Page images
PDF
EPUB

agriculture, and the various subjects connected with it, many facts, discoveries and improvements have been recorded and laid before the public, in the transactions of numerous agricultural Societies, formed in almost every part of Europe, and in America. These associations have proposed questions to be brought to the test of experiment and discussion; have offered premiums and honours for encouraging the necessary inquiries; have invited free communications from all classes of citizens; and by these means brought to light many instructive facts and doctrines, which the exertions of detached individuals could scarcely have developed. It is, doubtless, to the influence of these associations that we are to ascribe much of that pre-eminence in agriculture, over all other ages, which the eighteenth century claims.

The improvements which have taken place in the agriculture of the United States, during the last twenty or thirty years, are very great. Our farmers, it is true, are far from having kept pace with their European brethren in enterprise, and the adoption of new and profitable modes of cultivation. Many of them obstinately adhere to practices which have been completely exploded; and neglect others and better, though recommended by the fullest experience, But if much remains to be done, much has also been performed towards the correction of this evil. Within a few years past, societies for the promotion of agriculture have been formed in all the principal States in the Union. Gentlemen of learning, observation, and property have zealously embarked in this interesting cause. The adoption of trans-atlantic improvements is gradually becoming more common; and the aspect of a large portion of our country indicates a considerable increase of enterprise and of taste in husbandry. The number of our country

men who have contributed to the advancement of agriculture by their writings is small. Among these may be mentioned Chancellor LIVINGSTON, Professor MITCHILL, and several other gentlemen, whose valuable communications appear in the transactions of the Agricultural Society of NewYork; Judge PETERS, and Dr. LOGAN, of Pennsylvania; and Mr. BORDLEY, of Maryland.

a

CHAPTER IX.

MECHANIC ARTS.

THE progress of civilized man in the mechanic arts, during the last hundred years, has been astonishingly great. To attempt a review, in detail, even of the principal inventions, discoveries and improvements, which have taken place, during the period in question, in this boundless field for the exertion of genius and enterprise, would swell this section into many volumes. But happily the minds of most readers are so conversant with many of the objects which demand attention, in this department of the present work, that such minuteness of detail is as unnecessary as it is impossible.

The modern discoveries in Mechanical Philosophy have led to great and important improvements in the mechanic arts. The subserviency of those discoveries to the progress of many branches of art will readily appear from the perusal of the

d Agricultural Inquiries on Plaster of Paris, &c. 8vo. 1797.
Agricultural Experiments on Gypsum, &c. 8vo. 1797.
f Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs, &c. 8vo. 1799.

chapter which relates to them. That they have contributed, and will probably yet contribute, in a considerable degree, to the abridgement of labour, to the convenience and profit of artists, and to the excellence and beauty of manufactures, is too obvious to require particular explanation.

The great discoveries which the philosophers of the last century made in Chemistry, may also be considered as rendering very distinguished service to the mechanic arts. On the manufacture of all metallic and earthen wares, the improvements in chemistry have shed important light; and indeed to all the arts in the different processes of which heat, solution, composition, distillation, fermentation, and precipitation are necessary, chemical philosophy has furnished valuable aid.

Never were manufactures carried on upon sq large a scale as during the eighteenth century, especially toward the close of it. The number of hands, and the amount of capitals employed in various branches of manufacture in Europe, may be pronounced, without hesitation, greatly to exceed the largest establishments of any former times.

It may also be asserted, that manufactures in general were never carried on with so much expedition and cheapness, or with so much elegance of workmanship, as at the close of the period under review. It is true, these circumstances have led to an increased slightness, and the want of durabi lity, particularly in some articles of modern manufacture; but in many more cases, a great improvement in quality, as well as in elegance, has taken place.

The division and abridgement of labour were carried to a greater length in the course of the last age than in any preceding period. The influence of both these circumstances in promoting the me

chanic arts, will be readily appreciated by every intelligent reader.

But besides these general remarks, it will be proper to take notice of some of the principal inventions and improvements of the mechanical kind, by which the last age is distinguished.

The different kinds of machinery for Carding and Spinning Cotton, which modern times have produced, have proved a source of incalculable advantage to manufacturers, and do honour to the age. Less than forty years ago, the only machine much used for reducing cotton wool into yarn, was the One-thread-wheel. Other methods, indeed, had been thought of, and proposed for promoting a more easy and expeditious process; but without any extensive or permanent success. At length, about the year 1767, Mr. JAMES HARGRAVE, an English weaver, constructed a machine, by means of which any number of threads, from twenty to eighty, might be spun at once, and for which he obtained a patent. This machine is called a Jenny, and deservedly holds a high place among modern inventions. The astonishing abridgement of labour which it produces has been too much and generally celebrated to require illustration here. Soon after the invention of this machine, Mr. HARGRAVE Contrived a new method of carding cotton, more easy and expeditious than the old way of carding by the hand, which was now found inadequate to the rapid progress and large demands of the improved mode of spinning. He was succeeded by several other ingenious artists, who laboured with success, and who produced that expeditious plan of carding, by what are commonly called Cylinder-cards, which is now so extensively and profitably practised.

The next and most remarkable improvements in this kind of machinery were made by Mr. ARK

WRIGHT, afterwards Sir RICHARD ARKWRIGHT, also of Great-Britain. He laid before the public his new method of spinning cotton, in 1768, for which he obtained a patent in 1769. In 1775 he also obtained patents for several engines which he had constructed to prepare the materials for spinning. The result of his different inventions is a combination of machinery, impelled by horses, water, or steam, according to circumstances, by which cotton is carded, roved and spun with wonderful expedition, and with great exactness and equality.

The effects produced by these splendid improvements, in extending the cotton manufactures of Great-Britain, and in rendering them a source of national wealth and aggrandizement, are generally known. The number of cotton mills erected within a few years past; the great number of hands to which they afford employment; the immense capitals devoted to them; and their great productiveness, present a spectacle altogether unparalleled in history.

The first British Calicoes were made in Lan. cashire, about the year 1772. The manufacture of Muslins was first successfully introduced into that country in 1781. Both these branches of manufacture, which were before chiefly confined to India, have lately gained an extension, and assumed a consequence which must render their introduction a most important era in the history of Great-Britain.

Machines for carding and spinning cotton were introduced into several parts of the United States during the last fifteen years of the century under

g Sir RICHARD ARKWRIGHT was bred a barber; and was, in the early part of his life, in very low circumstances. He rose in fortune and in fame rapidly; and, in 1793, died at his manufactory in Derbyshire, leaving property to the amount of £ 500,000 sterling, or 2,225,000 dollars. HARDIE's Biographical Dictionary.

« PreviousContinue »