This invention as "Iron and steel so prepared, made, wrought, and preserve the health. The hours of labour, then announced and described in the specifica- and manufactured by such effectual applica- too, are short. In this country operators work tion in the above terms is a faithful description tion of fire and machinery, will be discharged on an average only nine or ten hours a day. One of the manufacture as now practised. Cort's of the impurities and foreign matter which firm in New York which employs about 200 own language may be applied to the manufac-adheres to them when manufactured in the machines and 400 young women, says: "The ture as practised after an interval of 75 years; methods commonly practised. The steel is fatigue is so slight that our employés work the the grooved rolls, whether of the rectangular, of an excellent quality, and the iron will be year round and continue in good health and diamond, or double flanged shape, are the rolls found to be good tough iron in bars and uses, spirits." An American lady, accustomed to use a described by Cort and used for the same pur-whether large or small, and in all sorts of mer- machine in her family, writes: "My sewing mapes; each presenting a specific section through chant iron, whether it be made from metal of chine is to me perfectly fascinating. My children which the iron at a welding heat is constrained a red short or cold short nature; and blistered leave their amusements for the sake of operating to pass, being unable to escape on either side, steel, whether made from iron prepared accord-it. The laundress and the waiting-maid hurry and becoming deprived of its impurities, con- ing to the above process, or from any other through their duties to share that of the sempstress. Housekeepers may well exchange their densed, elongated, and welded, precisely in the iron when faggoted together, heated to a Lanner described by Cort. It should be re- white or welding heat, rolled in that heat pianos, which they never have time to use, for a machine which will relieve them of many hours of marked that Cort in this specification takes and through grooved rollers, according to the weary labour. Substituting, as it does, healthful treats bar-iron as then existing; this invention method invented by me, and slit through exercise, and cheerful, rational employment for the begins with and has reference to a method of the common cutters, is equal to steel manufac-soul-and-body destroying drudgery of hand-sewing, anking "uses," as they are termed, by piling, tured by forge and tilt hammers. The whole it should be hailed as Woman's Friend." faggoting, and rolling, not to the manufacture of which discovery and attainment are proof the bar from the cast-iron which forms the duced by a more effectual application of fire subject of the next patent. and machinery, as described by me, than was before known of or used by others, and are entirely new and contrary to all received opinions amongst persons conversant in the manufacture of iron; and the whole of my method may be completed without the necessity of using finery, charcoal, cokes, chaffery, blast by bellows or cylinders, or otherwise, or or hollow fire, and without requiring any the use of fluxes in any part of the process. The whole operation to be performed with one or more furnaces, according to the quantities or dispatch required."

Cort's second patent is dated 13th Feb., 1784; it is for "A new mode and art of shingling, welling, and manufacturing iron and steel into bars, plates, rods, and otherwise, of purer quality, in large quantities, by a more effectual application of fires and machinery, and with greater yield than any method before attained or put in practice."

The specification enrolled on the 12th day of Jane (four months after the date of the patent), elates to the preparing, manufacturing, and velding of iron from the ore, as well as from Row and pig metal, and also from every other sort of cast iron, together with or without scull and cinder iron and wrought iron straps. The furnace employed is the reverberatory or air farace, hollowed or dished out at the bottom, 28 to contain the metal when in a fluid state. The furnace having been brought to a proper degree of heat, the fluid metal is conveyed into the air furnace, or the metal may be fused in the furnace, the doors of which are then closed the metal is sufficiently fused, when the whole is worked and moved about by bars and other firly shaped instruments through apertures, which operation is continued until an coullition effervescence, or such like intestine

On the 12th day of June, 1784, Cort had published in the specification of his two patents the processes of which he asserted himself to be the inventor. No one can peruse these records of his invention without being at once struck with the precision and completeness of the disclosure thus made to the world as to the processes by which the manufacture of bar iron and of its uses was to be attained. The specification of the second patent discloses the process of "puddling" precisely as now practised. And it will be observed here also that reverberatory and air furnaces, and rollers, and working instruments are treated and spoken of as things well known; the invention in respect of

Its introduction has tended to raise women's

wages. In the United States the wages of operators range from 12s. to 33s. per week. In New York a woman has been known to make as

high as £12 per week with two assistants to prepare and finish the work. In Great Britain the wages of operators range from 7s. to 30s. per week, (the average being probably about 12s. per week), "whereas a mere sempstress can hardly earn half this sum, and that, too, through long protracted, labour." In the stay-trade, the stay-stitchers who did the cheapest kind of work could only obtain an average of 1s. 6d. or 28. a week, but by the use of a sewing machine they can now earn from 7s. to 9s. a week.

