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Class 6.

MANUFACTURING MACHINES AND TOOLS.

INTRODUCTION.

The preceding Class illustrates tlie development of manufacturing power ; the present is intended to representits applications to the purposes of manufacture. The machinery included in .this Class has this distinguishingfeature, that it is the representative of man himself engaged in industrial production. Many of the machinesto which attention will he drawn in this part of the Catalogue are so constructed as to fulfil functions whichwere accomplished formerly only by direct human labour. And, what is also highly deserving of notice, theperfection of their execution and the certainty of their operation exceed that attainable in most instances bythe highest exercise of human skill. The productive power of such machines, capable of being driven at ahigh velocity, and of an almost indefinite multiplication of individual producing parts, is limited only by themeans of the manufacturer. As the machines in Classes 5 and G are intimately related to each other, so asto render the perfection of the one necessary to that of the other, it is deserving of notice that both in the pro-duction of admirably-contrived prime movers, and in that of manufacturing machines, the mechanists of thiscountry have made astonishing progress during the last half-century.

The Class includes manufacturing machines and tools employed in the manufacture—A. of Spun, Woven,Felted, or Laid Fabrics; 15. in the manufacture of Metals ; C. in that of Mineral Substances, together withMining Machinery : 1). in the manufacture of Vegetable Substances ; and E. of Mineral Substances. It alsocomprises F. Machinery and Apparatus for Brewing, Distilling , and Manufacturing Chemistry.

The position in the Building of the machines and systems of machinery, included in this Class, is at itsnorth-western extremity and side. It is approached either from the western end of the Nave , at its propercommencement in the room chiefly occupied by cotton-spinning machinery, or it may be reached from otherportions of the Nave by penetrating through the Areas on its northern side. The Class commences atAreas C. D. and E. 1, and extends through the same to 10. This part of the Building is partitioned from therest, partly with a view of obtaining the requisite degree of temperature for cotton-spinning, partly to excludethe noise, and also the light dust which always fills the atmosphere of rooms in which this process is carriedon, and which is destructive to objects in other departments of the Exhibition. Entering another part of theBuilding at A. B. C. 10, machines in this Class will be found extending to Areas 30 of those letters ; and inD. E. E., from 19 to 27, they are also met with.

The recorded history of cotton-spinning, and its connexion with that of our country, have been renderedfamiliar to every person ; but the interesting illustrations of the progress and perfection of this department inmanufacturing industry, presented in this Class, convey a lesson more forcible and permanent of its kind. Acomplete series of machines is exhibited in one room, by virtue of the operation ol which the raw cotton isopened, carded, doubled, spun, warped, and woven. At one extremity of the space occupied, cotton from thebags is made to enter the preparatory machine, while at the other it emerges completely fabricated and fit foruse. Various parts of these machines are likewise shown. The beautiful automaton card-setting engine formaking cards for the cotton-carding machines is also in motion, producing those ingenious ribbons of iron-wirebrush. The whole of the cotton-spinning machinery exhibited combines the latest improvements, and demon-strates that perfection of workmanship which is capable of uniting in a manufacturing machine facility ofmotion, compactness and elegance of arrangement, precision of action, and power and speed of production.

A number of looms of difterent kinds are likewise among the important objects of this Class. The Jacquardloom, with its hundreds of cards and complicated harness, for the production of the patterns of woven goods, andthe ordinary power-loom occupied in manufacturing the commonest sort of calico, are alike shown. Factoriesexist ip this country in a single floor of which many hundreds of these looms are in continuous action, impelledby steam-engines of vast size and power. An old loom, of fifty years’ date, forms an instructive contrast to thesmaller but more powerful and productive engine by its side.

The manufacture of flax is represented by various powerful machines in operation. Several recent improve-ments are exhibited in these machines, and their product is presented to examination and investigation. Thedifference of fibre between flax and cotton necessitates the adoption of a somewhat modified system of manu-facturing machines: these are shown in motion. Silk throwing and winding are illustrated by the elegantmachines specially fitted to that purpose. The production of lace, bobbin-net, &c., by the wonderful mechanicalarrangements contrived for that purpose, is also represented, together with the machine employed in the curiousprocess of “ gassing,” or singeing-off by gas-flames, the loose fibres of lace, &c., without injury to the fabric.