Manchester Memoirs, Vo/. /. (igo$). g 



a quarter of our existence. Further, we have the pro- 

 ceedings of many of the other Scientific Societies of the 

 country, the Continent, and the United States. 



Not long ago, as a personal instance, I wanted more 

 information than that given in the biography by his 

 talented daughter, Maria Edgeworth, of the works of that 

 great inventor Richard Lovell Edgeworth, and I found 

 them all described in the proceedings of the Royal 

 Dublin Society, and other Societies on the shelves of our 

 Library. 



In our " Memoirs " will be found records of the work of 

 our members in their investigations of the economics of 

 industry, the scientific uses of energy, the properties of 

 steam, the very elementary beginnings of electricity (that 

 for years was looked upon as a toy), and also those in 

 connection with the early manufactures, dyeing, bleaching, 

 &c., all of which have a fascinating interest to those who 

 are practically engaged in our industrial work, or to the 

 historical student. 



The chief tools of the workshops of the world, not 

 only of those where steam engines, locomotives, and 

 steamships are built, but also of the textile factories of 

 the world, were invented in Manchester or within thirty 

 miles of it ; and our records contain the names of many 

 of these inventors who were members, for the men of this 

 County were the first to use steam power for spinning 

 and weaving, and for punching, cutting, shaping metal ; 

 they were to the front in changing the old handicraft 

 machines to suit the new steam power. Prominent among 

 them was that genius, Richard Roberts, who was one of 

 the founders of the Manchester Mechanics Institution and 

 always in the front rank in advocating technical education. 

 He was the most prolific of them all — his chief inventions 

 being the slide lathe, planing machine, and self-acting 



