for the service of the cannon, and the perfect
truth of whose construction, it will be obvious
to every one, is a quality wholly indispensable
to their action, and yet somewhat difficult of
attainment.

It is in such a case as this that machinery
strikes us at once as invaluable. Thousands
of wheel-spokes all alike, all the same size to a
hair's breadth, are required; what hand-work
could turn them out with the exactness of
machinery? Again, the circular portion of the
wheel, the part on which it runs, is composed,
as most persons know, of a number of short
segments of a circle, all of which, when joined
together, form the circle complete. These
separate pieces are called felloes. If they are
not perfectly accurate, how is the wheel to run?
Once more: the carriages and the wheels made
in this factory are destined for services which so
put their strength to the test, that even the extraordinary
solidity with which they are constructed
not always proof against the shocks they
have to sustain. It will be seen at once how necessary
it is, in the event of any part giving way,
to have another member of exactly similar size
ready to take its place. Here, then, is the function
of machinery, and here that function is performed
with a uniformity and regularity that
leave nothing to be desired. Here the felloes
just spoken of are cut in the exact curve, and
even with the alternate peg in the one and the
hole for its reception in the other, which is to
unite them together. Here the spokes are
shaped by instruments which revolve so rapidly
that they are not visible as they move, but which
gradually and swiftly do their office as if they
worked by magic.

Nor is this all. The putting together of all
the separate parts of the wheel, which used to
be accomplished by a long process of knocking
and banging, is now effected by one squeeze of
the hydraulic press, and effected not only more
rapidly but much more completely. It is a
curious and interesting arrangement this by
which the wheel is finished, and is quite worthy
of description. The different component parts
of the wheel are brought together and laid on a
flat surface. The nave is placed in the centre,
the spokes are laid all round it and radiating
from it towards the felloes, which, it will be
remembered, are the curved pieces of wood
which, when joined together, form the outside
circle of the wheel, on which it runs; one end
of each of the spokes is placed at the mouth of
the hole in the nave which is prepared for its
reception, and the other end at the opening of a
similar orifice in the inner or concave side of the
felloe. The whole as it now lies, looks like a
disjointed wheel, all the parts of which require
forcing together, a process which will demand
an excess of strength, as all the joints are an
exceedingly tight fit. Whilst you are thinking
of this, you become conscious of a movement in
your neighbourhood, you become aware of a
general stir round about you, of a slow and
stealthy nature, and you hasten to ascertain
what occasions it. Six blocks of iron advancing
from six hiding places on the edges of the flat
surface on which the wheel was laid, occasion it.
Each of these iron blocks is concave on the side
nearest the wheel, and will obviously fit exactly
the outside of the felloe towards which its
course is tending. These rams are propelled
from behind by hydraulic pressure, and advance
towards the wheel with uniform strength and
degree of progress. And here again that apparent
consciousness of the thing operating and
the thing operated upon, which has already been,
alluded to in the description of the circular saw,
suggests itself very strongly. Here, again, the
machine is a cruel tyrant and the wheel a helpless
victim; and when that dreadful squeeze, which
caused a creaking and whining of the wood that
sounded like the groans of women in a crowd,
was withdrawn, and when the wheel visibly
expanded throughout on its. release, your Eye-
witness thought that the perfectly audible sigh
with which it did so was heaved like a gasp of
relief.

That squeeze over, all the parts of the wheel
are together, and so firmly joined that even a
drive over a newly macadamised street (which is
the strongest test your Eye-witness can think
of) would not shake them, and the iron hoop
being placed outside all, the wheel is completed
and ready to conduct the cannon to the theatre
of its operations.

It is difficult to give the reader any idea of
the amount of work going on at one time in
these workshops at Woolwich: of the number of
wheel-spokes being operated upon at the same
moment, for instance. It is difficult to convey
the impression of what may be called the orderly
bustle which seems to characterise the place, the
perpetual clatter of the machinery, and the
rapid action of the busy hands that supply it.
This Royal Carriage Department alone contains,
as the statistical account informs us, 22 steam-
engines, amounting to a nominal power of
245 horses, but usually worked at between 300
and 400, 3 steam-hammers, 16 steam-boilers,
equal to 475 horse power, and 4265 feet of
shafting in motion, transmitting the power to
upwards of 300 machines.

Infinitely delicate as are some of the processes
connected with the department just described,
such as the cutting of dovetails and
mortises, and the production of articles of intricate
form, by means of the guiding influence of
a slip of metal having a profile of the required
figure—infinitely delicate as are some of these
operations, they are perhaps less so than those
which are found in the vast workshops of the
Royal Laboratories, which your Eye-witness
next visited, and where shot and shell, fuses,
cartridges, rockets, percussion-caps, and other
deadly instruments, are made in numbers of
which it is enough to say—taking one instance
alone—that during the late war 10,500 shells
passed through the shell machines in one day of
twenty-four hours.

The first, process brought under the observation
of your Eye-witness in the Royal Laboratories