On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures | Page 6

other countries, in the greater intelligence and superior education of the working classes. The system would naturally commence in some large town, by the union of some of the most prudent and active workmen; and their example, if successful, would be followed by others. The small capitalist would next join them, and such factories would go on increasing until competition compelled the large capitalist to adopt the same system; and, ultimately, the whole faculties of every man engaged in manufacture would be concentrated upon one object--the art of producing a good article at the lowest possible cost--whilst the moral effect on that class of the population would be useful in the highest degree, since it would render character of far greater value to the workman than it is at present.
To one criticism which has been made, this volume is perfectly open. I have dismissed the important subject of the patent-laws in a few lines. The subject presents, in my opinion, great difficulties, and I have been unwilling to write upon it, because I do not see my way. I will only here advert to one difficulty. What constitutes an invention? Few simple mechanical contrivances are new; and most combinations may be viewed as species, and classed under genera of more or less generality; and may, in consequence, be pronounced old or new, according to the mechanical knowledge of the person who gives his opinion.
Some of my critics have amused their readers with the wildness of the schemes I have occasionally thrown out; and I myself have sometimes smiled along with them. Perhaps it were wiser for present reputation to offer nothing but profoundly meditated plans, but I do not think knowledge will be most advanced by that course; such sparks may kindle the energies of other minds more favourably circumstanced for pursuing the enquiries. Thus I have now ventured to give some speculations on the mode of blowing furnaces for smelting iron; and even supposing them to be visionary, it is of some importance thus to call the attention of a large population, engaged in one of our most extensive manufactures, to the singular fact, that four-fifths of the steam power used to blow their furnaces actually cools them.
I have collected, with some pains, the criticisms* on the first edition of this work, and have availed myself of much information which has been communicated to me by my friends, for the improvement of the present volume. If I have succeeded in expressing that I had to explain with perspicuity, I am aware that much of this clearness is due to my friend, Dr Fitton, to whom both the present and the former edition are indebted for such an examination and correction, as an author himself has very rarely the power to bestow.
[*Footnote: Several of these have probably escaped me, and I shall feel indebted to any one who will inform my publisher of any future remarks.]
22 November, 1832.

Section I.

INTRODUCTION.
The object of the present volume is to point out the effects and the advantages which arise from the use of tools and machines;--to endeavour to classify their modes of action;--and to trace both the causes and the consequences of applying machinery to supersede the skill and power of the human arm.
A view of the mechanical part of the subject will, in the first instance, occupy our attention, and to this the first section of the work will be devoted. The first chapter of the section will contain some remarks on the general sources from whence the advantages of machinery are derived, and the succeeding nine chapters will contain a detailed examination of principles of a less general character. The eleventh chapter contains numerous subdivisions, and is important from the extensive classification it affords of the arts in which copying is so largely employed. The twelfth chapter, which completes the first section, contains a few suggestions for the assistance of those who propose visiting manufactories.
The second section, after an introductory chapter on the difference between making and manufacturing, will contain, in the succeeding chapters, a discussion of many of the questions which relate to the political economy of the subject. It was found that the domestic arrangement, or interior economy of factories, was so interwoven with the more general questions, that it was deemed unadvisable to separate the two subjects. The concluding chapter of this section, and of the work itself, relates to the future prospects of manufactures, as arising from the application of science.

Chapter 1
Sources of the Advantages arising from Machinery and Manufactures
1. There exists, perhaps, no single circumstance which distinguishes our country more remarkably from all others, than the vast extent and perfection to which we have carried the contrivance of tools and machines for forming those conveniences of which so large a quantity is consumed by almost every class