PREFACE 



TO 



THE SEVENTH EDITION. 



THIS DICTIONARY OF ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND MINES passed through 

 four Editions during the lifetime of Dr. ANDREW URE ; and this is the 

 third Edition which has been required by the public, since, in 1858, it 

 was committed to my care. 



These volumes have received the same unrelaxing attention, to 

 every detail, which was bestowed upon the previous Editions, and 

 which secured for them the confidence of the manufacturer, the 

 miner, the metallurgist, and the general public. 



Every division of the Arts,- each special process of Manufacture, 

 and all the branches of Mining, have been most cautiously examined, 

 and such improvements, as have been proved to be of real utility, 

 have been recorded in all necessary detail. This has led to an increase 

 in the size of the volumes, to the rejection of many articles which 

 had, with the progress of advancing knowledge, become obsolete, and. 

 to the curtailing of others which were of less importance than the 

 new ones which it was necessary to introduce. The more important 

 articles have been, for the most part, rewritten, and all of them 

 subjected to a critical revision, while many entirely new articles have 

 been introduced. It is needless to particularise these, since the most 

 hasty comparison between the volumes of the last Edition, and those 

 of the present one, will at once render the new and the amended 

 articles sufficiently obvious. 



The type for the whole of the work has been entirely reset, and 

 nearly two hundred woodcut illustrations have been added. 



