The Philosophical Instruments in the Paris Exhibition. 425 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENTS IN THE 

 PARIS EXHIBITION. 



BY G. E. WELD. 



Amidst the vast gathering of products of human industry and 

 invention, which attracted millions of visitors from all coun- 

 tries to the French metropolis this year, the objects classed 

 under the head of Philosophical Instruments hold very high 

 rank. For it is, to a great extent, by the agency of these 

 instruments that the present generation enjoys comforts and 

 luxuries wholly unknown to the early inhabitants of our 

 globe. 



While contemplating with feelings of wonder and awe the 

 pyramids of Egypt, we cannot but remember that though they 

 are stupendous monuments of the former rulers of that country, 

 they are also monuments of slavery and drudgery, for by brute 

 force were they heaped up, thousands of toilers and long years 

 being required to do that which now, by the aid of machinery, 

 could be effected in a few months. When the inhabitants of 

 a country are condemned to unceasing labour, progress for the 

 race is impossible. lc How," remarks Solomon, thinking pro- 

 bably of the slavery of the nations around him, " shall he 

 that toileth all day long have knowledge/'' and assuredly the 

 more that we can make machinery perform offices of manual 

 labour, the more will man be raised in the scale of civilization, 

 provided always, that with the leisure thus afforded him, suit- 

 able education is provided. For, just in proportion as the 

 exertions of those who toil are aided and systematized by the 

 employment of force- evolving machines, will there result sur- 

 plus wealth, more and more leisure for all, an educated class 

 spreading wider and lower ; in a word, all that is man's proper 

 destiny — progression in happiness. 



How greatly machinery is indebted for its perfection to 

 philosophical instruments is well known. Mr. Fairbairn, the 

 eminent engineer, says that when he first went to Manchester, 

 the whole of the machinery required for the mills in Lancashire 

 was made by hand. Now tools, which may be almost regarded 

 as philosophical instruments, so exquisitely accurate and highly 

 scientific is their construction, are employed fortius work. The 

 high character of modern British machinery is due to the great 

 pains bestowed on the tools used for its fabrication, a large pro- 

 portion of which are made by Mr. Whitworth. With the 

 wonderful measuring machine invented by this gentleman, 

 demonstrating the one-millionth of an inch,* and his true plane, 



* Mr. Whitworth has presented one of these really marvellous machines, and 

 three of his true planes to the South Kensington Museum. 



