Review of Men's Mechanics. 339 



wants of American manufacturers, which enhances their price so 

 much, that the information wanted from them is not conveniently 

 available to most persons who need it. To the above list of authors, 

 may be added, " Buchanan on Millwork and other Machinery," re- 

 cently republished in this country, which, though valuable so far as it 

 goes, is not sufficiently comprehensive. A work was, therefore, much 

 wanted, from the pen of an experienced American manufacturer, 

 competent to the undertaking, who would avail himself of whatever 

 is applicable from the above, and other similar publications, and en- 

 rich it with his own reflexions and observations, and adapt the whole 

 to the wants and circumstances of our own establishments, and to 

 the capacities of those who are employed in them. 



Among the advantages of a work of this kind, may be mentioned 

 the saving of expense it may occasion from abortive experiments. 

 No people employed in the useful arts are so liable to engage in 

 these, as the mechanics and manufacturers of this country ; and al- 

 though the result has, on the whole, been highly favorable to our gen- 

 eral prosperity at home, and to our reputation abroad, yet it must be 

 conceded that an immense amount of property has been squandered 

 in unavailing experiments, by individuals " possessing zeal without 

 knowledge," who were either ignorant of the theory of mechanical 

 powers, or destitute of experience in the application. We have au- 

 thority for saying, that of all the inventions that have been patented 

 in this country, " one third only are considered as either useful, or 

 directly applicable to some practical purpose ; another third of them 

 are merely exhibitions of ingenuity, useful only, as displays of the in- 

 ventive faculties of our countrymen, and the remaining third are use- 

 less ;"* and yet the expense of all these collectively is small, com- 

 pared with what has been lavished by individuals upon useless ex- 

 periments, that have never been made known to the public. " There 

 is probably," as Mr. Allen justly remarks, " no mode in which a 

 greater amount of property may be more rapidly dissipated and 

 wasted, except perhaps at the gaming table, than in the construction 

 and management of mills and machinery, by those incompetent to the 

 task, from a want of proper practical knowledge. Every false cal- 

 culation is attended with costly expenditures, and loss of labor in 

 manufacturing operations. At some of the American mills, which 

 have been erected only a few years, various kinds of machinery, 



* Journal of the Patent Office. 



