Here is a numerous collection of machines of every description
employed in the mechanical arts. Among these is the _belier
hydraulique_, newly invented by MONTGOLFIER, by means of which a
stream of water, having a few feet of declivity, can be raised to the
top of a house by a single valve or sucker, so disposed as to open,
to admit the water, and shut, when it is to be raised by compression.
By increasing the compression, it can be raised to 1000 feet, and may
be carried to a much greater elevation. The commissioners appointed
by the Institute to examine this machine, reported that it was new,
very simple, very ingenious, and might be extremely useful in turning
to account little streams of water for the purposes of agriculture,
manufactories, &c.
This reminds me of another singular hydraulic machine, of which I
have been informed by a person who attended a trial made of it not
long since in Paris.
A basin placed at the height of twenty feet, was filled with water,
the fall of which set in motion several wheels and pumps that raised
the water again into the basin. The machine was fixed in a place,
glazed on all sides, and locked by three different keys. It kept in
play for thirty-two days, without the smallest interruption; but the
air, the heat, and the wood of the machine, having undoubtedly
diminished the water, it no longer ascended into the basin. Till the
thirty-second day, many persons imagined that the perpetual motion
had been discovered. However, this machine was extremely light, well
combined, and very simple in its construction. I ought to observe
that it neither acted by springs nor counterpoise; all its powers
proceeding from the fall of the water.
The conservatory also contains several models of curious buildings,
too numerous to mention.
The mechanical arts in France appear to have experienced more or less
the impulse given to the sciences towards the close of the eighteenth
century. While calamities oppressed this country, and commerce was
suspended, the inventive and fertile genius of the French was not
dormant.
The clothiers have introduced woollen articles manufactured on a new
plan; and their fine broad cloths and kerseymeres have attained great
perfection. The introduction of the Spanish merinos into France has
already produced in her wools a considerable amelioration.
Like a phoenix, Lyons is reviving from its ashes, and its silks now
surpass, if possible, their former magnificence. Brocaded silk is at
present made in a loom worked by one man only, in lieu of two, which
the manufacture of that article hitherto demanded. Another new
invention is a knitting-loom, by means of which 400 threads are
interwoven with the greatest exactness, by merely turning a winch.
The cotton manufactures are much improved, and the manufactories in
that line are daily increasing in number and perfection. A new
spinning-machine has produced here, I am told, 160,000 ells in length
out of a pound of cotton. The fly-shuttle is now introduced into most
of the manufactories in this country, and 25 pieces of narrow goods
are thus made at once by a single workman. In adopting ARKWRIGHT'S
system, the French have applied it to small machines, which occupy no
more room than a common spinning-wheel.
Among other branches in which the French mechanics have particularly
distinguished themselves, since the revolution, is the making of
astronomical and philosophical instruments.
All the machines used here in coining have also been modified and
improved. By one of these, the piece is struck at the same time on
the edge and on the flat side in so perfect a manner, that the money
thus coined cannot he counterfeited.
I have already mentioned the invention of a composition which
supplies the place of black lead for pencils, and the discovery of a
new and very expeditious method of tanning leather.
New species of earthen-ware have been invented, and those already
known have received considerable improvement.
Chemists have put the manufacturers in possession of new means of
decomposing and recomposing substances. Muriat of tin is now made
here with such economy, that it is reduced to one-eighth of its
former price. This salt is daily used in dying and in the manufacture
of printed calicoes. Carbonates of strontia and of baryt, obtained by
a new process, will shortly be sold in Paris at 3 francs the
_kilogramme_. This discovery is expected to have a great influence on
several important arts, such as the manufacture of glass, of soap,
&c.
Articles of furniture, jewellery, and every branch dependent on
design, are now remarkable for a purer taste than that which they
formerly exhibited.
Indeed, the characteristic difference of the present state of French
industry, and that in which it was before the revolution, is that
most of the proprietors of the manufactories have received a
scientific education. At that time, many of them were strangers to
the principles applicable to the processes of their art; and, in this
respect, they lay at the mercy of the routine, ignorance, and caprice
of their workmen. At present, the happy effects of instruction, more
widely-diffused, begin to be felt, and, in proportion as it is
extended, it excites a spirit of emulation which promises no small
advantage to French commerce.