Page:Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects.djvu/109

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NEW YORK INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.
95

attention are brought to bear upon the manufacture of machinery.


2. Marine Engine Works.—The principal marine steam engine works are in New York, but there are large establishments of a mixed character in almost every town of importance; to particularise these and to give a full description of each is unnecessary. They are similar in character, and it frequently happens that it is only in some of the details that there is anything to remark upon. The practice which prevails of combining various branches of manufacture in the same establishment, would also render separate descriptions of each somewhat complicated. For instance, in some cases the manufacture of locomotives is combined with that of mill gearing, engine tools, spinning and other machinery. In others, marine engines, hydraulic presses, forge hammers, and large cannon were all being made in the same establishments. The policy of thus mixing together the various branches is objectionable; but the practice doubtless arises, in addition to other causes, from the fact that the demand is not always sufficient to occupy large works in a single manufacture.

Wherever facilities of carriage or other causes render it practicable to confine establishments to a special branch the most advan-