tion, for curing disease by the use of steel and brass points. The delusion of Perkinism extended even to Europe; but the author of it, who also invented an antiseptic medicine, fell a victim to misplaced confidence in his own nostrums, while combating the yellow fever in New York, in 1799. But his son established, in London, a Perkinean institution for the benefit of the poor, under the presidency of Lord Rivers. The tractors soon fell into neglect, but were the occasion of a very clever satire entitled "Terrible Tractoration, a Poem by Christopher Caustic," published in London in 1803, and written by an American.' The impulse given to agriculture at this time, attracted much attention to labor-saving machines, applicable to the principal staples of the country. Several machines for threshing and cleaning wheat, rice, and other grains, and inventions connected with flour-mills, had already been patented. The success of Whitney had given a prominence to the cotton crop, and this year, three patents were granted for improvements in ginning cotton. The most important of these, was one issued May 12, to Hogden Holmes, who, early in the last year, appeared as a formidable contestant of Whitney's invention, which, until then, had only to contend with the roller gin. Holmes' machine was the same in principle as Whitney's, but had the teeth cut in circular runs of iron, instead of being made of wires, as was the case in the earlier forms of Whitney's gin. From this circumstance it was called the saw gin. It was the occasion of his principal law-suits afterward. While embarrassed with (1) Cases of cures to the number of five thousand were published in England, with certificates from eight professors, forty physicians and surgeons, and thirty clergymen. The tractors were much ridiculed by the medical profession, and their popularity was short lived. In 1801, Thomas Green Fessenden, of N. Hampshire, the author of the poem referred to, visited London to introduce a new hydraulic machine. Not succeeding in his object, he produced, under circumstances of much pecuniary distress, the Terrible Tractoration," in relation to Perkins's tractors, and its success was so complete as to relieve its author, and give occasion for several editions in England. It was enlarged and reprinted in this country, in 1806, as "The Modern Philosopher," and in another edition before his death in 1837. (2) Whitney afterward proved, that the idea of teeth instead of wires had early occurred to him. That the principle was the same in both, was ingeniously demonstrated by Whitney at one of the trials, by sinking the plate below the surface of the cylinder, so as to make the saw teeth look like wires; and preparing another cylinder, in which the wire teeth were made to look like saw teeth. When produced in court, the witnesses swore the saw teeth upon Whitney, and the wire teeth upon Holmes; upon which the judge declared it was unnecessary to proceed any farther, the principle in both being manifestly the same. So inveterate was the purpose to defraud him, that, on a similar occasion, he had the greatest difficulty to prove in court, that the machine had even been used in Georgia, although at the same moment, three separate sets of the machinery were in motion, within fifty yards of the building in which the court sat; and so near, that the rattling of the wheels could be distinctly heard on the steps of the Court House. Few men in Georgia, at one time, dare testify to the this new rival, and an evident general intention to invade his patent, and burthened with debt, Whitney arrived in New Haven about April 1795, to find himself reduced to bankruptcy, by the destruction of his shop and all his machines and papers, by fire only the day before his arrival. At the time the rival gin of Holmes was patented, Miller and Whitney had thirty gins in operation, at eight different places in Georgia; some carried by oxen or horses, and some by water; and about $10,000 invested in real estate connected therewith, While endeavoring to borrow money at twelve per cent. their òperations were nearly brought to a stand, by reports from London, that the staple was greatly injured by the machine, a judgment which was soon reversed. Through these and similar difficulties, the energy and confidence of Whitney enabled him to persevere. Three patents were taken out by the ingenious Amos Whittemore, of Cambridge Mass., one of them for an improved self-acting loom for weaving duck, believed to be similar in principle to the power loom now in use. President Washington, on meeting Congress for the last time, called their attention to the necessity of a naval force, to insure respect to a neutral commerce, and the desirableness of beginning, without delay, to