ments are placed above the bed plate, and are no doubt thereby
rendered easily accessible.

_Application of Power to Sewing Machines_.--There was a time when a cry
arose to the effect that the introduction of mechanical sewing would lead
to divers calamities, physical and mental. The ladies were to become
crooked in the spine, and regular operators were to become regular
cripples. It is scarcely necessary to ask, Has this been so? The operators
of to-day are, I think, superior in physical attainments to their sisters
of the needle and thread fifty years ago.

Within the past few years a revolution has taken place in the moving of
sewing machines. Domestic machines will probably always be driven by foot
power, spring, electric, and water motors notwithstanding. But the age of
treadles in the great manufacturing trades is a thing of the past. It was
not necessary for Parliament to step in and protect the workers, as was
frequently suggested by alarmists. The commercial interests of
manufacturers themselves were at stake. Machines driven by power could do
25 per cent. more work than those moved by foot. The operators, relieved of
the treadling, maintained a much better working condition; and altogether
the introduction of power driving, once well tested, became a necessity.
Power sewing machinery was speedily devised and introduced by several of
the first manufacturers, controllers of the speed of the machines followed,
and two or three splendid systems of stitching by steam power were soon
widely known.

By the kindness of three of the best manufacturers of power sewing
machinery, I am enabled to show to you, this evening, the best known
systems, arranged just as they are fitted in many large factories, as also
a sketch of the arrangements of Wheeler & Wilson's system. We have in the
first place a light shafting carrying a band wheel opposite to each
machine. By the use of a powerful electromotor, the shafting is caused to
rotate at the rate of 400 revolutions per minute by electricity. The
current is generated by the Society's dynamo machine, and is conveyed here
by copper cable. I do not know of any instance of sewing machinery in a
factory being driven by an electromotor, but such means of conveying motive
power appears admirably adapted for that purpose, when the stitching room
happens to be far removed from the main shafting or engine. But with regard
to motors for sewing machines, when special power has to be fitte