Vol. 1 No.4 - Pg.1 - Col.2 - MECHANICAL TASTE

MECHANICAL TASTE.—We are often surprised that mechanics do not pay more attention to the art of design—Indeed, knowledge of every kind is valuable to them. Sir Richard Arkwright was, we believe, a barber, but having turned his attention to machinery, and getting hold of a hint invented the spinning jenny and amassed a fortune. Wedgewood's pottery came first into notice in consequence of the elegant shapes and designs of his vases, cups, &c. A poor German mechanic rose to wealth in New York city, by being the first to introduce iron railings of beautiful patterns in place of the plain, old-fashioned straight rail pointed at the top. There is a yankee now making his fortune by a cheap process of map colouring which a little chemical knowledge suggested to him. We know a man who has improved the ordinary machine for plating whip-lashes, and applied it to the making stay laces, so that he can manufacture these articles for a price indefinitely below any rival. So, too, in common house-building, the carpenter, in a newly settled district, who understands how to erect a graceful dwelling, will soon carry off the business of those who are contented with the old clumsy style. Who would not prefer a window screen prettily painted to an old fashioned Chinese blind? Yet the one is not dearer than the other. In a word, taste and knowledge, when brought to bear on the mechanic arts, will always carry off the palm from stupidity and ignorance.—Neal's Saturday Gazette.