360 NATURE AND MAN. 



(after repeated doublings to secure uniformity) into a long soft 

 cord. This cord he would then trace into the rwing machine, 

 which, by a continuation of the drawing process, further reduces 

 its thickness, at the same time giving it a slight twist to increase 

 its tenacity, so that it admits of being then wound upon bobbins. 

 Thence he would trace the cord into the spinning machine, which 

 at the same time stretches and twists the cord, producing from 

 it a yarn whose fineness might vary considerably in different 

 machines. Finally, he would see the spun yarn carried, some 

 as weft and some as woof, into the power-loom, from which it 

 emerges as woven cloth the final resultant of the whole series 

 of operations. 



Concentrating now his attention upon any one of these 

 machines, he studies its wheels, levers, and other moving parts, 

 and tries to comprehend their several actions and the bearing 

 of these upon each other. By long and scrutinizing observation 

 he masters the whole series of sequences, and traces the distri 

 bution of motion from a single large axis, through the hundreds 

 (it may be) of separate pieces of the machine directly or indirectly 

 connected with it ; and he might thus frame a description of the 

 working of the machine, which might be perfectly correct so far 

 as it goes, and which yet would be defective in one most essential 

 particular the statement of the force or power by which it is 

 moved. For, so far as mere visual observation could teach him, 

 the machine might be self-moving ; and he might thus attribute 

 to each kind an inherent power of carding, roving, drawing, 

 spinning, or weaving, as the case might be. 



Carrying his observations further, and noticing that one or 

 another of these machines comes to a standstill, but resumes its 

 motion after an interval, he may include this occasional suspension 

 also in his general expression ; but, perplexed by the want of any 

 regularity in its intervals, he will seek some further explanation. 

 Continuing his patient watch, he will see that the stoppage of the 

 machine follows the pulling of a handle by the man in attendance 

 upon it, and that when the handle is pulled the other way, the 

 machine goes on again ; and thus he will be led to introduce a 

 certain position of this handle as one of the antecedent conditions 

 of the machine s action. Still pursuing his inquiries, he finds out 



