he most beautiful and accurate
description, but exquisite figure-work, and complicated geometrical
designs, depending upon the cycloidal and eccentric movements which
were from time to time added to the machine.

The artisans of the Middle Ages were very skilful in the use of the
lathe, and turned out much beautiful screen and stall work, still to be
seen in our cathedrals, as well as twisted and swash-work for the
balusters of staircases and other ornamental purposes. English
mechanics seem early to have distinguished themselves as improvers of
the lathe; and in Moxon's 'Treatise on Turning,' published in 1680, we
find Mr. Thomas Oldfield, at the sign of the Flower-de-Luce, near the
Savoy in the Strand, named as an excellent maker of oval-engines and
swash-engines, showing that such machines were then in some demand.
The French writer Plumier[3] also mentions an ingenious modification of
the lathe by means of which any kind of reticulated form could be given
to the work; and, from it's being employed to ornament the handles of
knives, it was called by him the "Machine a manche de Couteau
d'Angleterre." But the French artisans were at that time much better
skilled than the English in the use of tools, and it is most probable
that we owe to the Flemish and French Protestant workmen who flocked
into England in such large numbers during the religious persecutions of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the improvement, if not the
introduction, of the art of turning, as well as many other arts
hereafter to be referred to. It is certain that at the period to which
we refer numerous treatises were published in France on the art of
turning, some of them of a most elaborate character. Such were the
works of De la Hire,[4] who described how every kind of polygon might
be made by the lathe; De la Condamine,[5] who showed how a lathe could
turn all sorts of irregular figures by means of tracers; and of Grand
Jean, Morin,[6] Plumier, Bergeron, and many other writers.

The work of Plumier is especially elaborate, entering into the
construction of the lathe in its various parts, the making of the tools
and cutters, and the different motions to be given to the machine by
means of wheels, eccentrics, and other expedients, amongst which may be
mentioned one very much resembling the slide rest and planing-machine
combined.[7] From this work it appears that turning had long been a
favourite pursuit in France with amateurs of all