provide and lay up materials for the building and equipping ships of war, in which the nation might proceed by degrees, as its resources rendered it practicable and convenient. "Congress," he observes, "have repeatedly and not without success, directed their attention to the encouragement of manufactures. The object is of too much consequence not to insure a continuance of their efforts, in every way which shall appear eligible. As a general rule, manufactures on public account are inexpedient. . . But to the extent of the ordinary demand for the public service, were they not recommended by strong considerations of natural policy, as an exception to the general rule? Ought our country to remain in such cases dependent on foreign supply; precarious, because liable to be interrupted? If the necessary articles should, in this mode, cost more in time of peace, will not the security and independence thence arising, prove an ample compensation?" The President, in the same speech, again called the attention of Congress to the subject of a national university and of a military academy; and was the first to suggest, on that occasion, the importance of a simple facts within their knowledge, in reference to the machine. The issue of the first trial they were able to obtain early in the next year, contrary to the pointed charge of the judge and the expectation of the defendant, was given against them. A second trial could not be obtained, until their business had been nearly destroyed by surreptitious gins.-Olmsted's Memoir. national Board of Agriculture, "charged with collecting and diffusing information, and enabled by premiums and small pecuniary aids, to encourage and assist a spirit of discovery and improvement." Societies of that kind, he observed, had been found to be " very cheap instruments of immense national benefits." He had, nearly three years before, communicated to Sir John Sinclair, the eminent agriculturist, the outlines of such an organization for the state of Pennsylvania, but feared the country was not yet prepared to sustain one with Congressional aid. A national Agricultural Society was not formed until 1809. The Andersonian University at Glasgow, was this year incorporated, by the magistrates and council of that city. The bequest of Dr. Anderson provided for colleges of Medicine, Law, Theology, and the Arts. The last of these, under Dr. George Birkbeck-who, in 1799, was appointed to the chair of Natural Philosophy, and instituted a course of lectures to mechanics, on elementary science and philosophy-became the first practical school for the operative classes, and the parent of Mechanics' Institutes throughout the world. Benjamin (Thompson) Count Rumford of Munich, a native of New England, presented $5,000 to the American Acadamy of Arts and Sciences, as a fund, the interest of which was to be given once in two years, as a premium to the author of the most important discovery or improvement in heat and light, in any part of America or its islands.' Col. Matthew Lyon, who, in 1783, commenced the erection of mills at Fair Haven, Vt., had in operation, previous to this year, one furnace and two forges, one slitting mill, one printing office, one paper mill, (built in 1794,) one saw mill, and one grist mill. His printing was done on paper manufactured by himself, from the bark of basswood. He had emigrated from Ireland at the age of sixteen, and was sold in Connecticut for his passage.1 One of the earliest manufactories in the United States, of any extent, for spinning and weaving flax, hemp, and tow, by water power, was that of James Davenport, put in operation with patent machinery 1797 within the last twelve months, at the Globe Mills, at the north end of Second Street, Philadelphia. It was visited, at the beginning of the year, by Washington and several members of Congress, who were highly pleased with the ingenuity and novelty of the machinery. The President in particular expressed a high opinion of the merits of the patentee, Mr. Davenport, and an earnest wish that a work so honorable to the infant manufactories of the Union, might be extended to different (1) Holmes's Annals. (2) Hayward's Gazetteer of Vermont. parts of the country. The labor was chiefly performed by boys; one of whom was able to spin, in a day of ten hours, 292,000 feet of flax or hempen thread, using twenty to forty pounds of flax or hemp, according to its fineness. One boy could also weave, on the machinery, fifteen to twenty yards of sail cloth in a day. Specimens of the spinning and weaving were deposited in Peale's Museum for public inspection. It was the purpose of the proprietor to manufacture the machinery for sale. But he died soon after, and the machinery of the Globe factory was sold in April, 