But while the sewing machine has doubled the wages of one class of operatives, it has not perceptibly lessened the number of persons engaged in tailoring, bootmaking, shirtmaking, dressmaking, and similar trades. "It may tend to displace a portion of male labour, but at the same time it calls into existence female labour, and that, too, at an enhanced value."* More work is put upon clothing now than before the use of machinery. Even on the coarser garments worn by the middle and poorer classes there is or amental work, such as double instead of single stitching on shirts, and on the breasts and sleeves of coats. Besides, the lessened cost of production has greatly increased

See Dr. Strang's Paper on "The Sewing Machine in Glasgow," read before the British Association, at Leeds, september 25, 1858.

national wealth by one million and a half. During
the same period, sewing machines must have
added not less than fifteen millions to the wealth
of the United States.

MONEY-MAKING AT THE ROYAL MINT.
No. VI.

the demand for ready-made clothing both for to the presses, without the aid of shafting or home consumption and for exportation to all parts gearing or any apparatus susceptible of disarof the world. The necessary consequence of this rangement, is a thing of which, as the author, the increasing demand for well-made clothing has foremen of the coining press-room may very been an increasing demand for female labour. legitimately feel proud. The pockets of his Poor women now get better pay for lighter work fellow-countrymen have been spared to some exthan they did a few years ago, when Hood drew tent by its introduction, if his own have derived the sympathies of the world to the needlewomen no benefit therefrom. The extent to which the of London by his inimitable "Song of the Shirt." Ir will be remembered that in our last week's vacuum may be raised by the double-acting coinAt present the demand for sewing machine paper on this interesting subject, the coining ing-pump is regulated by a steelyard relief valve operators exceeds the supply, and with the far-press-room was spoken of, and the rapid manner placed on a branch of the vacuum-chamber, and a ther extension of the use of machines we may in which the conversion of prepared blanks of barometer gauge near it. If medals are in pronaturally expect increased employment for females metal, whether of gold, silver, or copper, into cess of manipulation the vacuum is at its maximum and an increase of their wages. sterling coin, under the force of the screw presses, point; if quarter-farthings, or obolis, then at its drew forth its meed of commendation. There were minimum. But every coin which has issued from allusions made also to the vacuum-chamber, by the Mint for the last forty-nine years-and a the aid of which the direct motion is given to great majority of the medals also owe their those presses; and of this it will be perhaps well sharp, clear, and beautiful impressions to the to give a little further explanation before advanc-weight of the atmosphere. The air we breathe ing to the process of medal striking, and the has, in short, coined all the money we use. manufacture of dies.

The amount of sewing done by a single machine in a day or week necessarily varies with the expertness of the operator, the kind of machine used, and the quality of the work to be done. With a good operator on a first-class machine, one thousand yards of straight seam, ten stitches to the inch, is said to be an ordinary day's work of ten hours. Ten dozen of shirt wristbands can be made in an hour. Fifty dozen collars, or eighty shirt bosoms with seven rows of stitching, are easily made in one day. Eight fine linen coats may be made in a day of ten hours, and thirty such coats are an average week's work for one machine.

This rapidity of production has, hitherto, served to increase the profits of the wealthy manufacturers who own machines rather than to reduce the price of the manufactured article. Almost all those persons who were so rich and so fortunate as to purchase machines two or three years ago have been gaining a profit of from 20 to 25 per cent. more than their competitors who were content to plod on in the old methods of doing business. In some kinds of goods, however, the sewing machine has reduced the price of the finished article. In New York the price of men's clothing and of ladies' gaiter boots has been reduced about 20 per cent. It is said that in London, bootmakers can buy machine-made boot tops 30 per cent. cheaper than those made by hand. The finished boots, however, have not fallen in price more than from 10 to 15 per cent. But not until the reduction in the cost of manufacturing has been followed by a corresponding reduction in the prices of the finished articles in every department of trade will the full value and importance of the sewing machine be sensibly felt by the whole commu. nity.

The profits of those who use machines cannot, however, be so large as the profits of those who make them. It is believed by many persons in America that the three firms who have monopolized almost the whole business in the United States have become so wealthy that they are able to control the Patent Office. The existence of this belief (although it must be unfounded) is the best evidence of the enormous profits made by American manufacturers. We have no means of obtaining information regarding the profits of manufacturing in England. Machinists, judging merely from the appearance of the finished machine, say that on machines sold from £20 to £30 the manufacturer's profit cannot amount to less than three-fifths of the selling prices; that is, on a machine sold for £25 the manufacturer has a clear profit of £15.

But while the profits of some of the patentees both in this country and the United States have been enormous, the public have gained largely from the use of their inventions. A single sewing machine in the least advantageous work is equal to the labour of six persons, and in many kinds of work, especially the finer and more difficult kinds of work, it is equal to the labour of from fifteen to twenty persons. Making every allowance, therefore, for the time machines are out of order, we may safely estimate that, on an average, every machine in Great Britain does as much as seven hand sewers. The 10,000 machines now at work in the country have added as much to its wealth as the labour of 60,000 persons beyond those actually employed would have added in the same time. And supposing these machines have been in use for only two years, they have already increased the

