MECHANICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE, CIVIL ENGINEERING, THE EDITED BY JOHN F. FRAZER, Assisted by the Committee on Publications of the Franklin Institute. PUBLISHED BY THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, AT THEIR HALL. 1852 JOURNAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE MECHANIC ARTS. JULY, 1852. CIVIL ENGINEERING. On Metallic Constructions. By W. FAIRBAIRN, C. E., F. R. S.* [Paper read at the Mechanics' Institution, Manchester.] It is nearly half a century since I first became acquainted with the engineering profession, and at that time the greater part of our mechanical operations were done by hand. On my first entrance into Manchester, there were no self-acting tools; and the whole stock of an engineering or machine establishment might be summed up in a few ill-constructed lathes, a few drills and boring machines of rude construction. Now compare any of the present works with what they were in those days, and you will find a revolution of so extraordinary a character as to appear to those unacquainted with the subject, scarcely entitled to credit. The change thus effected, and the improvements introduced into our constructive machinery, are of the highest importance; and it gives me pleasure to add, that they chiefly belong to Manchester, are of Manchester growth, and from Manchester they have had their origin. It may be interesting to know something of the art of tool-making, and of the discoveries and progress of machines, which have contributed so largely to multiply the manufactures, as well as the construction of other machines employed in practical mechanics. In Manchester, the art of calico printing was in its infancy forty years ago; the flat press, and one, or at most, two colored machines were all that were in use; the number of those machines is now greatly multiplied, and I believe some of them are capable of printing eight colors at once; and the arts of bleaching, dyeing, and finishing, have undergone equal extension and improvement. In the manufacture of steam engines there were only three or four establishments that could make them, and those were Boulton and Watt, of Soho; Fenton, Murray, and Wood, of Leeds; and Messrs. Sherratts, of this * From the London Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, May, 1852. VOL. XXIV.-THIRD SERIES.-No. 1.-JULY, 1852. 1 |
