SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 531 



ing out the surplus over their own wants to other me- 

 chanics, so that the whole building is full of active 

 machinery. They have invented, patented, and have in 

 operation, machinery for making the wood work of plows 

 so perfect and complete, that the timber is taken as it 

 comes from the saw-mill in plank of suitable thickness; 

 for instance, the beam of any particular numbered plow 

 is first cut upon one machine into suitable length, upon 

 another it is sawed the right crook, then it is planed upon 

 a machine that planes a crooked stick as well as a 

 straight one, and almost as rapid as thought. Upon 

 another the double tenon is finished as it were by one 

 stroke of their saws, on another the corners are taken 

 off, and again, every hole is bored, as well as every part 

 of the work done so exact to a gauge, that it requires 

 scarcely any after fitting by hand, and will suit any 

 casting of the size for which it is intended. 



The handles and rounds also pass through appropriate 

 machines, and when they finally come to the hands of 

 the workman who fits them to the irons, he has a set 

 of pattern-irons upon a form where every piece being 

 exactly fitted by fixed gauges is passed over to another 

 to be attached to the irons to which they respectively 

 belong — consequently every plow of the same number, 

 no matter when made, must be exactly like every other 

 one. 



Such is the perfection of the machinery, that the four- 

 teen hands employed in this branch, can wood from 50 

 to 80 plows per day, working eleven hours. The cast- 

 ings are made in a separate building, and about twenty 

 hands are employed in this branch. From the foundry 

 the castings are brought to the grinding room and 

 cleansed of sand by vitriol, and then polished upon grind- 

 stones. This is a tedious though important process, as 

 by it the whole of the exposed parts are made so smooth 

 that the dirt is not likely to adhere, and the plow runs 

 vastly easier. 



The irons are all made of the best quality of soft 



