|
In 1872 a publishing house of J. B. Burr & Hyde in Hartford released monumental work consisting of description of different industries in the United States. The 1304 pages are filled with facts, observations, and views of group of authors, hired by the publisher for this job. On the following pages I included a chapter titled "Saws and Their Manufacture". WK Preface In the following work, the design of the publishers has been, not only to memorialize the great enterprises of manufacture of the day in the United States, but to make clear to the general reader the processes and mysteries of the various manufactures noted, as well. No pains have been spared, in the matter of general study and special investigation, to make each article as nearly perfect as necessary to convey an adequate impression of the magnitude of the manufactures treated upon, their mechanical subtleties, and everything connected therewith, of which the "inquiring mind" may properly desire to be informed. They only who have contemplated the state of manufactures as they exist in the United States, understand at all adequately how great a part these play in the history of modern civilization, or how much is to be learned, by each participant in a special art, of the value and importance to humanity at large, of every other art. There is a more or less anxious desire, upon the part of every skilled man in particular, in any branch of industry, to know something of the character and pursuits of his fellow-men in every other art of importance; and it is the design of the writers hereof to offer to such, an insight into the various arts which distinguish the present period of scientific industry in the United States of America. That the people of this country do - all things considered - outvie, by positive and original inventions, in the promotion of art, and of the useful arts especially, as well as by their absorption of the genius of other nations, all the peoples of the civilized world, there can be but little doubt. However superficial may be the expression of a given art in the United States (for which, as a people, we have sometimes been reproached by more or less intelligent and candid visitors from other lands), it must be acknowledged by the just everywhere, that, in the aggregate, the United States have made giant steps, even in the last few years, in the prosecution of every class of ingenious industry. In fact, within the boundaries of the nation is to be found something in the way of current enterprise and industry, illustrative of the genius of all peoples (and of all times which fitly bear upon the present age, as the aggregate necessary response of the past to the wants of the present), of which both the scholar and the active mechanic, as well as the laboring man of every degree, ought and wishes, to know more than ordinarily falls to the lot of any one man's knowledge without arduous and pains-taking study. To administer to such desires this work has been projected, and it is confidently believed that its design has been so faithfully carried out, as to leave but little, if anything, more to be desired for the end in view, than will be found in its pages. The writers of this work have been necessarily limited and restrained in some respects; for the past history of some arts, in their struggle through invention, opposing circumstances, etc., has not been so well preserved as that of sonic other arts. But, in the general, something of worth has been recorded of each. As a record of manufactures in their present condition, it is believed that this summary not only supplies a want long felt among general readers, but that it will do much toward encouraging in this country that appreciation and study of the arts, from the high stand-point of science, which are so desirable in every nation. Especial care has been taken with each article in order that it might discuss its special subject in a manner comprehensible by all classes of readers, the young as well as the old; and the design of the publishers, which it is believed has been regarded throughout, has been that nothing of a questionable character in the statement of facts comprised in any article, should find place. That the labor of producing "The Great Industries" has been enormous, the reader in order to understand has but to consider that the history of each art has been traced to its origin through countless volumes, if the art is really antique; and its present condition, processes of manufacture, etc., derived by the personal investigation, inspection, and laborious study of the several writers employed. The aim of this work is to give the reader a general (and in all cases something in detail) "speaking acquaintance" with whatever is discussed herein. The great, chief ambition of the human intellect is to know something at least of everything; and "to know" is certainly a laudable desire. Without specially noting any particular industry so far as its respective actors or promoters are concerned, this book not only makes record of leading manufactures as they exist, but of the principal manufacturers of the day noted for their especial worth, as great, leading men, making their mark upon the times, and entitled to a place in a work which must necessarily, as a record of the times, hand their names on, if not to immortality, to many generations which are to come. The pride of the nation is in its children, and in none of these so much as in those who preeminently distinguish themselves in the arts of peace - in domestic manufacture; for these have wrought out in great part the nation's weal, furnishing occupation and a lucrative sphere for labor" for thousands and tens of thousands, who, thus employed, have achieved for themselves and their families successes, as well as realized a happier current life, which they could never have won and enjoyed save under the guidance and skill of the more enterprising and far-sighted. Out of the plodding ways of life, which the feudal ages, for example, imposed upon the race, there was evidently no passage, except that which the inventor and the manufacturer have opened. Though prompted in the main by the spirit of self-aggrandizement, these men have proved themselves, nevertheless, the chief philanthropists of the times, and have borne the standard of progress on to its great victories.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
