ing with Arphaxad's machine, but of which the historian (we regret to say) gives no account. Mr. Kersivenus, being well versed in such matters, explains nearly all these important omissions, in the present letter. Dear friend, Alexandria, April 23d, 1843. I received your favour this morning, bearing date 22d. January last, the contents of which I duly note. In the first place, I am happy to hear of the safe arrival at New York, of the drawing of Arphaxad's loom, which I had the pleasure of sending you on the 11th August, 1842, and the procurement of which gave me no small trouble, besides, the immense expense levied by his Highness before I was permitted to copy from the original scroll. But, now that you have received the drawing, which is faithful in every particular, I entertain no fears of your success, well knowing that such an enlightened people as the natives of the United States of America, have the proper spirit to appreciate your exertions to benefit them in their manufactures, by the introduction of this most useful engine amongst them. However, this is no business of mine; and my object at present is to answer your letter. You enquire the reason why I did not (in my letter of 11th August, 1842,) give you an explanation of the various human figures represented in the drawing along with the machine. Why, my dear friend, the truth is, I forgot to do so; and I now beg pardon for having been guilty of so great an omission. In answer to your first enquiry as to what the figure No. 1 is, and for what purpose, he is perched upon the top of the loom, I would state, that it is not a human being, as one might at first sight suppose, but only a part of the mechanism called the alarm loon, for the purpose of giving notice to the weavers, when a weft or warp thread breaks, in case the other motions fail to perform their respective functions, as described by the inventor before king Deioces. The manner in which the loon operates is as follows: There is an air cistern, or cylinder, placed transversely at the back of the different warps, having 3796 holes of inch in diameter pierced in it; to each one of which holes, a small tube is soldered of sufficient length to reach up to the under extremity of the figure No. 1, passing into that part of the machine on which it is seated, and from thence into his interior. This arrangement being clearly understood, the operation will be obvious after a little ex planation. There is a small valve or air latch on the side of each of these tubes or air conductors, just about 24 inches from the cylinder. To each of these latches, the end of a small cord or wire chain is made fast, the other end having an eyelet hole in it, to admit a warp thread to pass freely through it. This done, the next thing is to attach a small lead of about 2 ounces in weight, and 5† inches in length, midway between the valve on the side of the air tube and the warp thread. As soon as a thread breaks, its cord, is of course, disengaged, when its weight is allowed to drop through a small hole in a plate, which serves to guide all the weights, and by its descending force, depresses one end of a lever which acts upon the safety valve, (corresponding to the thread.) and by this means a sufficient quantity of air is allowed to escape from the general reservoir, which instantly rushes into the figure No. 1; whereupon that figure, by the aid of a very ingenious piece of mechanism in its inside, elevates the trumpet, and gives a shrill blast, loud enough to be heard all over the factory.-A similar method is employed with the weft threads, but this I shall explain to you in another letter, as soon as I hear from our friends, Dr. Lepsius, and Mr. Taylor of Dublin, to whom I have written on the subject. Should more than one thread break at a time, the mechanism of the figure No. 1, adapts itself to that incident, by giving a corresponding notice; should any serious accident occur, such, for instance as any of the workmen who are occupied inside of the machine falling through the 1gging, by reason of having made a mis-step, then, the alarm loon blows five times in rapid succession; and in case of two hands falling over-board at the same instant, as is represented in the drawing, the trumpeter blows eleven times, lifts his reserve foot, kicking off his ring hat, under which all the tubes from the safety-valves in the main cylinder fit, whereupon the whole of the air escapes through the lid in the crown of the loon's head, and thus the loom is effectually stopped until new hands are provided. I am credibly informed by his Highness, that in no instance do any of the poor fellows survive a fall from the engine, and, indeed, it is an astonishing fact, that life almost invariably becomes extinct before they reach the ground at all. It appears from the original records in the possession of his Highness, and from what I, myself, could decipher from other documents, in regard to the rise and progress of this desperately complex machine, that out of every 76 persons who met a horrid death through its instrumentality, 65 were apprentices (or green hands.) There is not the shadow of a doubt on my mind, however, that you will in the course of a short time, so improve the internal arrangements of the engine, as to lessen the number of these dreadful accidents, if not altogether to prevent such occurrences from taking place in future. In a country like yours, where one man's life is just as valuable as any other man's, this is a matter which requires your serious consideration, and all the ingenuity you possess. You ask the reason why so many workmen lose their lives in this business, but I confess my inability to give you any very definite reply to such a question, not having sufficiently weighed the subject, as yet, in all its bearings. However, my present impression is, that the principal cause of these misfortunes may be ascribed to the circumstance, that the mechanism is so extensive inside as to monopolize nearly all the footing or standing place; and as some parts of the machinery require to be operated by the hand, and others by power, it often occurs that the workman, from inattention, or want of experience, fails in performing his part of the work within the necessary time, and the section on which he stands is the next to be operated upon by