The Romance of Modern Manufacture. By Charles R. Gibson. (Seeley
and Co. 5s.)—Opinions may differ as to what constitutes romance in industrial enterprise, but there can be little doubt that from the reader's point of view it depends on the handling of the subject, the fashion in which it is presented to us. Mr. Gibson knows how to set out the steps by which inventive brains have altered the whole tenor of civilisation. If we take boots, for instance, there does not seem much that is romantic about the mechanical bootnraker ; but one follows with close attention the operations so lucidly explained by the author, operations which have coat the human cobbler so much time and strength. Spinning and weaving have a considerable amount of personal interest connected with them, proving in this ease that it is the fortunes and misfortunes of the individual which give colour to the story of even an historical manufacture. Here and there, however, a really great stride, and one not antici- pated, is made. No preliminary steps prepared the way for the sewing-machine, and the ingenious Jacquard loom after a hundred years of existence is still unsuperseded. The inventor's life is not a happy one, and the jealousy of a mechanical contrivance was not confined to one class a century ago. The story of some famous inventors is, alas! a sad one : to be banned in proportion to the revolution they achieved was almost their invariable fate, unless they were men of unusual tenacity, and, one might add, combativeness. Readers will find interesting matter in this volume, though they must not expect the sensations which awaited the discoveries of the processes in photography. The real romance, then, of industrial and mechanical applications to manufactures is in the individual whom no chill penury or destructive wife can repress. These chapters are only a few selected from the great army of modern industries, but they are arranged by one who knows how to amuse without tiring us. Boys ought to go to a cotton-mill or a boot-factory or a weaving- mill, or, if they want to see automatic tools at work, board a Dreadnought' in the building ; but if they have not these opportunities, by all means let them take Mr. Gibson as a guide.
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