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SCIENCE & COMMERCE:

Their Influence on our Manufactures;

A SERIES OF STATISTICAL ESSAYS

AND LECTURES DESCRIBING THE PROGRESSIVE DISCOVERIES OF

SCIENCE,

THE ADVANCE OF BRITISH COMMERCE,

AND THE ACTIVITY OF OUR PRINCIPAL MANUFACTURES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

BY

P. L. SIMMONDS,

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EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL OF APPLIED SCIENCE,"

HONORARY AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF VARIOUS FOREIGN AND COLONIAL SOCIETIES.

CONTENTS.

Obligations of Commerce to Science and the Vegetable Products Imported (Travers' Lecture) Mineral and Animal Substances entering into Commerce (Travers' Lecture)

The Industrial and Manufacturing Uses of Shells

The Progress of Science in the 19th Century

The Cotton Manufacture:

Production and Consumption of
Cotton

Our Cotton Supplies

The Cotton Trade

The Woollen Manufacture:

The Wools of Commerce and the
Information to be obtained
thereon

Wool and the Woollen Trade
Our Wool Supplies

Colonial Wools at the London In

ternational Exhibition of 1862 The British Woollen Manufactures A-The Worsted Manufacture B-The Woollen Manufacture C-Shoddy Fabrics

The Chief Mineral and Vegetable Products of Commerce

The Silk Trade and Manufacture— On Silk Cultivation and Supply in India (A Prize Essay)

The Production of Silk

The Iron Manufacture

The Progress of our Mineral Industries
The Glass Manufacture

Earthenware and Pottery
Dyes and Colouring Stuffs:

Dyes obtained from the Animal
Kingdom

Mineral Colours and Dyes
Vegetable Colours and Dyes

The Manufacture of, and Trade in, Precious Metals and Fancy Articles

The Grocery and Allied Trades

The Commerce in Groceries The Leather Trade and Tanning Substances

The Leather Manufacture New Paper-making Materials and the Progress of the Paper Manufacture On Nuts their Produce and Uses (A Prize Essay)

LONDON:

ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY;

AND OF THE AUTHOR, 29, CHEAPSIDE,

Price Six Shillings.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS, &c.

SINCE I have received your book I have begun to study, or as the French say, "devour " it. What a treasure of information it is. I promise to read it over many times and to make lots of notes from it, and to read extracts from it in my class of merchandise or products.-PROFESSOR BERNARDIN, College of Melle, near Ghent,

YOUR book is a most valuable repertory of facts, with generalizations not less valuable and to me it will be especially useful. I shall place a copy in the library of my class in the, Edinburgh University.-DR. W, B. HODGSON, Professor of Commerce, Edinburgh University,

THE papera occasionally contributed to this Journal by Mr. SIMMONDS have, doubtless, rendered his name somewhat familiar to our readers, while they have also testified, were other evidence wanting, to his ability to deal with such a subject as has engaged his attention in the volume bearing the above title. Its contents are not altogether new to the public, for many of the topics brought under consideration have been heard in the lecture. room, or read in the literary journals of the day; but all have undergone revision, and whatever new discovery or application has since been made is duly noted. The influence of science and commerce upon manufacturing productions is as incontrovertible as that sunlight creates day; no argument is, therefore, needed to prove its truth. It has been the object of Mr. SIMMONDS to show their relative working and their combined results in a series of essays on the leading manufactures of the country, and also upon the products of nature-as mineral, vegetable, and animal substances. Though a man of science, scientific technicalities do not unduly obtrude in his pages on the patience and attention of their readers; the papers are both instructive and entertaining, and thus area suited for popular use. It is impossible even to take a cursory glance at them without feeling astonished at the mighty fabric reared by the commerce and manufactures of Great Britain.-Art Journal.

UPON subjects such as would be embraced in the above title it would, perhaps, be difficult to find a more competent writer than Mr. P. L. SIMMONDS, and in the present volume he bas certainly spared no pains to give the public the fullest benefit of his experience. The introductory chapter upon the Obligations of Commerce to Science, and the Vegetable Products imported, is particularly interesting. The products, he remarks, of the mine, the factory, and the farm are concentrated in the warehouses of our docks. The corn fields of America and Europe, the rice fields of Asia, the sugar-cane pieces of the East and West Indies, the coffee plantations and the spice groves of the Tropics, the fleeces of the sheep of Africa, Australia, and South America, of the alpaca of the Andes, and the goat of Cashmere, the gold of America and Australia, the iron of Sweden and the Black Forest, the copper of America and Australia, the ship, the ironworks, the engine-makers' workshop, the bazaar, the exchange, the market-all these, and many more multifarious forms of industry and commerce are represented in our import and export trade returns. The style in which Mr. SIMMONDS communicates his facts is very attractive, and the readable character of the book entitles it to very extensive patronage, as it will prove equally valuable as a work of reference or to be read purely for amusement.-Mining Journal.

A VERY informing and readable book, conveying in an agreeable manner a great deal that is worth knowing regarding the march of scientific discovery and the way in which it has affected the advancement of British commerce and manufactures; and there is sufficient statistical and other information regarding these various topics to render the work useful as a book of reference, and it gives a really graphic picture of the various triumphs of modern science and the influence they have had on the industrial and social aspects of the age.-Bristol Mercury.

THE title of the book is a good and suggestive one, and the book is full of interesting and useful facts. It will be found of service not only to the general reader who cares to know something of the topics it discusses, but also to such men of business as may have occasion for some acquaintance with the methods and materials of various industries.— Manchester Guardian.

