FAllMEllS' REGISTER— SAWING AND BORING MACHINE. 



97 



From the Amerrcan Rail Road Journal. 



Hamilton's sajvixg and boring machine. 



This machine is de'sngned for sawing and boring 

 wood or timber, aa.d is clainied by Colonel Hamil- 

 ton in his s|)ce.ification to be "an improvement in 

 the mndc of sawing .felloes of wheels, ci'rcular and 

 curved segments, mitre joints, tenons, and also bor- 

 ing of Itjilocs and hubs of wheels;^' and general- 

 ly tor samrtg circular, curved, and plain surfaces. 



The machine ii^ propelled by a two horse power 

 steam engine. Aninial or water power may be 

 applied lor the same purpose. " The particular tbrm 

 required is sawed out of the tiiaber with perfect 

 accuracy and great expedition,- b)^ means of one 

 or more thin narrow saws moving up and down. 

 There is also belongijBg to this machiiio a hori- 

 zontal saw for cutting segments of circles their 

 proper -lengths, and with propgr inclinations for 

 joints, tenons, &c. &c. Hubs of carriages are bored 

 with perlfc^ct precision. All these operations are el- 

 fected- by the changing position of the material, 

 accommodating itseli'as it comes in contact with 

 the saw or auger, so as to receive the exact .form, 

 inclination, &c. required. Every thingls done, 

 without marking or laying out, with mathematical 

 accuracy bj- means of scales, which: are distinctly 

 laid down on the machine. 



The machinery 'ivhich guiGles and steadies the 

 tnaterial in its movements may be readily varied, 

 eo as to form segments of wheels of greater or less 

 dimensions) and the boring may also be more or 

 li?ss inclined. The scale, indicates the exact posi- 

 tion which the part of the maclrifte that guides the 

 material re(|uired to lorm a wheel, — ior instance, of 

 greater ofless circumttjrencef slats and legs of chairs 

 may be made -of various lengths, and thicknesses, 

 and shapes, as fashion or utility may dictate. 



This machine- "affords a lia[)i")y specimen of 

 labor saving, atid may be advantageously applied 

 to a variety of useful purposes. It occupies but 

 little space, only a part of a small, room. No skill 

 is required in using it. A mere laborer, or a boy, 

 can learn in a iew liours to use the machine, and 

 to produce the article as p'erlect as the most skill Id 

 machinist. Like many other labor saving ma- 

 chines, it performs that part of the labor which the 

 accuracy and strength of the human hand are in- 

 competent rapidly, and with precision, to perform; 

 it, in fact, does the -work which is the most chlHcult 

 and toilsome to the laboring manidacturer. 



The expedition with which materials of small 

 value, and' with, very little* waste, -are converted 

 into articles of comparatively much greater value 

 is entitled to particular notice. ■ Chair backs sawed 

 from our native curled maple are worth from eight 

 to twelve and a half dollars per hundred. 



By the aid of this machipe, which costs only 

 about three hundred dollars, a common laborer may 

 do the w^ork of twenty or thirty -hicchanics. The 

 merit claimt^d by Col. Hamilton consists chiefly in 

 the lacility and accuracy avith which the.n^aterial 

 is adapted to the saw, so as expeditiously and uni- 

 Ibrmly to produce.fti'e exact form which is wanted. 



cabbages. 



M. Furstenau manures hise^bages before they 

 close their heads,, with sheep dung round the 

 stems, which occasions them, to 'gi'ow very large 

 nnd firm, and also to keep better. 



Vol.. II.— 11 



To tlie Editor of tlie Fanners' Register. 



William and, Mary College, June 17, 1834. ' 



Dear Sir — According to your request, I liere-^ 

 with transmit to you the substance of two lectures, 

 muchenl-arged, containing my views m fiill upon 

 the subject of the usury laws. 1 perfectly agree 

 whh you in the opiiiiouj that this is a sid^ject of 

 the greatest .importance, and one in which the 

 agriculturist should; feci a deep interest. The bu- 

 siness of agriculture must form the chief occupa- 

 tion in every country, particularly in such a coun- 

 try as ours. It is. the great suhstratam, [^ \ may 

 say soj the foundation on which are erected all 

 other trades a,nd professions. The agriculturist is 

 in fact the great supporter and paymaster t-o all 

 the other classes of productive and unjiroductive 

 laborers. Every operation of trade, every change 

 in the direction of capital, every regulating law, 

 either directly] or indirectly concerns his interests. 

 Thei'e is no one, consequently, more deeply inte- 

 rested in the various complicated concerns of com- 

 merce, in the character and amount of the taxes, 

 in fine, in the general sj'stem of legislation, than 

 he is. Fortunately too, for the Vv'orld, this interest 

 is generally in complete harmony with every other. 

 Its policy is to war on none, but suffer all to flour- 

 ish under a system of free trade. "Land and 

 trade," sa3-s Sir Josiah Child," "are twins, and 

 ever will wax and Avane together. It cannot be 

 ill with trade but lands will fall, nor ill with lands, 

 but trade will feel it." If then the usury laws, as 

 I have attempted to prove, influence unfavorably 

 the distribution and circiilation of capital, check 

 the natural division of employments, and produce 

 stagnation of trade, it is a subject to which the 

 agriculturist shotild look with a view to the correc- 

 tion of the evil. He, if any one, certainly has a 

 right to be heard on this subject; for sure he may 

 be, that if any thing work wrong in the com- 

 plicated machinery of the laws, he will be the 

 man to suffer by it, ehhef directly or indirectly. 



Some have supposed that the usury laws were 

 necessary to draw to land the capital which it re- 

 quires, by lowering the rate of interest to the level 

 of profits in agriculture. I hope I have satisfac- 

 torily shown the fallacy of this opinion. Agricul- 

 ture will always command its due share of capital; 

 and any artificial attraction of capital to this de- 

 partment, by stripping others of their due propor- 

 tion, would only serve to lower agricultural pro- 

 fits, and sink the general prosperity of the countrj-: 

 ■and recollect, too, that one great evil under which 

 we are- suffering in this state, is a general apathj', 

 a want of that energy and activity which commu- 

 nicates life and sjiirit to every department of in- 

 dustry. Now if there be any force in the reason- 

 ing contained in the following sheets, I have shown 

 that the usuiy laws, as far as they operate, have a 

 tendency to. check that salutary division of labor 

 so essential to the prosperity of every commum- 

 •ty — to throw a clog on the great wheel of com- 

 merce, and consequently to increase that apathetic 

 listless condition into vvdiich we seem, unfortunate- 

 ly to have fallen. Besides, if the usur\^ laws 

 could, by their o])eratibn, actually reduce the rate 

 of interest, "(which fortunately they cannot) they 

 would undoubtectly increase the tendency in labor 

 and capital to emigrate to the regions of the west; 

 a tendency which has already proved one of the 

 most powerfidly operating causes against the pros- 



