The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-11-22 00:00:00

asleep.
Falling thus asleep—with a profound cogitation in
my head.lt may not be surprising that it should be
my lot " perchance to dream"—l dreamed a dream—
and, in a vision of the night, a strange phenomenon
appeared before my mental eyes.
A spark, as it appeared at first, like a pin's point,
by slow degrees, anti in a manner that allayed the
emotions of a,re I should have otherwise experienced,
expanded into a large and lambent flame, dear as the
eketrie light. In the midst of ibis effulgence, a hu-'
man figure seemed to (levelope itself in pliantasungo-
liCaurza ; advancing with familiar steps towards
me, and beaming with a smile of complacency, re-
lieved me of, my embarrasments, and conciliated the
attention which the figure had, not without alarm,
excited. On lifting up my eyes, I beheld a velvet
cap, shrowding a face with which I was not unac-
quainted ; for I had once copied the likeness of sack a
cap, and such a face, from an engraving, and given it ,
to an old acquaintance. It was the cap and the face
Of DT. FRANKLIN.
The dress, the figure wore, was glittering, like a
burnished coat of mail ; but as it approached, I could
perceive by means of the vivid light, with which it
was surrounded, that it was not of a homogeneous tex-
ture, as Dr. Johnson would have said,—it exhibited
interstitial vacuities. It was composed, metbought I
•
quickly found, of heads of pins.
In his right hand, the figure held a scroll, which
unfolding• and descending near unto the flour, I dis-
covered Sy its dazzling contents, to contain, as in an
appropriate paper, some dozen rows of pins. On look-
ing, however, on the side where I expected to have
read the well known words " Citizen and Pin maker
of London," I found to my satisfaction " Pools lit-
CHARD'S AIMANAcK."
In the voice of friendship, the spectre suddenly ad-
dressed me,—" Be not surprised at my unexpected ap-
pearance—l often pay a visit such as this : since I
have been translated into my present state, I have hail
more success in suggesting pregnant hints to inquiring
minds, than I ever had while I was alive. Practical
Utility, you find, is mud' more studied than it used
to be, and if you are disposed to ilcvnte yourself to in-
quiries of a kind like that which occupied your mind
when you fell asleep, yon will find I shall not be an
idle companion of your nocturnal lionrs.
" I readily excused the thoughtlessness of the gipoy.
girl, who threw away the pin, since her folly arose
from her ignorance, and that ignorance from her age
and situation. 'But as for yon, my dear Sir, who have
possessed the opportulities of a liberal edncation, and
are now advanced in life, I lament that you—with all
the advantages you have enjoyed, are not a pin the
the wiser ; yet, I must excuse you too— for I know
that—

" Alen are but children of a larger growth."
" Let me therefore pin your attention for a few tut
notes, to the article in question, and then I shall leave
you to extend the application of what you sSall hear
to any other thing you please. You may proceed
from a pin to needle, or atinail--to a screw!or to a watch,
to &shirt, or to a shoe—to a loaf of sugar, or a loaf of
bread—in short, to the contemplation of any, and of
*eery article that is employed for the use of man."
The phantom, then, directing at me a look of
shrewdness, tempered with mildness—and waving, at
me, his pin-sinck-almanack—after an emphatic
pease proceeded—
" This paper and these pins are trifling articles, of
money value; yet both are the results of practical phi-
losophy—l mean not, however, to divert your mini,
to the philosophy of proverbs,--1 wish to fix it at
preteht to the other point—" the pin"--" the pin
"This phi," said he, taking one out of Poor Ri-
chard's Almanack, " this pin is chitty composed of
a material which had slept quietly ever since the
tleluge, at the bottom of what is u!w called the copper
mine, of Doicoath is 'Cornwall. which I understand
'ton Athsipted to explore in the as) of foui youth,
ihiiffrinil yin know, What yow u *vebtiilid Into it, e
banve*
More fatly Aare ago, ait moire that niter
tired feet iu depth. The captain of the mine informed

