Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. 123 



and the steam engine in order. One of the first effects of these 

 arrangements is, that one workman can do four times as much work 

 as he could do before, because the power of steam drives so much 

 faster than human force. The manufactory, having become so much 

 enlarged, and there being already attached to the establishment per- 

 sons who are up all night and can attend to it constantly, and also 

 engineers to make and repair machinery, the making of an apparatus 

 for gas, to light the manufactory, introduces a new extension, which, 

 by diminishing the expense of lighting and the risk of accidents by 

 fire, reduces, yet farther, the cost of manufacturing. Long before a 

 manufactory has reached this extent, it will have been found neces- 

 sary to establish an accountant's department, with clerks and agents 

 to purchase the raw materials and to sell the manufactured products. 

 Thus, by the division of labor and the application of machinery, the 

 greatest economy of power and skill prevails — the quantity of work 

 is greatly augmented — and the result is, a great reduction in the cost 

 of the article, which is brought to market.* 



" The establishment of the Times newspaper in London, is an example of a manu- 

 factory on a large scale, in which the division of labor, both mental and bodily, is 

 admirably illustrated, and in which, also, the effect of the domestic economy is well 

 exemplified. It is scarcely imagined, by the thousands who read that paper in va- 

 rious quarters of the globe, what a scene of organized activity the manufactory pre- 

 sents, during the whole night, or what a quantity of talent and mechanical skill is 

 put in action for their amusement and information. t 



«' Nearly a hundred persons are employed in this establishment; and during the 

 session of Parliament, at least twelve reporters are constantly attending the Houses 

 of Commons and Lords; each in his turn, after about an hour's work, retiring to 

 translate into ordinary writing, the speech he has just heard and noted in short hand. 

 In the mean time, fifty compositors are constantly at work, some of whom have al- 

 ready set up the beginning, whilst others are committing to type the yet undried 

 manuscript of the continuation of a speech, whose middle portion is travelling to the 

 office in the pocket of the hasty reporter, and whose eloquent conclusion is, perhaps, 

 at that very moment, making the walls of St. Stephen's vibrate with the applause 

 of its hearers. 



» 



" These congregated types, as fast as they are composed, are passed in portions to 

 other bands; until at last, the scattered fragments of the debate, forming, when uni- 

 ted with the ordinary matter eight and forty columns, reappear in order, on the plat- 

 form of the printing press. The hand of man is now too slow for the demands of 



* Economy, &c. pp. 174 to 179. 



1 The author visited this most interesting establishment after midnight, during the 

 progress of a very important debate. The place was illuminated with gas, and was 

 as light as the day. There was neither noise, nor bustle. The visitors were re- 

 ceived with a calm and polite attention, although at a moment of the greatest press- 

 ure. The tranquillity, which they so much admired, was the result of the most in- 

 tense and regulated Qccunntian 



