The object of this series is to bring into one focus the leading
features and present position of the most important industries of the
kingdom, so as to enable the general reader to comprehend the enormous
development that has taken place within the last twenty or thirty
years. It is evident that the great increase in education throughout
the country has tended largely to foster a simultaneous interest in
technical knowledge, as evinced by the spread of Art and Science
Schools, Trade Museums, International Exhibitions, &c.; and this fact
is borne out by a perusal of the daily papers, in which the prominence
given to every improvement in trade or machinery attests the desire of
the reading public to know more about these matters. Here, however,
the difficulty commences, for the only means of acquiring this
information are from handbooks to the various manufactures (which are
usually too minute in detail for general instruction), from trade
journals and the reports of scientific societies; and to obtain and
systematize these scattered details is a labour and a tax upon time
and patience which comparatively few persons care to surmount. In
these volumes all these facts are gathered together and presented in
as readable a form as is compatible with accuracy and a freedom from
superficiality; and though they do not lay claim to being a technical
guide to each industry, the names of the contributors are a sufficient
guarantee that they are a reliable and standard work of reference.
Great stress is laid on the progressive developments of the
manufactures, and the various applications to them of the collateral
arts and sciences; the history of each is truly given, while present
processes and recent inventions are succinctly described.