State of the Usejvl Arts. 269 



ready for the hand, not properly of the workman, but of the 

 director of the work. 



By means such as these, it must be evident that we are able 

 to produce work incomparably more exact than by the hand ; 

 yet this circumstance would hardly have led to the general in- 

 troduction of such contrivances into machine-shops. The mer- 

 cantile consideration that the work is performed at a fraction of 

 the expense, was the talisman that caused the change. Slide- 

 rests and self-acting lathes have been derided, (what good thing 

 has not been derided .'') as the lazy man's tool ; as destructive of 

 the manual dexterity of our workmen. 



In order to vindicate them from these aspersions, I shall pro- 

 ceed to consider first the comparative facility of production ob- 

 tained by them ; secondly, the sources of minute and perplexing 

 error which still remain ; and, lastly, the influence which the 

 use of such instruments mi;st have on the physical and mental 

 condition of the men. 



The casual visitor of the work-shop forms a very incorrect 

 notion of the relative rapidities of performance of the slide-rest 

 and hand-tool. The expert hand-turner has those tools which 

 he is likely to need laid beside him in order ; he lays down one 

 and takes up another almost with as much ease as ho removes a 

 tool from one part of the work to another, and hence the mind 

 of the on-looker is filled with the ideas of industry, dexterity, 

 and rapidity ; nor is it erroneously so filled. 



But when he proceeds to the slide-rest and watches the suc- 

 cession of operations, he frets at the time spent in unscrewing 

 the tool-holder, in selecting, adjusting, and fixing the tool ; he 

 sees the process of cutting begun, and perceiving at once the 

 uniformity and certainty of the operation, he withdraws his at- 

 tention until the commencement of a new cut offer matter of 

 additional interest. He is then tempted to exclaim against the 

 waste of time in altering the tools, and to hint that the hand-tur- 

 ner would have had the job finished while the director of the 

 slide-rest was selecting his cutters. The quantity of monotonous 

 work has been overlooked. 



Such is the source of the objection thrown against the slide- 



