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PREFACE.

It is ihe business of operative industry to produce, transform, and dis-tribute all such material objects as are suited to satisfy the wants of man-kind. The primary production of these objects is assigned to the husband-man, the fisherman, and the miner ; their transformation to the manufacturerand artisan; and their distribution to the engineer, shipwright, and sailor *The unworked or raw materials are derived,—1. from the organic processesof vegetables and animals, conducted either without or with the fosteringcare of man ; 2. from the boundless stores of mineral and metallic wealth,arranged upon or within the surface of the earth by the benignant Parentof our being, in the fittest condition to exercise our physical and intellectualpowers in turning them to the uses of life.

The task which I have undertaken in the present work, is to describeand explain the transformations of these primary materials, by mechanicaland chemical agencies, into general objects of exchangeable value; lcav-ln g, on the one hand, to the mechanical engineer, that of investigating themotive powers of transformation and transport; and, on the other hand, tothe handicraftsman, that of tracing their modifications into objects of special°r.local demand. Contemplated in this view, an art or- manufacture maybe defined to be that species of industry which effects a certain change ina substance, to suit it for the general market, by combining its parts in anew order and form, through mechanical or chemical means. Iron will'mrvo the purpose of illustrating the nature of the distinctions here laid‘hovn, between mechanical engineering; arts and manufactures ; andhandi-trades. The engineer perforates the ground with a shaft, or a drift,ho' . level of the ore, erects the pumps for drainage, tl^: ventilating, andstr lstln g apparatus, along with the requisite steam or water power ; he con-sul* 15 roa d s ! the bridges, canals, railways, harbors, docks, cranes, &c.,w^nt to the transport of the ore and metal; he mounts the steam orthe C1 "P°'ver, and bellows for working the blast-furnaces, the forges, andbe foro as ’ bis principal end and aim on all occasions being to overcome" es of inertia, gravity, and cohesion. The ores extracted and sorted

pleasure an( * c °Pi° us information upon agricultural production, I have great

Gardening nj r ' n § m y readers to Mr. Loudon's elaborate Encyclopedias of Jgriculture,loch’s excellent S and for mercantile production and distribution, to Mr. M’Cul-

■^ictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation.