Andrew Ure - Philosophy of Manufactures

THE present is distinguished from every preceding age by an universal ardour of enterprise in arts and manufactures. Nations convinced at length that war is always a losing game, have converted their swords and muskets into factory implements, and now contend with each other in the bloodless but still formidable strife of trade. They no longer send troops to fight on distant fields, but fabrics to drive before them those of their old adversaries in arms, and to take possession of a foreign mart. To impair the resources of a rival at home, by underselling his wares abroad, is the new belligerent system, in pursuance of which every nerve and sinew of the people are put upon the strain.

Great Britain may certainly continue to uphold her envied supremacy, sustained by her coal, iron, capital, and skill, if, acting on the Baconian axiom, Knowledge is Power, she shall diligently promote moral and professional culture among all ranks of her productive population. Were the principles of the manufactures exactly analyzed, and expounded in a simple manner, they would diffuse a steady light to conduct the masters, managers, and operatives, in the straight paths of improvement, and prevent them from pursuing such dangerous phantoms as flit along in the monthly patent-lists. Each department of our useful arts stands in need of a guide-book to facilitate its study, to indicate its imperfections, and to suggest the most probable means of correcting them. It is known that the manufactures of France have derived great advantage from the illustrated systems of instruction published under the auspices of its government and patriotic societies.

The present volume, introductory to a series of works in more ample detail, is submitted to the public as a specimen of the manner in which the author con, ceives technological subjects should be discussed.

Having been employed in a public seminary for a quarter of a century, in expounding to practical men, as well as to youth, the applications of mechanical and chemical science to the arts, he felt it his duty, on being solicited from time to time by his pupils, now spread over the kingdom as proprietors and managers of factories, to prepare for publication a systematic account of their principles and processes. With this view he resolved to make afresh such a survey of some of the great manufacturing establishments, to which he had liberal access, as might qualify him to discharge the task in a creditable manner. This tour of verification would have been executed at a much earlier date, so as to have enabled him, ere now, to have redeemed his pledges both publicly and pri- vately given, but for an interruption of unexpected magnitude.

The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade and Plantations requested him, about three years ago, to undertake a series of experiments on the refining of sugar, in order to ascertain the relation of the drawbacks on exportation of refined loaves to the duties paid upon the raw article. Under an impression that these researches might be set sufficiently in train, in the space of two or three months, to lead to the desired information in the hands of experienced operatives, he undertook their arrangement ; but encountered so many difficulties from the delicacy of the material operated upon, and other circumstances stated in his official report printed by order of the House of Commons, that he did not get entirely extricated from them till nearly two years were expired, nor till he had suffered considerably from anxiety of mind and bodily fatigue. Being advised by his medical friends to try the effects of travelling, with light intellectual exercise, he left London in the latter end of last summer, and spent several months in wandering through the factory districts of Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, &c., with the happiest results to his health; having everywhere experienced the utmost kindness and liberality from the mill-proprietors. Neither they^ nor the great mechanical engineers who construct their buildings and machinery, use any mystery or reserve towards a visiter actuated by legitimate feelings and principles; but, on the contrary, most readily show and explain the curiously-productive inventions which surround them,

The few individuals who betray jealousy of intelligent inspection are usually vain persons, who, having purloined a few hints from ingenious neighbours, work upon them in secret, shut out every stranger from their mill, get consequently insulated and excluded in return, and thus, receiving no external illumination, become progressively adumbrated; till, after a few years of exclusive operation, they find themselves undersold in the market, and deprived of their oldest or best customers by the inferiority of their goods. Were it not invidious, the author could point out several examples of clever people, having thus outmanoeuvred themselves, in trying to steal a march upon their friends in the dark. Mystifiers of this stamp are guilty of the silly blunder of estimating their own intrinsic resources above those of all the world beside. It is, however, not more for the advantage of the kingdom, than for that of every individual manufacturer in it, to receive light from all quarters, and to cause it by reflection to irradiate the sphere around him.