Mechanic Avis, 401 



inuch indebted to modern Chemistry. The im- 

 portant aid furnished to these, and a multitude of 

 other mechanical operations, by the facts and 

 principles brought to light in the course of recent 

 chemical inquiries, is too well known to require 

 explanation. 



The manufacture o{ Metallic Wares, in modern 

 times, has made astonishing progress, both in ex- 

 tent and refinement. In Great-Britain especially, 

 those branches of the mechanic arts which belong 

 to metallic substances, and particularly the manu- 

 factures o1 Iron, have received the greatest degree 

 of im.provement. The workmen, of that country, 

 in this department of art, have been enabled, with- 

 in a few years past, by various inventions and dis- 

 coveries, to unite rapidity of execution, elegance 

 of form and polish, excellence of quality, and 

 cheapness of price, in their manufactures, to a de- 

 gree without example in the history of human in- 

 genuity. 



But to recite the mechanical inventions and im* 

 provements which belong to the period under re- 

 view would be a task almost without limits. To 

 this class belong the ingenious experiments and 

 valuable discoveries by Mr. Wedgewood, in the 

 art of Pottery, and in various kinds of manufac- 

 tures in Clay; the invention of a new and more du- 

 rable kind ou Stucco than had ever been used be- 

 fore, by Mr. Higgins; the numerous improve- 

 ments which have been made in the composition 

 and manufacture of Glass ; the almost countless 

 new plans for improving the construction of Z^:/;??/;^-, 

 by Argand and others; the various modes pro- 

 posed for rendering Stoves and Fire-places more 

 economical and comfortable, by Franklin, Rit- 

 TENHOUSE, RuMFORD, and Peale ; the new de- 

 grees of perfection to which Clocks and other 



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