210 Notices respectiyig Neva Books. 



public, — On the effect of taxes and local restrictions on manufactures, 

 — and On the exportation of machiner}-. The work is then concluded 

 by the thirty -second chapter, a piece of powerful and eloquent writing, 

 which treats of the future prospects of manufactures as connected with 

 science. 



Having thus given our readers a correct outline of the various sub- 

 jects treated of by Mr. Babbage, we shall select some specimens of the 

 interesting informatiun which this volume contains. 



In treating of tiie inquiries which it is necessary for the projector 

 of a new manufacture to make respecting the quantity of the article 

 likely to be consumed, Mr. Babbage gives the following happy and 

 interesting example, given in evidence before the House of Commons, 

 by Mr. Osier, a manufacturer of glass beads and other toys of the 

 same material, at Birmingham. 



"Eighteen years ago," said Mr. Osier, "on my post journey to 

 London, a respectable-looking man, in the City, asked me if I could 

 supply him with dolls' eyes. He took me into a room quite as wide, 

 and perhaps twice the length of this, and we had just room to walk 

 between stacks, from the floor to the ceiling, of parts of dolls. He 

 said, 'These are only the legs and arms ; the trunks are below:* but 

 I saw enough to convince me that he wanted a great many eyes ; 

 and as the article appeared quite in my own line of business, I said I 

 would take an order by way of experiment; and he showed me several 

 specimens. I copied the order. He ordered various quantities, and 

 of various sizes and qualities. On returning to the Tavistock Hotel, 

 1 found that the order amounted to upwards of 500/. I went into 

 the country and endeavoured to make them. I had some of the most 

 ingenious glass toymakers in the kingdom in my service ; but when I 

 showed it to them, they shook their heads, and said they had often seen 

 the article before, but could not make it. I engaged them by presents 

 to use their best exertions ; but after trying, and wasting a great deal 

 of time for three or four weeks, I was obliged to relinquish the at- 

 tempt. Soon afterwards I engaged in another branch of business 

 (chandelier furniture), and took no more notice of it. About eighteen 

 months ago I resumed the trinket trade, and then determined to think 

 of the dolls' eyes ; and about eight months since I accidentally met 

 with a poor fellow who had impoverished himself by drinking, and 

 who was dying of consumption, and in a state of great want. I 

 showed him ten sovereigns, and he said he would instruct me in the 

 process. He was in such a state that he could not bear the effluvia 

 of his own lamp ; but though I was very conversant with the manual 

 part of the business, and it related to things I was daily in the habit 

 of seeing, I felt I could do nothing from his description. He took 

 me into his garret, where the poor fellow had ceconomized to such a 

 degree, that he actually used the entrails and fat of poultry from 

 Leadenhall Market to save oil. In an instant, before I had seen him 

 make tliree, I felt competent to make a gross, and the difference be- 

 tween his mode and that of my own workmen was so trifling, that I 

 felt the utmost astonishment. 



"As it was eighteen years ago that I received the order 1 have men- 



