290 LETTEBS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



every square yard there were nearly 4000 flowers, 

 and in every piece of ten yards long 40,000. 

 The number of loops or stitches in a flower varied 

 with the pattern, but on an average there were 

 about thirty. Hence the number of stitches in 

 a yard were 120,000, and the number in a piece 

 is 1,200,000. The average work done in a week 

 by one machine was fifteen yards, or 60,000 

 flowers, or 1,800,000 stitches; and by comparing 

 this with the work done by one person with the 

 hand, it appeared that the machine enabled one 

 person to do the work of twenty-four persons. 



One of the most curious and important applica- 

 tions of machinery to the arts which has been sug- 

 gested in modern times, was made by the late Mr. 

 Watt, in the construction of a machine for copying 

 or reducing statues and sculpture of all kinds. 

 The art of multiplying busts and statues, by casts 

 in plaster of Paris, has been the means of diffusing 

 a knowledge of this branch of the fine arts ; but 

 from the fragile nature of the material, the copies 

 thus produced were unfit for exposure to the wea- 

 ther, and therefore ill calculated for ornamenting 

 public buildings, or for perpetuating the memory 

 of public achievements. A machine, therefore, 

 which is capable of multiplying the labours of the 

 sculptor in the durable materials of marble or of 

 brass was a desideratum of the highest value, and 

 one which could have been expected only from a 

 genius of the first order. During many years Mr. 

 Watt carried on his labours in secret, and he con- 

 cealed even his intention of constructing such a 

 machine. After he had made considerable pro- 

 gress in its execution, and had thought of securing 

 his invention by a patent, he learned that an in- 