you. that . at** time *ear eliebt knitted %naiads,
men._ women,' 'ad thildres, Were employed Omen fhe .
works; most of the men in digging ;eider ground, fhe
the ore; some in removing It, when brought shies
grosad, to peeper heaps; and the emcee and children
is picking, aerting, and arranging the materials thlts
collected. Here then in the very first process of the ohla
substance of a pin, you saw what a number of people •
were provided with bread. . •
" But in order to extricate this substance from
subterranean abode. it • watt necessary to remove a
flood of water, which becomes collected ia every Ph? •
and which would. have overwhelmed the men *Ns
might attempt to dig the ore. By what means mobil
that removal be, offeeted By erase of that !alit'
1 dons *tete, 'Which was *tally nitheowle is the Ai-
tient*, and which as the philosopher of whom yaw pro-
fessed to have acquired theoretic knowledge, used to
assert, in his predilections, was. next to a ship, the
most complete machine that art or science had devised.
This machine was originally invented by Captain Sa-
very, of Dartmouth; and, after having been improved
gradually by others, was brought very nearly to the
utmost extent of practicable perfection by (the not
long deceased) James Watt, of Birmingham. In the
factory for the construction of that engine, (by the
side of whose works you cannot forget you descende:i
down no less than fifty dreary ladders into the mine ;)
you will please to consider that no fewer than thee
thousand persons had been usefully employed, and SI, is-
factorily remunerated. 1 mean to make you mint--
stand that this number was employed merely in its
manufacture, exclusively of those that were natmary
for its conveyance. first to Liverpool, thence. tirok-
tol, and from which it was again reshipped and con-
veyed round the land's end to Truro; and then I wink
you to think of the variety of seamen and landemen,
ship-builders and inland navigators and all the other
craftsmen and labourers, and furnishers of materials,
who must be necessary to the transportation of salt
a huge machine as this.
"The substance which the steam-engine was en:-
ployed to free, from water being extracted from the
bowels of the earth. and then by various and anxiors
processes, separated from the grosser rubbish that sa:-
rounded it, its first excursion from its native soil, MO.
coath, was to the town of Truro, to be .01.1
ra
maw, under the character of copper•ore, for fe...e re
operations. At this town every copper-merchant, or
compaey of co;iper-merchants in the kingtiotn, it re-
presented Isy an assay-matter and an agent. At iner:-
ings hell on purpose every month, these persons, hay-
ing previously e‘4lltilleil proper samples of the ore, ;tr-
ier the price they have determined, not to eat eta, 'in
a written paper, s:•.al.ti vanil the highest iti.lcier moat
them becomes the purchaser.
t' It was the fate oft he copper of which this pin i irom-
posed, to be purchased for the Crown copper-company,
at Neath, in Glamorganshire ; and the prec-ss of Ir-
osining it, by a critical sea-navigation, into o,at
country, in order to he gradually purified and elabo-
rated, by means of fire, which its abundant prod.) -.
Lion of coals, and its cheaper rate of labor, enalilr I
them to do to superior advantage. now engaged the
labors and diligence of multitudes of other 10(.7
sons—of mariners, of coal-miners, and coal-car-
riers—of inclined plane and rail road-rnakers—of
diggers, inland navigators, agents, saperintendatits,
&e. &c. with dependencies, and relations and
conohln-
ations, without end. Among the mountains ~f Wal .s,
then, this substance was divested of more of its esti ri-
neous matter, passed through fires of volcanic iriact-
tade, and terrific intenseness; and, at length, precipi-
tated, in a state of liquid fusion, through an iron col-.
lender, into colt' -eater, assuming the name of pure
rapper, and the form of shoe.
S in this state, liy the Cron% Compalt, the ar-
ticle again crossed the Severn, consignA to .
Anderson, New, and Jamcs. Mill near
Bristol, an erection wh'eli cnst that firm npwarde of '•
37,0001. In pots or crucibles, made of a clay pro-,
cured at Stourbridge, in Worceaterebire, it was afresh
to undergo the action of the furnace, in order to
combined with a cert lin proportion of other rustler.
which was designed to change its frame and nail._
This matter is called Lapis Calantinaris ; some' of
which is dug in Plintshire, some in the Isle of Angie
sea, and some at Shipham, in Sosnersetshire.• Pte-:.
rious to admixture, however, the adventitious ingre-
dient which was to form a constituent part of the 'pis
-
stance of " a pin," was first to he was red, . then-col—
eined, next picked, ground, and washed again :
afterwards re-burnt, and washed afresh, so as to ex-
tract from it every particle of lead and iron;
finally, mixed with charcoal, and Shropshire epai.•
ground floe; and in that state mixed with copper, Intl
committed to the. pots, which are nsually seven in nom-
ber, the mingled materials were exposed to the tneltinr
and blending influence of fire. Prom this furneae i,f'
crucibles, after about twelve hours of tediotis torthr, .
the mixture was released, at the divr thin of Mirhad
racket, a ilelilrerate flutchinan, anal the contents of
the several puts, cleared of every imptir;ty, bring ethp-
tied into a single vessel, iv was poured between two
immense large stones from Cornwall, into a cavity ire-
pared with cow dung, and various other article.;
'misting which was a peculiar earth, the best for that
pirpose iv England. brought from WinterbOArne
in Oloueesterstire. The nditure thult be Land
At length integrally blended, and the anise itidAlso
'esilisOsiaaris were converted into truss. •
The first form this substinee had assumed was that
of a plate, weighing 841bs. ; and ibis plate was, by a •
Powerful pelt of shears, eat into slips, four feet long
and.three incites nib. These slits Were placed, it) au
tanialing omen, to which they were returned eye,- 17
{list they *bre toltched by the hautriter, or the engirt.,
'to VIVA they Were •subittietki whin they became cold;
tor while biad is het if I's 'A brittle as glass. 'Much
lore*, you 164 believe. iris requisite to reduce on- of
these slip! ittbriiii 'tin kt.propri.size to loran i• a pill,-
iitit Irian lit co fled, stronglt 'sense
Via: attar t of iron Of three tonti 4'41 ti
tit MICA It VeCithe • dteettiVit to Ilk length is( .t
and twenty feet. It was thed PlaCtlal64i
which divided it into squares, about the '

retigtii bf two
thickness of a