In touching upon this theme, it may be menThe vacuum-chamber was spoken of as an iron tioned that a branch from the main artery for the tube of considerable dimensions, and its use ex- circulation of air-the suction pipe to the vacuumplained, but it was not stated by what means the chamber-a branch from this descends to the vacuum in it was got up and maintained. When vacuum-chamber of the weighing-room atmoBoulton and Watt in 1810 fitted up this portion spheric engine, and thus creates the steady, neverof the Mint they had determined by actual ex-changing motion which is given to the valuable periment at Soho that the pressure of the atmo- | weighing machines of which we have spoken. sphere was the best possible power to use for It will be now completely understood that the stamping money, and they had accordingly vacuum-chamber is an important adjunct to the devised what was called secret machinery on screw-presses; and, as the latter were left in our that principle for the Royal establishment. They, last chapter delivering themselves of finished however, had calculated that for the effective coins at the rate, if all were in action, of 200,000 working of the eight presses ordered for Tower- per diem, we may return to them after this dishill a ten-horse steam engine with two powerful sertation on air. "Trifles light as air" have been air-pumps would be necessary. These were sup- alluded to by our never-to-be-forgotten bard; but, plied, and the air-pumps, on the butterfly valve if he had known as much of the weight of that principle, 24 inches in diameter, and with a 28 ethereal substance as the Queen's coiners, he inch stroke, worked from either end of a pump would doubtless have substituted another simile. beam driven by a crank on the end of the fly- The gold pieces of the four bags have been folwheel shaft of the engine, were employed for a lowed by many, many more, and there, ranged in number of years-up to 1852, indeed-in exhaust- the butcher's trays without handles, are thouing the vacuum-chamber. sands and thousands of the metallic portraits of Things might have gone on in this primitive Her Majesty. These are, at the close of the day, and very expensive manner up to this hour had placed on trucks, conveyed once again to the not a very remarkable improvement been suggested scales, weighed up carefully, folded once again in in 1851 by a young mechanic, who had a few the little journey bags of 180oz., placed, in batches years previously been transplanted from the es- of eight bags or 5,608 sovereigns, in the trays, put tablishment of the Messrs. Rennie. This gentle-into omnibus trucks, deposited in the stronghold, man, whose name ought to be better known at and locked. "Thanks!" says the officer, in turnthe Treasury, conceived that if instead of using ing the key upon perhaps 300,000 or 400,000— the one steam engine and the two pumps of "thanks be to Providence, the wearing anxieties Boulton and Watt for the exhaustive process, he and cares of the day are over! Thanks, for losing were to attach to the beam of a 20-horse power sight of gold." engine, by Rennie-lately erected at a distance of On the following morning at eleven, it is likely some 220 or 230 feet from the press-room, and that a visitor to the Mint would see issuing into used for pumping water from an artesian well of the "quadrilateral," or rather the quadrangular great depth-a double acting air pump, and then space, one or perhaps two of the omnibus trucks carry a tube to connect it with the vacuum- evidently bearing heavy burdens, and requiring chamber over the roof of the coining department, each three or four men to propel them. They each he might accomplish the same object at a vastly contain, in fact, 70,100 sovereigns, weighing diminished expense. The proposition obtained 18.003 06 ozs., and are destined to pass in-in very little attention, although laid before the Sheil- different form, shape, and value to that in which Hume commission, until the advent of Captain when bound for the melting-house they left itHarness, R.E., who at once saw the practicability to the central office. Arrived per tramway before and value of the plan. In the beginning of the alluded to, they are now "pyxed" by the senior year 1853 the inventor of the new arrangement officers. The pyxing is an operation into which had the satisfaction of seeing it adopted, manu- we need at present perhaps not go into minute factured by Rennie, and put to practical use. It detail. It is a very ancient custom. Briefly, it was found vastly superior in every respect to the may be said that a coin is reserved from each bag old system. The extent of the vacuum gained of gold-and the same may be said of silver-and by the well-constructed pump-which was of placed in the pix, meaning a casket or chest. This large comparative area and of short stroke, and latter, after the whole of the bags have had one which of course exhausted in the up and the down coin abstracted from each and another to make stroke-was much higher than could be obtained the journey weights correct, is sealed with three by the ancient "butterflies." The power obtained, seals and secured with three locks. The Master too, was more steady and uniform, whilst the of the Mint holds one of these, the Chancellor of saving effected amounted to something like £200 the Exchequer another, and the Queen's Assayor per annum in fuel and wages-a saving still going the third. The pieces of gold or silver so careAnother great advantage which it gave to fully preserved are kept till the trial of the pix, the Mint was, that it answered the purpose of a an annual performance-something after tho duplicate steam-engine. If the new pump became sheriff's hob-nail arithmetic feat in usefulness — deranged, the old butterflies would be resorted to, at which the fineness of the metal, as compared and if the latter broke down there was the new with certain trial plates kept in the treasury of arrangement in reserve. the chapel of Edward the Confessor, in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, is enquired into and a dinner partaken of. The pyxing at the Mint is a short operation, and after it the coins are ready

on.

This very neat plan of transferring so much of the power of the pumping-engine as is needed over the building and among the chimney-pots,

THE following prizes for implements have been and lead; but when it contains other metals I find awarded::