either by arms or by a steam pulley-band. One man, with three children for superintending the three colors, can turn off about thirty pieces, English, in a day, which is the work of fully twenty men and twenty children in ordinary block-printing. To print a piece of cloth by hand, the block must be applied four hundred and forty-eight times, for each color. The machine, moreover, may be conducted by persons with little manual dexterity, and therefore entitled to comparatively low wages. The use of the Perrotine is spreading rapidly into every quarter of the continent, even into Russia; though hitherto unknown in England. It executes a style of work different, in some respects, from that of the cylinder. This latter machine is a hollow cylinder of copper, fully three feet long and three or four inches in diameter, whose surface is engraved, not by the hand-graver, but by the mechanical pressure of a steel roller, from one to two inches in diameter, and three inches long, which transfers the figures engraved on it to the relatively softer copper.

"The engraved cylinders are mounted upon a strong iron shaft, or arbor, carrying a toothed wheel at its end, in order to put it in train with the rotary printing machine, for one, two, or more colors. On a roller, at the upper part of this apparatus, are wound whole calico webs, stitched together, the end of which is then introduced between the engraved copper cylinder and a large central cylinder, covered with a blanket, against which it is made to bear, with regulated pressure. The engraved cylinder turns on the top of another cylinder, covered with woollen cloth, which revolves with the former, while its under part is plunged in an oblong trough containing the dyeing matter, which is of a pasty consistence. The engraved cylinder is thus supplied with an abundance of impressible color, and is cleared from the superfluity, by the thin edge of a flat ruler, made of bronze, called vulgarly the doctor, (ductor,) which is applied obliquely to it, with a gentle force. The cylinder, after its escape from this wiping tool, acts

upon the calico, and rolls it onwards, with its revolution, imparting its figured designs with great precision."

The improvements which have been made, within the last seventy-five years, in the manufacture of cloth, paper, &c., have added, in an almost incredible degree, to the physical enjoyment of mankind. Fabrics, which were previously regarded as articles of luxury, and worn only by the affluent, now make part of the ordinary vestments of the poor. The calicoes which can now be purchased at six or seven cents a yard, would probably have cost fifty cents, seventy-five years ago; and all other cotton goods were in nearly the same proportion. Then, the finer kinds of these goods were imported from India, where they were manufactured, as we have already seen, in looms of the rudest construction, worked by hand. Now, the raw cotton can be imported from that country, made up into goods, in the manufactories of our own State, and returned again to Calcutta, paying the cost of manufacture and transportation, for fourteen thousand miles, and yet, after all, be sold cheaper than they can be bought of the Native manufacturer: and it is a fact, that, even in India, where labor is comparatively so very cheap, the Native weaver is driven out of business, by the competition of the English and American manufacturers, and is induced to give to the raising of cotton the time and labor which were formerly bestowed on spinning and weaving. If such be the effect in India, how much greater must it be in our own country, where the manufactured goods cannot be subjected to a charge, in any degree so heavy, for transportation, and where the saving of human labor is an object of so much greater importance. It is estimated that in England, owing partly to the diminished price of the fabric and partly to the increase of wealth which has been produced by the cotton manufacture, thirty persons can now afford to wear cotton, where one could afford it, thirty years since. The increased consumption in this country is probably nearly

as great. Persons, who can remember the habits of farmers and mechanics, forty years ago, assure us, that then, cotton was very rarely worn by those classes; that shirting was generally made of coarse woollen, or linen of domestic manufacture,-an article, which cost probably twice as much as good cotton cloth now costs and was yet of very indifferent quality. The improvement has not been less rapid, in the quality and quantity of woollen cloths. A few years since, a large proportion of all the woollen worn was manufactured in private families, at great cost, and still was very coarse. Now, no family can afford to manufacture; and a material, which, thirty years since, would have been purchased only by a gentleman of some substance, is now within the means of the humblest mechanic and everyday laborer.* Take the single article of stockings, for example. It is but three or four centuries since knit hose were first worn at all; and even one hundred years ago, not one person in five hundred could afford

*The amazing rapidity with which the production and consumption of cotton has increased, during the last seventy years, will be obvious, from the following facts:

1. In 1770, when Arkwright's improvements began to be first introduced, the annual consumption of cotton in British manufacture was under four millions of pounds, and that of the whole of Christendom was probably not over ten millions. In 1838, the consumption

of cotton in Great Britain and Ireland was over three hundred millions of pounds, and that of Europe and the United States together, not less than six hundred millions.

