REPORT 



On the progress of linprovemeuts in Macl.inery, ns exem- 

 plified and shown in the machines, or the products of 

 machinery exhibited at the Ja e Fair of tlie Ameiican 

 Institu e; with remark-; upon the important bearing*, 

 and uses vf cam motions in tlie construction of ma- 

 chinery, given with a view to a luriherance of a i<now^- 

 ledgc o! tlie causes, and mechanical taciiilies by which 

 labor saving machinery is created and brought into 

 public use. 



The three great wants ol rcan, whether in a civihzed or barba- 

 rous state, are, /bod, raiment and shelter. 



To satisfy and gratify these great primary wants, man has in every 

 age of the world sought out many inventions. 



It is a well settled fact in the history of the world, that the great- 

 est proportion of all the improvements in machinery, which have 

 taken place since the world began, have been made within the peri- 

 od of our own times; that the observing man of fifty or sixty years 

 of age, can tell, as it were, the very day in which the mechanical 

 productions have appeared. 



We have no occasion, therefore, to go back to remote ages and 

 trace, step by step, down to the present time, the progress of im- 

 provements on the loom; our only object in turning back is to 

 show, that in this, as well as in most of our important machines, 

 they have beeji stationary and non-})iogressive, for centuries antece- 

 dent to the present; that to our own times the history of mechanical 

 events of a thrilling character are due, and that the influence and 

 effects of this progress of improvements in machinery, thus brought 

 to bear ftpon mechanical genius by what has already been done, 



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