PART FOURTH.
A NEW CENTURY OF
Inventions.
OF
A CUTTING ENGINE,
For large Bevil Wheels and Models, on the Patent Principle.
One of the most prominent subjects of this essay, if not the most important, is the System of Toothed Wheels, with which the second and third Parts were introduced, and which still claims a share of my readers’ attention. As hinted a few pages backward, it seems not enough for me to exhibit and describe the System, but I must defend it against repeated objections, on pain of seeing it’s utility delayed, and the public deprived of it’s real and solid advantages. I am far from wishing to impeach the motives of those who still nourish or express dissent, when they deign to bring reasons for so doing; but the mere opinion—“it won’t do”—expressed by a man of reputation, may impede, for a time, the progress of an useful discovery, and thus produce a public evil. This, then, is a result I am anxious to avert; as the present System has many points of excellence, against which no insuperable objection can be brought. Had I not declined, already, to name either the friends or enemies of the System, I might here appeal to persons who highly approve of it; and, indeed, who use it daily with manifest advantage. But, I forbear. If, by means of the Engines already given, and that I am going to offer, it is proved, that the difficulty of making these wheels is trifling, compared with their utility, one important point will be gained: I shall not hear it repeated, “that the System cannot succeed, because of the difficulties of it’s execution.”
