New Oregon plaindealer. (New Oregon, Iowa) 1859-1866, 1861-03-29

| ratlOnal mecnanlcs uepends tne success
Of nearly all modern manufacture. The
properties of the lever, the wheel and
axel, &C., are involved in every machine
every machine is soildified mechan-
ical theorem; and to machinery in these
times we owe nearly all production.
Trace the history of the breakfast-roll
The soil out of which it came was drain
ed with machine-made tiles; the surface
vas turued over by a machine; the
seed was put in by machine; the
wheat was reaped, thrashed, and win
moved by machines; by machinery it
was ground and bolted; and had the
flour been sent to Gosport, it might
have been made into biscuits by ma
chine. Look round the room in which
you sit. Ifmodern, probably the bricks
in it's walls were maehine-made: by ma
chinery theAooring was sawn and plain
ed, the mantel- -sholf sawu and polished,
the paper-hangings made aad printed;
the veneer on the table, the turned legs
of the chairs, the carpet, the curtains,
are all products Of machinery. And
your clothing-plain, figured, or prin
ted-is it not wholly woven, nay, per-
haps even sewed, by machinery? And
the volume you are reading-are not it's
leaves fabricated by one machine and
covered with these words by another?
Add to which that for the means of dis
tribution over both land and sea, we are
similarly indebted. And then let it be
remembered that according as the prin-
ciples Of mechanics are well or i'll used
to these ends, comes success or failure
individual and national. The engi-
neer who misapplies his formula for
the strength of materials, buildsa bridge
that breakes down. The manufacturer
whose apparatus is badly devised: Can
not compete with another whose ap-
paratus wastes less in friction and iner.
tia. The ship-builder adhering to the
old model, is outsailed by one who
builds on the mcchanically;justifed
wave-line principle. And as the ability
of a nation to hold it's own against 9TH
er nations depends on th, skilled actiyi
ty of it's units,we see that on such
knowledge may turn the national fate.
Judge then the worth of mathematics.
Pass next to Physics. Joined with
mathematics, it has given us the steam
engine, which does the work of millions
of laborers. That section of physics
which deals with the laws of heat, has
taught US how to economise fuel in our
various industries; how to increase the
produce of our smelling furnaces by sub
stituting the hot for the cold blast:
how to ventilate our mines; how to pre-
vent explosions by using the safety
lamp; and, through the thermometer,
how to regulate lnnumerable processes.
That division which has the phenomena
of light for its subject, gives eyes to
the old and the myopic; aids through
the microscope in detecting diseases and
adulterations; and by improved
lighthouses prevents shipwrecks. Re-
searches in electricity and magnetism
have saved incalculable life and prop
erty by the compass; have subserved
sundry arts by the eloctrotype; and
now in the telegraph, have supplied us
with the agency by which for the flu
ture all mercantile transactions will be
regulated, political intercourse carried
on, and perhaps national quarrels often
avoided. While IN the details of indoor
life, from the improved kitchen-range
up to the stereoscope on the drawing
room table, the applications of advanced
physics underlie our comforts and graft
fcations.
Still more numerous are the beal
ings Of Chemistry on those activities
by which men obtain the means of Ii,
ing. The bleacher, the dyer, the cal
CO. printer, are severally occupied il
processes that are we'll or i'll done accol
ding as they do or do not conform tt