off condensed perspiration. Dr. Darwin recommends it as obviating, in a great measure, the usual effects of old age. But it unfortunately happens that those who most need it least enjoy it; yet it ought and might be put in the power of every individual, at a very trifling expense, by combining baths with gas establish No. 2.-Three times up and down, ments. The squeamish alone, those to answer no, or not ready. I remain, Sir, Yours, respectfully, GEORGE WILLIAM MANBY, WARM BATHING. A HINT TO THE PROPRIETORS OF GAS WORKS. SIR,- The same fires which heat the retorts might prepare water for warm bathing, and thus tepid immersion be made co-extensive with gas illumination. The beneficial effects of the warm bath are not generally known, otherwise it would be more universally adopted. Necessary to health, it is always a luxury, and is excellent in arthritic affections, while it agreeably evacuates the pores by carrying who more deserve drowning than bathing, would object to the neighbourhood of a gasometer. There are many towns where these everglowing retorts are established, and where the inhabitants, desiring neither the elegancies of the Romans, nor the luxurious immersion of the Turks, would, I have no doubt, patronise such bathing establishments as had utility for their object. I hope this will be considered by some public-spirited individuals; for, as Government has annulled the quarantine laws, which were the palladium of our rosy-cheeked islanders against the Levantine contagion, every attention ought to be paid to the means. of preserving bodily health. I am, Sir, yours truly, PERPETUAL MOTIONLABOUR IN COTTON FACTORIES. 119 PERPETUAL MOTION, AGAIN”- the magnetic attraction, and conse AN IMPRACTICABILITY. SIR,-I cannot help admiring the good sense of your Correspondent Nrubkcalb Cassi," in sending his communication to your instructive Magazine, instead of brooding over the idea for weeks and months in silence, to the injury of his health and waste of his valuable time. quently preventing the re-action which was fatal in the other case. I believe Mr. Gill took the trouble to expose this pretender, in his Technical Repository. I had an opportunity, some time ago, of reading a letter from a person who had witnessed a similar invention, made by a Mr. John Spence, shoemaker, at Linlithgow, also in " Scotland's Isle." It consisted of a needle nicely balanced on a pivot, which was kept in continual motion by its poles being alternately attracted by two magnets, properly placed, and whose attraction was as regularly cut off through the intervention of intercepting substances, which Mr. Spence was represented as having spent twenty or thirty years in finding out. It was also stated that he was, at that time, constructing an apparatus applicable to time-keepers, which he was going to present to the Royal Society, but, not having since heard of him or his intended communication to that learned body, I am afraid that Death has stept in, and intercepted him in his laudable pursuits. About five or six years ago, a young man, a Scotchman, of considerable ability, stumbled upon this attractive plan of producing a perpetual motion. Confident of the truth of his principle, and giddy with the dreams of riches which he had been told would await the happy inventor of this long-sought desideratum in mechanics, he gave up all his emoluments in Scotland, and hastened to London, for the purpose of getting his machine constructed in a superior manner. The workman he employed was a Mr. Allen, then resident in the neighbourhood of Fetter-lane: the principle he emplayed was exactly similar to that of your Correspondent, but more complex in its application. After a lapse of some months the machine was finished, and, with beating heart, the magnet was applied to produce effects which should astonish the world; but, alas! how shall I describe it? It was at that moment discovered that the magnetic influence was exerted equally to the right and left, and that, instead of the pieces 2, of soft iron, disposed at equal distances round the circumference, being only pulled or attracted in one direction, they were equally acted upon in the opposite, and consequently no motion ensued. It is about three years since that another person, also a native of North Britain, proposed a new power to propel carriages on the road and ships at sea, and exhibited a model of his engine in Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly. It consisted of a wheel moved (as he pretended) by this selfsame principle of magnetism. The magnet, of a spherical form, was placed on a plate of metal, or, rather, mixture of metals (as he said), which had the rare power of intercepting Should any of your Correspondents know any thing of the fate of this person or his invention, it will, I dare say, be acceptable to many, but to none more than, Your humble servant, T. BELL. Commercial-road, Whitechapel, May 23, 1825. ON PROTRACTED LABOUR IN COTTON SIR,-In an age like the present, and in a country abounding with means to cultivate the mind, as England undoubtedly does under the auspices of a free government, the system which is now generally acted upon in Cotton Factories, of compelling the operative spinners, their piecers, and other persons employed there, to work fourteen or fificen hours per day, and tasking the operative spinners to a quantity of work beyond what is reasonable to be pro 120 ON PROTRACTED LABOUR IN COTTON FACTORIES. duced in a given time, is extremely injurious both in a moral and physical point of view. It is notorious, in the cotton manufacturing districts, that persons therein employed are confined in an