Saving time in Natural Operations

47. The process of tanning will furnish us with a striking ill.u.s.tration of the power of machinery in accelerating certain processes in which natural operations have a princ.i.p.al effect.

The object of this art is to combine a certain principle called tanning with every particle of the skin to be tanned. This, in the ordinary process, is accomplished by allowing the skins to soak in pits containing a solution of tanning matter: they remain in the pits six, twelve, or eighteen months; and in some instances (if the hides are very thick), they are exposed to the operation for two years, or even during a longer period. This length of time is apparently required in order to allow the tanning matter to penetrate into the interior of a thick hide.

The improved process consists in placing the hides with the solution of tan in close vessels, and then exhausting the air.

The effect is to withdraw any air which may be contained in the pores of the hides, and to aid capillary attraction by the pressure of the atmosphere in forcing the tan into the interior of the skins. The effect of the additional force thus brought into action can be equal only to one atmosphere, but a further improvement has been made: the vessel containing the hides is, after exhaustion, filled up with a solution of tan; a small additional quant.i.ty is then injected with a forcing-pump. By these means any degree of pressure may be given which the containing vessel is capable of supporting; and it has been found that, by employing such a method, the thickest hides may be tanned in six weeks or two months.

48. The same process of injection might be applied to impregnate timber with tar, or any other substance capable of preserving it from decay, and if it were not too expensive, the deal floors of houses might thus be impregnated with alumine or other substances, which would render them much less liable to be accidentally set on fire. In some cases it might be useful to impregnate woods with resins, varnish, or oil; and wood saturated with oil might, in some instances, be usefully employed in machinery for giving a constant, but very minute supply of that fluid to iron or steel, against which it is worked. Some idea of the quant.i.ty of matter which can be injected into wood by great pressure, may be formed, from considering the fact stated by Mr Scoresby, respecting an accident which occurred to a boat of one of our whaling-ships. The harpoon having been struck into the fish, the whale in this instance, dived directly down, and carried the boat along with him. On returning to the surface the animal was killed, but the boat, instead of rising, was found suspended beneath the whale by the rope of the harpoon; and on drawing it up, every part of the wood was found to be so completely saturated with water as to sink immediately to the bottom.

49. The operation of bleaching linen in the open air is one for which considerable time is necessary; and although it does not require much labour, yet, from the risk of damage and of robbery from long /exposure, a mode of shortening the process was highly desirable. The method now practised, although not mechanical, is such a remarkable instance of the application of science to the practical purposes of manufactures, that in mentioning the advantages derived from shortening natural operations, it would have been scarcely pardonable to have omitted all allusion to the beautiful application of chlorine, in combination with lime, to the art of bleaching.

50. Another instance more strictly mechanical occurs in some countries where fuel is expensive, and the heat of the sun is not sufficient to evaporate the water from brine springs. The water is first pumped up to a reservoir, and then allowed to fall in small streams through f.a.ggots. Thus it becomes divided; and, presenting a large surface, evaporation is facilitated, and the.

brine which is collected in the vessels below the f.a.ggots is stronger than that which was pumped up. After thus getting rid of a large part of the water, the remaining portion is driven off by boiling. The success of this process depends on the condition of the atmosphere with respect to moisture. If the air, at the time the brine falls through the f.a.ggots, holds in solution as much moisture as it can contain in an invisible state, no more can be absorbed from the salt water, and the labour expended in pumping is entirely wasted. The state of the air, as to dryness, is therefore an important consideration in fixing the time when this operation is to be performed; and an attentive examination of its state, by means of the hygrometer, might be productive of some economy of labour.

51. In some countries, where wood is scarce, the evaporation of salt water is carried on by a large collection of ropes which are stretched perpendicularly. In pa.s.sing down the ropes, the water deposits the sulphate of lime which it held in solution, and gradually incrusts them, so that in the course of twenty years, when they are nearly rotten, they are still sustained by the surrounding incrustation, thus presenting the appearance of a vast collection of small columns.

