into the fiery furnace, and again it was dragged forth, and the jolly giant
bent, and tugged, and sweated, and commanded,--he did not swear over his task.
At length having succeeded in making the unwieldy lump assume an approach to
the desired shape, he observed, in a deep, bass, chuckling, triumphant aside,
to the engineer who was looking on, "I'm not a very little one, but I think
if I was as big again you'd try what I was made of."

Since that day we have learned that the experiment has been completely
successful, with a great diminution in the weight and an increase of the
strength of an important part of a locomotive.

We have dwelt upon the picture because it combined mechanical with manual
dexterity. A hammerman who might sit for one of Homer's blacksmith heroes,
and machinery which effects in a few minutes what an army of such hammermen
could not do.

If our painters of mythological Vulcans and sprawling Satyrs want to display
their powers over flesh and muscle, they may find something real and not
vulgar among our iron factories.

After seeing the operations of forging or of casting, we may take a walk
round the shops of the turners and smiths. In some, Whitworth's beautiful
self-acting machines are planing or polishing or boring holes, under charge
of an intelligent boy; in others lathes are ranged round the walls, and a
double row of vices down the centre of the long rooms. Solid masses of cast
or forged metal are carved by the keen powerful lathe tools like so much box-
wood, and long shavings of iron and steel sweep off as easily as deal
shavings from a carpenter's plane. At the long row of vices the smiths are
hammering and filing away with careful dexterity. No mean amount of judgment
in addition to the long training needed for acquiring manual skill, is
requisite before a man can be admitted into this army of skilled mechanics;
for every locomotive contains many hundred pieces, each of which must be
fitted as carefully as a watch.

If we fairly contemplate the result of these labours, created by the
inventive genius of a line of ingenious men, headed by Watt and Stephenson,
these workshops are a more imposing sight than the most brilliant review of
disciplined troops. It is not mere strength, dexterity, and obedience, upon
which the locomotive builder calculates for the success of his design, but
also upon the separate and combined intelligence of his army of mechanics.

Considering that in a