* [9°] 
Il. Striftures on Mr. Josep Coxxtrer’s © Obfervations on 
Tron and Steel*.’? By Mr. Davip MusuHer, of the 
Clyde‘ Iron Works. » Communicated by the Author. 
ve 
I; is much to be wifhed, that men practically verfed in 
the various manufaGtures of Britain would turn their atten- 
tion to the beft means of diffeminating a knowledge of the 
principles and operations which have been determined by 
experience as the beft to be followed in the large way, ac- 
cording to local and other circumftances. A candid and 
liberal communication of individual obfervation, by pro- 
moting the common intereft, would tend ultimately to the 
benefit of each manufaéturer, by the increafed improvement 
and perfeétion of their various articles; for the real welfare 
of any particular branch depends lefs upon the fuperiority of 
one man’s article over that of another, in the fame line, 
than upon the general fuperiority of a national product over 
that of any other country—a pre-eminence that depends 
entirely on the aggregate mafs of induftry, ingentity and 
intelleé&t exerted in the one or the other. 
What I recommend is the more neceflary, as inaccurate 
and fallacious principles are often brought forward by men 
of feience, even the beft intentioned, from a want of that 
praétical knowledge, which can only be acquired by a long 
and perfonal acquaintance with the proceffes carried on in 
the large way of manufacture. The mifchiefs hence oc- 
cafioned are incredible: it tends to feparate the man of 
{fcience and the manufaéturer; it fhackles the latter with 
increafing prejudice; makes him view the former with a 
fufpicious eye; is the principal reafon why fcience has been 
fo long excluded from our manufactories; and why the ac- 
curate refults of the laboratory have fo long been defpifed by 
the pradtical artift, and been deemed undeferving of experi- 
* See Phil. Mag. vol. i, p. 46, 
ment 