52. Amongst natural operations perpetually altering the surface of our globe, there are some which it would be advantageous to accelerate. The wearing down of the rocks which impede the rapids of navigable rivers, is one of this cla.s.s. A very beautiful process for accomplishing this object has been employed in America. A boat is placed at the bottom of the rapid, and kept in its position by a long rope which is firmly fixed on the bank of the river near the top. An axis, having a wheel similar to the paddle-wheel of a steamboat fixed at each end of it, is placed across the boat; so that the two wheels and their connecting axis shall revolve rapidly, being driven by the force of the pa.s.sing current. Let us now imagine several beams of wood shod with pointed iron fixed at the ends of strong levers, projecting beyond the bow of the boat, as in the annexed representation.

If these levers are at liberty to move up and down, and if one or more projecting pieces, called cams, are fixed on the axis opposite to the end of each lever, the action of the stream upon the wheels will keep up a perpetual succession of blows. The sharp-pointed shoe striking upon the rock at the bottom, will continually detach small pieces, which the stream will immediately carry off. Thus, by the mere action of the river itself, a constant and most effectual system of pounding the rock at its bottom is established. A single workman may, by the aid of a rudder, direct the boat to any required part of the stream; and when it is necessary to move up the rapid, as the channel is cut, he can easily cause the boat to advance by means of a capstan.

53. When the object of the machinery just described has been accomplished, and the channel is sufficiently deep, a slight alteration converts the apparatus to another purpose almost equally advantageous. The stampers and the projecting pieces on the axis are removed, and a barrel of wood or metal, surrounding part of the axis, and capable, at pleasure, of being connected with, or disconnected from the axis itself, is subst.i.tuted. The rope which hitherto fastened the boat, is now fixed to this barrel; and if the barrel is loose upon the axis, the paddle-wheel makes the axis only revolve, and the boat remains in its place: but the moment the axis is attached to its surrounding barrel, this begins to turn, and winding up the rope, the boat is gradually drawn up against the stream; and may be employed as a kind of tug-boat for vessels which have occasion to ascend the rapid. When the tug-boat reaches the summit the barrel is released from the axis, and friction being applied to moderate its velocity, the boat is allowed to descend.

54. Clocks occupy a very high place amongst instruments by means of which human time is economized: and their multiplication in conspicuous places in large towns is attended with many advantages. Their position, nevertheless, in London, is often very ill chosen; and the usual place, halfway up on a high steeple, in the midst of narrow streets, in a crowded city, is very unfavourable, unless the church happen to stand out from the houses which form the street. The most eligible situation for a clock is, that it should project considerably into the street at some elevation, with a dial-plate on each side, like that which belonged to the old church of St Dunstan, in Fleet Street, so that pa.s.sengers in both directions would have their attention directed to the hour.

55. A similar remark applies, with much greater force, to the present defective mode of informing the public of the position of the receiving houses for the twopenny and general post. In the lowest corner of the window of some attractive shop is found a small slit, with a bra.s.s plate indicating its important office so obscurely that it seems to be an object rather to prevent its being conspicuous. No striking sign a.s.sists the anxious enquirer, who, as the moments rapidly pa.s.s which precede the hour of closing, torments the pa.s.senger with his enquiries for the nearest post-office. He reaches it, perhaps, just as it is closed; and must then either hasten to a distant part of the town in order to procure the admission of his letters or give up the idea of forwarding them by that post; and thus, if they are foreign letters, he may lose, perhaps, a week or a fortnight by waiting for the next packet.

The inconvenience in this and in some other cases, is of perpetual and everyday occurrence; and though, in the greater part of the individual cases, it may be of trifling moment, the sum of all these produces an amount, which it is always worthy of the government of a large and active population to attend to. The remedy is simple and obvious: it would only be necessary, at each letter-box, to have a light frame of iron projecting from the house over the pavement, and carrying the letters G. P., or T.

P., or any other distinctive sign. All private signs are at present very properly prohibited from projecting into the street: the pa.s.senger, therefore, would at once know where to direct his attention, in order to discover a post-office; and those letter-boxes which occurred in the great thoroughfares could not fail to be generally known.

