THE MACHINIST.

If any thing is capable of persuading man that he is of a superior order of being to that of the animals which surround him, it is above all the beauty of his inventions and the inexhaustible resources which he finds in his industry. He is born weak and absolutely naked. His weakness renders him even active and industrious. Upon a contemplation of his own poverty, he calls into activity all his senses. He applies force to force, opposition to resistance — velocity to weight— and weight to velocity. By the assistance of Mechanics this little being of five or six feet in height, with two arms, can expedite as much work as a giant whom we might imagine having a thousand. Take Mechanics from man, and you reduce him to barren thought. Mechanics have done what there is of most beautiful upon the earth.

The Machinist who embodies in his profession the chief principles of Mechanics, and brings them into active use, is the follower of
an occupation of very recent introduction amongst the social and useful arts. It is true, we had to a remote period the common
smith,.the founder, and the carpenter; and the optician has also been for some time known, but such has been the rapid improvement in mechanical machinery during the last fifty years, that the Machinist was wanting to unite the correct precision of the
finer branches of Mechanics to the practical utilities of the common smith, the carpenter &c.

As the steam engine occupies so conspicuous a portion in this trade, indeed, is the chief moving power in it, we deem it necessary to say, that it is, unquestionably, one of the noblest monuments of human ingenuity. It was originally invented by the Marquis of
Worcester, in the reign of Charles the Second. This nobleman published in 1663, a small book called a A Century of Inventions,
giving an account of a hundred different discoveries or contrivances of his own, amongst these, is an account of raising water by the force of steam, which, now that we are possessed of the engine, appears to agree very well with its construction. It does not appear, however, that he met with sufficient encouragement, and this useful discovery was long neglected.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, Captain Savary succeeded in constructing a machine of this kind, having, probably, seen the Marquis of Worcester's account ; obtained a patent for the invention, and erected several steam engines which be described in a book entitled the "Miners' Friend/' published in 1696.

In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Newcomen and Crauly first conceived the project of applying a piston with a lever and
other machinery. They were contented to share the profits of the invention with Savary, who procured a patent for it in 1705, in
which they all three joined. But it was not till 1712, that the difficulties in working it were removed.

About 1762, Mr. Watt began to turn his attention to this machine, which he has since brought to so great a degree of perfection.

Perhaps we cannot better describe the trade of. a Machinist than in enumerating some of the most important articles which he
manufactures, which are, machinery constructed and manufactured for experimental and scientific elucidation, steam engines, both of condensing and high pressure to any required power. Digesters, chemical apparatus, philosophical and gas-light machines ; conductors for protecting buildings and shipping from lightning. Pumps both atmospheric and forcing, machines for soda and artificial waters ; syphons, air and fluid cocks; exhausting and condensing syringes ; garden engines, fountains, hydrostatic engines, and hydro-mechanical presses, cutting engines for screws ; wheels, cylinders, and. boring bars, stamping and cutting presses with dies and punches. Saw-mills, portable iron forges, mill work, and large framing in wood and iron. Mechanical modelling and experimental machinery. Turning lathes, lead aud pewter pipe moulds, all sorts of turning in iron, steel and brass with screw cutting, and a great varietyof other articles for mechanical movements, which it would not be easy to enumerate.

It is obvious, that the person who carries on this business must be possessed of considerable ingenuity and great mechanical knowledge : his employment being of a very complicated kind. He requires the talents and experience of the joiner, the brass and iron founder, the smith and the turner, in their most extended variety. It is by uniting the powers of these several occupations into one, together with the great assortment of excellent tools which he unavoidably requires, that the Machinist is furnished with those
facilities of manufacture which peculiarly belong to his employment. The saw, the plane, the chisel and the hammer ; the furnace,
and all the implements for casting ; the forge, the anvil, the vice; and the products of these tools are, at last, submitted to the turning
lathe. This machine, and its apparatus, as they are now found in the Machinist's manufactory, form the grand and rapid instrument
that, by the assistance of the steam engine to give it motion, produces the accuracy which we find in all the different machinery and instruments that the Machinist prepares.

The turning lathe, and its various applications, would occupy much more space than we can spare to describe : we can only hint at
them. Cylinders, both interior and exterior, are turned and bored ; plain surfaces of any form, are smoothed ; cones, globes, and every other figure that the skill of the workman or the ingenuity of the apparatus can effect, are brought to their exact shape and polish by this machine, which ranks above all others in usefulness, as well as in the endless variety of its powers.

The plate represents the Machinist's workshop : with the five mechanical powers, viz. the screw, the pulley, the wheel, the wedge, and the lever. There is, also, the turning lathe, the steam engine, and the saw mill.

Able journeymen at this business, will get from thirty to fifty shillings per week.

We have obtained the principal part of this description from an inspection of the workshop of Mr. Alexander Galloway, the Machinist, No. 69, High Holborn, who, we understand, was the first person who established himself under this designation, and who is a proof, in his own person, of the great power, activity, and ingenuity of man.