10

DIFFERENT PURSUITS OF AMATEUR TURNERS.

Many persons have pursued these arts as a source of active and industrious employment, accessible at all hours, in the intervals between their other pursuits; a source of amusement that renders the amateur independent of the ordinary artizan for the supply of a great variety of works of utility for the common wants of life, including those constantly required either for the domestic establishment, or those personally experienced by its inhabitants, of every age or choice of occupation.

Other amateurs have pursued the art of turning as a source of elegant recreation, and of inventive and skilful pastime; one closely allied to the fine arts, insomuch as its greatest success depends upon a just appreciation of sculpture and painting, and for the attainment of which the education and opportunities of the man of independent leisure eminently qualify him; whilst the embellishment of the drawing-room, cabinet, and boudoir, stimulate him to apply his knowledge and skill to that end, and in which he frequently administers at the same time to the extension and cultivation of tasteful form in ordinary manufactures.

There is also a class of amateurs who have preferred the pursuit of such branches of the art as unite, with taste and design, a certain admixture of the more exact acquirements connected with mathematical and general science, and the arts of construction; and who have devoted their time and ingenuity to the production of models, embracing a variety of objects relative to the arts of peace and war; and also various machines and apparatus, or in the still more praiseworthy attempt of improving those already in use, or of inventing new ones; and the services that have been thus rendered by men of independence and education are neither few nor slight. In all such cases the progress is more rapid and certain, when the pencil is devoted to the production of the drawing, and the tool to the formation of the rough model, as proceedings in common, prior to making the finished apparatus.

In selecting topics from the very numerous branches of the subject, the author has endeavoured to supply the more immediate wants of all classes of amateurs, and under these circumstances he has thought it best, for the convenience and choice of the general reader, to separate the practical division of the subject of Turning into three distinct and different parts, to be preceded by two general or preliminary volumes, to contain mis

ARRANGEMENT CONSEQUENTLY ADOPTED BY THE AUTHOR. 11

cellaneous information required nearly alike in the pursuit of every branch of the mechanical arts; thus dividing the entire work into five volumes-namely,

VOL. I.

Materials, their Differences, Choice, and Preparation; various Modes of Working them, generally without Cutting Tools.

VOL. II.

The Principles of Construction, and Purposes of Cutting Tools ; Abrasive and Miscellaneous Processes.

VOL. III.

The Principles and Practice of Hand or Simple Turning,

VOL. IV.

The Principles and Practice of Ornamental or Complex Turning. VOL. V.

The Principles and Practice of Amateur Engineering.

The first volume, which is now in the hands of the reader, relates principally, to the materials for turning and the mechanical arts, arranged under the heads of the three great sources from which they are respectively derived; namely, the vegetable, the animal, and the mineral departments of nature; it includes also their treatment in the extended sense of the word, so far as regards their preparation for the Lathe, and their employment in various distinct branches of mechanical art, the practices of which do not in general require the use of tools with cutting edges.

The metallic materials are submitted to the greatest variety of processes, and which mainly depend on their properties of fusibility, malleability, and ductility; and consequently, the formation and qualities of alloys are considered, as also the arts of founding and soldering; those of forging works in iron and steel which are comparatively thick, and the nearly analogous treatment of thin works, or those in sheet metals; drawing tubes and wires, hardening and tempering, and a variety of corelative information is also offered, for the particulars of which the reader is referred to the Table of Contents.

The second volume, on cutting tools, and abrasive processes, is intended first to explain the general principles of cutting tools, which are few and simple; the forms and proportions of tools are however extensively modified, to adapt them to the different materials; to the various shapes to be produced; and to the

12

CONTENTS OF THE DIFFERENT VOLUMES.

convenience of the operator, or of the machine in which they are fixed. The remarks on the tools will inevitably be somewhat commingled with the account of their practical use, and the consideration of the machines with which they are allied, as indeed it is difficult to say where the appellation of tool ends, and that of machine or engine begins. The tools will be treated in different chapters, on Chisels and Planes, Turning Tools, Boring Tools, &c., as before enumerated.

