484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In 1852, says Mr. Plummer, " tbe average amount of wages ob- 

 tainable by an experienced female operator was 8s. to lOs. per week ; 

 now the earnings of the female machine-workers are 14s. to 16s. per 

 week slower hands get 10s., and the best workers 20s. to 24s. The 

 female ' preparers ' of work get 10s. . . . The machine has Avithin a 

 few years been applied to the straw hat and bonnet industry of Bed- 

 fordshire, and with the best results. Many of the plaiters who now 

 suffer from Chinese competition, will, as machinists, obtain good 

 wages. ... In the mantle-trade in London, the wages of machinists 

 are high, say, 14s. to 20s. for middling hands, and 23s., 29s., and even 

 335., for superier workwomen." 



As the general result, Mr. Plummer says that, " taking all the vari- 

 ous industries in which the machine is used, the w^ages of the ma- 

 chinists may be estimated as being from 50 to 100 per cent. Jiigher 

 than the w^ages received by hand-workers before tlje machines ap- 

 peared in the several industries." And he goes on to add : " The 

 changes introduced by the machine have been attended with consider- 

 able advantages as regards the physical and social condition of the 

 workers. There is a great improvement in their health and in the 

 comfort of their homes. As regards the shoemaking population, both 

 male and female, the change amounts to an absolute revolution, and 

 decidedly for the better." 



The sewing-machine has most effectually stimulated invention in 

 other directions. In all leather manufactures, for example, the old, 

 painful, unhealthy processes are now nearly all done by machinery 

 driven by steam. In the stay and clothing trades the severe labor of 

 using heavy shears by hand is superseded by steam-driven cutters, 

 by the aid of which one man does the work of twenty. The cheap- 

 ness arising from these appliances has so enlarged the demand that 

 the quantity of labor employed in the trades is far greater than 

 before. 



This is the statement of the facts, and there is no reason to dispute 

 it in any essential particular. The outline amounts to this : About 

 twenty-five years ago the articles produced in all the industries con- 

 nected with the fabrication of sewed, or " made-up," woven, and leather 

 materials, were dear, and, except in the best instances, of inferior 

 quality ; and the laborers, male and female, but especially the latter, 

 were among the worst paid, the hardest worked, and the most un- 

 healthy, in the country. A mechanical invention, called the sewing- 

 machine, of moderate cost and simplicity, was then introduced, the 

 objects of which were, by the application of ordinary labor in private 

 houses or factories, to get rid of nearly all the irksome, slow, and un- 

 healthy processes of hand-stitching, and so by reason of swiftness, ex- 

 actness, and superiority of manufacture, greatly to reduce the selling- 

 price of the articles offered to the public. The effect of this invention 

 was in a few years to establish two radical improvements throughout 