atmosphere polluted by their own respiration, by effluvia from their own bodies, and by impurities thrown off from the cotton and floating about in the room. In this situation, so much calculated for little bodily exertion, the spinners are kept in a state of continued activity, which necessarily produces fatigue, and, by daily repetition, this fatigue becomes excessive, and the vigour of the body is gradually exhausted; hence, debility, coughs, hoarseness, affections of the lungs, asthmas, consumptions, and rheumatic complaints, are so common, that it is remarkable to see a person working in a factory who does not labour under one or more of the above disorders. Callous must that man's heart be who can contemplate such scenes of human suffering and misery, and behold the spinner exerting himself, beyond his natural strength, from five in the morning till eight at night, and in some factories in this town and neighbourhood, as also at Low Moor, near Clithero, till nine at night. To see him not only so degraded as to work like a horse, but eating his meals like one! snatching a bite and a sup of his meals at intervals from the floor, or a board fixed at his wheels to hold his scanty allowance, as he runs from one wheel to the other, half naked, and reeking with perspiration! I say, callous indeed must that man's heart be who can contemplate such scenes with a stoical indifference. The benevolent and humane will shudder on contemplating the wretched and humiliating manner that the piecers are treated; compelled to be unremittingly assiduous in their attention to their work-to eat their meals when cold and covered with dust, &c. for three or four days in the weekrequired to assist the spinners in cleaning the machinery during the intervals allowed for dinner time, and, in most factories, not allowed a spare moment to go to their breakfast. Equally injurious, pernicious, and baneful, are the effects of this system on the morals of persons labouring under the aforesaid tyrannical yoke and present insufferable barriers to intellectual improvement! For how can it be expected that a man, after labouring incessantly 14 or 15 hours, with the exception of the intervals allowed for meals, can be in a capacity to spend any time in reading and writing, or endeavouring to acquire a knowledge of any of the useful sciences? Even allowing that he is able to read, and has the means in his power for selfcultivation, it is an axiom generally (perhaps universally) admitted, that the mind is so intimately connected with the body that one cannot suffer, but the other feels; therefore, when the man gets home at night, after he has eaten his supper, his body is so fatigued he is overcome with drowsiness, all the powers of his mind lay dormant, and he feels inclined for nothing but tired Nature's kind restorative-balmy sleep. But, from experience and observation, I have every reason to believe there is not one in ten that can read tolerably, nor one in fifty that ever makes any proficiency in writing and arithmetic. Indeed, how can it be expected, when it is considered that, before the passing of Sir Robert Peel's Bill, in 1819, they commenced working at the factories before they were six years of age, and the major part before they were nine years, as was proved in evidence. And even now, ever since that beneficial and solitary Act began to operate, many children, to my certain knowledge, do commence working in the factory before they are six years of age. Their parents not being able to keep them at home longer, on account of wages being so low, assert that the child is above nine years of age, in order to get them employed; and though, in most cases, a reference to the register for a certificate of baptism would prove that assertion to be false, the master or foreman is satisfied, and does not scruple to employ them. ON PROTRACTED LABOUR IN COTTON FACTORIES. Such persons I have the honour to be acquainted with, but they are looked upon as something singular in a cotton factory. I do not hesitate to avow myself one of the number, having commenced working in a cotton factory when only five years of age, and continued in that occupation ever since, which is now above thirty-two years (16 of which I have been employed as a mule-spinner) ; and when I state that I have worked as an operative spinner at Manchester, Warrington, Bolton, Preston, Chorley, and Burnley, you will presume that I have something more than a mere superficial knowledge of the subject which I have been treating upon. I have been an eyewitness of the direful effects of the system, and I heartily joined my suffering shopmates in petitioning the legislature in support of the Cotton Factory Bill, while pending in Parliament, in 1818 and 1819, and cheerfully contributed towards defraying the expenses of delegates and others, who were sent to London to give evidence in support of the same. I also acted as Secretary for a Committee appointed by the cotton-spinners and others to draw up the petitions, and transact all other business relative to the aforesaid Bill; and in this capacity I wrote several letters to Honourable Members of both Houses of Parliament, stating our grievances, and describing the appearance of the work-people in general-their pallid faces, and emaciated forms, squalid aspect, distortions, &c. respectfully beseeching them to support the Bill, that the sufferings of the children might be alleviated, and their condi 121 tion meliorated. To some of these letters I had the honour to receive very polite and encouraging answers, and when that Bill was passed into a law (though the time of labour was, by a clause introduced