MANUFACTURES.

35

Manu-

factures.

slow and unequal. A similar result seems to take place in any change of mental ex- **ertron; the attention bestowed on the new subject is not so perfect at the first com- '—mencement as it becomes after some exercise. Long habit also produces in the musclesexercise a capacity or enduring fatigue to a much greater degree than they couldsupport under other circumstances.

Another cause of the loss of time in changing from one operation to another, arisesfrom the employmen of different tools in the two processes. If these tools are simplem their nature, and the change is not frequently repeated, the loss of time is not con-siderable ; but in many processes of the Arts there are tools of great delicacy, requiringaccurate adjustment whenever they are used. In many cases the time employed ina justing bears a large proportion to that employed in using the tool. The sliding in adjust-rest, the dividing and the drilling engine, are of this kind, and hence in Manufactory^of sufficient extent, it ,s found to be good economy to keep one Machine constantemployed in one kind of work; one lathe, for example, having a screw motion to itss i ing rest along t e whole length of its bed, is kept constantly making cylinders •another having a motion for rendering uniform the velocity of the work at the pointat which it passes he tool, i s kept for facing surfaces; whilst a third is constantlyemployed m cutting wheels. ~

3. Skill acquired by frequ ent repetition of the same processes. skill ac .

The constant repetition of the same process necessarily produces in the workman afiaS

degree of excellence and rapidity in his particular department, which is never possessedby one who is obliged himself to execute many different processes. This rapidity isstill further increased from the circumstance of most of the operations in factories, wherethe division of labour is carried to a considerable extent, being paid for as piece-work.

It is difficult to estimate the numerical effect of this cause upon production. In naii-makmg, Adam Smith has stated that it is almost three to one ; or, in other words, thata smith accustomed to make nails, but whose whole business has not been that of anailer, can make only from eight hundred to a thousand per day; whilst a lad who hadnever exercised any other trade, can make upwards of two thousand three hundred a day

In different trades die economy of production arising from this cause will neces-sarily be different. The case of nail-making is perhaps rather an extreme one. Itmust, however, be observed that i„ one sellse , this is not a permanent cause, for althoughit acts at the commencement of an establishment, yet every month adds to the skill ofthe workman, and at the end of a certain time he will not be very far behind thosewho have practised only the peculiar branch.

4. The division of labour suggests contrivances for tools and Machinery to execute s Wste

its processes. tools.

When each process by which any article is produced is the sole occupation of oneindividual, his whole attention being devoted to a very limited and simple operation, anyimprovement in the form of h IS tools, or in the mode of using them, is much more likelyto occur to his min , t an i it were distracted by a greater variety of circumstances. Suchan improvement in the tool is generally the first step towards a Machine. If a piece of

is