622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



machines, seriatim, he is able to arrive at a classification of them, 

 according to the kind of work which it does. Thus he finds one set 

 carding the cotton- wool supplied to it, so that its confused tangle gives 

 place to a parallel laying of the fibers. He would see another taking 

 up the bundles of carded wool, and drawing them out (after repeated 

 doublings to secure uniformity) into a long, soft cord. This cord he 

 would then trace into the ro^?^Vi<7-machine, which, by a continuation of 

 the drawing process, further reduces its thickness, at the same time 

 giving it a slight twist to increase its tenacity, so that it admits of 

 being then wound upon bobbins. Thence he would trace the cord into 

 the spi7i7dng-vn2iGhme, which at the same time stretches and twists the 

 cord, producing from it a yarn whose fineness might vary considerably 

 in different machines. Finally, he would see the spun yarn carried, 

 some as weft and some as woof, into the joo^^er-loom, from which it 

 emerges as woven cloth — the final resultant of the whole series of 

 operations. 



Concentrating now his attention upon any one of these machines, 

 he studies its wheels, levers, and other moving parts, and tries to com- 

 prehend their several actions and the bearing of these upon each 

 other. By long and scrutinizing observation he masters the whole 

 sei'ies of sequences, and traces the distribution of motion from a single 

 large axis, through the hundreds (it may be) of separate pieces of the 

 machine directly or indirectly connected with it ; and he might thus 

 frame a description of the working of the machine, which might be 

 perfectly correct so far as it goes, and which yet would be defective 

 in one most essential particular — the statement of the force ov power by 

 which it is moved. For, so far as mere visual observation could teach 

 him, the machine might be self -moving ; and he might thus attribute 

 to each kind an inhere7it poioer of carding, roving, drawing, spinning, 

 or weaving, as the case might be. 



Carrying his observations further, and noticing that one or another 

 of these machines comes to a standstill, but resumes its motion after 

 an interval, he may include this occasional suspension also in his gen- 

 eral expression ; but, perplexed by the want of any regularity in its 

 intervals, he will seek some further explanation. Continuing his 

 patient watch, he will see that the stoppage of the machine follows 

 the pulling of a handle by the man in attendance upon it, and that, 

 when the handle is pulled the other way, the machine goes on again ; 

 and thus he will be led to introduce a certain position of this handle 

 as one of the antecedent conditions of the machine's action. Still pur- 

 suing his inquiries, he finds out that the axes of the several machines 

 are all in mechanical relation with one great longitudinal shaft, being 

 connected with it either by continuous bands passing around pulleys, 

 or by trains of wheelwork ; and at last he discovers the important fact 

 that the movement of the handle which stops the machine breaks the 

 continuity of that relation, shifting a strap from a "fast" to a "loose" 