in the House of Lords, augmented from eleven to twelve hours each day, which is longer than a due regard to the health, strength, and stature of the rising generation will permit, by at least two hours), I congratulated my shopmates on the happy result, and looked forward with joyful anticipation to having a little leisure for recreation and improvement. We expected, also, that parents would now have leisure and opportunity to instruct their children, and particularly the privilege of sending them to evening schools; but little did we think of the subterfuges that would be resorted to, in order to evade the provisions of the Act, or that we must be compelled, however reluctantly, to work three or four hours longer on Saturday than usual, in order to make up the time abridged from the other days, which has actually been the case in this and several other parts of the country. Very little attention is paid to that part of the Act which requires that the rooms should be ventilated, and the walls and ceilings whitewashed.There are some manufactories in Burnley that have never been thoroughly whitewashed since the Act was passed! There are masters, too, that pretend to regard the Act, and observe all the regulations, &c. which it prescribes, who employ two or three spare hands to send all the children under sixteen out of the factory, at different times of the day, one hour, or more, according to the time the said factory works above the hours limited by the Act. The children are chastised if they stop away above the time allowed; and this practice is continued all weathers, summer and winter. From what has been said, we may deduce the following inferences: 1st. That the Act referred to has not produced those good and beneficial effects which the Honourable Author and the supporters of the Bill proposed and intended, but, by 1 122 METALLIC ROOF-COVERING leaving it at the master-spinner's option to work as long on Saturdays as the time limited for labour on other days, causes thousands of the poor working people, who are so unfortunately circumstanced, to profane the sabbath-day, by doing that on Sunday mornings which they were formerly wont to do on Saturday evenings, besides precluding them from going to the market to buy their provisions, &c. FRENCH DISCOVERY IN NAVIGATION. more have reason to complain of the Act being infringed with impunity; and that, were the hours of actual labour for all persons employed in cotton factories so reduced as to leave them some little time for the cultivation of their minds, they would quickly rise buoyant from their depressed condition, and take their place among the most respectable classes of mechanics. 2nd. That, as the Act prohibits magistrates from appointing visitors to inspect factories, &c. except in cases where complaints have been alleged, the proprietors and master-spinners may act with impunity, except in such rare cases as those stated in the Manchester Guardian, Nov. 13 and 27, 1824, where certain discarded and proscribed spinners are represented as having lodged informations against their employers, Messrs. Harrison, &c. for alleged breaches of the Act. 3rd. That it is requisite and necessary some alteration should be made in the Act of 59th Geo. III., for the better Preservation of the Health of young Persons employed in Cotton Mills and Factories.' I therefore beg leave to suggest to the public, through the medium of your widely circulated publication, the propriety of petitioning the British Parliament to revise and amend the aforesaid Act; to authorise and enjoin the Excise-officer, or some other public functionary, of each district, to inspect all cotton mills and factories, and take cognizance of all breaches of the rules, as by law established; and, above all, to abridge the hours of labour on Saturdays, in order that the spinners and others employed therein may have the privilege of going to market, and attending to their domestic concerns, at the same time with people of other trades. It is my decided and unbiassed opinion, that if the cotton factories were under the control of such disinterested and uninfluenced men as revenue-officers are, we should no That this may be the happy result, is the sincere desire of, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, A COTTON-SPINNER. METALLIC COVERING FOR ROOFS. SIR, Seeing that your Correspondent signed R. S. T. inquires who is the patentee for the metallic covering for roofs, I beg to inform him, as well as your Correspondents and subscribers in general, that you have been grossly imposed upon by Abel Handy, as no such patent has ever yet been granted. That there may not, at some future period, be one taken out, I do not presume to assert, nor do I question the merits or demerits of the Church referred to by A. H.; but that has nothing whatever to do with the subject of his letter, as the roof of that building is covered with common slate. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, A BERKSHIRE SUBSCRIBER, London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, 19th May, 1825, FRENCH DISCOVERY IN NAVIGATION. A Company is forming in France for the establishment of vessels on the canals and rivers of that country, the wheels or paddles of which are stated to be set in motion by powerful air pumps, the action of which is continued by the action of the paddles. Great secrecy has been observed as to this invention; but the mode in which the machinery is first set into action is said to be by a powerful wheel almost without friction, which, although capable of producing an impulse equal to a forty horse power, is continued in motion by one person, |