MECHANIC ARTS. ill 



REPORT ON MECHANIC ARTS, 



INCLUDING AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



BY DAVID EICE^ M. D. 



Inyentiye genius is progressive. It never ceases in its constant 

 and untiring eflbrts. Its motto is "Excelsior," and its aim, perfec- 

 tion. Onward and upward, ever has been, and ever will be, its tri- 

 umphant march. No obstacle, however difficult, seems to impede its 

 course, — no eminence is too high for it to surmount. Like a mighty 

 river, wdde and deep, that flows fearlessly over rocks and through 

 mountain defiles, to the sea ; the genius of invention moves on with 

 irresistible power. At the present day, the creations of mechanical 

 genius rise up around us in so many multiplied and surprising forms, 

 that we are astonished and awed. While we survey with delight and 

 admiration, one of her recent combinations, another, and still another 

 appears, more w^onderful and pleasing still. Our wives, whose mo- 

 thers and grandmothers w^ere obliged to card, spin, w^eave and knit 

 nearly every wearing fabric in use, are relieved of such drudgery, by 

 the invention of the power-loom. Machinery accomplishes the work, 

 in a hundredth part of the time, and, I was about to say, with a hun- 

 dredth part of the expense. Our wives and daughters can now de- 

 vote their time to other employments, quite as useful as spinning or 

 weaving, and far less laborious and irksome. The old-fashioned 

 hand-cards, spinning-wheel, and loom, are curiosities, at the present 

 day. I well remember the monotonous hum of the spinning-wheel, 

 and the delight I took in seeing my good old mother warp and weave ; 

 but little thought how tedious and severe was the labor. Thanks to 

 the " Mechanic Arts," for the safe package of the whole paraphernalia 

 in some dark corner of the garret ! 



All trades have received a new impulse, and are carried on with 

 comparative ease and despatch. We may cite the splitting and shav- 

 ing of shingles ; the manufacture of wheel-spokes and felloes ; the 

 shaving and shaping of axe, hoe, and broom handles ; of barrel heads 

 and staves, — all which processes were formerly done by hand ; but 

 are now performed by ingenious and much-admired machines, con- 

 trived by American genius. Among the improved tools, we may 

 name the axe, saw, chisel, plane and all kinds of carpenter's tools. 



