1864. | Farrparrn’s Mills and Millwork. 195 
Some fifty years ago, when the machinist’s art was in its infancy, 
the “ millwright,” who may fairly be considered as the ancestor of 
mechanical engineers, was far from special in his pursuits. In the 
best cases he was, to use Mr. Fairbairn’s own words, “ the sole repre- 
sentative of mechanical art. He was the engineer of the district in 
which he lived; a kind of Jack-of-all-trades who could with equal 
facility work at the lathe, the anvil, or the carpenter’s bench. Generally 
he was a fair arithmetician, knew something of geometry, levelling, 
and mensuration, and, in some cases, possessed a very competent 
knowledge of practical mathematics. He could calculate the velocities, 
strength, and power of machines; could draw in plan and section, and 
could construct buildings, conduits, or water-courses in all the forms 
and under all the conditions required in his professional practice ; he 
could build bridges, cut canals, and perform a variety of work now 
done by civil engineers. Such was the character and condition of the 
men who designed and carried out most of the mechanical work of this 
country up to the middle and end of the last century.” 
In the course of the great modern expansion of the mechanical arts, 
the old millwright has become very nearly extinct, and the wide field 
in which he laboured has been partitioned among several craftsmen. 
The domain of mill-work is, however, still very comprehensive, while 
it is not surpassed in importance by any other branch of mechanical 
industry. 
Mill-work may properly be said to include every engineering 
process involved in the construction both of the buildings and 
machinery employed in producing consumable manufactures, including 
every species of motive power, whether derived from wind, water, or 
steam. Mr. Fairbairn’s book is a practical and, in some particulars, 
an exhaustive treatise on each of these subjects, which are judiciously 
divided into five sections, comprising—1l. Introduction, with a sketch 
of the early history of mills. 2. The principles of mechanism. 3. 
On prime movers. 4. On the machinery of transmission. 5. On the 
arrangement of mills. Of the two first sections we have little to say ; 
both might have been omitted without detriment to the merits of the 
work ; it is only after we have skimmed the curious information of the 
first, and glanced at the familiar elementary mechanics of the second 
section, that we begin to find the great storehouse of the author’s 
original experiences open, or to recognize what an enormous amount 
and variety of actual practice is here reduced, tabulated, and made 
ready for the daily use of the millwright and engineer. 
Throughout the whole of his work, but especially in the second 
and latest published volume with which we have more particularly to 
deal, Mr. Fairbairn is essentially ‘“ practical.” It is a noteworthy fact 
that in spite of the aid which mathematical science affords to the engi- 
neer, our best machinists and our best machinery are less the result of 
applied mathematical investigation than of intuitive judgment backed 
by the time-honoured rule of thumb. It is true that the mathematician’s 
aid is in every-day use in ascertaining the direction and intensity of 
strains and calculating the resisting powers of the various parts of 
machinery, but even through all the elaborate tables and rules given 
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