Chapter 7

Exerting Forces Too Great for Human Power, and Executing Operations Too Delicate for Human Touch

56. It requires some skill and a considerable apparatus to enable many men to exert their whole force at a given point; and when this number amounts to hundreds or to thousands, additional difficulties present themselves. If ten thousand men were hired to act simultaneously, it would be exceedingly difficult to discover whether each exerted his whole force, and consequently, to be a.s.sured that each man did the duty for which he was paid.

And if still larger bodies of men or animals were necessary, not only would the difficulty of directing them become greater, but the expense would increase from the necessity of transporting food for their subsistence.

The difficulty of enabling a large number of men to exert their force at the same instant of time has been almost obviated by the use of sound. The whistle of the boatswain performs this service on board ships; and in removing, by manual force, the vast ma.s.s of granite, weighing above 1,400 tons, on which the equestrian figure of Peter the Great is placed at St Petersburgh, a drummer was always stationed on its summit to give the signal for the united efforts of the workmen.

An ancient Egyptian drawing was discovered a few years since, by Champollion, in which a mult.i.tude of men appeared harnessed to a huge block of stone, on the top of which stood a single individual with his hands raised above his head, apparently in the act of clapping them, for the purpose of insuring the exertion of their combined force at the same moment of time.

57. In mines, it is sometimes necessary to raise or lower great weights by capstans requiring the force of more than one hundred men. These work upon the surface; but the directions must be communicated from below, perhaps from the depth of two hundred fathoms. This communication, however, is accomplished with ease and certainty by signals: the usual apparatus is a kind of clapper placed on the surface close to the capstan, so that every man may hear, and put in motion from below by a rope pa.s.sing up the shaft.

At Wheal Friendship mine in Cornwall, a different contrivance is employed: there is in that mine an inclined plane, pa.s.sing underground about two-thirds of a mile in length. Signals are communicated by a continuous rod of metal, which being struck below, the blow is distinctly heard on the surface.

58. In all our larger manufactories numerous instances occur of the application of the power of steam to overcome resistances which it would require far greater expense to surmount by means of animal labour. The twisting of the largest cables, the rolling, hammering, and cutting large ma.s.ses of iron, the draining of our mines, all require enormous exertions of physical force continued for considerable periods of time. Other means are had recourse to when the force required is great, and the s.p.a.ce through which it is to act is small. The hydraulic press of Bramah can, by the exertion of one man, produce a pressure of 1,500 atmospheres; and with such an instrument a hollow cylinder of wrought iron three inches thick has been burst. In rivetting together the iron plates, out of which steam-engine boilers are made, it is necessary to produce as close a joint as possible.

This is accomplished by using the rivets red-hot: while they are in that state the two plates of iron are rivetted together, and the contraction which the rivet undergoes in cooling draws them together with a force which is only limited by the tenacity of the metal of which the rivet itself is made.

59. It is not alone in the greater operations of the engineer or the manufacturer, that those vast powers which man has called into action, in availing himself of the agency of steam, are fully developed. Wherever the individual operation demanding little force for its own performance is to be multiplied in almost endless repet.i.tion, commensurate power is required. It is the same "giant arm" which twists "the largest cable", that spins from the cotton plant an "almost gossamer thread". Obedient to the hand which called into action its resistless powers, it contends with the ocean and the storm, and rides triumphant through dangers and difficulties unattempted by the older modes of navigation. It is the same engine that, in its more regulated action, weaves the canvas it may one day supersede, or, with almost fairy fingers, entwines the meshes of the most delicate fabric that adorns the female form.(1*)

60. The Fifth Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Holyhead Roads furnishes ample proof of the great superiority of steam vessels. The following extracts are taken from the evidence of Captain Rogers, the commander of one of the packets:

Question. Are you not perfectly satisfied, from the experience you have had, that the steam vessel you command is capable of performing what no sailing vessel can do?

Answer. Yes.

Question. During your pa.s.sage from Gravesend to the Downs, could any square-rigged vessel, from a first-rate down to a sloop of war, have performed the voyage you did in the time you did it in the steamboat?

