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THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
fell, and they blew up or dispensed with their tall chimneys, using instead great condensers, and converting all the obnoxious vapours into chloride of lime, or bleaching powder. Then the value of bleaching powder altered, and they took to producing the chlorine which it contains in a new way; afterwards the oxide of manganese, which is needed for that manufacture, grew scarce, and a most ingenious method of recovering it and using it again was devised, and is in practice. Lastly, not satisfied with the quality of the soda they made, they have mounted their huge furnaces on axles, and make them revolve like barrel-churns roasting on spits, so as thoroughly to intermingle all the ingredients which, by their mutual action, produce the alkali.
This is no solitary case. They have recently been trying in a London court of law, at the instance of the Excise, the question, "What is paper?" This is one of those subtle legal problems which, like that other, "What is metal?" argued between a road mender, a glass blower, and an iron founder, each of whom calls the material with which he deals, metal—will multiply on our hands in virtue of the very progression of the arts which I am considering. Yet waiving the question, “What is paper?" the theory of paper-making is simpler
AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.
than that of almost any other of the industrial arts, but how is it with its practice? For years I have at short intervals availed myself of the privilege of visiting the admirable paper-mills in our neighbourhood. At every visit I find some great change; since I saw several of them a few months ago, important alterations have been made, and are still making. When our venerable townsman Mr. Alexander Cowan began paper-making, it was all made by hand, by a process so slow, that they can do now in hours what took weeks, sometimes months before. Year after year everything has been altered. On the chemical side—new bleaching agents, new correctors of the evils of over-bleaching, new sizes and ways of making sizes, new colouring matters, new modes of glazing. On the mechanical side—new machines for rag-cutting, washing, boiling, paper-weaving, sizing, drying, cutting, folding, stamping. One half of the arrangements within my own remembrance are totally new, and above the horizon, newer and newest devices arise on every side.
If it is so with a comparatively simple art, how must it be with the more complex ones. The hot blast is but one accompaniment and index of the improved manufacture of iron. The Sydenham Palace is but one mark of the improvements in glass-making,
15
522
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THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
fell, and they blew up or dispensed with their tall chimneys, using instead great condensers, and con- verting all the obnoxious vapours into chloride of lime, or bleaching powder. Then the value of bleach- ing powder altered, and they took to producing the chlorine which it contains in a new way; afterwards the oxide of manganese, which is needed for that manufacture, grew scarce, and a most ingenious method of recovering it and using it again was devised, and is in practice. Lastly, not satisfied with the quality of the soda they made, they have mounted their huge furnaces on axles, and make them revolve like barrel-churns roasting on spits, so as thoroughly to intermingle all the ingredients which, by their mutual action, produce the alkali.
This is no solitary case. They have recently been trying in a London court of law, at the instance of the Excise, the question, "What is paper 1" This is one of those subtle legal problems which like that other, "What is metal ?" argued between a road mender, a glass blower, and an iron founder, each of whom calls the material with which he deals, metal-will multiply on our hands in virtue of the very progression of the arts which I am considering. Yet waiving the question, “What is paper ?" the theory of paper-making is simpler
AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.
than that of almost any other of the industrial arts, but how is it with its practice? For years I have at short intervals availed myself of the privilege of visiting the admirable paper-mills in our neighbour- hood. At every visit I find some great change; since I saw several of them a few months ago, impor- tant alterations have been made, and are still making. When our venerable townsman Mr. Alexander Cowan began paper-making, it was all made by hand, by a process so slow, that they can do now in hours what took weeks, sometimes months before. Year after year everything has been altered. On the chemical side-new bleaching agents, new correctors of the evils of over-bleaching, new sizes and ways of making sizes, new colouring matters, new modes of glazing. On the mechanical side-new machines for rag- cutting, washing, boiling, paper-weaving, sizing, drying, cutting, folding, stamping. One half of the arrangements within my own remembrance are totally new, and above the horizon, newer and newest devices arise on every side.
If it is so with a comparatively simple art, how must it be with the more complex ones. The hot blast is but one accompaniment and index of the im- proved manufacture of iron. The Sydenham Palace is but one mark of the improvements in glass-making,
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