MACHINERY. 



MACHINERY, COMPOSITION OF. 



400 



UfU to 95,948 and 119,748; Merthyr Tydril. from 7705 to 84,977 

 wxl 83,080; od We* Bromwich from 687 to 28,121 and 34,591. 



A large extension of employment in any one branch, necessarily pro- 

 Jum iiiii*s*liini In m il -Ihm It may therefore be not uninteresting 

 to state UM number of penon* directly engaged in the staple employ- 

 BMOt of the town* named. In Manchester and Salford, 65,000 are 

 Vaged in the manufacture of cotton, silk, and wool ; at Stockport, 

 17,000, cotton ; at Leeds, wool and flax, 23,714 ; at Bradford, wonted 

 and rtuff. 33,000; at Bclton, ootton, 14,500, at Huddenfield, woollen 

 cloth, 13,035; Maccleafield, ailk. 11,500; Glasgow, where the employ- 

 menu are more mi*ceUaneoui, cotton and flax give employment to only 

 14,830 penon* ; Dundee, in linen and flax, 19,742. The various metal 

 trade* employ in Birmingham, 24,900; in Sheffield, 20,000 ; in W.ilver- 

 hampton, 10,530 ; Merthyr Tydvil, 13,412 ; and Wet Bromwieh, 7032 ; 

 in the lut named three the coal-miners are included. 



In this extraordinary ratio has the population increased in the seat* 

 of our staple manufactures, which by the aid of machinery have 

 supplied the whole world with article* wrought by the industry of our 

 people. Let u* now compare them places with those agricultural 

 counties in which machinery has exercised the least influence, and let 

 n* see if the absence of machinery has been equally favourable to the, 

 support of a growing population. In the same period, Devonshire, 

 Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Lincolnshire, 

 have inn ml on an average little above 50 per cent. ; while, setting 

 aide the extraordinary increase exhibited in the particular towns 

 already enumerated, the population of six manufacturing counties, viz. 

 Lancaster, Middlesex, York (W. 11.), Stafford, Chester, and Durham, 

 including all the agriculturists, increased nearly 120 per cent. 



These facts prove conclusively that machinery, so far from dimin- 

 ishing the aggregate employment of labour in those trades in which it 

 is used, increases it in an extraordinary degree. And not only does it 

 give employment to larger numbers of persons, but their wages are 

 considerably higher. We will not stop to compare the income of an 

 agricultural labourer with that of operatives engaged in the infinite 

 variety of trades carried on in manufacturing towns, in connection 

 with machinery : but it is sufficient to ask, whence has come the 

 manufacturing population ? Its natural growth would have been com- 

 paratively insignificant if thousands had not been attracted to the 

 town* from other places. And what could have induced them to leave 

 their homes and engage in new trades but the encouragement offered 

 by more certain employment and higher wages 1 



It has been shown that machinery has had a beneficial influence upon 

 the employment of labour in the particular trades in which it has been 

 used, and it now remains to consider its effects upon the employment 

 of labour in other trades. In the first place, a few of its obvious 

 results may be noticed. For example, the manufacture and repair of 

 machinery alone gives employment, directly and indirectly, to vast 

 numbers of persons who are unconnected with the particular trades in 

 which the machinery itself is used. Again, the production of all 

 commodities is increased by machinery ; and thus the producers of the 

 raw materials of manufacture*, the carriers of goods by land and sea, 

 the merchant*!, the retail-dealers, their clerks, porters, and others, 

 must find more employment. It is clear also, that while the manu- 

 facturing and commercial population are thus increased by the use of 

 machinery, the cultivators of the soil must receive more employment 

 in supplying them with food. 



In this and other ways the general employment of labour is 

 directly extended by machinery. At the same time the application of 

 machinery to existing branches of industry create* new trades and dis- 

 tribute* capital into other enterprises which afford employment for 

 new descriptions of labour. A hundred examples of this fact might 

 be cited ; of which railway* and steam navigation are amongst the 

 mo*t remarkable ; but such examples will be superfluous if it can be 

 shown that it is the necessary result of the use of machinery to apply 

 capital to new enterprise*. It has been said that machinery cheapens 

 production by reducing the amount of labour expended upon it : it 

 follows that a lev amount of capital with the aid of machinery will 

 produce a* much a* a larger capital without such aid. A iwrtion 

 of capital is thus disengaged, either for increased production in the 

 same trade, or for application to new speculations. In ome way it 

 mu*t be employed, or it will yield no profit, and in some form or 

 other it must be ultimately expended in labour. As long as a person 

 can extend UM accustomed operations of hi* own trade with a profit, 

 be is disposed to do so; but** soon as he find* them less profitable 

 than other investment*, he change* the direction of hi* capital, and 

 M*JU new modes of increasing hi* profit*. 



