Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/149

Rh manufacture requires its own list of questions, which will be better drawn up after the first visit. The following outline, which is very generally applicable, may suffice for an illustration; and to save time, it may be convenient to have it printed; and to bind up, in the form of a pocket book, a hundred copies of the skeleton forms for processes, with about twenty of the general inquiries.

Brief sketch of its history, particularly the date of its invention, and of its introduction into England.

Short reference to the previous states through which the material employed has passed; the places whence it is procured; the price of a given quantity.

[The various processes must now be described successively according to the plan which will be given in §161; after which the following information should be given.]

Are various kinds of the same article made in one establishment, or at different ones, and are there differences in the processes?

To what defects are the goods liable?

What substitutes or adulterations are used?

What waste is allowed by the master?

What tests are there of the goodness of the manufactured articles?

The weight of a given quantity, or number, and a comparison with that of the raw material?

The wholesale price at the manufactory? £s.d. per

The usual retail price? £s.d.

Who provide tools? Master, or men? Who repair tools? Master, or men?

What is the expense of the machinery?