In whatever way, indeed, the power of genius may invent or combine, and to whatever low or even ludicrous purposes that invention or combination may be originally applied, society receives a gift which it can never lose; and though the value of the seed may not be at once recognized, and though it may lie long unproductive in the ungenial till of human knowledge, it will some time or other evolve its germ, and yield to mankind its natural and abundant harvest. Did the limits of so popular a volume as this ought to be permit it, I should have proceeded to give a general description of some of these extraordinary pieces of machinery, the construction and effects of which never fail to strike the spectator with surprise. This, however, would lead me into a field too extensive, and I shall therefore confine myself to a notice of three very remarkable pieces of mechanism which are at present very little known to the general reader, viz., the tambouring machine of Mr. Duncan, the statue-turning machine of Mr. Watt, and the calculating machinery of Mr. Babbage. The tambouring of muslins, or the art of producing upon them ornamental flowers and figures, has been long known and practised in Britain as well as in other countries; but it was not long before the year 1790, that it became an object of general manufacture in the west of Scotland, where it was chiefly carried on. At first it was under the direction of foreigners; but their aid was not long necessary, and it speedily extended to such a degree as to occupy, either wholly or partially, more than 20,000 females. Many of these labourers lived in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, which was the chief seat of the manufacture; but others were scattered through every part of Scotland, and supplied by agents with work and money. In Glasgow, a tambourer of ordinary skill could not in general earn more than five or six shillings a week by constant application; but to a labouring artisan, who had several daughters, even these low wages formed a source of great wealth. At the age of five years, a child capable of handling a needle was devoted to tambouring, even though it could not earn more than a shilling or two in a week; and the consequence of this was, that female children were taken from school, and rendered totally unfit for any social or domestic duty. The tambouring population, was, therefore, of the worst kind, and it must have been regarded as a blessing rather than as a calamity, when the work which they performed was entrusted to regular machinery.