Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/277

Rh (300.) The quantity of any new article likely to be consumed is a most important subject for the consideration of the projector of a new manufacture. As these pages are not intended for the instruction of the manufacturer, but rather for the purpose of giving a general view of the subject, an illustration of the way in which such questions are regarded by practical men, will, perhaps, be most instructive. The following extract from the evidence given before a Committee of the House of Commons, in the Report on Artizans and Machinery, shews the extent to which articles apparently the most insignificant, are consumed, and the view which the manufacterer takes of them.

The person examined on this occasion was Mr. Ostler, a manufacturer of glass beads and other toys of the same substance, from Birmingham. Several of the articles made by him were placed upon the table, for the inspection of the Committee of the House of Commons, which held its meetings in one of the committee-rooms.