On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures - Charles Babbage (interesting books to read in english .TXT) 📗

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On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures

by Charles Babbage

1832

Preface

The present volume may be considered as one of the

consequences that have resulted from the calculating engine, the

construction of which I have been so long superintending. Having

been induced, during the last ten years, to visit a considerable

number of workshops and factories, both in England and on the

Continent, for the purpose of endeavouring to make myself

acquainted with the various resources of mechanical art, I was

insensibly led to apply to them those principles of

generalization to which my other pursuits had naturally given

rise. The increased number of curious processes and interesting

facts which thus came under my attention, as well as of the

reflections which they suggested, induced me to believe that the

publication of some of them might be of use to persons who

propose to bestow their attention on those enquiries which I have

only incidentally considered. With this view it was my intention

to have delivered the present work in the form of a course of

lectures at Cambridge; an intention which I was subsequently

induced to alter. The substance of a considerable portion of it

has, however, appeared among the preliminary chapters of the

mechanical part of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana.

 

I have not attempted to offer a complete enumeration of all

the mechanical principles which regulate the application of

machinery to arts and manufactures, but I have endeavoured to

present to the reader those which struck me as the most

important, either for understanding the actions of machines, or

for enabling the memory to classify and arrange the facts

connected with their employment. Still less have I attempted to

examine all the difficult questions of political economy which

are intimately connected with such enquiries. It was impossible

not to trace or to imagine, among the wide variety of facts

presented to me, some principles which seemed to pervade many

establishments; and having formed such conjectures, the desire to

refute or to verify them, gave an additional interest to the

pursuit. Several of the principles which I have proposed, appear

to me to have been unnoticed before. This was particularly the

case with respect to the explanation I have given of the division

of labour; but further enquiry satisfied me that I had been

anticipated by M. Gioja, and it is probable that additional

research would enable me to trace most of the other principles,

which I had thought original, to previous writers, to whose merit

I may perhaps be unjust, from my want of acquaintance with the

historical branch of the subject.

 

The truth however of the principles I have stated, is of much

more importance than their origin; and the utility of an enquiry

into them, and of establishing others more correct, if these

should be erroneous, can scarcely admit of a doubt.

 

The difficulty of understanding the processes of manufactures

has unfortunately been greatly overrated. To examine them with

the eye of a manufacturer, so as to be able to direct others to

repeat them, does undoubtedly require much skill and previous

acquaintance with the subject; but merely to apprehend their

general principles and mutual relations, is within the power of

almost every person possessing a tolerable education.

 

Those who possess rank in a manufacturing country, can

scarcely be excused if they are entirely ignorant of principles,

whose development has produced its greatness. The possessors of

wealth can scarcely be indifferent to processes which, nearly or

remotely have been the fertile source of their possessions. Those

who enjoy leisure can scarcely find a more interesting and

instructive pursuit than the examination of the workshops of

their own country, which contain within them a rich mine of

knowledge, too generally neglected by the wealthier classes.

 

It has been my endeavour, as much as possible, to avoid all

technical terms, and to describe, in concise language, the arts I

have had occasion to discuss. In touching on the more abstract

principles of political economy, after shortly stating the

reasons on which they are founded, I have endeavoured to support

them by facts and anecdotes; so that whilst young persons might

be amused and instructed by the illustrations, those of more

advanced judgement may find subject for meditation in the general

conclusions to which they point. I was anxious to support the

principles which I have advocated by the observations of others,

and in this respect I found myself peculiarly fortunate. The

reports of committees of the House of Commons, upon various

branches of commerce and manufactures, and the evidence which

they have at different periods published on those subjects, teem

with information of the most important kind, rendered doubly

valuable by the circumstances under which it has been collected.

From these sources I have freely taken, and I have derived some

additional confidence from the support they have afforded to my

views. *

 

Charles Babbage

Dorset Street

Manchester Square

8 June, 1832

 

[*Footnote: I am happy to avail myself of this occasion of expressing

my obligations to the Right Hon. Manners Sutton, the Speaker of the

House of Commons, to whom I am indebted for copies of a considerable

collection of those reports.]

Preface to the Second Edition

In two months from the publication of the first edition of

this volume, three thousand copies were in the hands of the

public. Very little was spent in advertisements; the booksellers,

instead of aiding, impeded its sale; * it formed no part of any

popular series and yet the public, in a few weeks, purchased the

whole edition. Some small part of this success, perhaps, was due

to the popular exposition of those curious processes which are

carried on in our workshops, and to the endeavour to take a short

view of the general principles which direct the manufactories of

the country. But the chief reason was the commanding attraction

of the subject, and the increasing desire to become acquainted

with the pursuits and interests of that portion of the people

which has recently acquired so large an accession of political

influence.

 

[*Footnote: I had good evidence of this fact from various quarters;

and being desirous of verifying it, I myself applied for a copy at

the shop of a bookseller of respectability, who is probably not aware

that he refused to procure one even for its author.]

 

A greater degree of attention than I had expected has been

excited by what I have stated in the first edition, respecting

the ‘Book-trade’. Until I had commenced the chapter, ‘On the

separate cost of each process of a manufacture’, I had no

intention of alluding to that subject: but the reader will

perceive that I have throughout this volume, wherever I could,

employed as illustrations, objects of easy access to the reader;

and, in accordance with that principle, I selected the volume

itself. When I arrived at the chapter, ‘On combinations of

masters against the public’, I was induced, for the same reason,

to expose a combination connected with literature, which, in my

opinion, is both morally and politically wrong. I entered upon

this enquiry without the slightest feeling of hostility to that

trade, nor have I any wish unfavourable to it; but I think a

complete reform in its system would add to its usefulness and

respectability. As the subject of that chapter has been much

discussed, I have thought it right to take a view of the various

arguments which have been advanced, and to offer my own opinion

respecting their validity—and there I should have left the

subject, content to allow my general character to plead for me

against insinuations respecting my motives—but as the remarks

of some of my critics affect the character of another person, I

think it but just to state circumstances which will clearly

disprove them.

 

Mr Fellowes, of Ludgate Street, who had previously been the

publisher of some other volumes for me, had undertaken the

publication of the first edition of the present work. A short

time previous to its completion, I thought it right to call his

attention to the chapter in which the book-trade is discussed;

with the view both of making him acquainted with what I had

stated, and also of availing myself of his knowledge in

correcting any accidental error as to the facts. Mr Fellowes,

‘differing from me entirely respecting the conclusions I had

arrived at’, then declined the publication of the volume. If I

had then chosen to apply to some of those other booksellers,

whose names appear in the Committee of ‘The Trade’, it is

probable that they also would have declined the office of

publishing for me; and, had my object been to make a case against

the trade, such a course would have assisted me. But I had no

such feeling; and having procured a complete copy of the whole

work, I called with it on Mr Knight, of Pall Mall East, whom

until that day