18 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



were more compact and better constructed than at any previous 

 period." " I do not believe," continues Mr. F., furthermore, " that 

 at any former period there has been such an exhibition of machines 

 and of tools which are the creators and makers of the machines 

 themselves. Some of the tools, such as the turning, boring, planing, 

 and slotting machines, are of a very high order, and the tool machin- 

 ery for the manufacture of fire-arms, shells, rockets, etc., is of such a 

 character as to render the whole operations, however minute, per- 

 fectly automaton, or self-acting, with an accuracy of repetition that 

 leaves the article when finished identical with every other article 

 from the same machine. Such, in fact, is the perfection of the tool 

 system as it now exists that in almost every case we may calculate on. 

 a degree of exactitude that admits of no deviation beyond a thou- 

 sandth part of an inch." Mr. Fairbairn also calls attention to the 

 evidence afforded by the Exhibition of the growing importance of 

 the horizontal steam-engine in preference to the beam or vertical 

 engine. To the horizontal system may be applied economy in the 

 first cost, and nearly equal efficiency in its application to mills and 

 for manufacturing purposes. Another important feature in these 

 engines is their smooth and noiseless motion, their compact form, and 

 the facility with which they can be applied as helps or assistants to 

 those of larger dimensions. They are, moreover, executed with a 

 degree of finish and accuracy of workmanship which cannot easily be 

 surpassed. 



Two facts could hardly fail of impressing themselves forcibly upon 

 the American visitor to the machinery department of the Exhibition. 

 The first of these was, the air of substantiability, if we may so express 

 ourselves, or the capacity for hard service and endurance, which par- 

 ticularly characterizes an English machine. American machines 

 built in England are almost invariably better pieces of workmanship 

 than their originals ; and an English mechanic seems never to use a 

 piece of wood in mechanical construction if he can make iron avail- 

 able for the same purpose. This course of procedure necessarily 

 renders the first cost of an English machine much greater than an 

 American, but the former, from increased durability, is probably 

 cheaper in the end, while the work produced by it, from increased 

 steadiness, is often superior. These facts were strikingly illustrated in 

 the locomotive constructions shown in the Exhibition. The engines 

 forwarded by the best makers of France and Germany were splendid 

 specimens of mechanical art, and, viewed superficially, caused the 

 English locomotives, which stood in juxtaposition, to appear dwarfed 

 and inferior. A closer inspection, however, showed that the English 

 engines far surpassed the continental in the following important res- 

 pects, viz., greater simplicity of design, greater compactness of form, 

 and clearer conceptions in working out the details of the parts ; u and 

 these operations," to use the language of Mr. Fairbairn, " when care- 

 fully executed to standard gauges, render each part of an engine a 

 fac-simile of its fellow, and hence follows the perfection of a system 

 where every part is a repetition of a whole series of parts ; and this, so 

 far as accuracy is concerned, is a great improvement on any former 

 system of construction." 



The other fact to which we have alluded, as likely to have im- 