2. From the statements of a writer in the Boston Daily Advertiser, who signs himself a cotton manufacturer,' it would appear, that the above falls short of the truth. He represents the cotton raised in the United States, in 1820, to have been about one hundred and thirty-six millions of pounds; in 1838, six hundred and eighty-six millions, making an increase of fivefold, in eighteen years. The exports of cotton, from the United States, for the same years, were, for 1820, one hundred and fifteen millions of pounds; for 1838, six hundred and two millions of pounds.

3. According to the same writer, the consumption of cotton, in 1800, in Great Britain, was fifty-two millions; in 1820, it was one hundred and twenty-six millions; and in 1837, it was three hundred and fifty-seven millions; showing that the increase in the consumption, for the last eighteen or twenty years, has been nearly three times as great as in the preceding period of that duration.

to wear them. But since the stocking-frame was invented, the article has been produced by machinery, and now few persons are without them. What more certain sign is there, of abject poverty and wretchedness, than to see an individual in Winter without a pair of stockings!

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DOMESTIC ARTS.

UNDER this title, we shall include the various methods of preparing and preserving human food. This food is rarely produced, by Nature, in that state in which it is most agreeable or beneficial to the human system. In order to be brought into this state, animal and vegetable substances are subjected to several different processes, which serve to soften their solid fibres, to extract or dissolve their nutritive or exhilarating principles, and in some cases to effect an entire change in their chemical constitution. It is to be observed, too, that these substances are no sooner deprived of life, than they tend to decompose, owing, in part, to the strong affinity which subsists between their constituent elements, and which inclines them to quit the state of combination in which they previously existed, and to form new combinations. To the spontaneous changes, which are thus produced, we give, in the case of vegetables, the name of fermentation; in the case of animal substances, we call it putrefaction: and, as it is apt to render a substance useless, it is evidently very important, that ⚫ the housekeeper should know how to anticipate and prevent it. Hence, this subject will lead us to treat of methods for preserving, as well as preparing, articles intended for food. There are other cases, however, in which fermentation may be turned to a very useful account, as in the manufacture of bread, beer, cider, wine,

&c.; processes which depend almost entirely on the proper management of fermentation. We shall take occasion, therefore, to give a brief account of the principles on which these processes depend. We are aware, that some of them, such, for example, as the making of wine, have almost ceased to be domestic; but, as our object is chiefly to exhibit principles, we may associate the arts according to their agreement in this respect, and shall therefore treat, in this Chapter,

I. Of the various arts most intimately connected with fermentation, namely, bread-making, brewing, wine and cider making.

II. Of the management of heat, in distillation, and in the culinary processes.

III. Of the management of milk, and the making of butter and cheese.

IV. Of preserving animal and vegetable substances. It is obvious, that all these are chemical arts, and it will be our principal business, in this Chapter, to exhibit the practical applications of that science. Various mechanical contrivances have been adopted for saving labor and time,* and also for improving the products of

* One instance of such contrivance may be seen in the machinery for making ship biscuit. The process adopted in the victualling yard at Gosport, (England,) is said to be as follows:

1. The meal and water are mixed, by being placed in a revolving cylinder, working horizontally, and having its shaft armed with knives. The shaft being set in motion, the knives turn around through the meal and water, the dough soon begins to assume a consistency, and in two minutes, five hundred pounds will be completely manufactured. 2. The dough falls into a trough, from which it is easily removed, and placed under the breaking rollers, to undergo the second operation, that is, kneading. These breaking rollers, two in number, and weighing fifteen hundred pounds each, pass backwards and forwards, over the dough, during the space of five minutes, when it will be brought to a perfect and equal consistency.

3. From the breaking rollers, the dough is cut into pieces, eighteen inches square, and placed on boards, which are conveyed, by friction rollers, under a second set of rollers, to be rolled to the required thickness.

4. Being rolled, the dough is carried under the cutting and stamping plate, which, at the same moment, cuts and docks, or pierces, the sheet of dough into forty-two six-sided biscuits, and these are then conveyed on carriages to the oven.