THE

OPERATIVE MECHANIC,

AND

BRITISH MACHINIST;

BEING A

Practical Display

OF THE

MANUFACTORIES AND MECHANICAL ARTS

OF THE

UNITED KINGDOM.

BY JOHN NICHOLSON, Esq.

CIVIL ENGINEER.

LONDON:
NDO

PRINTED FOR KNIGHT AND LACEY,

PATERNOSTER-ROW;

AND WILDER AND CAMPBELL, 142, broad-way, NEW YORK.

ΤΟ

GEORGE BIRKBECK, Esq. M.D.

PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION,

SIR,

&c. &c. &c.

In an age like the present, when the rich and the powerful identify their interests with the welfare of the poor and uninformed, when the wise and the good combine in furthering the diffusion of sound principles and useful knowledge among those who constitute the most important, though hitherto the most neglected, portion of the community, there is not one who can view the future in the past but must anticipate with such data before him, a change as brilliant in its effects, as it is honourable to those who are engaged in promoting it.

The advanced state of science, and the comprehensive views of a just and liberal philosophy, animate those who for many years have compared theory with practice to come forward in the hope of being able to offer something in aid of the common cause.