the air cylinder, and should he not shift his position before it begins to open its jaws, he is at once let through the slide, receiving at the moment of his exit, a knock from a revolving guard or automaton figure, which is placed under the platform of the main pattern-board levers, for the purpose of clearing away obstructions, such as dead bodies, &c.; and as this knock or kick is commonly given on the crown of the head, life, in most cases, becomes extinct instantly. Now, my dear sir, could you do away with the manual labour, by the substitution of power; or could you make such alterations, that the men would have a sure standing place to work upon; I say, could you make either of these improvements, I am of opinion, and so is his Highness, that you would confer a lasting benefit on mankind, at least on those who are called weavers. You desire me to explain the meaning of the figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, as you say you are not much skilled in the science of hieroglyphics. You will, no doubt, have observed that they are all female musicians. Each of them wears on her cap the symbol of her rank in the band. Perhaps figure 5 is an exception, however; as I am not so certain of her grade. At first sight, I took her to be a pawnbroker's wife, from the fact of her wearing three balls to her horns; but she is so curious altogether in appearance, that I shall not venture to give any other opinion about her, until I hear from our friend Dr. Lepsius, and I intend writing to him on the subject to-morrow. As soon as his answer arrives, I will give you a com plete explanation of that figure, I will also write by the same post, to W. C. Taylor, L. L. D., as he, doubtless, knows all about it, having lately turned his attention to these subjects; and, in the meantime, believe me to be, with permission from his Highness, Your most obedient servant, ALEXIS KERSIVENUS, Civil Engineer, Homeopathic Physician, &c. P. S. My family are all well. Cleopatra sends you her love, and three embalmed kisses, together with a vial of frankincense; and hopes soon to ! Had some of our modern inventors seen this loom, with its various appurtenances, it might have saved them many an aching head and broken heart; and, we have no hesitation in saying, that it would have effectually shown them how far they had been anticipated by an unpretending individual who never even so much as thought it worth while to secure its benefits to himself by "Letters Patent." Although Arphaxad lived in a period of the world in which, it is generally supposed, men knew comparatively little, still, we think that his specification, as delivered by himself before the Median monarch, is scarcely to be equalled by our greatest scheming-inventors and patent agents of the present day; and we would recommend it as a model to all those aspiring spirits who expect to reach the uppermost step of fame's ladder, or to have a bronze monument (higher than the Colossus at Rhodes) for a head piece to their narrow stripe of territory, after Chaos has spread his dusky pinions around their once ambitious intellects. However, this is none of our business. The arts of spinning, dyeing, and weaving now spread rapidly over various parts of China, Persia, Hindostan, and Egypt, where they made great progress, extending into Palestine, in the earliest ages of the Jewish dispensation. Indeed, we find from the book of Joshua, that flax was very anciently cultivated even in Palestine; for Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, concealed the spies under the stalks of flax which she had laid to dry on the house top. Spinning and weaving were also practised in Idumea, the latter forming the subject of a beautiful allusion in the book of Job: "My days are slighter than the weaver's yarn, Job, vii chap, 6 ver. (Wemyss's Trans.) There is the same image in Hezekiah's complaint, a passage by the way, which has sadly perplexed commentators, but is at once explained by the custom of the weaver's cutting away the thrums, by which the piece is fastened to the yarn roller in the loom, when his work is completed: My life is cut off as by the weaver; He will sever me from the loom; In the course of the day, he will finish my web." Isaiah xxxviii chap. 12 ver. (Lowth's Trans.) From the history of Samson, it is evident that the cultivation of flax, and the arts of spinning and weaving, were practised by the Philistines. But, the Hebrews were essentially an agricultural, and pastoral people, equally averse to commerce and manufacturing industry. Solomon exerted himself to reform the national habits; he established an emporium at Eziongeber, to open trading communications with the eastern seas, while his connexion with the Tyrians, enabled him to participate in the commerce of the Mediterranean. It appears that he entered into a league with the reigning king of Egypt, to receive linen yarn at a stipulated price, or fixed duty. This early example of a commercial treaty for regulating a tariff of intercourse, is curiously illustrated by the recent discoveries in Egyptian antiquities; as we find from them, that the Pharoahs had very large spinning establishments, such as we should in the present day call factories of no small magnitude, so that there was not only enough of yarn left for home consumption in the valley of the Nile but also for exportation. Had Solomon resembled some modern statesmen, he would have protected the spinning industry of Judea by laying a prohibitory duty on the import of foreign yarn; but Solomon was aware that the protection to Hebrew flax-growers and spinners would so enhance the price of yarn to Hebrew weavers, that they could not bring their goods into a foreign market. He did not establish a monopoly, for he saw very clearly that every monopoly is a great injury to the many for the benefit of the few, and instead of telling his weavers to look exclusively to the home market, he endeavoured to open for them as many foreign markets as possible. But, to return to our subject, it appears that one of the most valuable of Arphaxad's inventions, was that of his improved shuttle; for, as we have already stated, that useful implement in weaving, seems to have been entirely unknown to Ghelen; and, indeed, no great progress could ever have been made without it. Shuttles were |