1798, and the business broken up. On the failure of a bill introduced in Congress, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury and a resolution. of the House, and favored by the mercantile classes, to lay a direct tax on lands, houses, and slaves, in order to meet the demands upon the Treasury, the following additions were made (March 3) to the existing duties upon imports, viz. : On brown sugar, one half cent per pound; Bohea tea, two cents; molasses, one cent per gallon; on velvets and velverets, and muslins and muslinets, and other cotton goods not printed, stained, or colored, two and a half per centum ad valorem. The duty on the above descriptions of woven fabrics, was thereby made twelve and a half per cent. on the value, or the same as on printed and stained goods.1 By an act of the same date, option granted to the distiller by the law of 8th June, 1792, either to pay an annual duty of fifty-four cents per gallon on the capacity of the still, or at the rate of seven cents a gallon upon the quantity of spirits distilled, was withdrawn after 30th June. In lieu of the duty, he was thenceforth to pay for a license to use any such still for two weeks, six cents per gallon upon its capacity, including the head; for one month ten cents per gallon; for two months eighteen cents; and six cents per gallon additional for every additional month up to six months.2 On Jan. 14, Congress prohibited, until the end of the next session, the exportation of arms and ammunition, and allowed them to be imported duty free for two years. The prohibition was renewed at the expiration of the act, for another year.3 In July, duties were laid by Congress on stamped vellum, parchment, and paper, to commence 1st July, 1798, and continue until 4th March, 1803.* An additional duty of eight cents per bushel (making it twenty cents) was imposed on salt imported in United States vessels, with an (1) Laws U. S., vol. 3, ch. 64. (2) Ibid. vol. 3, ch. 65. (3) Ibid. vol. 4, ch. 2. additional ten per cent. when brought in foreign vessels. An allow. ance of twelve cents per barrel on pickled fish exported, and an addition of thirty-three and one third per cent. to the allowance before granted to vessels in the bank or other cod fisheries, were also authorized. This law continued in force until April 12th, 1800, when the act of 1792 was revived for ten years, and the additional allowances authorized by it and by the above act, were continued only so long as the correspondent duties on salt, respectively for which they were granted, were paid.' On June 20, the first laws were enacted in New York respecting salt works, and the first leases of lots at the Onondaga Salt Springs were made by the state, to manufacturers under a commissioner, who required them to make contracts at not above sixty cents a bushel, and to pay a duty to the state of four cents per bushel. The city and suburbs of Philadelphia contained at this time, ten ropewalks, which manufactured about 800 tons of hemp annually; thirteen breweries, said to consume 50,000 bushels of barley yearly; six sugar houses; seven hair powder manufactories; two rum distilleries and one rectifying distillery; three card manufactories; fifteen manufactories for earthenware, six for chocolate, and four for mustard; three for cut nails and one for patent nails; one for steel; one for aquafortis; onef or salammoniac and Glauber's salt (which supplied the whole Union with the latter article); one for oil colors; eleven for brushes; two for buttons; one for morocco leather, and one for parchment; besides gunmakers, copper-smiths, hatters (of which there were 300 in the state, who made 54,000 fur, and 161,000 wool hats annually); tin-plate workers, typefounders, coach makers, cabinet makers, ship-builders, and a variety of others. The city contained thirty-one printing offices, four of which issued daily gazettes, and two others semi-weekly gazettes, one of them in the French language; besides two weekly journals, one of them in German. The other offices were engaged in printing books, pamphlets, etc. The catalogue of books for sale in the city, contained upwards of 300 sets of Philadelphia editions, besides a greater variety of maps and charts, than was to be found any where else in America.2 The United Brethren at Nazareth, Pennsylvania, had in operation a factory for spinning and twisting cotton, and had recently begun to draw wax tapers. In the spring of this year, the "Hamilton Manufacturing Society," the proprietors of extensive glass works with hydraulic appurtenances, ten miles west of Albany on the great Schoharie Road, was incorporated by the state. The business was commenced about nine years before, (1) Ibid. vol. 4, ch. 15. (2) Morse's Gazetteer, vol. 1. |