There is no truth more certain than that the employment of labour 

 is null or peat according to the proportion which capital bears to the 

 no " lb r <* Jahouiw*. Capital is the fund which mip,,,,rU labour, and 



itch must employ it or be unproductive ; and thus, if in any country 



capital be increasing mor. rapidly than the population, employment 



will be abundant and wage* high ; if le*. rapidly, employment will be 



scarce and wages low. In the one cue, capitalist* will be bidding high 



""JEll" "" otkw> W"""" *" Wdding again* eacToSer 



* mptoTnMpt. Accumulation of capital is therefore highly con- 



dually to the interest, of the labouring population generally>n,d the 



machinery is especially favourable to accumulation, a* may be 



Ibya nmple example. Suppose a man to have a capital of 



10,0001, which he is expending annually upon labour in a particular 

 trade, and that his profit* are 10 per cent., or 10002. a-year. Each 

 year hi* whole capital is expended, and hi* means of accumulation are 

 thus restricted to a portion of his annual profit* only. Hut U-t him 

 invent a machine to facilitate his business, and hi* position is im- 

 mediately changed. If this machine should coat 50002., and the other 

 50002, be still expended in labour, he may be said to have saved one 

 half of hi* entire capital in a single year ; for instead of spending the 

 whole of it a* before, in labour, he is possessed of a durable property 

 which, at [a small annual cost, will last for ten or probably twenty 

 yean. Nor can it be said that this saving is effected at the expense of 

 labour; for the owner of the machine is placed in a new position in 

 respect to hi* profit*, which prevent* him from securing to himself the 

 difference between the amount paid now and that previously paid for 

 labour. To gain a profit of 10 per cent, it had been necessary for him, 

 before the invention of the machine, to realise 11,0002. annually, l>cing 

 his whole capital and the profits upon it : but now, in order to 

 obtain the same profit, it is sufficient if he realise 65001. only : 

 namely, 5002. profit upon his fixed capital of 50002. ; SOW. for repairs, 

 and wear and tear, calculated at 10 per cent. ; and 55002. to replace 

 the sum spent upon labour, with a profit of 10 per cent. He would 

 realise the whole 11,0002. as before, if he were able; but he is re- 

 strained by competition, which levels the profits of trade. For some 

 time he will most probably obtain more than 10 per cent. pmlit, 

 and so long as he is able to do this, his mean* of accumulating 

 fresh capital in addition to his machine will be increased, \\ltuh 

 capital will be expended upon additional labour. But when his 

 profits had been reduced to their former level by competition, society 

 has gained in the price of his goods 45002. a-year, being the ditli-r- 

 ence between 11,0002. formerly realised by him, and 65002. his present 

 return. But is this amount thus gained by society lost to the 

 labourer? Unquestionably not. As a consumer, he participates in 

 the advantage of low prices, while the amount saved by the commu- 

 nity in the purchase of one commodity must be expended upon others 

 which can only be produced by labour. It cannot be too often repeated, 

 that all capital is ultimately expended upon labour ; and whether it be 

 accumulated by individuals in large sums, or distributed in small por- 

 tions throughout the community, directly or indirectly it passes 

 through the hands of those who labour. If a manufacturer accu- 

 mulates by means of higher profits, he employs more labour ; if tlu> 

 community save by low prices, they employ more labour in other forms. 

 So long as the capital is in existence, it is certain to have an influence 

 upon the general market for labour. 



We are now speaking not of the interests of particular workmen to 

 whose temporary sufferings caused by the use of machinery we have 

 already adverted, but of the general and permanent interests of the 

 working population of a country. As regards these, the statistics of 

 British industry amply confirm all reasoning from principles, and prmv. 

 beyond a doubt that machinery has had a beneficial influence upon the 

 employment and wages of labour. Any one who will reflect upon the 

 facts which have been noticed above, as disclosed by the Census 

 [CENSUS], can scarcely fail to arrive at the conclusion that without 

 macliinery England could not have supported her present population, 

 or could only hare supported them in poverty and wretchedness. 

 Nor must the degradation of a part of the manufacturing popula- 

 tion be thoughtlessly attributed to machinery, instead of to moral 

 and social cause*, which are independent of it. Into these causes it 

 would be out of place, at present, to inquire ; but enough has been 

 said to show, 1st, that machinery by increasing production multiplies 

 the sources of enjoyment, and places them within the reach of a 

 greater number of persons; and 2ndly, that by giving increased 

 employment to labour it enables more persons to enjoy those com- 

 forts which it has itaelf created. These are the elements of social 

 prosperity, and if evils have sprung up with it. like tares with wheat, 

 it is not machinery which has caused them. Wherever tin- influence 

 of machinery has been felt, wealth has advanced with rapid strides ; 

 and though in too many cases religion, virtue, and enlightenment may 

 have lagged behind, the tardiness of their progress is to be ascribed, not 

 to machinery, but to the faulty institutions of men. 



MAc IIIN'i ; POSITION OF. The composition of a ma- 



chine is usually understood, by writers on this branch of the arts, to 

 involve all the detailed arrangement* by which the power exerted, 

 however that power be obtained, is made to produce the required 

 effect* ; or in other words, those contrivances by which the initial force 

 is transmitted with the smallest loss, or with the least waste of material. 

 From the endless modifications of machinery it must evidently be 

 impossible here to notice all their component parts ; but a few j/ 

 observations upon wheels, shafts and spindles, cranks and excentrics, 

 drum* and band wheels, clutches and coupling-gearing, may suffice to 

 call attention to some of the leading principles connected with the 

 composition of machinery. 



\V heelwork, whereby the power is transmitted by means of teeth 

 working into one another, is usually known under the name of gearing, 

 and this part of the subject has already been noticed [UEAHINU] ; 

 but it may perhaps be worth while to add that wheels arc t.rlmirally 

 subdivided into teethed, trundle, pin, crown, annular, and beville.l 

 wheels, according to the shape, or the position, of the parts gearing, or 

 working, into one another. Sometime* also a pinion may be made to 