Answer. No: it was impossible. In the Downs we pa.s.sed several Indiamen, and 150 sail there that could not move down the channel: and at the back of Dungeness we pa.s.sed 120 more.

Question. At the time you performed that voyage, with the weather you have described, from the Downs to Milford, if that weather had continued twelve months, would any square-rigged vessel have performed it?

Answer. They would have been a long time about it: probably, would have been weeks instead of days. A sailing vessel would not have beat up to Milford, as we did, in twelve months.

61. The process of printing on the silver paper, which is necessary for bank-notes, is attended with some inconvenience, from the necessity of damping the paper previously to taking the impression. It was difficult to do this uniformly and in the old process of dipping a parcel of several sheets together into a vessel of water, the outside sheets becoming much more wet than the others, were very apt to be torn. A method has been adopted at the Bank of Ireland which obviates this inconvenience. The whole quant.i.ty of paper to be damped is placed in a close vessel from which the air is exhausted; water is then admitted, and every leaf is completely wetted; the paper is then removed to a press, and all the superfluous moisture is squeezed out.

62. The operation of pulverizing solid substances and of separating the powders of various degrees of fineness, is common in the arts: and as the best graduated sifting fails in effecting this separation with sufficient delicacy, recourse is had to suspension in a fluid medium. The substance when reduced by grinding to the finest powder is agitated in water which is then drawn off: the coa.r.s.est portion of the suspended matter first subsides, and that which requires the longest time to fall down is the finest. In this manner even emery powder, a substance of great density, is separated into the various degrees of fineness which are required. Flints, after being burned and ground, are suspended in water, in order to mix them intimately with clay, which is also suspended in the same fluid for the formation of porcelain. The water is then in part evaporated by heat, and the plastic compound, out of which our most beautiful porcelain is formed, remains. It is a curious fact, and one which requires further examination than it has yet received, that, if this mixture be suffered to remain long at rest before it is worked up, it becomes useless; for it is then found that the silex, which at first was uniformly mixed, becomes aggregated together in small lumps. This parallel to the formation of flints in the chalk strata deserves attention.(2*)

63. The slowness with which powders subside, depends partly on the specific gravity of the substance, and partly on the magnitude of the particles themselves. Bodies, in falling through a resisting medium, after a certain time acquire a uniform velocity, which is called their terminal velocity, with which they continue to descend: when the particles are very small, and the medium dense, as water, this terminal velocity is soon arrived at. Some of the finer powders even of emery require several hours to subside through a few feet of water, and the mud pumped up into our cisterns by some of the water companies is suspended during a still longer time. These facts furnish us with some idea of the great extent over which deposits of river mud may be spread; for if the mud of any river whose waters enter the Gulf Stream, sink through one foot in an hour, it might be carried by that stream 1,500 miles before it had sunk to the depth of 600 or 700 feet.

64. A number of small filaments of cotton project from even the best spun thread, and when this thread is woven into muslin they injure its appearance. To cut these off separately is quite impossible, but they are easily removed by pa.s.sing the muslin rapidly over a cylinder of iron kept at a dull red heat: the time during which each portion of the muslin is in contact with the red-hot iron is too short to heat it to the burning point; but the filaments being much finer, and being pressed close to the hot metal, are burnt.

The removal of these filaments from patent net is still more necessary for its perfection. The net is pa.s.sed at a moderate velocity through a flame of gas issuing from a very long and narrow slit. Immediately above the flame a long funnel is fixed, which is connected with a large air-pump worked by a steam-engine. The flame is thus drawn forcibly through the net, and all the filaments on both sides of it are burned off at one operation. Previously to this application of the air-pump, the net acting in the same way, although not to the same extent, as the wire-gauze in Davy"s safety lamp, cooled down the flame so as to prevent the combustion of the filaments on the upper side: the air-pump by quickening the current of ignited gas, removes this inconvenience.

NOTES:

1. The importance and diversified applications of the steam engine were most ably enforced in the speeches made at a public meeting held (June 1824) for the purpose of proposing the erection of a monument to the memory of James Watt; these were subsequently printed.

