REPORT ON MACHINERY AND PROCESSES OF THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS, AND APPARATUS OF THE EXACT SCIENCES. BY FREDERICK A. P. BARNARD, LL.D., PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: D. VAN NOSTRAND, 23 MURRAY ST. AND 27 WARREN ST. 1869. PREFACE. The following report is an attempt to comply with that portion of the instructions issued by the Secretary of State to the Commission of the United States to the Exposition of 1867, which required a report to be prepared upon the new inventions in the useful arts illustrated in the Exposition. It need hardly be remarked that an entirely satisfactory execution of a task like that here presented could be reasonably expected only from the co-operation of a number of individuals, severally quali fied, by previous familiarity with the different departments of industry represented, to appreciate the merits of the various objects subjected to their examination. The preparation of the required report was therefore, originally, very properly confided to a committee; but the plan of a joint report, at first contemplated, was found in the end to be impracticable, and was accordingly abandoned. Some members of the committee preferred to direct their attention to the study of special subjects, and the general duties imposed on the committee devolved at length upon the present reporter alone. This statement is felt to be necessary in explanation, or rather, perhaps, in justification, of an attempt on the part of the reporter to execute a task not willingly assumed by him, and which he found no encouragement to undertake in the consciousness of special qualification. A large portion of this report was prepared during the continuance of the Exposition, but the amount of labor thrown upon the reporter beyond the extent of his original anticipation protracted the work of its completion until after the close. To the duties originally assigned to the committee on the useful arts was added, at a late period, that of reporting on the objects exposed in Class XII, embracing "Instruments of Precision, and Apparatus of Instruction in Science." The concluding chapters of the report are devoted to this interesting subject. A full description of the Exposition in this class would occupy a much larger space than it has been found possible, or than it would have been proper, to devote to it here. It may, however, be said generally of that magnificent display, that it was made up in great part of instruments already well known; although it is probable that there has never before been collected together in one spot so large a number of their kind, on which the highest order of artistic skill had so thoroughly exhausted itself. It remains only for the reporter to express his indebtedness to the Commissioner General, Mr. Beckwith, for the many courtesies received from him throughout the continuance of the Exposition, and subsequently; and to bear his cordial testimony to the ability, efficiency, im |