The subsequent part of the second volume will be devoted to the description of abrasive processes; namely, those for restoring or sharpening the edges of the cutting tools; those for working upon substances to which, from their hardness or crystalline structure, the cutting tools are quite inapplicable; and also to the modes of polishing, which may be viewed as a delicate and extreme application of the abrasive process, and the final operation after the cutting tools; and lastly, to the ordinary modes of staining, lackering, varnishing, and other miscellaneous subjects.

The titles of volumes III., IV., and V., are it is expected sufficiently descriptive of their contents, which will be arranged with a similar attempt at order and classification, upon which it is unnecessary here to enlarge. From the systematic arrangement which has been attempted throughout the five volumes, it is hoped that instead of the numerous descriptions and instructions, being indiscriminately mixed and scattered, they will assume the shape of so many brief and separate treatises, and will in a great measure condense into a few consecutive pages, the remarks offered under each head; a form that will admit of any subject being selected, and of a more easy and distinct reference and comparison, when the reader may find it necessary; a facility that has been particularly studied.

Each of the five volumes may be considered as a distinct work and complete in itself; this will admit of any selection being made from their number. At the same time it is to be observed that the first and second are written as accompanying volumes, and will have an index in common, so as to constitute a general and preliminary work; the addition to which, of one of the other volumes, will render the subject complete for each of the three classes of amateurs before referred to, should the entire work be deemed too extensive.

CHAPTER II.

MATERIALS FROM THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM.

SECT. I. THEIR GROWTH, STRUCTURE, AND PREPARATION.

THE materials used in turning and the mechanical arts are exceedingly numerous: we obtain from the Vegetable Kingdom an extensive variety of woods of different characters, colours, and degrees of hardness, and also a few other substances.

The most costly and beautiful products of the Animal Kingdom, are the tusks of the elephant, the tortoise and pearl shells; but the horns, hoofs, and some of the bones of the ox, buffalo, and other animals, are also extensively used for more common purposes.

From the Mineral Kingdom are obtained many substances which are used in their natural states, and also the important products of the metallic ores.

It would be altogether misplaced to attempt a minute and general description of these varied materials, as they will be found in their more appropriate places in works on natural history, physiology, mineralogy, and metallurgy; and it is the less necessary, as those which are more commonly used, are familiar to us in the buildings, machinery, implements, furniture, and ornaments, by which we are surrounded: others of less extensive supply are, in many respects, only varieties which are subject to similar usage. I shall therefore principally restrict myself, to the description of those characters of the usual materials which lead the artizan to select them for his several purposes, and that also direct the choice of the tools by means of which they are respectively worked.

By far the most numerous and important of the materials from the Vegetable Kingdom are the woods, with which most parts of our globe are abundantly supplied; great numbers of them are used in their respective countries, and are known to the naturalist, although but a very inconsiderable portion of them are familiar to us in our several local practices.

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VEGETABLE MATERIALS, THE WOODS.

The woods that are the most commonly employed in this country, are enumerated in an alphabetical list, together with the most authentic information I could obtain concerning them; in collecting which, the assistance of various kind friends has been obtained, amongst whom are numbered travellers, naturalists, merchants, and manufacturers. Various museums, collections, and works, have been carefully examined, so as to include in the list, the more important of the various names of the woods, their countries, general and mechanical characters, and their principal uses in the arts of construction.

The alphabetical catalogue is preceded by a tabular view, intended to classify the woods that are the most generally selected by our artizans for certain ordinary uses; it will also serve, in a slight degree, to throw them into groups according to some of the differences between them, referable principally to their fibrous structures, by which they are distinguished as hard or soft, elastic or non-elastic, of plain or variegated appearance, of permanent figure or the reverse.

Their other varieties, in respect to colour and scent, and the oils, resins, gums, medicinal and various other matters, they respectively contain, are questions of equal importance, but they are more connected with the chemical and economic arts, and but slightly concern this inquiry. I shall therefore, nearly restrict myself to the questions arising from the mechanical structure and treatment of the woods, which it is proposed to consider under separate heads, in the present and three following chapters.

The general understanding of the principal differences of the woods will be greatly assisted by a brief examination into their structure, which is now so commonly and beautifully developed