Page:Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects.djvu/106

 which I collected may be distinctly and fully appreciated. This Report does not affect to embrace the whole scope of American manufactures, nor even to exhaust the interest of those particular departments upon which it touches; it is merely intended to direct attention to such facts connected with the machinery of the United States as came within my observation, and which it appeared desirable should be known to those engaged in mechanical and industrial pursuits in this country.

To the general reader many of the descriptions of manufacturing processes will, I am aware, be uninteresting, and in some cases, perhaps, unintelligible; for, looking to the persons for whose information I have more immediately written, I have thought it proper to adhere to those technical terms which are in use among men who are more or less acquainted with the application of mechanical science. For instance, when in describing a cotton mill in America, I have said, "One man can attend to a mule containing 1,088 spindles, each spinning 3 hanks, or 3,261 hanks on the average per day," I am aware that I am using technical language incomprehensible to the ordinary reader, but these few words convey all the requisite information to those practically acquainted with the subject. I have not, therefore,