2. Some observations on the subject, by Dr Fitton, occur in the appendix to Captain King"s Survey of the Coast of Australia, vol.

ii, p. 397. London, 1826.

Chapter 8

Registering Operations

65. One great advantage which we may derive from machinery is from the check which it affords against the inattention, the idleness, or the dishonesty of human agents. Few occupations are more wearisome than counting a series of repet.i.tions of the same fact; the number of paces we walk affords a tolerably good measure of distance pa.s.sed over, but the value of this is much enhanced by possessing an instrument, the pedometer, which will count for us the number of steps we have made. A piece of mechanism of this kind is sometimes applied to count the number of turns made by the wheel of a carriage, and thus to indicate the distance travelled: an instrument, similar in its object, but differing in its construction, has been used for counting the number of strokes made by a steam-engine, and the number of coins struck in a press. One of the simplest instruments for counting any series of operations, was contrived by Mr Donkin.(1*)

66. Another instrument for registering is used in some establishments for calendering and embossing. Many hundred thousand yards of calicoes and stuffs undergo these operations weekly; and as the price paid for the process is small, the value of the time spent in measuring them would bear a considerable proportion to the profit. A machine has, therefore, been contrived for measuring and registering the length of the goods as they pa.s.s rapidly through the hands of the operator, by which all chance of erroneous counting is avoided.

67. Perhaps the most useful contrivance of this kind, is one for ascertaining the vigilance of a watchman. It is a piece of mechanism connected with a clock placed in an apartment to which the watchman has not access; but he is ordered to pull a string situated in a certain part of his round once in every hour. The instrument, aptly called a tell-tale, informs the owner whether the man has missed any, and what hours during the night.

68. It is often of great importance, both for regulations of excise as well as for the interest of the proprietor, to know the quant.i.ty of spirits or of other liquors which have been drawn off by those persons who are allowed to have access to the vessels during the absence of the inspectors or princ.i.p.als. This may be accomplished by a peculiar kind of stop-c.o.c.k--which will, at each opening, discharge only a certain measure of fluid the number of times the c.o.c.k has been turned being registered by a counting apparatus accessible only to the master.

69. The time and labour consumed in gauging the contents of casks partly filled, has led to an improvement which, by the simplest means, obviates a considerable inconvenience, and enables any person to read off, on a scale, the number of gallons contained in any vessel, as readily as he does the degree of heat indicated by his thermometer. A small stop-c.o.c.k connects the bottom of the cask with a gla.s.s tube of narrow bore fixed to a scale on the side of the cask, and rising a little above its top.

The plug of the c.o.c.k may be turned into three positions: in the first, it cuts off all communication with the cask: in the second, it opens a communication between the cask and the gla.s.s tube: and, in the third. It cuts off the connection between the cask and the tube, and opens a communication between the tube and any vessel held beneath the c.o.c.k to receive its contents. The scale of the tube is graduated by pouring into the cask successive quant.i.ties of water, while the communication between the cask and the tube is open. Lines are then drawn on the scale opposite the places in the tube to which the water rises at each addition, and the scale being thus formed by actual measurement,(2*) the contents of each cask are known by inspection, and the tedious process of gauging is altogether dispensed with. Other advantages accrue from this simple contrivance, in the great economy of time which it introduces in making mixtures of different spirits, in taking stock, and in receiving spirit from the distiller.

70. The gas-meter, by which the quant.i.ty of gas used by each consumer is ascertained, is another instrument of this kind. They are of various forms, but all of them intended to register the number of cubic feet of gas which has been delivered. It is very desirable that these meters should be obtainable at a moderate price, and that every consumer should employ them; because, by making each purchaser pay only for what he consumes, and by preventing that extravagant waste of gas which we frequently observe, the manufacturer of gas will be enabled to make an equal profit at a diminished price to the consumer.

71. The sale of water by the different companies in London, might also, with advantage, be regulated by a meter. If such a system were adopted, much water which is now allowed to run to waste would be saved, and an unjust inequality between the rates charged on different houses by the same company be avoided.