Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/324

290 erected in large buildings containing a variety of rooms, in which each person may hire one, two, or any other amount of horse power, as his occupation may require. If any mode could be discovered of transmitting power, without much loss from friction, to considerable distances, and at the same time of registering the quantity made use of at any particular point, a considerable change would probably take place in many departments of the present system of manufacturing. A few central engines to produce power, might then be erected in our great towns, and each workman, hiring a quantity of power sufficient for his purpose, might have it conveyed into his own house; and thus a transition might in some instances be effected, if it should be found more profitable, back again from the system of great factories to that of domestic manufacture.

(350.) The transmission of water through a series of pipes, might be employed for the distribution of power, but the friction would consume a considerable portion. Another method has been employed in some instances, and is practised at the Mint. It consists in exhausting the air from a large vessel by means of a steam-engine. This vessel is connected by pipes, with a small piston which drives each coining press; and, on opening a valve, the pressure of the external air forces in the piston. This air is then admitted to the general reservoir, and pumped out by the engine. The condensation of air might be employed for the same purpose; but there are some unexplained facts relating to elastic fluids, which require further observations and experiment before they can be used for the conveyance