Ix PROCEEDINGS. 



Mr. John Forbes, of Halifax, addressed the Institute on " Some Modern 

 Methods in Manufacturing with certain Analogies suggested by a Partial Study 

 of the Evolution and Nature of some of the Processes Employed," as follows : — 



"The question as to what constitutes raw material is one which has frequently 

 been written about and discussed in its relation to political questions of the day, 

 but our mention of the question at this time is not intended or calculated to 

 excite either sympathy or prejudice in any one on account of its political signifi- 

 cance. It is sufficient for us now to suggest that no material used in the arts is 

 qualified to serve any very large useful purpose until it has passed through the 

 hands or machines of some of the numerous classes of manufacture. In this, 

 however, we are met by the reflection that man cannot lay claim to exclusiveness 

 in the manipulation (if the use of the word is permissible) of raw materials in 

 order to fashion them into such shapes and conditions as to subserve his comfort 

 or convenienoe. Perhaps the most that man can claim is the superior ingenuity 

 whicli enables liim to observe the results, defective or otherwise, of past efforts, 

 and improve upon them, or to profit by his observation of results, as the product 

 of what he may thereafter learn to regard as natural laws. 



Amongst the first considerations to which we are led by the line of thought now 

 reached is, the great variety of materials which nian has thus brought into use- 

 fulness, and made available for his comfort and convenience. 



Some of these materials he is enabled to use in the state in which nature sup- 

 plies them to his hand, but far tlie greater numl^er he has to obtain at the 

 expenditui'e of a large amount of labor and by the aid of processes, the under- 

 standing of which comes very slowly, and to the understanding of which he has 

 to bring large powers of observation, reasoning and experiment. 



Several reflections resulting from a desultory consideration of the suV)ject have 

 induced the writer to observe certain seeming analogies between the older and 

 crude methods employed and tiie refined modern methods now in use, and to 

 reo^ard with interest the seeming inductiveness of the processes and operations 

 ■which have resulted in our present condition of refinement in some of the branches 

 involved. 



I feel, however, that some apology is due to the Institute for trespassing upon 

 its titne by presenting a paper %Ahich is so retrospective and so historical in its 

 character, but which, if time and opportunity permitted, I have thought might, 

 if the council approved, be with profit divided into several papers, the prepara- 

 tion and presentation of which would probably be both interesting and profitable. 

 Pre-eminently above all other mateiials %\ hich man has turned to useful account 

 and rendered by his multifarious adaptations, indispensable is the metal iron. 



Man's acquaintance, in a measure at least, with some of the uses of this metal 

 may with reasonable assurance be conceded as antedating authentic history, yet 

 its adaptations were unquestionably restricted to articles of small character, con- 

 sisting very probably of articles of personal adornment and of tools for the 

 working and fashioning of other and softer metals and materials, and weapons of 

 war and of the chase. It is not difficult to frame an interesting and fairly 

 V arrantable theory as to the manner of its discovery. The facility with which 

 small masses of iron can be obtained from some of its ores by simply digging a 