THE general reader will obtain from it some notion of the part which science plays on modern commerce, and of the immense variety of articles which it has utilised, special prominence being given to the articles used in English manufactures. Some of the eways devoted to special trades contain not a little curious information.-Economist,

Or the general value of this book, of its variety of subjects, all well treated, it is not within our province to speak. We must look at it solely from a "Knife and Fork" point of view. Mr. SIMMONDS's pages abound in references to the food department. His references are also not mere hap-hazard assertions, but are sober facts, proved in the most authoritative manner, and should be studied thoughtfully by those who are interested in the growth of commerce, and who have sufficient interest to watch its development. We trust we have said enough to turn many of our readers' thoughts towards the substantial volume we have only glanced at in their company. Those who may be tempted to secure it must give their strict attention to Mr. SIMMONDS'S chapter on the "Scientific Discoveries of the Nineteenth Century."-Knife and Fork.

THIS most valuable and interesting volume consists of a "Series of Statistical Essays and Lectures, describing the Progressive Discoveries of Science, the Advance of British Commerce, and the Conditions of our Principal Manufactures in the Nineteenth Century." The author is well known as the editor of "The Journal of Applied Science," and as an earnest and practical advocate of all measures tending to the extension and security of British industry and commerce. He has had an exceptionally large experience in the arrangement of technological museums and international exhibitions, both at home and abroad, and consequently is thoroughly competent to speak with authority on the subjects with which he deals. To any one who wishes to see the dependence of our present manu. factures upon the knowledge we possess of the materials and products which nature so generously supplies, this is just the book to read. It is not, however, of that philosophical or theoretical character often met with in the writings of those who advocate the importance of science in the promotion of industry. On the other hand, it is a plain and unvarnished statement of facts, many of them statistical, bearing directly on this relation -and, indeed, establishing its truth beyond all reasonable doubt-but which are of themselves of first-rate importance, a3 supplying a sort of abstract of our national resources, and thus enabling us to form an estimate of our position and the prospects we have before us. It would be impossible to give anything like a fair résumé of the multitude of facts and figures Mr. SIMMONDS has here collected. The lectures are very pleasant reading, and are sure to be much appreciated by all who are capable of being interested in the causes which have produced and the circumstances which have favoured the rapid development of every department of trade and commerce during the present century. Following the chapter on the scientific results of the present century are others devoted specially to different branches of industry. In these the manufacture of cotton, woollens, silk, iron,

5

glass, earthenware, &c., are viewed in such a variety of aspects, and treated with such statistical detail, as to be almost exhausted. The sources and production of the raw material, its importation, the labour and capital employed in its transformation, the home consumption, and the foreign and colonial exportation of the finished articles, are only a few of the many points on which the fullest information is given.-Leeds Mercury.

THIS is an especially practical and useful work, A veteran in the literature of com. merce, from his long connection with international exhibitions, and facilities of research in technological museums at home and abroad, the author of "The Commercial Dictionary of Trade Products," now gives in a collected form a series of Statistical Essays describing the Progressive Discoveries of Science, the Advance of British Commerce, and the activity of our Principal Manufactures in the Nineteenth Century. To all who desire to post themselves up in the details of the increase of trade products, manufactures, and the many enterprises which during the last seventy years have given such an impetus to all that tends to the alvancement of the general prosperity and prolongation of human life, this little volume will be very acceptable. We would, however, specially point to the pages devoted to the "Scientific Discoveries of the Nineteenth Century," the "Manufacture of Iron and Paper," as more particularly bearing upon the advancement of civilisation. It is, however, no mere book of statistics, for it contains abundant anecdotes-such as the manufacture of Bank of England notes, and even the origin of lucifer matches.-Morning Advertiser.

If there is one matter on which even our teachers need to be always learning, it is about those "common things" on which the late Lord Ashburton insisted that knowledge is usually so rare and uncommon among ourselves. Now, Mr. SIMMONDS, whose name is familiar to scientific readers as the editor of the "Journal of Applied Science," has contrived to give us, within the compass of a small and handy volume, a book of general information upon trade, commerce, manufactures, &c., which, if carefully studied in its contents, would go far to remove this reproach. It would store the minds of grown-up people with much which, if simply retailed vivâ voce in the class-room, would immensely interest intelligent pupils, and rouse a spirit of further inquiry. Regarded from this point of view, the work, we need hardly say, is indirectly of a high educational value. Mr. SIMMONDS modestly describes his chapters as a series of Statistical Essays and Lectures descriptive of the Progressive Discoveries of Science, the Advance of British Commerce, and the Conditions of our Principal Manufactures in the Nineteenth Century. But though he makes large use of statistical information, it must by no means be supposed that his essays "bristle with formidable statistics ;" and we are bound to add that his style is most readable and attractive. On each of these subjects, Mr. SIMMONDS discourses in such a manner that, in spite of our own great partiality for classical literature, we are forced to confess that he has fairly succeeded in awakening our interest in his lectures, and in making us feel how much we have even yet to learn about the most simple and "common" things and matters of every-day life. In short, those who wish to see what has been the effect upon England -we might say upon Europe, and upon the world-of the discovery of gold, of iron, of coal, of steam, and of the electric telegraph, may here find every question they can desire to put answered by anticipation. It only remains to add that the value of the work is considerably enhanced by the addition of a full and well digested index.-School Board Chronicle,

Mr. P. L. SIMMONDS merits the attention of his readers. He speaks with authority. His commercial experience, and his facilities of research, have been most extensive. He has had ample opportunities for the minute observation of technological museums and international exhibitions at home and abroad, and is therefore to be trusted on such matters. To the lightheaded persons who can read nothing more serious than a magazine, the mere title of this book will be sufficient. But, we think, did even this class of readers open the volume and fall by chance upon the chapter on "Shells," a different effect would

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