1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VI.: Introduction

MANUFACTURING MACIIINES AND TOOLS.

INTRODUCTION.

THE preceding Class illustrates the development of manufacturing power; the present is intended to represent its applications to the purposes of manufacture. The machinery included in this Class has this distinguishing feature, that it is the representative of man himself engaged in industrial production. Many of the machines to which attention will be drawn in this part of the Catalogue are so constructed as to fulfil functions which were accomplished formerly only by direct human labour. And, what is also highly deserving of notice, the perfection of their execution and the certainty of their operation exceed that attainable in most instances by the highest exercise of human skill. The productive power of such machines, capable of being driven at a high velocity, and of an almost indefinite multiplication of individual producing parts, is limited only by the means of the manufacturer. As the machines in Classes 5 and 6 are intimately related to each other, so as to render the perfection of the one necessary to that of the other, it is deserving of notice that both in the production of admirably contrived prime movers, and in that of manufacturing machines, the mechanists of this country 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;
• B, in the manufacture of Metals;
• C. in that of Mineral Substances, together with Mining Machinery;
• D. in the manufacture of Vegetable Substances; and
• E. of Mineral Substances.
• F. It also comprises 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 its north-western extremity and side. It is approached either from the western end of the Nave, at its proper commencement in the room chiefly occupied by cotton-spinning machinery, or it may be reached from other portions of the Nave by penetrating through the Areas on its northern side. The Class commences at Areas C. D. and E. 1, and extends through the same to 10. This part of the Building is partitioned from the rest, partly with a view of obtaining the requisite degree of temperature for cotton-spinning, partly to exclude the noise, and also the light dust which always fills the atmosphere of rooms in which this process is carried on, and which is destructive to objects in other departments of the Exhibition. Entering another part of the Building at A. B. C. 10, machines in this Class will be found extending to Areas 30 of those letters. And in D. E. F. 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 rendered familiar to every person; but the interesting illustrations of the progress and perfection of this department in manufacturing industry, presented in this Class, convey a lesson more forcible and permanent of its kind. A complete series of machines is exhibited in one room, by virtue of the operation of which the raw cotton is opened, carded, doubled, spun, warped, and woven. At one extremity of the space occupied, cotton from the bags is made to enter the preparatory machine, while at the other it emerges completely fabricated and fit for use. Various parts of these machines are likewise shown. The beautiful automaton card-setting engine for making cards for the cotton-carding machines is also in motion, producing those ingenious ribbons of iron-wire brush. The whole of the cotton-spinning machinery exhibited combines the latest improvements, and demonstrates that perfection of workmanship which is capable of uniting in a manufacturing machine facility of motion, compactness and elegance of arrangement, precision of action, and power and speed of production.

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

The manufacture of flax is represented by various powerful machines in operation. Several recent improvements are exhibited in these machines, and their product is presented to examination and investigation. The difference of fibre between flax and cotton necessitates the adoption of a somewhat modified system of manufacturing machines: these are shown in motion. Silk throwing and winding are illustrated by the elegant machines specially fitted to that purpose. The production of lace, bobbin-net, etc., by the wonderful mechanical arrangements contrived for that purpose, is also represented, together with the machine employed in the curious process of "gassing," or singeing off by gas-flames, the loose fibres of lace, etc., without injury to the fabric.

Paper-making machines are illustrated by models; but several large printing machines are exhibited in operation. Several varieties of these are found: the "flat" machine, the horizontal cylinder machine, and the recently-invented vertical machine, capable of performing a very large amount of work in a short space of time. An envelope-folder, and other apparatus connected with paper and printing, are also found among the machinery in this Class.

Many powerful machines employed in metal manufactures are met with. The drilling, punching, and clipping engines, together with the slotting, chasing, and planing machines, and the large power-lathes for turning heavy castings, borings, etc., are extremely interesting, although essentially consisting of simple parts. Mills for various purposes, mineral and vegetable, presses, aerating, and a variety of other machines included in the Class, are represented in various parts of the Building appropriated to it.— R. E.

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